Zenith Aircraft Builders and Flyers
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My Nomination For Best Avionics Equipment Supplier - Dynon Avionics
Choosing an avionics supplier is a difficult decision due to some of the great options available to home builders as well as the significant investment in this part of our aircraft.
After extensive research and soul searching, I finally selected the Dynon Skyview system as the basis for my avionics package and am very pleased with the equipment and especially the fantastic customer service I have received from Dynon Avionics.
I wanted to give my kudos to Dynon for coming to my rescue not once but twice for dumb mistakes I made.
One of the build team (unnamed of course) inadvertently reversed polarity on the panel power supply during bench testing and smoked the display. Dynon took the unit back, fixed and returned to me within two weeks at no cost for the repairs and even paid the return shipping.
During system testing I noted a glitch with the altimeter display during power up. Steve from Dynon responded to my enquiries immediately and spent an inordinate of time helping me trouble shoot the problem, including sending me a new ADAHRS unit at no cost.
Finally traced the problem to a nicked power supply wire to the elevator trim servo. The power supply comes from the Dynon EMS unit and the nick caused a low resistance fault and affected power to other components of the system including, you guessed it, the ADAHRS.
When I had some problems with RFI interference on my Microair radio, Steve also sent me a set of capacitative filters. The filters completely eliminated the problem and the parts were supplied by Dynon at no cost.
For outstanding customer support above and beyond the call of duty as well as fantastic technology, I hereby nominate Dynon Avionics as "Best Avionics Equipment Supplier" to take their rightful place beside Zenith Aircraft Corp as best kit builder and Rotax Research as best engine supplier (IMHO of course).
We are sometimes quick to point out problems or complain about or aircraft and systems but I think it also important to give credit to companies which provide us with great service. Please feel free to add your favourite companies which have gone above and beyond to help you create your dream machine.
Cheers Vic
Comment
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Comment by Victor Menkal on December 31, 2011 at 2:32pm
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Capacitive filter adaptors.
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Comment by Mark Colbeck on December 31, 2011 at 11:54am
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Thanks very much Victor. I have been to the site but are ferrite filter adaptor or capacitive filter adaptor?
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Stuck key - FIBER.
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That should have read "finer" washers not "finer" washers Mark.
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Mark the filters are just D adaptors which plug into the existing D connector outputs on the back of the unit. The I/O cables then plug into the filter. They are made by L-Com are quite thin so do not interfere with existing wiring (they are blue in colour and also look cool, which is all that matters). The difference was night and day. Tossed in a bunch of ferrite filters on the back of the radio harness and mic/head phone jacks and isolated the the jacks from the fuselage with finer washers just to be sure.
Interesting thing I learned from Dynon during this journey was that they have found some new "digital" pressure sensors for the Rotax which are claimed to give accurate readings. Available in new year. Understand that this has been an issue over the years. They use the +5VDC aux power out from the Dynon so installed a couple of mini bus bars to distribute power to all my sensors. The RAC flap and trim potentiometers also use +5VDC so Im up to a total of 5 units which need the +5VDC output.
Dynon will also be providing a software upgrade shortly to provide audio output so hooked up the Dynon audio out to the micro air aux audio in.
All this was fun and learned lots but really want to get back to finishing up the the cowl and windshield and prop.
Hopefully finish up the avionics today and I just KNOW that I will never have to raise the soldering iron again :)
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Victor I have the same issue with my XCOM radio. I have done everything I can think of to remove the RFI. What type of capacitative filters did they send you. I would like to buy some to see if the will help with remaining noise. I am running a D180 connected to my AvMap EKP IV and love it. Only ever had one issue with it not booting past the blue screen. Dynon took it back and sent me it back fixed. This even a Year or more after I purchased. As always no company is perfect but they are usually judged be their responses. Dynon is tops in this industry.
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Comment by Bob McDonald on December 25, 2011 at 7:30am
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Mark Townsend @ Can-Zac installed a full Dynon auto pilot in "Catnip" (1st CH750 he built). Some builders may have seen it at Oshkosh 2010?
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Yes, getting some more data on the autopilot installation and performance specifically for the CH750 would be of considerable interest. I have only read of one builder who installed roll control (bit surprised as I thought pitch control would be first on the wish list) and he reported good results except in turbulent conditions.
I think Ill try to get my baby in the air before tanking on more avionics. I am installing a RAC potentiometer for the flaps as the cost was minimal.
As all the RAC trim units and sensors as well as the new digital engine pressure sensors use the regulated +5VDC output from the Dynon, I installed 8 position power and ground common bus terminals on the outputs of the Dynon EMS.
Should make trouble shooting my next boo boo a bit easier as well :)
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Comment by David Peterson on December 23, 2011 at 6:00pm
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Hey Vic - Yep I've seen the older ones, I would just like to see some newer ones - and especially ones "in action" inside aircraft. I think Seb and Roger's recent video of the Dynon inside the 650 and 750 have been great examples. I'm just surprised that Dynon aren't producing more of them themselves, in partnership with selected happy customers. I'm particularly keen to see the way the new autopilot operates in "real life", for example.
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David, if you go on the Dynon Avionics web page, they have a gaggle of U-Tube videos both demonstrating the features and real life action footage.
One thing I noted is that viewing and using the display in person was much better than the videos of the screen. Something about digital video recording a digital signal on a second screen - you lose a lot of the actual display resolution. Much better to test drive in person - they have scheduled seminars/ courses coming up. I think a short course would be a big help if you are at the point of selecting or designing your avionics system.
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