Van's Air Force
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Trutrak Eco
- Thread starter M1chaelw
- Start date
TrutrakTech
Well Known Member
Not yet. Hopefully, you've noticed that we're working on an STC for our Vizion autopilot. As of right now, that project is consuming most of our development resources. Developing installations for the ECO is extremely time consuming, so in the near future we'll have RV4 and RV10 kits available. We have all the parts to make the kits now, but the install instructions are not yet complete. They have to be extremely detailed due to the fact that you're cutting holes in the control surfaces.
TrutrakTech
Well Known Member
I'd call that the long and short of it.
TrutrakTech
Well Known Member
Just to clear things up, we have taken absolutely $0 from anyone for ECO. We have a list of those interested and their aircraft type. The downside to the ECO is that there is no generic kit. We can't just hand one a box of parts and say "have fun" like we can with our standard autopilots. Since we're attaching tabs to and adding weight to control surfaces, we have to control every single aspect the installation. It would be extremely careless of us otherwise.
It's still moving forward, but it was always going to be a much longer and slower time for development just because of the way we have to do it. I hope this clears it up!
Is it feasible to have the ECO operate a new miniature aileron control surface that is installed outboard of the existing aileron? It would not have much authority but would act like a trim tab. Since it is not attached to existing ailerons, aileron flutter would not be a concern.
TrutrakTech
Well Known Member
Feasible? Yes. Effective as an autopilot? No. Simply due to lack of authority.
Canadian_JOY
Well Known Member
Lucas - a suggestion, if I may... On this forum we find a broad array of individuals who have a vast array of talents. The development of the Eco autopilot is, as you have mentioned, progressing at a slow pace as it is not TruTrak's highest priority. That's OK - everybody has to work to their own priorities.
With such a vast pool of talent available, would it not be a viable plan to solicit "Alpha" testers who would work under the guidance of TruTrak to develop an installation for each aircraft type? After all, those who built and have flown their airplanes for many years are more likely to know the "good stuff" like where to run wires and attach brackets. Of course TruTrak would have to vet the installation design and document it properly before making it publicly available.
Think of this as "crowd sourcing" a design using a crowd that has both a very strongly vested interest in the most positive of outcomes, as well as considerable technical expertise.
This same technique could be used on other kit types if it can be proven to work on the RVs.
Just a thought...
With such a vast pool of talent available, would it not be a viable plan to solicit "Alpha" testers who would work under the guidance of TruTrak to develop an installation for each aircraft type? After all, those who built and have flown their airplanes for many years are more likely to know the "good stuff" like where to run wires and attach brackets. Of course TruTrak would have to vet the installation design and document it properly before making it publicly available.
Think of this as "crowd sourcing" a design using a crowd that has both a very strongly vested interest in the most positive of outcomes, as well as considerable technical expertise.
This same technique could be used on other kit types if it can be proven to work on the RVs.
Just a thought...
TrutrakTech
Well Known Member
There certainly is a vast wealth of knowledge here. But in today's litigious society, we simply can't let control of development outside of ourselves.
We stopped manufacturing the EDM about three years ago along with the EFIS/EMS. The iMonitor support was dropped before that. Basically, every time Apple did an OS update, they broke the app interface for us. We didn't have the time to have someone assigned specifically to try to keep all the various devices and OS versions working. So we dropped it from the store and all support of it. It was a fun concept though!
TrutrakTech
Well Known Member
