What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

MGL Avionics "Odyssey" EFIS, first picture and information released

R

Rainier Lamers

Well Known Member
As our new Odyssey EFIS will be of particular interest to the majority of RV owners and builders, please have a look at our website www.MGLAvionics.co.za and select "Odyssey" from the menu.

For those waiting for "EFIS heaven" - it is about to arrive.

Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics
 
Rainier Lamers said:
As our new Odyssey EFIS will be of particular interest to the majority of RV owners and builders, please have a look at our website www.MGLAvionics.co.za and select "Odyssey" from the menu.

For those waiting for "EFIS heaven" - it is about to arrive.

Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics
Click to expand...
Hi Rainier,

Any idea of how much EFIS heaven is going to cost us? Are we talking 4 figures or 5 figures?:)
 
Quick one...

rvator51 said:
Any idea of how much EFIS heaven is going to cost us? Are we talking 4 figures or 5 figures?:)
Click to expand...
Hi Tom,

At MGL we don't believe "5 figures" are necessary. "4 figures" for sure... ;)

Best Regards,
 
2 Displays?

Any chance of having the capability of a 'slaved' screen for the rear cockpit of an RV-8 (or 4)?
 
Slaved screen

gpiney said:
Any chance of having the capability of a 'slaved' screen for the rear cockpit of an RV-8 (or 4)?
Click to expand...

From what I've seen of their products so far, my understanding is that you can use a second Odyssey or an Enigma as a slave of the Odyssey.

I plan to use the Odyssey on the left and the Enigma on the right of my panel (RV-9A), with the remote radio and transponder tucked away somewhere off the panel. This will leave the center of my panel (usually a radio stack) for my backup instruments and a single com backup.
 
Very cool Rainier! I've had the Enigma plan in my back pocket for some time now, and with the Odyssey, it may just make its way right in to my panel!

Cool stuff!! :cool:
 
Rainier, any chance of having one of those at OshKosh this year? It would be nice to take a look at one.
 
Looks nice. Just one question. Why the touch buttons? Arent push switches more reliable and easy to "feel" especially in turbulence ?

EJ
 
We are trying VERY hard to have one there. We are having a few run-ins with Murphy currently but we have put sleeping on hold for a while so let's see if miracles can happen.
Our big issue is a classic: The housing is made from a high-tech polymer that is carbon coated and then plated with metal. This results in a pleasing look while still allowing low weight and high strength (and all the EMI benifits).
The company that is making the housing made the highly expensive tool for this back-to-front !!! So they have to make another...

It's fun...

Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics

JohnR said:
Rainier, any chance of having one of those at OshKosh this year? It would be nice to take a look at one.
Click to expand...
 
Durability, moisture resistance, easy to clean, no ingress of dirt, nice "feel" - they all "click".
These are actualy more expensive to make than "rubber" or similar keypads and are in fact made to military specifications. They should not be confused with similar keypads found in some "cheap" applications. This is a different ball-game.

Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics

rv72004 said:
Looks nice. Just one question. Why the touch buttons? Arent push switches more reliable and easy to "feel" especially in turbulence ?

EJ
Click to expand...
 
rvator51 said:
Hi Rainier,

Any idea of how much EFIS heaven is going to cost us? Are we talking 4 figures or 5 figures?:)
Click to expand...

You should know us by now :)
It's 4 figures. Low 4 figures. A dual Odyssey should be around 1/10th the price of a similar sized competitor (I'm talking about their "cheap" uncertified version).

MGL was founded to make affordable instruments. Not to make money.

We are fly-boys ourselves, not business people. ****, I own a single suit (and two ties), worn at funerals and weddings !

Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics
 
Thanks Rick,
I have never seen such a comparison before (not surprisingly) and it does look quite impressive.
I know it's big and perhaps too big for many applications - but I wanted to make an EFIS that does not compromise. From here we can look at making a smaller version, perhaps somewhere between the Enigma and Odyssey.

Rainier

rickmellor said:
I wanted to see how big the Odyssey is compared to other EFIS. I got a little carried away. :) I can't believe how big this thing is! Check this out:

http://www.jen-rick.com/215rj/images/forumposts/EFIS_Size_Compare.png

All sizes should be to scale.

-Rick
Click to expand...
 
You are quite right.
If I look into my crystal ball I can see the sub $1000 EFIS quite clearly.
I can also see that it is likely to have our name on (if it has anything to do with me, it will).

Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics

RVbySDI said:
Hey, call me what you want but I don't believe 4 figures are necessary either!
Click to expand...
 
ARINC 424-18 / Jeppesen and or 429

Does Odyssey have NavData support? What about support for ARINC 429 and the GNS 430 ?

-Rick
 
rickmellor said:
Does Odyssey have NavData support? What about support for ARINC 429 and the GNS 430 ?

-Rick
Click to expand...

Odyssey (like Enigma) has or is in the process of supporting the following:

Enigma data formats (all supported):
Navdata, waypoints, routes, airspaces, raster maps, vector maps, airport data...
This is all free of cost and included with free updates. User editable.

Jeppesen
Full Jeppesen support including airport layouts (this is currently in the works).
This is subject to Jeppesen subscription

PocketFMS
This popular upcoming product will soon export to Enigma format. Kind of like Jeppesen but more geared towards sport flying with user maintained database.
Subject to PocketFMS subscription

ARINC 429 fully supported with our comms extender unit currently in the works (usable for Enigma and Odyssey). Adds ARINC transmitter, three ARINC receivers, three RS232 ports, CAN interface (for Engine ICUs), and two additional USB host ports. This unit also serves as WX image server and interface for USB camera images (rear view, downwards view, IR camera etc).

For those having access to ARINC 424 NavData, our free FlightPlanner will have an import for that soon as well.

Regarding RF products:

In the works:
VHF radio (3 models, first release at Oshkosh)
NAV/COM (2 models expected end of this year)
Mode-S xpndr (expected sometime next year)

These products are stand-alone or in "black box" format using Enigma or Odyssey as interface. All connect to our instruments and can use the existing nav databases for frequencies etc. In case you are wondering, yes they will be affordable.

Both Enigma and Odyssey have built in 16 channel WAAS GPS and all the GPS functionality you could possibly want (and if you find something it does not do - tell us and we will add it).

Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics
 
Resolution is full VGA.
We don't care much about resolution. We are more interested in actual physical pixel size and the visibility of that pixel in adverse light conditions.
Currently, we need the pixel to be as large as possible and the part around the pixel (that is the driver) to be as small as possible as this blocks light. This, for now, excludes very high resolution screens (small pixel, big driver) as they simply don't cut it in bright sunlight (we fly a lot in desert conditions). Not yet anyway.
The image you see on our website is in actual resolution, i.e. one pixel of the image is exactly one pixel on the actual instrument.

Enigma and Odyssey both have a NMEA output that contains the normal autopilot messages. We are working on an extention to NMEA to include vertical navigation (we will see if any of the autopilot makers will use it).
Other than that, for now you will have to use ARINC for vertical navigation. This is supported.

Enigma (and the new Odyssey) are largely customer initiated developments. What this means is - if you have any suggestion, ideas, needs (related to the EFIS), in short anything - you tell us and it goes onto a "wish list" which is quite famous by now. The motly crew and I at MGL then try and reduce the size of this list (the aim is to get to zero length - this of course can never happen). The result of this, at the end of the day, is something that suits everybody as best as is possible. It works well. If you take Enigma say a year ago (we released it at Oshkosh 2006) and now, well, what can I say - it blows my mind. Is it finished ? No. Our instruments are NEVER finished. There is always something to improve, add or change. As it takes just seconds to upload the latest (free of course) firmware into a unit - everybody is happy - well, most of the time. We get a lot of "OK, now that you have done this, how about...".

Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics

Pirkka said:
What I didn't catch yet is the actual resolution (pixel count)?

And your last message you are saying you have 'all GPS related' -- so GPS steering (http://www.trutrakflightsystems.com/faq2.htm) is also implemented?
Click to expand...
 
Sorry, should have followed your link ("steering").
The bank angle thingy...
It's in the process of being added to our HITS (i.e. optimum bank for current speed to exactly intercept new track) so that means it will be available for the AP interface as well.
It's somewhat part of the whole SIDS and STARS thing.

Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics

Pirkka said:
And your last message you are saying you have 'all GPS related' -- so GPS steering (http://www.trutrakflightsystems.com/faq2.htm) is also implemented?
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top