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MGL releases MX1 EFIS at Oshkosh

Rainier Lamers

Well Known Member
MX1combosm.jpg


Time for a new EFIS release. This one has been in the worx for three years and has gone through several design iterations.
This EFIS has been inspired by developments in the microcontroller chip World. These little devices originally ran your fridge - but they are getting really powerful now so why not make an EFIS, and not just a basic one, using one of these things ?
The chip we had been waiting for became available little more than a year ago and went straight into our Navigation radio the N16 - it was instrumental in getting this highly digitized radio going and then the MX1 EFIS followed.

Using these chips brings down costs, reduces component count and ultimately increases reliability. We have been there before - our systems done 15 years or so ago used microcontrollers. Our first EFIS ran with just 256 bytes of memory in 1998. So in a way we are coming full circle now.

The MX1 packs an almost fully featured iEFIS system with 7" touch screen into a portrait mode EFIS. Very low cost combines with versatility. Compatible with a wide range of peripherals the MX1 can be combined into a multipanel system with up to 8 panels or used stand alone.
GPS and a newly developed AHRS all built in - altimeter of course, airspeed with a range of just 20mph to mach 1 at sea level and AOA sensor fitted standard. The MX1 features the same screen design system used in the regular iEFIS range so you can modify our screens or create your own !

There is much to tell about the MX1 - go and have a look at the MGL Avionics stand at Oshkosh or check our website soon, we should have manuals etc up in a week or so. The first batch is already manufactured and we will start accepting orders after Oshkosh.

While you check us out at Oshkosh, we have lots on display including our ever expanding range of popular Vega and Blaze singles - we added some interesting ones during the year.

Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics
 
****, I bought the iEfis lite. But then again I thought I'd be flying 2 years ago. Fir those of you building, leave your efis choice as late as you can. Many projects take a decade. Think of the changes in cockpit tech over the last year!

Just moaning about this for fun. I think the iEfis Lite will be great for my use, which is a simple vfr machine. This might have a massively more powerful processor but the brain of the guy flying my airplane (someday) does not. Besides, no way am I crimping all those $&@?% pins again!
 
This is EXACTLY what I have been telling my customers for years !
I know - builders itch to get going and purchase all they can (that's the easy part of building and can be fun as well).
But when it comes to avionics - WAIT !!! - until you are ready to cut the panel.

Just a quick look at all the various developments over the years shows you the very rapid and remarkable morphing of experimental avionics from all manufacturers. And AI is just around the corner in this field as well - no telling what us aviation and avionics nutters will come up with tomorrow...

Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics

****, I bought the iEfis lite. But then again I thought I'd be flying 2 years ago. Fir those of you building, leave your efis choice as late as you can. Many projects take a decade. Think of the changes in cockpit tech over the last year!

Just moaning about this for fun. I think the iEfis Lite will be great for my use, which is a simple vfr machine. This might have a massively more powerful processor but the brain of the guy flying my airplane (someday) does not. Besides, no way am I crimping all those $&@?% pins again!
 
For those familiar with our iEFIS products - the MX1 is not strictly one on them and is not intended to be either.

Compared to the full iEFIS you loose:

Vector maps, Plates, Intelliroutes, Holds, Terrain, Functions intended for space flight and a few "specials" we did over the years for "weird" applications.

Raster maps, iEFIS style are retained which means you can install several sets, make your own if you like, use sectionals or just stuff you pulled from map servers and overlay aeronautical information as map layer. So in some way some vector map functionality remains and is combined with raster maps. Makes the whole mapping system simpler to use.

Full engine monitoring with up to four engines has been retained, nice flight planning tool included - flight plan execution as per current iEFIS G3 with the exception of ad-hock holds. All the map touch functionality of the G3 is still there.

MX1 natively features a CAN bus interface (now the main means of connecting our peripherals plus four RS232 ports (expandable to 8 ports via the iEFIS Extender which also provides you with analog and digital inputs you can configure for all sorts of uses). Voice annunicator and sound generator (with built in amplifier so it can drive a speaker directly if needed). AOA and Vario tone functionality as well. WAAS GPS qualified for SIL/SDA of 1/1 included (for higher level 3/2 the FAA approved SP-12 GPS can be connected). All the usual other interface options of the iEFIS (but no ARINC).
Full autopilot as per current iEFIS G3. 3D runways with automatic approach guidance. Compatible with Garmin radios and nav radios (all the non-ARINC based ones) and of course our V16 COM and N16 NAV solultion. The A16 intercom is to be released very shorty (sorry did not make it for Osh) and this can also be controlled via MX1.

In all - a very capable, not so little EFIS at really low cost (sorry don't know what it will go for in the U.S. but here where it is made it is approximately $1150 including 15% local sales tax - will probably be a bit more in other countries).

The last point I need to make here:

I am considering open sourcing the MX1 as it is quite suitable for this. But it will have to be done in a way that does not involve me (too much) as my time is really limited. I am looking for somebody that is interested to play the role of coder-in-chief for this. Anybody ?

Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics
 
My trip to OSH was aborted this year. One of the things I wanted to to stop by all the booths and figure out the best route to go for my panel upgrade in my RV-6. I would really like to have seen this in person!

I greatly prefer portrait layout, and I'm looking for a simple unit that will primarily give me PFD and engine monitoring.

Can't wait to see it on the website.
 
Interesting, what kind of programming stack would be used for this?

It requires a bit of a mind shift (but not too much).
All our avionics is programmed "bare metal" and no third party code is used in any form. There is no API. It's WYSIWYG programming all the way to the processors core. It's different to the now common libraries that isolate the programmer from the hardware. Here you get to play with everything.

With that out of the way: The language is Pascal. Not the early learning version but a dialect that is specifically designed for embedded programming and nothing else. It's however Delphi compatible (in fact the identical code running on the real hardware is compiled in Delphi to create our simulators). This means a lot of development time is spent in Delphi - you develop the actual EFIS code here (nothing stops you from using the actual hardware but doing this on a PC makes things much faster and easier to debug).

The compiler used to create the executable binary that runs on the hardware is a custom made compiler (I used to write compilers as shareware for some extra pocket money before the flying bug hit me). It is possible to mix C and Pascal source code in this compiler but that has only ever been done once (with our old V10 COM radio).
Naturally the compiler will be made available for free.

The compiler runs on a Windows platform or Linux under Wine.

The processor used in the MX1 is the STM32H743 backed by 64MBytes of DRAM. That means it's an ARM M7 chip. It's currently running at 400Mhz but the next batch of chips will bump that to 480Mhz (silicon revision).

The source code for the EFIS will be a branch of the current code. I will have to remove a few items that contain code I may not release - this is code dedicated to reading subscription based navigation databases like Jeppesen or would reveal details of protocols I had to sign an NDA for.
But it is not a train-smash. Our own database format is open source anyway and so are all our protocols.

A candidate to play master-of-the-code would need to have experience of very low level programming of STM32 processors. The entire code is highly optimized and there is a good amount of assembler as well to speed up critical operations. So even if you do something entirely in higher level you must be aware on its effects on the entire system.

The code on the MX1 is entirely "execute in place". There is no booting. Switch on and run instantly. The code size limit is 2MBytes. Currently under 1.5MBytes is used for everything (not bad actually) so there is some room for extra goodies.

Of course - since this processor is well known and there are no secrets in the hardware the MX1 could be used as a platform for anything in any programming language. There is even a python compiler for it...

Effectively this is it in a nutshell.

Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics
 
What are the dimensions?

Identical to the Discovery Lite (we borrowed the housing).

120x220x30mm (excludes height of the rotary controls and connectors at the back). One D25 connector, one SMA for GPS antenna and a total of 6 pressure ports.

Screen is 7" diagonal. Wide viewing angle. PCAP touch panel. Slot is for a SD-Micro card.

Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics
 
Basic info posted to www.mglavionics.co.za

Both installation and user manuals as well. They are not 100% complete but pretty far along the way - enough to get a good idea. Should be able to finish both of them next week.
Please keep in mind that many of the details is already available in other manuals that are part of the iEFIS range such as the Navigation and Autopilot manuals - all that is identical to what happens in the MX1.

Should have the MX1 screen designer and simulator available within days as well - just cleaning it up a little at the moment...

Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics
 
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