Dual Displays?

[E. D. Eliot]

Thanks to all who helped me make my decision. Now, I'm concerned about the ability of the Rotax to provide enough power to run my set up. Flying here in LA area, I want my landing light (or two eventually flashing) and anti-collision lights on continuously. Guess that I could turn the second Dynon off but this kind of negates the reason for having two of them.

Also, do any of you have a recommendation for a battery back up for the second Dynon? They are small and I could easily add one for the second Dynon during constriction when I get to that point. Thanks in advance - I appreciate the collective advice very much.

[Raymo]

I installed a backup battery on both screens, which gives 45+ minutes of run time should the alternator and battery are off-line (e.g. Master switch off).

Hold off purchasing/installing the backup battery as long as possible since the 3 year warranty clock starts at purchase (I believe). The backup battery also provides power to many items on the network (e.g. AD-AHRS).

[RKellogg]

I initially paneled a 10 inch in front of pilot and a 7 inch in front of co-pilot. Left screen is normally configured to show flight instruments, engine instruments , and a zoomed in map (immediate information). Right screen normally configured to larger map, approach plates, airport info, and weather (longer term planning info). When PIC is in the right seat, the screens get reversed.

After flying one year and seeing how much information I was getting from the right screen (and a touch of middle-aged eyesight) I re-paneled to two 10 inch screens. For the flying I do, this is a well-justified expense. Wish I'd gotten it right the first time. If your mission has a lot of cross-country flying, get two of the biggest screens you can. Flipping thru soft pages during heavy flying is bad for workload and cockpit resource management.

[scottmillhouse]

In response to Eliot on electrical power, the Rotax is marginal at best with everything running with dual screens. Rotax said 18 amp generator but do not exceed 14 amp continuous. I found out first hand on Oshkosh arrival last Saturday. Right in the furball of planes coming off the holding lakes after the mass arrivals, Betty announced ADS-B fail multiple times and the Skyview displays big red XX and reboots. With a dozen planes in view and some only hundreds of feet away the screens were not getting much scan time so I was clueless on the cause. Looked like hundreds of ADS-B targets, big black blobs of traffic.

Dumped the Skyviews and Dynon did the diagnostic analysis at the show. It appears that with the landing light load and low RPM, low voltage caused the system to cascade with transponder, ADS-B and GPS dropping off line until the system cascaded and rebooted. I was in landing light strobe mode, Stein said that actually is harder on our system since it grabs a lot of juice for each flash. If 45 minutes of strobe LL on causes a low voltage, I would not run LL all the time. With FAA ran ADS-B full report and it showed sporadic drop outs of ADS-B data about 2% for that flight segment with other flights perfect. As someone suggested I am now planning on adding a backup battery for the right too. I also will not be running LL for long times especially in pulse mode.

[Driftdown]

Excellent report Scott, thank you.

[Phantom30]

You will never be disappointed for adding the second screen. It increases situation awareness. Especially if flying cross country.

So, if your mission is local only...I would not spend the money; but otherwise, treat yourself!!