Quote:
Originally Posted by miyu1975
hello Rainier, would love to hear, if you have any, updates on iEfis Explorer.
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Today we submitted the Explorer for production together with the iBOX so the hardware is now frozen. This leaves me with a lot of software to do. While the Explorer will start shipping with the G2 CPU, the software has started changing quite a bit with respect to the user interface and is deviating from the original intent which saw the touch screen used in a secondary way. Like many, I believed that a touch screen would not be a great solution in an aircraft. Seems I'm wrong (and sometimes that is a good thing).
So the touch screen is becoming the primary user interface while the buttons and knobs are becomming secondary - but still very useful to target certain functions real quick.
Environmental tests have been completed and all looks good (would breeze though DO160).
Much of the software development is around the user interface but also certain changes to the way our screens etc work - don't worry, you can still do your own screens just as before, it's just a bit different now. In the main, the "info" sections are gone to simplify things while more screens are now available with some dedicated ones (this is new).
Then of course there is the iBOX, the central node of the iEFIS World and that is quite complete now with all the tricky stuff done but some holes still need filling (more like small potholes now).
The hardware for the Wireless access point (Wifi) is finished but I have not done the software for this yet. Hardware for the FAA certified GPS has also arrived so I need to get my head around that soon.
New RDAC XF (required for the iEFIS) is finished and has been submitted for production. This will replace our RDAC XB and RDAC XD also for the other EFIS systems. Updates for SP-6 and SP-7 are finished (these need to "talk" CAN, other than that they are still compatible).
Soooo... that means things are pretty well on track. MGL is shutting down for the annual holiday on the 16th of December to early in January but our contract manufacturers only reopen middle January. Taking all this into consideration we should be able to ship the first Explorer iEFIS units in March.
The 7" and 10.4" iEFIS units should follow relatively soon after that, we are now finalizing the molds for these. Software and most of the hardware is identical for these units to the 8.5" Explorer so that should go fast.
That leaves the G3 cpu. While I developed a prototype G3, I will not be using it and instead use a different processor - things are moving incredibly fast with new processors being released by various manufacturers almost every other week - pushing boundaries faster than ever while simplifying the hardware. Good news is however that the G3 will be able to be used in existing Odyssey and Voyager.
What's different with the G3 ? Around 10-30 times the performance of a G2 (depending on which of two current CPU choices I end up with) plus a departure from the current software framework. It's going Linux. Partly this is forced due to unavailability of technical documentation for the embedded GPUs and the need to use pre-made device drivers for these things.
However, that means OpenGL and this also means a real path opens for "open source" for those that want to spin their own EFISs (and why not ?)
Good news is that our current EFIS software is fully and quite easily ported to Linux as I am in fact already using the GNU assembler and linker in Embedded Pascal.
So, that is where we are at...
Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics