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New player? Kanardia instruments

KRviator

Well Known Member
I stumbled across this in a RecFlying post about G-meters, and did a little digging as I can't see them mentioned here before, other than a VAF'er who has an AH in his -6's panel. Certainly I'd never heard of them before!

Seems they are based in Slovenia, and have produced a range of EFIS and EMS units that are both quite small, but reasonably well featured. Their only English-speaking dealer is in the UK, so there aren't a great deal of prices to compare, but from those listed, you get the following:

The "Horis 80", a PFD that fits in astandard 3.25" instrument hole, for $1140USD
AHRS-57mm-s-600x600.jpg


The "3.5" EMSIS", for $1280USD
Emsis-3.5-narrow-600x600.jpg


The "NESIS III", an 8.4" (or 5") touch-screen PFD/EMS/MAP, for $4,500USD
N3-2-sm%20(1)-600x600.png

nesis-cropped-600x600.jpg


Also available are a combined 3.5" PFD/EMS for $1900ish USD, a 2.25" round PFD for around $1000, as well as a bunch of other individual instruments.

IF anyone wants to check them out, the Kanardia website can be found HERE and the UK dealer is listed as LX Avionics. Kanardia also publish their own price list HERE in *.PDF format, but I found it a little hard to get my head around.
 
A friend just bought a Cavalon Autogyro, which came with (among other things) a couple of rather nifty 3.25" airspeed and altimeter instruments. Full colour LCD displays, similar to the ones from Kanardia but not quite the same form factor so I don't know that it's the same company.

We're trying to figure out who makes them for Autogyro, I suspect they don't make them in-house. There's no maker's mark on them that we can see, however. Just the Autogyro logo on the case.
 
Bought a couple of them

I just stumbled on this thread, although it's almost a year old, today.

I actually found them via google this summer before OSH, and bought 2 of their 2.25" units of that HORIS EFIS.

I did a write-up and youtube video about it, because I was so impressed at what you could get for such low cost.

Check it out:
https://www.myrv10.com/N104CD/upgrades/20180815/index.html

Oh, and for those who need to cut a hole in a painted panel, the hole saw I reference was a real lucky find. I had never used one like that before, but it did an excellent job. Very nice to stumble on all of that.

RV20180718-200605-1668.jpg
 
Same price as others

Tim I ran across your blog post a few days ago. Cool find.

The GRT Mini has been my front-runner for a back up pfd. I think it still is, since I don't have an existing panel to try to squeeze it into and don't need the form factor.

Now if this thing was $500, I'd be all over it.
 
I saw Tim's video several days ago and was in the market to fill a 3 1/8" hole. Two days of 1 email per day with Kanardia sales rep "Alec" (in Slovinia) and I recently sent them payment for a 3 1/8" Horis through PayPal. Shortly after sending the payment, I got a call from PayPal to confirm the payment (and I had no reason not to).

I will update my post when the unit arrives. Tim's video is pretty thorough on the tech, so I will just comment on the purchase process.
 
Update on my purchase. PayPal shows paid on 8/31/2018. I did not hear anything back from Kanardia so I waited patiently until today. I sent them an email and got a response within an hour with a tracking number. My unit, a Horis80 (3 1/8 inch), shipped on 9/3/2018 and was cleared by U.S. Customs today, 9/13/2018. Will keep an eye on it as it makes its way to me and film the unpacking (time to become an internet star).
 
I received my Horis 57 yesterday (it will replace my TruTrak ADI2 which is solid but I like the additional info from the Horis). Shipped Monday from Slovenia, received Wednesday. $1040, $70 shipping (TNT in Europe, FedEx in USA), minus GPS antenna, minus a small courtesy discount (to reflect potential import fees). 2 year warranty.

For others doing the same or similar, consider eliminating the GPS antenna from your Kanardia order if you already have a "standard" GPS antenna (2.5-12VDC, 50-Ohms, 1.575 GHz) for the instrument you might be replacing. It will save you 20€ (24 US$). If your original antenna doesn't have an SMA connector to mate to the Horis, you may need an adapter (probably MCX or MMCX female to SMA male).

Also, the OAT sensor uses a standard 4P4C modular phone connector (sometimes called a RJ-10). If you need to cut if off to negotiate the OAT cable through your airframe, it's trivial to crimp on a replacement. Just mind the order of the wires on the four positions of the 4P4C connector: Unused, white, brown and green (left-to-right) when looking on the side of 4P4C connector without the tab. Be sure to verify against your original cable if you take this approach.

If my panel had space, I'd go for a GRT Mini, but I can't accommodate that instrument, hence the itty bitty Horis 57.
 
FedEx package arrived this morning. (My review of tracking information suggests that there was about a week delay in customs.)

The item was well packed and extras included Install / Operating Manual, GPS antenna, temp. probe, 2 "Ts" for pitot / static attachment, wired power plug and a CAN bus plug (don't really know what that is about yet).

Interesting thing about this device is that it is a compact unit with sensors built in: static pressure, dynamic pressure, 3 axis accelerometer, 3 axis angular rate and GPS receiver.

I'll attempt to post some pictures within the next couple days.
 
and a CAN bus plug (don't really know what that is about yet.

A CAN (controller area network) bus is a data bus designed for devices to communicate in electrically noisy environments. It's similar to what ethernet is for computers.

In Kanardia's case (as in Garmin's), they use it so their various offerings can talk to each other. Thus, if you have only the Horis, you don't need the bus (the little RJ-45 connector that you have plugged in to the back of the Horis has an embedded resistor to properly terminate the bus). If you have some of the other options, like their magnetometer, or a slave Horis, slave ALT, slave AS, slave VSI, then you'd plug them all together on the CAN bus.
 
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Do you think the Kanardia CAN bus will work with MGL CAN bus? (Just reading install manual now about CAN bus terminating plug.)
 
I just noticed this thread had activity. Sorry for missing out this long!
I'm glad my post helped you guys find this thing. It sure is a nice little box.

I don't know that the CAN bus will interface with non-Kanardia stuff. I say this only because I see they reference a "Kanardia" protocol. So I wouldn't assume it would, but maybe... You may want to email them. Alec was good about answering questions.

One worry I had was that I didn't know if the system came with the terminator resistor or not. So, I bought some resistors from mouser.com Well, it turns out it came with the terminator so I didn't need to do that. The one thing that you probably DO want to prepare for is that it doesn't use 1/8" or 1/4" tubing, it's a 5mm connector I believe, which is almost perfect for 3/16" tubing. So, I went on amazon and bought some 3/16" tygon tubing (would have been nice to get 5mm if I had a good source, but both work), and some 1/4" to 3/16" Tees and adapters, and some in 1/8" to 3/16" because I had a variety of things between my 2 planes to adapt. So take a look at your current pitot/static stuff and maybe plan to adapt it to 5mm or 3/16" tubing. Its trivial, but you may waste 2 days waiting for amazon prime if you aren't prepared.

That RJ plug on the OAT. I see you say it's an RJ-10? My buddy at work gave me a couple of handset plugs, that are RJ-22. They work perfectly. I'm not sure the difference, but it's a normal handset plug. But what DID complicate it for me is that my crimper that I own is a 6-pin and 8-pin crimper. When I tried to crimp the RJ-22 in there, it wouldn't evenly crimp the wires because the thing was too narrow for the crimper socket and would rock sideways. I had to try a few tricks and finally got it to work. The next day I went back to work and asked if he had a better crimper. He did...one that was made for those RJ-22's, and so I grabbed 2 more plugs and his crimper and they went perfect the first time. Hint: When you chop the connector off, leave about a half-inch of wire and you have one that you can compare so you get the wire order correct. When you order the unit, tell them how much length you need. I think I asked for 5m and it was long enough to mount under the wing on both planes.

Anyway, thanks for posting your experiences, and it'll be nice to hear how you like it once it's installed.
 
Do you think the Kanardia CAN bus will work with MGL CAN bus? (Just reading install manual now about CAN bus terminating plug.)

If you mean "can they exchange information", you'd need to ask Kanardia/MGL (I doubt that they can). Though CAN specifies how the bits are transmitted on the physical bus, the "language" spoken on the bus can be whatever you want it to be. So if the Horis spit outs AS info on the bus, it may not be understandable by MGL because 1) it's the wrong "language" and 2) MGL may not design their device to accept such external data. That's as far as I can go.

A greater (rhetorically asked) question is what would you be trying to accomplish?
 
That RJ plug on the OAT. I see you say it's an RJ-10? My buddy at work gave me a couple of handset plugs, that are RJ-22. They work perfectly. I'm not sure the difference, but it's a normal handset plug.

RJ-9, RJ-10, R-J22 are generally considered equivalent.
 
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I'm running an MGL Xtreme EFIS w/ magnetometer. The Horis is a "back up" to that (of course it may work out as a "better" instrument) and I want it to be a separate system. Since I had the magnetometer, however, I was hoping to be able to "share" that information input. (I'll check with Kanardia...in time.)
 
I'm running an MGL Xtreme EFIS w/ magnetometer. The Horis is a "back up" to that (of course it may work out as a "better" instrument) and I want it to be a separate system. Since I had the magnetometer, however, I was hoping to be able to "share" that information input. (I'll check with Kanardia...in time.)

Makes sense and that would rock if it could. As Tim O. pointed out, Kanardia appears to have their own protocol as described on page 7 of the Horis manual (to say nothing of MGL's).

P.S., my apologies if my rhetorical question came across negatively. It wasn't intended as such.
 
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None necessary. I took no offense whatsoever.

My biggest concern is making that cut in the pitot / static lines. What's the easiest way to accomplish a leak check once you are at that stage?
 
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The one thing that you probably DO want to prepare for is that it doesn't use 1/8" or 1/4" tubing, it's a 5mm connector I believe, which is almost perfect for 3/16" tubing. So, I went on amazon and bought some 3/16" tygon tubing (would have been nice to get 5mm if I had a good source, but both work), and some 1/4" to 3/16" Tees and adapters, and some in 1/8" to 3/16" because I had a variety of things between my 2 planes to adapt. So take a look at your current pitot/static stuff and maybe plan to adapt it to 5mm or 3/16" tubing. Its trivial, but you may waste 2 days waiting for amazon prime if you aren't prepared.

BTW, thanks for pointing that out.

Note: 5mm or 3/16" OD is not correct. See this post for correct information.
 
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I'm running an MGL Xtreme EFIS w/ magnetometer. The Horis is a "back up" to that (of course it may work out as a "better" instrument) and I want it to be a separate system. Since I had the magnetometer, however, I was hoping to be able to "share" that information input. (I'll check with Kanardia...in time.)

As mentioned, there is (almost) no standard related to the CAN bus. Like the much loved RS232 it is simply a medium to transfer data. What that data is and how fast you want to transfer it is left to the implementer.

Many years ago there was an effort to create something like CAN-Aerospace which has largely flopped - it is as far as I know only used with some engine ECU's now. It's main drawback is that it is very inefficient in using the available bandwidth by effectively transferring only a single data item per message. That is OK however for a dedicated link such as you would have when monitoring an engine.

At MGL we have almost all of our stuff on the CAN bus now and we have published the protocol in a document you can download from our website, free for anybody to use in whatever way you choose. There is stuff for autopilot servos, engine monitors, AHRS, magnetometers, flap and trim controllers, electronic circuit breakers, transponders - if we do it - it's likely defined.

http://www.mglavionics.co.za/Docs/MGL CAN Protocol.pdf

Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics
 
Thanks for the information Rainier. I received a quick response from Kanardia, without the plethora of information MGL has available, and that answer was no compatibility. I will look at the MGL documentation over the next couple months to see if I can "hack" some kind of solution.
 
That is an interesting thought !
It's quite normal to see CAN hubs in cars these days so why not ?

If you are looking for some hardware that is readily "airplaney" have a look at our CAN RDAC. This is a little device that is used primarily as engine monitor - acting as CAN hub between a CAN based engine ECU and the MGL CAN bus.

However, there is nothing secret about it - it runs a STM32 micro and the complete source to implement a Rotax 912iS engine monitor (plus the MGL bus bits) is available. Even better - comes with a complete development environment (compiler) for free. It's done in Pascal as is all of our stuff, even the EFIS systems. The compiler is our own creation made specifically for avionics applications. All you need in addition is STM's ST-Link V2 so you can upload your code into the micro (it can be done using the available RS232 as well if you prefer but the ST-Link is nicer as it allows you to view memory and CPU registers which can be handy for debugging.

The hardware has two independent CAN bus devices, RS232 port and a few additional input lines you can use for sensors etc. If you are a little handy with programming, you can use this for just about anything.

Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics
 
I have an MGL RDAC with MP (I am swapping out a microMonitor with your Xtreme EMS over this MN winter). I assume the RDAC I have qualifies as a CAN RDAC. I only know a small bit about programming (.bat files, web page stuff), but the MN winter is long....who knows what I could learn.
 
Sadly that one will not help you.

The one I am referring to is the RDAC CAN, normally used for engines like the newish Rotax 912iS (i.e. the fuel injected types).

The RDAC CAN is small, using the same housing as your SP-6 magnetometer.

It has two independent CAN ports - that is what you need to create a CAN Hub. One port would connect to your Kanardia and the other to the SP-6 (and possibly rest of the MGL system, whatever it is).
You have the protocol for the MGL side so that is no issue - you would need to get the equivalent for the Kanardia side (assuming they would be willing to share that information).
Once you have that it should be fairly trivial to take the heading information from the SP-6, translate it to what the Kanardia expects and send it on.

Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics
 
An update on the tubing to use for the Horis instruments.

On inquiry about the suggested tubing diameter, Kanardia said

"We typically use 4 mm ID and 8 mm OD silicone tube. Plastic tube works well, too. In the plastic case a tube clamp is also recommended."​

Plastic and silicon can be fairly stretchy, so I opted for 5mm ID and 8mm OD nylon tubing (10m example here) to match the material I used in my pitot-static system.

5/16" is 7.9375 mm. So I used a 5/16" to 1/4" reducer fitting such as these from MettleAir.
 
Glance Avionics

Like the original post re: Kanardia hardware, I recently learned of this company Glance Avionics, which is also CAN bus based. And from the Czech Republic. I know nothing about the company or its equipment beyond a quick look at the website. Tossing it out for those that are exploring.

https://glance-efis.com/
 
Like RV-14E, I used an adapter (mine was from Amazon) to go from the Horis 5mm to 1/4 inch tube used in the rest of my system. Here is a link to the adapter https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017VNCOCA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 .

Here is a link to the silicone tubing that works for me https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NBIXM6U/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 . You just need a short piece (x2) to go from the back of the Horis to the adapter and then on to the rest of your system. (I still need to get several clamps for the 5mm hose attach points, but the hose I chose fits snugly on the attach points.)
 
Kanardia Horis Display

I purchased a 2.25" Kanardia Horis from AeroSport, LLC while at Oshkosh a few weeks ago. It has many features that make it a great back up attitude instrument, and I am happy with it. Be aware that the display is daylight readable, but washes out considerably when viewed at an angle. I placed mine about 7" to the right of centerline on my RV-7 panel (where a GT-50 had been), and it is very dim when viewed from the left seat - nice and bright from the right seat.
 
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