Eis 4000
tonyjohnson said:
I am considering lower end engine monitors, specifically the RMI umonitor and the GRI EIS 4000. The price gap between these lower end units and the other engine monitors is significant, prompting me to go with one of the above.
Tony, I don't like to think of my EIS4000 as a lower end unit but lower priced
. I love the GRT EIS4000. I don't need to see color graphics with limit warnings on all channels. It is a real safety device. The EGT/CHT does have a bar graph display you can customize with other data (RPM/MAP/OP/OT/FP/CARB T/OAT or what every you want). Of course Greg and Sandy and company are great to deal with. Bang for buck I don't think you can beat it.
The thing you have to remember the EIS has a small display and only displays a hand full of parameters at a time, on a two line monochrome LCD screen. Also displayed info for the most part is just numbers with a few punctuation marks or units to denote what is what. This to me is not a big draw back. Being small is good and the computer monitors all parameters, displayed or not. Because displayed info is mostly numbers, you have to know what and where to look on a particular page, especially the custom pages. These pages can display any data you want. However a push of a button will display the titles of any page if you forget. The custom pages can be set up to display up to 4-8 items. There are about 14 pages of data, some are custom and some have fixed info. You can scroll thru these pages or hide them from the menu with few pushes of a button. As mentioned, the only graphical information is a EGT/CHT with a bar graph/missing segment format. There is a host of very nice features. The best is the warning of any limit exceedance, which shows up with a warning light and the respective info page popping up automatically with the critical item flashing. Another well thought out functions, "leaning" pages or max CHT rate of cooling.
http://members.aol.com/enginfosys/leanpage.htm
Last you can add 6-aux inputs to monitor custom parameters. Again the idea is you don?t have to monitor these items by looking at them on a screen, because the computer does the monitoring and lets you know if something is out of limits. Even Boeing does this with a primary engine display and a secondary display that the pilots can blank. If any secondary engine item goes into the "red" the display pops up automatically.
I know the new stuff is pretty with color graphics, but for utility and function you are not giving up much with the "lower end units"
I am not sure what the actual cost delta is, but it is around $2000 for some units. I would consider the new color graphic displays if I was buying today, with their tempting pretty color displays, but it is still hard to beat the small/cheaper basic EIS4000. The basic EIS4000 cost $995, including 4 x EGT, 4 x CHT, RPM, oil press, oil temp, volts, flight timer. Adding Fuel flow, L&R fuel levels (5 set point capacitance senders), amps, manifold press, MAP, carb temp, fuel pressure brings it up to around $1800. Subtract $375 without the Fuel flow option, which is the highest price option. All this in one small display (and a lot of wires). The advance AF-2500 engine monitor cost $4,000!!!
Of course if you are going with GRT EFIS, than the choice is a done deal. Gregs flight EFIS is set up to combo with his grapical engine monitor. However we are talking big bucks for GRT EFIS/EIS, but I think if you have the $$ it is worth it. My whole panel cost a little more than $6,000 total: Dynon ($2,300), EIS4000 ($1700), used transponder ($300), IC200 com ($700), Garmin 195 gps ($300) and navaid autopilot ($1,100). (bargin prices I paid). Just one of those fancy EFIS boxes can cost more than my whole panel! My panel with autopilot and EFIS display is not what I would call bare bone either. My point is you can make a nice delux VFR panel for not a lot of money.
Cheers George
Image below shows typical display:
EGT/CHT bar graph Cyl #1 thru #4
EGH=1538 (F) highest egt temp (bar graph shows #2 cyl is highest)
CHH=370 (F) highest cht temp (bar graph shows 4 is highest)
RPM=2530, Manifold or MAP=25.2 (in hg)
OT / OP = 193 / 48 is oil temp (F) / oil press (psi)
Push "display" button will show lables for data fields.
This is one of 14 display pgs, incld several custom pgs, showing any combo of data you want.
The GRT EIS 4000 shows alll 4 EGT's and all 4 CHT's at the same time and has a program to monitor them and set them. The Rocky Mountain just shows one EGT adn one CHT at a time and you need a rotary switch to select each cylinder one at a time. Not real great for leaning and engine trouble shooting.