The over temperature spec warning is just that; the sensors are outside of spec and therefore outside designed performance. We have never heard of a unit not giving reasonable output in that condition since we design in engineering tolerances, but you shouldn't rely on performance if outside of spec if you don't have to, just like any other aircraft spec.
In older versions of D10/D100 firmware, the attitude would change colors to black/white to draw attention to the warning. But in more recent versions, we've changed that to only paint the advisory message, as it does not constitute a critical or even expected loss of functionality. Rather, it's possible that performance could be degraded. In reality, we have not received reports that that hot units behave worse than when they are in-spec. Basically, the unit warns you that unit is being over heated, and you should know that that this means your radios and other electronics gear are probably beyond or near their temperature limitations as well. Just because your other equipment doesn't warn you, don't assume nothing bad is happening. The Dynon equipment is generally rated to similar temperature specs as most certified equipment. It is interesting to note that in many/most parameters we have to design our equipment to better than certified requirements, because it goes in so many different designs. We don't have the luxury of working with a type-certified aircraft manufacturer and making sure that an installation is adequate and repeatable, so we design for a much greater set of conditions.
On SkyView we designed the temperature to stay within specs in all reasonable installations even without the fans, and then added the fans to provide adequate cooling in extreme installations and situations.
-Robert
Dynon Marketing
