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humptybump

Well Known Member
I'm "planning" a panel update. At this point, my intent is to use the MGL Xtreme.

I am looking for first hand comments on installation and usage.

Thanks.
 
I've had a mini xtreme EFIS in my panel for about a year and a half. I use it primarily for engine monitoring and secondarily as a magnetic compass to adjust my DG to. It also provides a nice backup flight instruments for the pilot and primary flight instruments for the co-pilot (being closer to their line-of-sight). I am mostly happy with the unit and have just a few complaints.

GOPR5317.jpg


One annoyance is that we haven't gotten the autopilot functionality MGL promised and I don't think that we ever will, but it's still listed as one of the selling points.

Another complaint is following their recommendation of installing the RDAC on the engine side of the firewall. It doesn't like water. I've tried sealing it up, but still occasionally have issues. On one particular flight (last leg into Alaska) through a pretty narrow mountain pass and very marginal vfr weather (raining a LOT, low clouds, fog, mist, terrain everywhere, radio towers ... kinda stressful) my engine monitor decided to stop working entirely at the worst possible time; as if the flight wasn't already exciting enough. Made my passenger (wife) a bit nervous I think. Another time was departing Arlington after being rained on all day. Engine monitor crapped out shortly after takeoff and started working again 5 minutes into the flight. Other than those two times, it's been pretty flawless.

Last complaint is that the tach seems a little slow to respond at lower rpms. It's fine in flight, but annoying during runup. It just takes a second or two to respond. It's possible this was fixed with the newer RDAC units.

Installation is a little harder than the Dynon units. Not for any significant technical reason, it's mostly that Dynon has better documentation. I have seen several versions of installation and calibration docs for various aspects of the MGL extreme installation that are more than a little bit different. If you get the "right" documentation from them it's fine, they just seem a bit disorganized. Their use of 'pull-up' resistors allows connectivity to a wider range of sensors, but makes wiring a bit annoying. The fuel flow (red cube) and tach sender (UMA) wiring was the trickiest.

I haven't wired an Advanced Flight EFIS yet so can't comment on them. But, they seem pretty straight forward.

Hope that helps!
 
Glen, I was one of the first to purchase an Xtreme. I have been very pleased with my choice. The back of the unit is short and does not protrude through the sub panel. It is very light and easy to install. The face is offset from the center of the body, so keep this in mind as you lay out your panel. The mounting studs are long and make it difficult to install the nuts. I cut a piece of tubing to slide down the stud and take up thread space, and then installed the nut.

Mount it in the panel, connect pitot, static, OAT, power, ground and gps antenna and you are ready to go with IAS, TAS, GS, ALT, DALT, VSI, OAT, VOLTS, CLOCK and flight time. You also get gps derived horizon and TRACK. There is an airport directory and it will control the AP servos some day.

All engine monitoring is easily installed with a remote unit that all of the probes connect to. I would mount this on the cold side of the firewall in an easy to get to location. For VFR operations, this unit is all you really need. I would not add the remote compass or the remote gyro for VFR use without flying it in the basic mode for a while. You may not need to spend the extra money.

What I really like is the SD card slot right in the front of the unit. It allows you to pop out the card and take it home to upgrade from their web site for free. It also records your entire flight so you can chart all engine temps etc.

And last, you can read this screen in full direct sun light and the brightness was not up to 100%........ This is a true Best Buy.
 
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My Extreme EFIS recently paid for itself several times over. Initially, I installed it to make use of EGT probes from an earlier system. It fit a spare hole below my full size MP/FF and Tach, so I really only wanted the EGT and CHT data. However It has alarms that the user can set to their own limits. A few weeks ago the over voltage alarm message displayed at 15V. Increasing the load with nav lights and pitot heat dropped the voltage back down to 14.2V , however the voltage started to ramp back upward after a few moments. I shut down the master and saved a runaway alternator, and the rest of my avionics in the process. I almost certainly would not have noticed the high voltage(soon enough) had I not had the impossible to miss flashing alarm of the mini Extreme EFIS.
It was a must make flight in uncontrolled airspace so I flew on with mags and steam.

I think the unit should be in a sealed aluminum body with waterproof screen and keypad... but I have not had any problems. It has never failed to boot up and it has never quit.

As a PFD, I did not install the AHRS or magnetometer. The built in GPS provides ground speed and a ground track value. But for day VFR it does quite well as it is. Overall a good value for the money. Without the remote AHRS you can do a point roll and the display only shows level. It only indicates a bank angle if the GPS data indicates a turn.

On take offs into ink black featureless nights I much prefer my D-6 dynon as it can be dimmed much lower and has a built in back up battery plus a built in AHRS showing true attitude and virtually instant deviations from level. (However the Dynons will not tolerate as much overvoltage as the MGL Extreme)

I still like the Extreme. On those black nights I have a tint film that gets placed over screen to dim it beyond its adjustability. It does what I bought it for and much more, it saved me several thousand worth of cooked avionics and wiring!
 
xtreme efis

it does not say how to hook up the oat to the efis. which wires do you use. there instructions are a little hard to follow

thanks
dan carley
 
Hi Dan, google for and download the Xtreme EFIS Manual. It gives the pinout for the 15 pin D-Sub connection. Pin 11 is for the OAT. The other lead from the OAT is ground.
 
I am now flying with the MGL Xtreme EFIS / EMS. I have mixed feelings about it.

The EFIS portion is great. I installed both the AHRS and remote magnetometer. The install was very predictable.

The integrated autopilot feature would have been nice but I gave up expecting for it.

It is the EMS that has me less than enthusiastic. I'm still tweaking and attempting calibration with the hope I will get the data I expect.

My suggestion to anyone "upgrading" to an EMS is to bite the bullet and budget to use the vendor's sensors rather than attempt to make do with existing Vans sensors ... and this probably is relevant to any of the vendors. While the EMS you've chosen may support a wide range of sensors, the calibration and setup will be custom and may be "challenging".
 
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The XTreme is been designed and produced by the company Infiniteq and distributed under the MGL brand name. Infiniteq is owned and run by my Nephew Franz.
Franz did get side tracked a bit on the autopilot side (to my own annoyance too BTW) but after receiving many complaints on non-delivery of the promissed functionality he is now back on it. The servos are now connected and working. Franz has most of the menues done and is now working on methods to engage the autopilot. It has not yet flown but I hope that will not take much longer now.
The algorithms for the autopilot are copied straight from our existing EFIS systems so I don't expect any surprises there.

I also told him about the complaint on this thread about the backlight level too high at lowest setting. He will fix that with the next firmware update. There is no hardware limitation but he simply fixed it at what he thought was a nice level. It can go right down to nothing at all.

Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics
 
mostly happy

I have been flying with an extreme for a couple of years and it has been a reliable instrument. My RADAC is mounted on the firewall.

My one pet peeve with the unit is that the internal coin battery last about a year. Every annual I remove the unit, open it up and replace the battery, otherwise it will not retain information on shut down.
 
Richard, good to I know. I'll add the little watch battery to my annual.

I've got one or two more test flights, and assuming I get all of my parameters stable, I'll post / share all of the settings and the sensors installed.
 
Franz brought an XTreme to me this morning for a look and see.
Autopilot functionality is starting to look promissing. All the setups and menus are done and functional. Servos connected and working.
Now some of the practicalities have to be thrashed out, i.e. how do your engage/control the AP. My preference would be to dedicate a single one of the front buttons to an AP menu.
Looking good - Don't think this is too far away now...

Rainier
 
Rainier - thanks for the update.

I've moved on on the PA decision and installed a TT. I did leave "drops" in my CAN bus wiring for the MGL servos (since that was the original plan) but they are not in use. If I had the opportunity to test with MGL servos, it's probably about a 1/2 day or less task now.


I still owe an extended update on my install of the MGL EFIS+EMS. But for those looking for the Cliff Notes, here they are ...

I was a bit down toward the end of the upgrade. Now that I am flying it, I am amazed. I went the full path - Xtreme EFIS/EMS, SP6 & SP7 (magnetometer and AHRS), and RDAC. It took a bit more that expected trial and error and emails with Matt to get the EMS numbers looking right. Now that it is dialed it, I could easily see a nice VFR setup (in a Panther Sport) with the Garmin 695 or 795 feeding the MGL setup described. It is completely readable and easy to scan. The suspect the AP capability could finish it out nicely.​
 
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