L

leonc

Member
let me say first i am not a pilot but want to be. the problem is naturally money. especially since the economy took a dip. i do however own a set of rv-3 preview plans.

so this has been bopping about in my mind for the past few months. the efis units all have a brain box and a screen. radios take up huge space. shouldn't it be possible to build a box that is out of the way and maybe have the knobs on the side by the arm rest. the screen could either be integrated with your efis or be a separate screen.
in my minds eye this would be a super radio with all the nav, comm, transponder, whatever it is called that shows other planes, that ham radio that lets your wife have piece of mind.....
it would also talk to the runway data base and let you set up a frequency queue and flip/flop- monitor. lets see oh yea it would let you listen to xm and have some sort of intercom mix that would set priorities.

oh yea also set up to some sort of standard that the major players like advanced, grt, garmin could all agree to.

i know i'm crazy for wanting this unless someone is already doing it and i missed it but i really do want to build a light 3. i know, redundancy, not all your eggs in one basket thing but i think a powerful one screen cockpit would be cool.

well let me know.
leon
 
You can do this right now with most EFIS systems but only limited such as setting frequencies.
With MGL's next G2 software update you can fully control a MGL radio from the EFIS (i.e. volume, squelch, etc, etc). This is applicable to the current V10 radio, the V6 that should be out early in 2011 as well as the V15 which should follow soon thereafter. The V15 does not have a panel or display and relies only on an external interface for control. The V20 nav radio can only be controlled through the EFIS (or a separate control head).

I read you on the standards issue. The only, "sort of" standard is that used by the SL30 and some ARINC labels. Neither is useful for a fully remote control radio as all of these just concentrate on setting / reading frequencies.
Getting the current EFIS makers to agree on a protocol would require that they talk to each other. They don't. Highly suspicious of each other. Sad state of affairs but true.

Our protocol (for the full remote control) has been in the public domain since the V10 has been available and as expected, nobody but us will use it.

Redundancy is not an issue - if you have two screens or a separate control head (but the later needs panel space of course).

Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics

leonc said:
let me say first i am not a pilot but want to be. the problem is naturally money. especially since the economy took a dip. i do however own a set of rv-3 preview plans.

so this has been bopping about in my mind for the past few months. the efis units all have a brain box and a screen. radios take up huge space. shouldn't it be possible to build a box that is out of the way and maybe have the knobs on the side by the arm rest. the screen could either be integrated with your efis or be a separate screen.
in my minds eye this would be a super radio with all the nav, comm, transponder, whatever it is called that shows other planes, that ham radio that lets your wife have piece of mind.....
it would also talk to the runway data base and let you set up a frequency queue and flip/flop- monitor. lets see oh yea it would let you listen to xm and have some sort of intercom mix that would set priorities.

oh yea also set up to some sort of standard that the major players like advanced, grt, garmin could all agree to.

i know i'm crazy for wanting this unless someone is already doing it and i missed it but i really do want to build a light 3. i know, redundancy, not all your eggs in one basket thing but i think a powerful one screen cockpit would be cool.

well let me know.
leon
Click to expand...
 
The Xcom radio is available with a remote head on it, and I contemplated installing that in a kind of avionics bay alongside the Dynon transponder and a few other bits and pieces, but decided against it in favour of a GNS430.

Having said that, discussions with the designer, Michael Coates, have indicated that although possible, its' over complicating things and you cannot actually turn the radio on and off through the remote head, you need to do so from the main box and then the secondary head comes alive. Probably not an issue if you leave it on all the time and switch power to it through an Avionics master, but something to bear in mind.
 
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