Aircraft Automation Autopilot

[Inhot]

I've been reading up on these guys and have watched their videos. Does anyone have any experience with them? Any comments on the concept? Pros/Cons?
"The SuperECO Is the Lightest Autopilot in the World
You can now control the pitch, roll, and yaw of your light-sport or experimental aircraft with a carbon-fiber trim tab autopilot that weighs less than 2.5 pounds or the weight of a couple of water bottles."
https://www.aircraftautomation.com/
https://youtu.be/td3uKa1Ey0g?si=uz7e1bbee4Lngiqw
https://youtu.be/7WRhe7RsQGE?si=cJ3ZchMDFeP3FyxA

 

[Cth6]

Levil

Looks like Levil spun off their autopilot into a different company. I believe they had it installed on their RV-9A at sun n fun.

 

[Inhot]

Levil and Aircraft Automation are "sister" companies:

This is from Aircraft Automations website:

"Who Is Behind Aircraft Automation?
We are a family-owned, Central Florida-based company established in 2018 dedicated to designing and manufacturing aviation instrumentation that follows the footsteps of Levil Aviation, our sister company.

We noticed that new technologies had been widely used in motor vehicles for many years, but aviation was left far behind. That is why we created Aircraft Automation, to vastly improve cockpit automation.

The two brothers, Ruben Leon from Levil Aviation and Carlos Leon from Aircraft Automation, joined forces in this automation enterprise with a dream. This dream will not stop until we turn your cockpit automation goals into reality without compromising weight, safety, and reliability. There is no limit to what can be invented; it never ends".

Does anybody have any thoughts about this technology?

 

[PhatRV]

I guess it has merits. The whole autopilot is based on controlling the trim tabs mounted on the elevator and on the ailerons, instead of the traditional autopilot motors that are mounted directly to the control torque rods or the control wheels.

The traditional autopilot motors are heavier because they have to impart more torque to move the actual aircraft control surfaces. The Levi system only moves the aftermarket trim tabs which then move the control surfaces.

One difference to the normal trim motor is this system uses the RC servo motors which are lightweight by themselves and they won't stay set unless there is a constant source of voltage, 5-6V ? It doesn't take a lot of torque to move the trim tabs so I suppose the RC servo will suffice. If you lose electrical power, then the servo motor won't control anything. The concern I have is if you lose power, the trim tabs can flap around and cause flutter. Without electrical power, there is nothing to lock the trim tabs in place. I don't know. In the traditional heavier autopilot motor setup, if you lose electrical power or autopilot is disabled, the stability of the control surfaces is maintained by the aircraft design