Hi Scott,
There is communication between Dynon and people at Van's just about weekly. I am not aware of any information Dynon would tell you they need about the equipment that they designed and sell.
The people at Dynon have on several occasions, including one recently, said that it is also frustrating for them to not have access to the wiring diagrams or information on the RV-12 as it would make it much simpler for them to help Van's customers with Dynon related issues if they could understand the RV-12 wiring as it may do what is required but it is not done the way Dynon indicates in their installation manual, this is not to say that Van's wireing is not correct it is just done differently and just like our local avionics professionals they could be a lot more help if they had correct information. As of the last time I talked to Dynon, Van's was still not willing to share any of this information with Dynon and Van's is still not providing it to its customers so that we can get and pay for local professional avionics assistance when we get into problems like the 5.4 Dynon upgrade (which was not a Van's issue).
Also,( trying to be as diplomatic as I can so I wont quote any specifics) I happen to know that Tech. Support people have gone to great lengths in the past to help you resolve problems that in the end were found to be construction errors. I am not sure what more a company can do short of putting someone on a plane and sending them to your shop to trouble shoot it for you.
Yes that was an issue that can be looked at as a glass half full or half empty. You have been diplomatic here and I will try to be also. Yes I installed a pre-built cable incorrectly as it was possible to plug it in the wrong way just as easy as it was the right way. It was sad that it took over two weeks, and I had elevate the issue to the General Manager who got access to the wireing diagram and we sorted it out in a short time on the phone, his and Van's help was greatly appreciated. The other view might be that it is the norm to design cables with connectors so that it can only go one way and when this is not possible to mark them clearly or at least provide the wireing diagram so that when ringing out the wires it would soon become obvious.
Not to be beating a dead horse; but the "what more a company can do" is to do like all other aircraft production companies and provide wireing diagrams for the aircraft. From about the time the first customer RV-12 flew most of Van's customers on this list have ask for this wireing information and it has been Van's position that they will not provide it, we have been told that it is because of one person who thinks it will just make it easy for us to make changes to his design and that it is proprietary.
Please remember that as soon as the FAA/DAR signs the certificate these fine RV-12's become
Experimental Light Sport Aircraft and just like all of the other fine RV aircraft models the owner is free to make changes and in some cases improvements. It is not a mortal sin to want to make a change such as adding wired in Bose headsets or adding a tail strobe just like Van himself did on his.
I leave it to you, are each of Van's customers required to have sufficient electronics knowledge to be able to revers engineer the wireing on the RV-12 or do we and our avionics maintenance providers need wireing diagrams to be able to sort out issues or our mistakes?
Best regards,
Vern