Call Us: 555-555-1234

 

GX - MFT Primary - Coming Soon

 

Insight’s new Electronic Tach won’t let you down.

 

It still works when the power quits!GX

This crucial instrument works even when the power fails. It’s amazing. Energy harvesting provides the emergency power. 

Unlike battery backups with limited duration and poor reliability, this system delivers power indefinitely as long as the engine is turning.

It replaces two instruments, making room for Insight’s best big screen engine monitor the G4. It’s a great combination.

 

 

Sophisticated Electrical Analysis

Most airplanes have only the simplest instruments for monitoring the electrical system. They do little to fore warn of impending failures that often leave us in the dark.

The new Insight Electrical System Analyzer offers unparalleled capabilities in flight and on the ground for monitoring, diagnosing, and trouble-shooting your electrical system. In flight it will warn of system weaknesses and pending problems that used to go unnoticed. Its keeps track of battery, starter, and alternator performance on every flight for easy trend analysis.

The all-important alternator is monitored with special measurement hardware and specifically designed algorithms so the slightest flaw won’t be missed. Even a single diode failure will be reported immediately regardless of the load. It will even identify loose or corroded connections, the cause of many hard to find problems. It automatically logs a wealth of information on an SD card for post flight diagnosis.

It’s sophisticated, full automatic and easy to use.

Bringing a whole new level of safety to single engine aviation, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it.

 All new Insight innovations are patented this one is pending.

TMF    Tach, Manifold Pressure, Fuel Flow

TMF is a new instrument that replaces two instruments to free up panel space but also incorporates a new instrument to perform electrical system analysis.

The tachometer, manifold pressure, and fuel flow instruments will be certified as primary replacement instruments.  They must be configurable to match instrument markings for any airplane. The LCD display 240 x 320 is oriented in portrait mode.  The screen is thus 240 pixels wide. The TMF part of the display occupies the top 240 lines utilizing a 240 x 240 area. The remaining 80 lines are used by the Electrical Analyzer using a 240 x 80 area. The Electrical Analyzer will utilize additional screens. The instrument will use an SD card to log information and update the code.  In order to remain functional in the event of electrical failure the instrument will harvest excess energy from each magneto.

 

Primary Display Screen

The primary screen has a central arc with line scales.

The tach is on the arc and occupies about 300 degrees.

It will vary in configuration depending on the airplane.

It may have green, yellow, and redline markings. RPM is displayed in analog form via a pointer on the arc shaped scale and numerically below the arc.

The arc will have hash marks to better replicate the look and feel of the original instrument.

Rotation speed will be determined by period measurement of both P-lead signals from both magnetos.

A signal from either should provide RPM indications.

During pre-flight run-up with RPM between 1500 -2000 the instrument will record and log “mag drop”.

It will display drop with L & R annunciation for a moment and then erase it.

 

Manifold pressure

The left side displays manifold pressure. Manifold pressure will display 0-31 inches of mercury pressure or more for (0-42) for turbocharged engines.

It will typically be all green for non-turbo charged engines and will have redline for turbo-charged engines. Manifold pressure will displayed in both digital and analog form. The instrument will have a built in pressure transducer just like the G instruments.

 

Fuel Flow

The right side displays fuel flow. The analog presentation may have green, yellow and redlines as well as altitude mixture guidelines depending on the airplane. A digital flow indication is also provided. It will get fuel information just like the G series. Full function totalizer capability may be available on another screen.

 

Fuel Pressure

Some airplanes have fuel pressure indication instead of a fuel flow. We can mimic that too.

 

Electrical Analyzer

The electrical analyzer functionality is partially available on the bottom of the screen with other functions available on other screens.

This instrument utilizes various voltage, current and temperature readings to diagnose the electrical system, battery, and charging system.

A unique ring terminal temperature and voltage probe is used to measure the battery, alternator, starter, and standby generator.

The avionics bus is measured while critical high current devices like pitot heat, hot prop, or heated windshield may be measured too.

 

Battery Analysis

A unique form of battery analysis is provided. It is intended to maximize battery life and system reliability. A simple electrical model of a battery is a voltage source with a series resistance. This resistance is a combination of several sources.

Some is pure physical connection resistance and some is attributable to electro-chemical effects. As the battery ages and performance decreases this series resistance increases limiting the ultimate current capability and reducing the battery voltage under load. Sometimes degradation is attributable to plates exposed to air by low acid level. Low acid level is often attributable to overvoltage charging, which raises the battery temperature “boiling off” liquid.

Excessive battery charge/discharge cycles can also raise temperatures. This system measures battery temperature at both terminals, charge voltage and charge current. Battery voltage and current can be used to calculate battery impedance at the current load current but the best indication might be had during the heavy load of engine start. The system should log all the pertinent data during engine start for use later.

One battery performance screen will be composed of numerous start events from previous flights. It will include battery impedance, temperature, voltage drop, start time and start current. The user should be able to see any degradation in performance but not be confused the increased load of cold weather starts.

Each start event may be reduced to a single point on the graph. But the user should be able to expand any single stat event to examine it in detail.

This chart could ultimately utilize data from engine starts from hundreds of flights.

The user could keep an eye on battery performance and replace it when truly necessary.

 

Circuit Integrity

Wiring problems in the aircraft electrical system are widespread and difficult to diagnose. Poor connections are often intermittent and may only fail in flight or under adverse loads or poor conditions. By probing key locations system integrity may be diagnosed and reliability assured.

Wiring problems that exhibit as performance problems are often erroneously attributed to the battery which is often replaced prematurely.

Charging system trouble is often caused by wiring issues like engine block ground but usually discovered only after the alternator has been needlessly replaced. Another screen in form of a simple schematic may be presented to diagnose wiring problems.

Charging System Diagnosis

The alternator is an essential element in a modern airplane. Expected to reliably deliver 60-100 amps to keep the electrical system functioning.  It also determines the bus voltage and battery charging voltage both of which are critical. The system will display bus voltage and keep track of regulation under change in load. The alternator is a three phase wye connected AC generator that delivers DC by rectification. Six diodes deliver a full wave rectified DC.

The low impedance of the battery smoothes ripple current to DC. A common alternator failure mode is the loss of one or more diodes. This results in a direct reduction of charge capacity that is easily overlooked and difficult to detect. The voltage regulator will just drive the alternator with higher current to make up the loss. The ultimate maximum capacity is limited. While the ripple voltage across the battery is slightly increased it may not be noticed. If the diode failure is intermittent it is even more difficult to detect. One certain indication of diode failure is an increase in ripple current.

The normal aircraft is not equipped to measure ripple current. This instrument will measure both AC and DC current with a Hall Sensor or Current Shunt.  The ripple current will naturally increase with load current. By including both load and ripple current in a calculation we can detect alternator diode failures.

GX

Top