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CPI Installation Show and Tell

Oshkosh

I won't be at Oshkosh this year as we have work still to be finished before month end.

You will be able to look at some of our CNC'd parts, EM-5 dual ECU and CPI at Aero Sport Power's booth (#241).

Adam Pontious will be in the homebuilt camping area with his Rocket N584JH (nice silver with flame paint job). He has the CPI on this plane and will be flying in from Mojave. If you can meet up with him, he can give you his impressions of the CPI.
 
I won't be at Oshkosh this year as we have work still to be finished before month end.

You will be able to look at some of our CNC'd parts, EM-5 dual ECU and CPI at Aero Sport Power's booth (#241).

Adam Pontious will be in the homebuilt camping area with his Rocket N584JH (nice silver with flame paint job). He has the CPI on this plane and will be flying in from Mojave. If you can meet up with him, he can give you his impressions of the CPI.

Sorry to hear your not going. I will try to find Adam.
 
CPI Coil Pack Mounting

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Here's a recent photo of a firewall mounting of the CPI coil pack on Neil McLaren's RV6 with Aero Sport 375 engine. This is another mounting option to the magneto positions or mounting on the top, rear of the case.
 
Ralph Inkster is doing another CPI install on an RV this week. Here's a few photos of how he did this one:



Crank sensor, mount and cable shield detail



Top coil mount avoids penetrating baffling with plug wires



The CPI mounted on a hinged plate, shown in the retracted position



Extended position for viewing and programming
 
Another batch of CPI PCBs is shipping today from the loading facility. We should see them Tuesday and be able to start filling orders again, mid week or so.
 
NEw CPi installation

I took this picture today just before shut down after my first flight with the new SDS CPi electronic ignition. Obviously with no room in the panel for the CPI display module I felt that its current location right under the switch panel for the VP-200 would be the best and most convenient place.
For now it is permanently mounted but I will eventually make a hinged attachment similar to the one shown above so that it will swing up under and out of the way.

For the first flight the advance curve was set up to closely mimic a magneto, consequently it performed similarly. I have receiver an advance curve from Mike Robinson so between it and one suggested in the manual I have a good baseline from which to begin setting up my own advance/retard curve suitable for the RV-10.
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Back-up battery

Thanks for posting Ivan. Nice panel.

Thanks Ross, I really enjoy these EFIS screens they are GRT 8.4" HXr on the left (PFD) and a HX (MFD) on the right with an Avidyne IFD440 as the main navigator coupled through the HXr EFIS to a TruTrac A/P. Note the LOP switch (not yet labeled) located just below the bottom LH corner of the PFD.
 
Back-up Battery

When I ordered my engine from Aerosport back in 2009 I decided that I would get it with one electronic ignition (LightSpeed EI) and one Mag. I have flown this set up for almost 1100 hours but the Mag has failed twice during this time.

A few months ago I decided to put in brand "X" EI but that didn't turn out too well so back to the Mag I went until about 3 weeks ago when I purchased the SDS CPi from Racetech.

Installing a second EI necessitated the installation of a Back-Up battery for the sole purpose of powering the new EI should pwr from the main bus fail. This task was accomplished several months ago when brand "X" was installed.

The picture below shows the installed location of a 3ah TCW Integrated Battery Back-up System (IBBS) which will automatically and seamlessly switch to provide power to the CPi should the main bus fail. The IIBS was easyly adapted to the CPi.

Details on this great system can be found here http://www.tcwtech.com/ibbs_integrated_backup_battery_system_3ah_6ah.html

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Mag-less

Hi Ivan,

Good Job ,
I am really enjoying the whole no mag story. One of the biggest gains in going with Dual CPI appears to be 'Cost of Operation' over time.

I'll be doing my annual when I return home from Canada and the only maintenance my ignition will require is a simple Aux battery test and replace the $4.00 spark plugs.
The labour content alone if I had to pay for it is significant.
-no Mag drives to inspect (mine had a spinning bearing )
-no timing to check
-no points to adjust

Did you also install the Dual Crank sensor ?
Are you planning to replace the Lightspeed at a later date ?

Mag failures in 1000 hrs seems to be the average of what I read about. (two is unlucky )
Do you mind sharing what happened to the Mags ?

Cheers,
 
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New Vid

Ralph and I ran an RV with a CPI installed this morning and shot some photos/ video to show the basics of setting the Magnet Position value and getting the timing correct.

I could not shoot with a tripod due to the prop blast so one part is a bit fuzzy but hopefully people will see the basics and find it helpful.

We'll do another more detailed video on Ralph's other plane later this month with the EM-5, which is set the same way as the CPI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-7K-GA35f4&feature=youtu.be
 
Mag failures.

Hi Ivan,

Did you also install the Dual Crank sensor ?
I did not install a Dual Crank sensor, a decision I am sure I will regret should I decide to replace the LS EI with a second SDS CPI.

Are you planning to replace the Lightspeed at a later date ?
At this point I do not plan to replace the LghtSpeed as it is working perfectly.
Mag failures in 1000 hrs seems to be the average of what I read about. (two is unlucky )

So the first failure was at 671 hours on a return flight from Oshkosh. I didn't even realize that the mag had failed until two days later when I went to do the mag check before flight. The second failure came only 351 hour later on the new Mag.

Do you mind sharing what happened to the Mags ?
Cheers,

The first one I believe an oil seal failed as it was full of oil. I don't know any more as it was turned in for a core credit and replace with a new one.

The second one had a coil fail plus it needed points and a cam.
 
More Data

Ivan just completed a 1574NM flight and sent me this note:

"Just returned from my trip to Red Lake in NW'ern Ontario. The CPI performed perfectly, I did an in-flight EI check (aka a mag check) while running LOP and found a very small RPM drop and a bare perceptible note change in the engine when the LS was turned off.

Interestingly enough I found a very slight roughness in the engine when the CPI was turned off. However, in fairness I will have to say the the difference between the two EI's is very little.

As far as speed gain is concerned I may have gotten one or two kts. If I had changed from two mags then I might have seen a bigger gain but that was not what I was looking for nor did I expect it. The real gain here is, in my view, the reliability and a smooth running engine and I got both with the CPI.

So far I am very happy with this new addition to my RV-10."





Pretty good numbers. Note that Ivan is using one Lightspeed and one CPI.
 
Received my CPI ignition system including a flywheel (genuine work of art) along with the induction tube O ring flange kit from Ross today. Very impressed with the quality of parts and the service/communication from Ross and his company.
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New Keypad Colors

We were starting to get low on CPI keypads so put in another order with our vendor early in the month. We took the opportunity to change the green graphics to more neutral colors on this batch based on the feedback we received from aviation users.

Hopefully these will be available in early Nov.

We intend to continue selling the original CPI to people who don't need or want the new features in the CPI2. It's simple, light and less expensive.

We'll still have some green ones on hand for a while if you must have green. :)
 
We received the new keypads today:



It looks a bit blue in this photo. The background is actually black. I shot it against 5 different backgrounds and the colors all seemed off a bit. Anyway the green is gone for those who want something that doesn't stand out as much.
 
We received the new keypads today:



It looks a bit blue in this photo. The background is actually black. I shot it against 5 different backgrounds and the colors all seemed off a bit. Anyway the green is gone for those who want something that doesn't stand out as much.

Any chance you are going to come up with any black faces for the EM-5 Programmer display?
 
Any chance you are going to come up with any black faces for the EM-5 Programmer display?

Not until we start to run low on the present ones. I just wrote checks for $5k to the vendor for these, CPI-2 and regular automotive keypads. We have enough EM-5 aircraft keypads to last us into the EM-6 era most likely.
 
Spot the CPI



The new color choice blends in much better with the typical panel colors.

This is a nice install by Paul Dannebrock.

Yes, you can still get the green face if you simply can't live with this. ;)
 
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