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SDS EFI in 2019

Ross, I have the Lycoming twin sheave flywheel and your magnets installed for the dual systems. Aerosport drilled the holes, but seemed to be just fine. Not sure I would have tried to drill the holes myself, though.
 
Good.

I recall discussing this with the guys at Aero Sport but didn't hear how that went. Could you email me a photo? There appears there may be 2 different types.
 
Ross,

What's the lead time look like right now on a dual-ECU injection package for a four-cylinder Lycoming? I'm thinking I might go ahead and buy the system before building the engine up so I can integrate it all on there as I go. (and, this way I'll have covers for the magneto and fuel pump holes...)
 
RV-14 Fuel Filter

We're doing a number of RV-14 systems these days and the question has come up several times about using the Van's supplied Andair filter as the SDS pump pre-filter.

Yes, that's fine and we can discount our pre-filter from the kit price if you want to go that route.
 
Injector Boss Mounting, Fuel Hoses, Plug Wires

We've made a slight procedural change when assembling the thread-in injector mounts on Lycoming engines.

Previously we specified using VERY small amounts of red Locktite for the NPT lower body into the cylinder and on the SS 8/32 cap screws holding the top body to the lower ring. If too much was used, it's extremely difficult to ever remove these parts.

We now specify a high temp blue 246 Locktite instead where the quantity is far less important.

The installation manuals have been updated with this change.

We also recommend you use the -3 braided fuel hoses and fittings we supply with the kit. These are lighter and have less fuel volume than -4 which some folks have fitted instead. We always want to keep the mass as low as possible here.

Finally, we've made a new recommendation to ohms check your finished MSD plug wires. These should read 50 ohms per foot of length. Also check these values at each annual.

If you want to change hardware from what is supplied with the kit, it's a good idea to check with us first. We may have some very good reasons for doing or not doing something which might not be obvious to you. Reliability of the fleet is often dependent on following what's been proven in hundreds of thousands of flight hours. Making changes to that recipe can sometimes have unknown consequences.
 
Lead Times

A couple guys called this morning about lead times on the EM-5 systems. At this time of year, we are generally at 7-14 days depending on the ebb and flow of orders received.
 
Magnet Position Setting

In the last couple months we've had a few people call, being unsure of the procedure on setting the magnet offset values for the crank sensor which we call Magnet Position. This applies to CPI, CPI-2 and EM-5.

The most important aspect, which is often not remembered, is that you must know what timing mark you'll use on the flywheel to verify timing and set the Magnet Position value. Most Lycoming flywheels are marked on the back side with 0, 10 and 25 degree BTDC scribes.

If you choose to check timing at 10 BTDC for example, be sure to set 500, 750, 1000 and 1100 rpm timing at 10 BTDC and idle the engine at 750-1000 rpm. If these are set to anything else, it's easy to get confused.

On systems using the dual Hall sensor pickup, we find the settings should be 88 for primary and 97 for backup. Note that starting in late Spring of 2019, all dual Hall sensor cables are marked green for Primary and red for Backup so these can't be easily mixed up. CPI-2s have green and red paint dots on the ECU connector faces denoting Primary and Backup.

Once Magnet Position is verified, you can set RPM ignition timing to whatever values you wish. This is a one-time calibration.

On dual pickup systems (twin cables), you should not have to check timing with a timing light when using the values above, as long as you get the correct cables plugged into the correct ECU. If you mix these up, both ECUs will deliver the wrong timing for the engine.

On single sensor systems (one cable), the Magnet Position value should be around 92.

We recommend on all these systems that you keep the 500 RPM timing value at no more than 10 degrees as this value is used during cranking. The ECUs bring in 15 degrees of retard below 300 rpm so this should result in true cranking timing at about 5 degrees ATDC to avoid kickbacks.
 
Western Canada SDS Installation

We've added a new partner in Canada to do SDS installations in Alberta, Saskatchewan and BC. Harry Jaeger from Caddis Aviation offers mobile service to your plane and can also help with most other maintenance and avionics installation tasks. Great guy, 30 years experience on all types of aircraft. You can find links at the bottom of our Aircraft Page.

We have another recommended shop at Springbank Airport as well who has done multiple SDS installations if you're local.
 
We've added a new partner in Canada to do SDS installations in Alberta, Saskatchewan and BC. Harry Jaeger from Caddis Aviation offers mobile service to your plane and can also help with most other maintenance and avionics installation tasks. Great guy, 30 years experience on all types of aircraft. You can find links at the bottom of our Aircraft Page.

We have another recommended shop at Springbank Airport as well who has done multiple SDS installations if you're local.

I just have to ask.... does Caddis Fly?
 
I was trouble shooting for a customer today who has been flying for about 1 1/2 years with no issues.

In the last couple days he had some rough running and a bit of power loss in cruise, accompanied by a check engine light and O2 error code. Eventually this was showing up in ground running as well.

Turns out that the Lean Warning + Add Fuel window was activated and it appears the O2 sensor or controller was going bad. The ECU will add about 25% more fuel in this case as it detected a lean condition for more than 3 seconds.

This feature is intended for initial tuning only to protect the engine from inadvertent lean running. Once tuning is mostly complete, this window should be switched to Lean Warning only with the Add Fuel part disabled or Lean Warning completely disabled.

Closed loop should be turned off as well so that the O2 sensor input is ignored by the ECU.

It's a good idea to check your settings if you're not sure how these windows are configured.
 
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RV-10 EFI

I was up flying yesterday with my friend Les Kearney in his RV-10, shooting some video to put together a new vid for our YouTube channel next week hopefully. We had lovely glass smooth air with almost no wind and concentrated mainly on the LOP function where the SDS will pull mixture and simultaneously advance spark at the flick of a switch and the individual cylinder trim function.

It was pretty cool seeing the speed recovered by advancing the timing when LOP- about 4-5 knots in this case and the huge reduction in fuel flow going from ROP to LOP- around 40%.

Les has built a very nice airplane with all the latest tech and great panel layout. I'll feature some shots of that.

I'd done some test flying in a -10 back in 2007 with a different engine. This was my first time in one with a 540. Takeoff and climb performance at the cool temps and light weight we were at was impressive. Got to see the G3X panel in action too which was way cool.

The lesson was I don't get out enough in other people's airplanes with SDS installed. Thanks Les and I hope to get up with Ralph Inkster in his -6 before the snow really flies here soon to continue that video series.

On the EM-6 front, we received production keypads on Friday, will have enclosures Tuesday from the CNC shop to test fit and I hope to release some preliminary photos of the 1st design in a few more days.

As usual, we are a bit too busy with orders to devote full time to the new projects but they are getting there, just more slowly than I'd like.
 
Hey Ross, I loved that video, makes me glad I purchased SDSEFI for my RV-10. I have a couple of questions that I hope you haven't answered before.

1. I noticed in the video that the O2 setting always hung out at about 10 regardless of afr. Does Les have an O2 sensor hooked up?

2. When you trim a single cylinder does the ECU remember that value so you only have to trim once?


Thanks,

Darin
 
Hey Ross, I loved that video, makes me glad I purchased SDSEFI for my RV-10. I have a couple of questions that I hope you haven't answered before.

1. I noticed in the video that the O2 setting always hung out at about 10 regardless of afr. Does Les have an O2 sensor hooked up?

2. When you trim a single cylinder does the ECU remember that value so you only have to trim once?


Thanks,

Darin

The O2 sensor had taken a dump some time ago. Since most of the tuning was completed, it isn't really needed once you have good EGT targets.

Trim values are held in hard memory like the other values so they stay there until you want to change them. Trim may vary at different throttle angles or rpms but if you tend to cruise at similar rpms, AFRs and WOT, trims should remain very close on every flight.
 
As of Oct. 15, we have switched the intake air temperature sensors we supply with Lycoming kits from 3/8 NPT to 1/8 NPT to save weight and cost and make mounting easier.

Vertical induction 6 cylinder engines and all 320/360/390 engines will have provision to mount these in the throttle body.

Horizontal induction 6 cylinder engines will have that same provision on the next run of throttle bodies.

A revised manual was uploaded to our Aircraft Page today showing the changes.
 
I just uploaded this video of our flight on Saturday. This shows some LOP operation and fuel trimming on the SDS EFI: https://youtu.be/1XdrC8FIcak

Great video showing how that LOP works. Few questions.

1) When you leaned the engine out the EGT numbers switched from temps to a negative number (02, -40) etc. What do those represent? What that switch automatic or user input?

2) Were you making that video were you able to see the AFR at rich then again at LOP?

Thanks.

Charlie
 
Great video showing how that LOP works. Few questions.

1) When you leaned the engine out the EGT numbers switched from temps to a negative number (02, -40) etc. What do those represent? What that switch automatic or user input?

2) Were you making that video were you able to see the AFR at rich then again at LOP?

Thanks.

Charlie

The engine monitor is showing what EGT each cylinder peaked at (indicating near Stoich), what order they peaked and the temperature spread in where they peaked if I understand what you're asking here.

The wideband was inop during this flight unfortunately so we couldn't compare AFR to EGTs.

Les sent me some screenshots a couple days ago and I intend to do another short video showing what happens to TAS, fuel flows and EGTs at various altitudes and power settings. Hopefully get that up next week.
 
The engine monitor is showing what EGT each cylinder peaked at (indicating near Stoich), what order they peaked and the temperature spread in where they peaked if I understand what you're asking here.

The wideband was inop during this flight unfortunately so we couldn't compare AFR to EGTs.
i
Le sent me some screenshots a couple days ago and I intend to do another short video showing what happens to TAS, fuel flows and EGTs at various altitudes and power settings. Hopefully get that up next week.

The numbers in question are the negative numbers where the EGT are (on that EMS). At a point where you reached LOP, the EGT numbers switched to numbers that were between -20 and -40 on each cylinder. What does -20 mean?

As far as the future video, if you can list AFR/MAP/EGT/FF, and IAS(TAS), that would be ideal....

Thanks!!!

Charlie
 
As far as the future video, if you can list AFR/MAP/EGT/FF, and IAS(TAS), that would be ideal....

Thanks!!!

Charlie

We don't have the AFR info but will have the other parameters showing in the screen shots. Will try to get that together some evening next week.
 
Magnet Position Values

In case this was missed on our website:

"We've eliminated the need to set Magnet Position with a timing light on Lycoming engines. For engine using the dual pickup, set Primary ECU Magnet Position to 88 and Backup to 97. For single pickup installations, set it to 92."

Main reasons were to make this an easier install, people didn't like to be close to the whirling prop and many younger guys don't own or have never used a timing light.
 
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2000th Aviation EFI ECU!

Today was a big milestone for us. We shipped our 2000th aviation EFI ECU to a customer already flying with a CPI on his Conti 520. His dual EM-5 is pictured below.



This is very fitting and timely considering 2019 is our 25th year in business manufacturing EFI systems.

We believe that we've supplied more programmable EFI ECUs for Experimental aircraft than all other manufacturers combined. We sold our first aviation unit in 1995. A fair portion have also been supplied for military UAV projects.

We have 3 high time Experimental users with over 2000 hours each on their systems and we estimate the entire fleet has accumulated nearly 700,000 flight hours to date now. We are also proud that SDS is the only EFI system to have won 3 Reno Sport Class Gold Championships.

I want to thank all our wonderful customers who have supported us over the years and made this possible today. We're excited to be working on the 6th generation ECU and programmers which will bring new capabilities and features to this market.
 
Congrats!!

Now when can I get my EM-6? :D

Thanks guys. We're in the middle of new production runs on CPI and EM-5 boards at the moment. Need to get those in process here as they take 3-4 weeks to get loaded and baked usually and that will be slowed down by the holiday season most likely. It's been a good year and these items are running low at the same time.

We've loaded and soldered a few Design1 EM-6 programmers to start getting those out to a few customers next week. Just tweaking software for those and the face plates are in anodizing now. We'll also do a production run of these boards at the automated loading facility along with the CPI and EM-5 boards.

The basic layout of the new round 3 1/8 Design2 programmer is roughed out and that will be next to proceed to production.

Once all that's in process, Barry will get into the meat of the EM-6 ECU design. Realistically, with all this other stuff to do and getting CPIs, CPI-2s, EM-5s and CNC'd parts built and out the door on a daily basis, the EM-6 isn't likely to be released much before the end of 2020. Just too many things to do for our small team to happen much faster. We always want a couple months to do exhaustive testing before we release new stuff and we want to revamp and improve the documentation as well, which is another really time consuming task.
 
Lean Warning Settings

Something that has cropped up a few times recently that has confused some aviation customers using wideband O2 sensors hooked to the grey wire for AFR display into the programmer- When they are leaning, suddenly the AFR goes very rich and they get an O2 Error.

There are a couple settings in the programmer- Lean Warning and Lean Warning + Add Fuel. When the latter is turned on, the ECU automatically adds about 25% more fuel when it detects the AFR going leaner than 14 to 1 for more than a few seconds to protect the engine.

In aircraft applications where you'll be running near or lean of peak, these settings should probably be turned off to avoid both the warning and especially having the ECU intervene.

Hope this helps some folks who are wondering what is happening here.
 
December

We've received a lot of CPI-2 and EM-5 orders this week, so much so that we're fully booked on these items until the end of 2019. Thanks to the many folks here on VAF for their orders. We really do appreciate it. It's been our best year since 2006 and we're plowing a lot of that capital back into developing the new EM-6 items and projects like the Rotax 912 kits for introduction in 2020.

As far as billet parts go, we have pretty good stock on intake flange kits and PV valve covers currently. A bunch more flywheels should be off the lathe by tomorrow. We can still fulfill orders for these items this month.
 
Rev Limiting

I've heard of a few prop governor problems over the last year or so. In the case of over rev protection, SDS CPI, CPI-2 and EM-5 can all be set to limit maximum rpm. We recommend you set the limit to around 100 over the max you want the engine to go.

On CPI and CPI-2, the window is called Rev Limit or Limiter.

On EM-5s, it's called Fuel Cut/RPM.
 
Manual Updates

A few days ago I uploaded some revised manuals which have updated information on the new Design1 programmers. See the Aircraft Page under Documentation.

Production is booked up through the first part of January now. Thank you very much to all those who ordered SDS products in 2019!
 
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