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SDS EFI in 2018

We have some new ones from other users we think have some good ideas behind them and fit with our experience of keeping things simple and understandable. I think a fellow RV10 builder has already shared his design with you and I should have a revised copy of that to share soon.

I saw an early preliminary design. It really wasn't applicable to my setup which will incorporate VPX and have dual alternators and batteries. I've come up with a what I think is a good design but am trying to get it onto a decent CAD format so that I can ask for a critique.
 
Fuel Flow Measurement

We get the question about fuel flow transducers when using our EFI fairly frequently.

If you order the FF option, you can negate the old Red Cube or FloScan mechanical transducers entirely.

We just have a one wire hookup directly out of the ECU to your engine monitor.

Be sure not to use one of the old transducers on the return line from the regulator as the restriction may cause very high fuel pressures which can't be properly regulated.

This old tech stuff is not applicable with EFI any more and you don't need to spend all that money on these parts or the plumbing for them.
 
Wiring Harnesses

A few people have asked if the engine builders have to use the wiring harnesses we supply for the aircraft to run the engines on their test stands or dynos.

Aero Sport has harnesses to run both 4 and 6 cylinder Lycomings. Barrett has harnesses to run 6 cylinder engines at this time that we supplied. This will leave your airframe harnesses intact, without FWF connectors installed, so you can tailor lengths and have easier firewall and bulkhead passage.

The engine builders will use your crank sensors but we supply a second connector with the kits so you can cut the test one off, route and tailor lengths in your airframe, then install the new connector.
 
Ross;
Do you have any SWAG on when you will be ready to start shipping systems with the new computers.
 
At least a year from now. Pretty huge task with the new CPU, display and features to develop software for. We also won't release anything until it's been well tested and flown for some time.
 
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Not officially, but you can learn more at two tech talks:

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=162404

Marvin McGraw will have his award winning RV14 at Osh too and you can ask him about his SDS EFI installation.

I have a list of people that want to see the installation. I plan to remove the cowling one day for those interested PM a phone number.

I am currently waiting out the weather in Waukesha WI. We plan to arrive Sunday midday and stay all week in HBC. The tail number is N829MS
 
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I should hopefully be arriving Friday! I would love to meet up with some other EFI folks to chat it up.

Caleb
 
Really appreciate Marvin and Caleb willing to share their experiences of our EFI with other folks. Two exceptionally nice guys. Thanks!
 
Row 332

For those that PM?d your phone numbers to see an SDS install we did make it in today (Sunday) we are parked in HBC Row 332, N829MS. I will send each of you a text message in the morning to plan a time to get together. I will probably leave the cowling off most of the day Tuesday. I will try to be very available to discuss the install. Ralph Inkster has a forum on SDS around 2:30. I was thinking of walking to the airplane after the forum. If that works for most of you.
Look forward to meeting you.

Marvin
 
Scott Hermance from AeroTech LLC has a display showing an LS conversion with SDS EM-5 system at Booth 716 in the Fly Mart section. You can view some of the hardware and talk to him about the system.
 
Documentation Updates

For those taking a while to install their SDS EFI or CPI systems, be sure to check our website for the latest manual revisions. These reflect improvements made based on customer feedback and other lessons learned.

Most manuals are located near the bottom of the main Aircraft page: http://www.sdsefi.com/aircraft.html

You'll also be seeing some new pages soon which will help to break down and consolidate certain products and information better to make things easier to find.
 
It Slices, it Dices, but Doesn't Julienne (Wire)

This is our new shop toy- an automatic wire cutter/ stripper.



About 25 times quicker than hand stripping. When you make hundreds of wiring harnesses per year it can get pretty tedious. This will help speed up production usefully.

It also straightens the wire coming off the spools, which is currently done by hand.

No more sore fingers at the end of the day. :)
 
Stopped in and chatted with Scott. He, like Ross is an engine guy. Was great to see somebody who obviously was passionate about engines and willing to put the effort into making a really nice demo unit for the show. If I had an airplane that needed that kind of power I'd be giving Scott a call. Like Ross, he comes across as being as honest as the day is long. It was a pleasure chatting with him and seeing the SDS equipment powered up.
 
Stopped in and chatted with Scott. He, like Ross is an engine guy. Was great to see somebody who obviously was passionate about engines and willing to put the effort into making a really nice demo unit for the show. If I had an airplane that needed that kind of power I'd be giving Scott a call. Like Ross, he comes across as being as honest as the day is long. It was a pleasure chatting with him and seeing the SDS equipment powered up.

We've been working with Scott for a couple years and the package has been flying on Ray Watson's Moose for almost that long now. We've also developed some CNC'd parts for other LS engine packages. Might have some application in RV-10s if someone comes up with a really light and reliable gearbox combined with a light composite prop.
 
New Web Pages

Acting on feedback, I spent a few hours today breaking down some page information to make some things easier to find, specifically creating a new page just for our CNC'd billet aircraft parts: http://www.sdsefi.com/sdsaero.htm

Also decided it was time to upload this new page which will be an ongoing informational project with more info, photos and "how to" videos as this local aircraft progresses through running, tuning and flying with an SDS EM-5 install: http://www.sdsefi.com/projectrv6a.htm
 
Any chance on pricing for the angle valve covers? Been watching closely but haven?t heard anything on those for a while.
 
Any chance on pricing for the angle valve covers? Been watching closely but haven?t heard anything on those for a while.

It looks like they will be around $120US ea anodized with no logo. They have been undergoing testing for the last few weeks. First batch is scheduled to run on the mill Aug. 20.
 
We had some vacation and family disruptions for our machinists and part time help here earlier this month but production is back on track now with about 400 parts scheduled to machine before the 3rd week in Sept.

We have had a bit of a post Oshkosh surge in orders as well so we're getting through that backlog over the next 2 weeks hopefully.

Intake flange CT clamps and hose orders should come in this week finally to start filling those order backlogs as well. Have lots of red flanges, not many gold left after a big bulk buy. More flanges will machine Aug. 27th. Our O-ring supplier is now shelf stocking the O-rings in town which will save the usual 2 week waits on those.

CPI2 PCBs will go out for production this week, prototype CPI2 enclosures, and production battery boxes are scheduled to machine Sept. 17th.

Thanks for everyone's orders and patience!
 
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New Vid

Despite some bizarre Windows 10 glitch where I mysteriously lost all audio and the internet connection on my editing PC, I managed to finally finish editing and uploading a new video on drilling the flywheel and magnet mounting which I hope will clarify the process for folks installing SDS CPI and EM-5 ignition systems.

https://youtu.be/v1WQOfWPMp8
 
After some maintenance and parts replacements on one CNC mill last week, our contractors have all 5 machines running again on our long list of parts. We passed 33,000 parts machined cumulatively earlier this month and it looks like we'll hit 35,000 before the end of the year. The intake flanges, valve covers and flywheels really took off this summer along with the regular parts for the EFI systems. Angle valve covers will finally be done Monday but I believe the whole run is already spoken for. We'll get more run in October.

We've got some new Lycoming parts in the wings which should be available in Sept. and Oct. respectively.

A huge percentage of parts production is going to RV guys and I want to thank the RV community very much for that support. RV'ers are a great bunch of people to deal with and I look forward to meeting many of you at Reno who contacted us. Gonna be a great time. :)

On another note, several people have asked if they have to remove the prop and flywheel to install the trigger magnets for the EM-5 EFI and CPI. This job can be done on the engine. You just need to relax the belt and push it back to get the drilling jig in place and vacuum up the chips.

On the RV-6A Lycoming video project, we shot the Part 3 data logging video a few days ago but had a lot of issues rendering it properly due to some frame rate differences in the screen capture software. I blew off 7 frustrating hours over a couple days editing to no avail. We'll try re-shooting this before I head to Reno and getting that up soon.
 
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SDS is #1 in Reno Sport Class-Again

I very am happy to report that SDS EFI was on the Sport Class Gold winner this year and we add that to the first ever EFI Gold win in Sport Class back in 2010.

It couldn't have been a much better weekend for us. It was a clear demonstration of of what we say- "Superior Design= Superior Performance". It's not just a slogan. Andy dominated all the other EFI entries this year with a 400+mph average.

Several teams saw the light and will be switching over to our systems for 2019. This was well worth my trip to Reno to see the victories in person.

I got some good feedback from those using our systems and we'll try to get some new features added for 2019 to help everyone go faster.
 
Outstanding !!

Hey Ross,

Congratulations !

A very satisfying result for all the hard work you and Barry put into the design and execution of your products.

Looking forward to next year .
 
I very am happy to report that SDS EFI was on the Sport Class Gold winner this year and we add that to the first ever EFI Gold win in Sport Class back in 2010.

It couldn't have been a much better weekend for us. It was a clear demonstration of of what we say- "Superior Design= Superior Performance". It's not just a slogan. Andy dominated all the other EFI entries this year with a 400+mph average.

Several teams saw the light and will be switching over to our systems for 2019. This was well worth my trip to Reno to see the victories in person.

I got some good feedback from those using our systems and we'll try to get some new features added for 2019 to help everyone go faster.

That is great news Ross! Congratulations! I'm so happy to be on your bandwagon and running your system once my 10 is flying. :)
 
Ross, Nice meeting and chatting with you at Reno this year. Looking forward to the next advancements!


Caleb
 
Just to let folks know, we have roughly a 2 week order backlog on full systems at the moment, the result of the Fall downtime for airplanes, Reno sales and an upcoming UAV order.

CPIs can usually get done in 2-3 days.

Valve covers and flywheels about 3-10 days depending on anodizing options.

We have lots of intake flanges in hand now but only green hoses for injected engines (black won't arrive until the end of Oct. they tell me now) Ugh. Been on order for 7 weeks now.

Have carb type hoses but no CT clamps to fit these. Looking at 90 days to get some made out of Germany. No stock anywhere in the US or Canada from our usual OEM type sources. I guess we bought them all out.
 
We frequently get the question "can I buy some of the fuel system hardware before the electronics?"

Yes. Quite a few people want to get the fuel pump module and pressure regulator installed while they are building and perhaps have better access. They can also plan and install some of the plumbing for these parts.

We're sold out of pump modules as of today waiting for some more parts to be anodized but we should have those parts by the middle of next week to fill orders again.

Both machine shops are working on hundreds more CNC'd parts due before the end of this month. I hope they will really be caught up by then. It's been a challenge for them to keep up with regular orders as well as some new designs and prototypes. We'll get there.

Thanks to everyone for being patient while we work through backlogs on parts and systems.
 
Our EM-5 backlog is building this week with multiple orders coming in all at once it seems so deliveries are going to stretch out into December now. Thanks to everyone who is purchasing SDS for their RVs and other aircraft.

We've implemented a few changes to try to streamline and increase production of CNC'd parts which has been our bottleneck in 2018. We use 2 small shops owned by friends to do our machining. One machine shop will switch over to SolidWorks CAD in Dec. and each part will have a new drawing/ model done in that program with a PN to go with it. We currently have nearly 100 assemblies and over 200 separate parts, so things needed better organization.

The 2nd shop is adding a new 4 axis mill which will increase production rate on some parts where we can use multi face fixturing.

It's been a good year for us thanks to many new customers and we are plowing about 30% of revenues back into R&D as this is the only way to stay on top in the long term. Most of this will be devoted to EM-6 development in 2019 and we're excited about working more on that project now that the CPI2 is entering the production phase.
 
Just to let present and potential customers know, we've been inundated with orders in the last 2 weeks and full EFI kit production is now sold out into mid to late January 2019. We'll try to ship smaller orders such CNC'd parts and CPIs when we can.

We won't be mailing much between Dec. 15th to Dec. 26th due to the crazy lineups at the post office.

Thank you for all the orders, we'll do our best to fill them as quickly as we can.
 
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