Engine Monitor working!

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alioth
Senior Airman
Posts: 161
Joined: 01 Feb 2017, 17:05

Engine Monitor working!

Post by alioth »

Hi,

Im Arturo, from Spain.
Im building a home cockpit around this wonderful plane.
All the instruments are analoge ( some real ones(bendix king hsi!!), some from and old ast 300 simulator). All working with Arduino.

But for engine, I prefer a digital engine monitor. I have made a VM1000C with air manager software, and arduino buttons.

It is 95% function to function like the real one.
I managed to find all the Lvars to have it working. There is a carburator air temperature. I didn't touch the heat carburator level in the vid ( I forgot) but is fully working :)

Ok.. There is only one Lvar to CHT and EGT temperatures. I change the value of the rest cylinders comparing the healthy of each cylinder. Bad condition-> hotter. Not perfect, but It has a little sense.
Please, please, please. I would be so happy to have the 6 six cylinder temperatures in lvars.... please :roll:

Here it is the vid.

Sorry, sorry, sorry, for my very poor english...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgtQET18R8U[/youtube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgtQET18R8U

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Nick - A2A
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Joined: 06 Jun 2014, 13:06
Location: UK

Re: Engine Monitor working!

Post by Nick - A2A »

Hi Arturo - welcome to the forums!

What a great project - and good thinking using the cylinder "cond" variable to try and infer the operating temperatures. :) We've discussed digital engine monitors on the forums before, including how the lack of L:Vars for the individual CHTs and EGTs within the current generation of Accu-Sim software seems to be a bit of an obstacle.

However, I'm still hopeful that A2A will introduce some sort of built in engine monitor in one of their products in future, for those of us who aren't up to building our own!

Cheers,
Nick

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Scott - A2A
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Re: Engine Monitor working!

Post by Scott - A2A »

Arturo,

Doing an engine monitor is on our radar screen. But if this is done, it has to be done right. I've flown about 600 hrs with an excellent JPI engine monitor so I know the behavior really well.

Scott.
A2A Simulations Inc.

Dogsbody55
Senior Master Sergeant
Posts: 1835
Joined: 26 Aug 2013, 22:03
Location: Perth, W. Aust

Re: Engine Monitor working!

Post by Dogsbody55 »

Scott - A2A wrote:Arturo,

Doing an engine monitor is on our radar screen. But if this is done, it has to be done right. I've flown about 600 hrs with an excellent JPI engine monitor so I know the behavior really well.

Scott.
Excellent news :D . Is this likely to be retrofitted to any of he current A2A lineup?? If so, Comanche first, please. My "most flown" plane!!!


Cheers,
Mike
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alioth
Senior Airman
Posts: 161
Joined: 01 Feb 2017, 17:05

Re: Engine Monitor working!

Post by alioth »

Thanks for the comments.

Nick, I knew about this thread. I have registered now but I have read a lot :)

Scott, you are right. I think I have choose a bad subject title.

Months ago, I started to build a lancair cockpit based in realair lancair.
I have analogue airspeed, horiz, altimeter, turn coordinador, hsi, vsi, vor2, rmi. All fully working with the lancair.
Engine gauges are made with this Vision Microsystems engine monitor. When I found the real vm1000c manual, I saw that it doesnt modeled lot of functions, and that egt/cht (five of the six) were ornament.
Then I have discovered A2A. This is a complete different history. And I started to remake everything to work with the comanche.
It is going to be much harder to build the home cockpit, but it will worth the effort. Im in love with the comanche.

As I dont have analogue gauges for engine ( I have them for a bimotor... I think this gauges are waiting in a box for a seminole... :roll: ) I thought to use the programming I had made with the vm1000c and use the engine monitor here.

I have studied the original manual, and incorporate functions weren't present in the realairlancair:
-%HP
-Cyl select
-Autotrack. You are in curise, active autotrack, and it will blink if a parameter oscillate a certain amount.
-Carburator air temperatute.
-Fuel menu. And I add the posibility to add fuel without touch the mouse.
-Lean. It works. You start to lean, and egt rises. When there is the peak, a cylinder blinks and show the diference temperaute from the peak. I will record a vid with this one.


BUT, BUT, BUT.... the most important function in an engine monitor is to know whats is happening with each cylinder. It cant be done for now, with de lvars we have. And, as I didn't want to be five ornament parameters, I thought to link this temperatures with the cylinder condition. When a cylinder health is bad, this cylinder became hotter than the rest. It is a way to not always see the same patron in the display, and it helps you to know what is happening with the cylinders.

But I know, for now, this instrument is more like a.... digital engine gauges in a display, and not exactly an "engine monitor".
In the future, If we are lucky and those lvars become public, I will update the gauge.

6 months ago, I knew practically nothing about electronics, and nothing at all about arduino, C or Lua programming.. So Im studying a lot to get these instruments working.

Thanks!
Arturo.

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