10/22 Start of Conversion

We decided to document the changes in upgrading from a classic 6 pack analog instrument cluster to a Dynon EFIS (Electronic Flight Information System ) and a Dynon EMS (Engine Monitoring System) (see www.dynonavionics.com) at the same time we upgrade all of the electrical system to use the new Vertical Power VP-100 electrical control system. See www.verticalpower.com for info about their system. This basically means we will be gutting our panel and electrical system for a complete retrofit to a more modern glass cockpit and electrical system.

The picture below shows our current RV-4 panel before the start of upgrade. It consists of a standard 6 pack, Trio AP, various analog engine gauges, Fuel flow computer, Dayton density altitude computer and breaker switches.
A radio, transponder and intercom are located on a subpanel underneath the main panel.















The picture below shows the left side of the aircraft in front of the instrument panel.















The picture below shows the right side of the aircraft in front of the instrument panel.
You can see its real packed and lots of wiring everywhere.















The original plan was to put the Dynon EFIS-D10A in the top center part of the six pack. Upon measuring the room, we found out that the Dynon will overlap both of the instruments to the left and the right. The Dynon EFIS-10a is 4.09 in wide.

We decided to remove the turn coordinator and the vertical airspeed indicators and move the airspeed and altimeters down to the lower six pack.
















The picture below shows the panel with the Dynon EFIS mounted and the airspeed and altimeter relocated. The Dynon EFIS is powered off a temporary connector because we didn't want to do the final sizing on the wiring until the VP-100 system is installed. It only takes 2 wires to run the EFIS, a power and a ground. A third keep-alive power wire will keep the clock set to the correct time.














In programming the EFIS, we found out that we have the version 2.19 firmware installed. Dynon just released the version 4.0 firmware on Oct 15th. To upgrade to the latest firmware, we are going to have to install 3 more wires in our temporary connector to connect to a 9 pin sub D serial connector so we can download the version 4.0 firmware from a laptop PC. We want to upgrade to version 4 because it enables the Dynon smart avionics bus so we can easily show different screens between our EFIS and EMS monitors.