The saga continues …
I got word from Arnav today that indeed, with the current EMM-35 installation, you’ll lose SS output on the Sandel. Their fix will be to run the RS-232 signal straight from the SS to the Sandel instead of having it go through the EMM-35. They didn’t mean the signal to go through the EMM-35 in the first place and in SR20’s it doesn’t. They never tested it in an SR22.
We have saying in the software engineering business which isn’t quite true, but will lead to better results if you pretend it is true, which is “if it hadn’t been tested, it doesn’t work”.
Arnav offered to pay for an avionics shop to fix the problem once they have revised instructions on how to do that.
Since I’ve been getting fairly familar with the SR22’s avionics over the past few weeks, debugging this problem and several others, I tested the change and it worked. It is a fairly simple move of a wire, requiring a few tools including a soldering iron.
If someone is really curious, I can post my instructions. But it would be much better to wait for the official instructions from Arnav.
In all my dealings with Arnav, they’ve been very friendly. However, I think they are small operation and lack a culture of producing a high quality product. I’ve gotten software disks which were blank (“oops, we’ll send the right one out today!”), packages without items the packing list said they had (“oops, …”), and instructions from tech support people which were incorrect. I also had my Arnav die after 10 hours of operation and there is the pin 2/3 swap problem that Steve Lin debugged.
OTOH, I like the display, including the engine monitoring. I like that it displays the Bravo-space limits around where I live. Even with all the hassles I’ve had with the Arnav, I’m glad I have it and I’m glad (gulp) I have the engine monitoring.
If you calculate the money Arnav must be making from selling the ICDS-2000 and the EMM-35, it is a tiny amount and must barely pay for the development. ($13k * 200 units = $2.6m)