SDS EFI in 2022

rv6ejguy · #1 01-22-2022, 02:04 PM

We finally received some of our ECU boards from the loading facility on Friday, after waiting almost 60 days so we will be getting ECUs shipped out to those who have the rest of their kits already.

This should also speed up delivery on all the orders we have in hand by allowing us to get back to our regular production procedures without the piecemeal procedure we have been using for a bunch of weeks now.

The order backlog still stands at 75-90 days.

We've had a few supply issues and have had to switch from MSD plug wire components to Taylor as the MSD wire simply dried up in Dec. Couldn't buy it anywhere. We hope to have a bunch more sometime in Feb. At least that's what they tell us.

Thanks for your patience.

rv6ejguy · #2 03-04-2022, 10:13 PM

We're still backlogged about 90 days, new orders replace the ones we ship out. Thanks to all the RV guys ordering.

Some parts shortages haven't helped here. We've stockpiled Micros, displays, magnets and fittings lately trying to stay ahead of this problem.

Work on the EM-6 is progressing. Barry is laying out the board for the SD card interface and preliminary software is working. We should progress from a breadboard to a proto board later this month to continue with interfacing tests.

With what we learn there, Barry can finally start the ECU board design and finish off the rest of the new code. Getting excited to see this in production this year.

rv6ejguy · #3 03-24-2022, 10:37 AM

Had a setback related to chip availability for the new SD board. Went from 35,000 to zero in a day so had to re-design for a different one. You never know in this business these days which is why we stockpiled other critical micros some time ago.

Billet aluminum prices continues to climb alarmingly, seeing sometimes 30% increases in the last 90 days. This doesn't affect small part prices too much but does on larger items like flywheels and rockers covers. As we exhaust our present supplies, subsequently machined parts like these will see price increases unfortunately.

On the positive side, we built a new wire stripping tool and support tower for production of Tefzel wiring harness. Wiring production has been sped up by that and especially by training another member of the team here to help build these. As such, we hope to get our lead times back down to below 30 days by the end of April as wiring production was our biggest bottleneck most of the time.

We've switched a lot of our anodizing to another shop now which is usually delivering parts in 2-3 days rather than 10-14 previously.

Our CNC shops are generally keeping up with demand these days too which makes life easier.

Testing continues on the SD proto board and that seems to be progressing well.

Electrogunner · #4 03-25-2022, 06:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rv6ejguy

Had a setbacks related to chip availability for the new SD board. Went from 35,000 to zero in a day so had to re-design for a different one. You never know in this business these days which is why we stockpiled other critical micros some time ago.

Billet aluminum prices continues to climb alarmingly, seeing sometimes 30% increases in the last 90 days. This doesn't affect small part prices too much but does on larger items like flywheels and rockers covers. As we exhaust our present supplies, subsequently machined parts like these will see price increases unfortunately.

On the positive side, we built a new wire stripping tool and support tower for production of Tefzel wiring harness. Wiring production has been sped up by that and especially by training another member of the team here to help build these. As such, we hope to get our lead times back down to below 30 days by the end of April as wiring production was our biggest bottleneck most of the time.

We've switched a lot of our anodizing to another shop now which is usually delivering parts in 2-3 days rather than 10-14 previously.

Our CNC shops are generally keeping up with demand these days too which makes life easier.

Testing continues on the SD proto board and that seems to be progressing well.

Thanks for the update Ross. I’ll be expecting my system soon.

rv6ejguy · #5 04-27-2022, 08:46 AM

Still working on SD card software but it continues to slowly come together. This is the most time consuming part of the whole EM-6 project.

Delays in receiving aluminum billet have slowed production on rocker covers and flywheels but more are finally machining this week.

Good news is that we've cut our system lead times from around 90 days to 60 now, mainly due to having another person here building main wiring harnesses.

I haven't done any videos for about 6 months (limited time with other projects going on) but was up to Edmonton with Les last weekend assisting some other RV guys with first engine starts and tuning. Will try to put something together out of the footage I shot on that trip when I get some time in May.

agent4573 · #6 04-27-2022, 04:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rv6ejguy

I haven't done any videos for about 6 months (limited time with other projects going on) but was up to Edmonton with Les last weekend assisting some other RV guys with first engine starts and tuning. Will try to put something together out of the footage I shot on that trip when I get some time in May.

Now that's an option that needs to be advertised on the website.

rv6ejguy · #7 04-28-2022, 08:54 AM

Not something I can normally do. In this case, Les offered and it was a great reason not to be in the office that day.

rv6ejguy · #8 05-12-2022, 04:37 PM

Here's the promised video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi0asWF0uuo

Please forgive some of my lazy editing here.

Systems for RV-10s continue to be our best selling. We are always working on building some of these throughout the year on a continuous basis.

Just a note on Les' airplane, the TAS reads about 3-4 knots low in cruise he discovered when doing some checks.

airguy · #9 05-12-2022, 09:19 PM

Any updates on the EM-6 and closed loop operation? I am enjoying flying at high altitude and actually being able to watch my mixture change as the fuel cools off (98F on the ramp this afternoon, 25F in cruise) and the density goes up, which pushes the mixture rich and I make an adjustment.

Closed loop with an AFR target sure would be nice....

rv6ejguy · #10 05-12-2022, 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by airguy

Any updates on the EM-6 and closed loop operation? I am enjoying flying at high altitude and actually being able to watch my mixture change as the fuel cools off (98F on the ramp this afternoon, 25F in cruise) and the density goes up, which pushes the mixture rich and I make an adjustment.

Closed loop with an AFR target sure would be nice....

We're still working on the SD card code. It's been very time consuming but looks like the end is sight on that (or is it?!! ). Finishing off the time stamp part this week. Hope to move onto the auto mixture control code near the end of this month. That should be a much shorter task as we did something similar back in 2007, flight tested on an RV-10 in Florida when I was down there. That worked incredibly well but only targeted one AFR for all load/ RPM ranges.

A couple more small wish list things which should be one day projects and then I am hoping a Barry will spit out a proto ECU board around the end of June. You can never tell how progress will go on these things though and R&D time is still being crushed a bit by the never ending order backlog.

We are trying our best to keep up and get EM-6 done, tested and in production before the end of this year. We'll draw out lead times if we have to to accomplish this goal. It MUST get done.