Next Generation G1000

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Colin
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Re: Next Generation G1000

Post by Colin »

Any user interface that requires a pilot to pitch their head down is a failure for me. That's an excellent way to induce spatial disorientation when you are in IMC. I would suggest that those engineers are not experienced instrument pilots.
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Re: Next Generation G1000

Post by reinhardj »

Dave,
I was not thinking about the operator (pilot) interface with the GDUs but about the module rack. I agree, that keeping the proven HMI with the well-known controls is the best way to gain acceptance in the GA and keeping the panel design also saves cost, but the remaining parts of the system really could have undergone a shrinking/combination process in terms of size and weight helping to increase the payload. This does not exclude additional or improved functionalities, as these are implemented in software. My solution would have been to keep the size and HMI of the GDU and include e.g. GIA/GEA/GDC/GTX functionalities in a common housing.
Pure touch screen solutions are not always better than knobs, push buttons, joysticks etc, especially during turbulance.
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pietromarx
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Re: Next Generation G1000

Post by pietromarx »

From what it looks like the new G1000 Nxi will be a pretty straightforward upgrade for existing G1000 installations. They clearly focused on an upgrade path for existing installations vs. new installations. This may be a case where the STC being owned by Garmin may actually benefit DA-40 owners. Having worked in the tech industry for my whole career and having owned the original (or 2nd or 3rd) G1000 DA-40, I can personally say that there is a plus to the tech side controlling it vs. the OEM, but it may also be a case where neither side sees their way forward. Our chances are better than, say, Cessna C1x2 owners whose corporate parent have other existing lines of business where they make more money.
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Re: Next Generation G1000

Post by Antoine »

I think we can assume that Garmin carefully weighed all of these design decisions and involved key OEM customers before deciding to design the NXi for minimum engineering/certification effort in G1000 planes
My opinion is that they made a good decision.
I believe that Garmin as a company would not let down non WAAS G1000 customers, - whether the "new" DAI will bother to invest in developing a fair solution is a good question.
Past experience is not useful because the new majority owners may have less of a "foxtrot uniform" attitude than Mr Dries.

This said, after experiencing the amazing price/capability of a panel mounted iPad, I think integrated flight decks no longer make sense in non-commercial GA. Yes, they look great, but the compromise is tough.

I think "our" planes should have only one set of primary, certified avionics, with redundancy provided by experimental/tablet based solutions. This would probably halve the cost and increase functionality, flexibility and even reliability.
See Colin's recent report on how Foreflight became his "avionics parachute" at one point.
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Re: Next Generation G1000

Post by CFIDave »

The February 2017 issue of Flying magazine provides some additional information about the G1000 NXi. In the King Air, it mentions that the only hardware needed to upgrade a previous G1000 installation to NXi is replacement of the PFD/MFD screens and a keypad (plus new software), all of which it claims can be performed in a day.

The article also contrasts the hardware processor and memory differences. The original G1000 has 64 megabytes (MB) of memory per processor whereas the NXi has 16 gigabytes (GB), with the original single-core processors replaced by dual-core processors. My understanding is that the original G1000 uses Intel x86 processors running a real-time version of Windows NT, so I would think the G1000 NXi probably makes use of dual-core Intel i3/i5/i7 processors in the PFD and MFD to facilitate software re-use. (The use of Intel/Windows technology in the G1000 would explain why the $25 Garmin G1000 PC trainer operates identically to the airplane when simulating instrument approaches, etc.)
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Lance Murray
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Re: Next Generation G1000

Post by Lance Murray »

Old school LRU's, gyros and instruments are very heavy. The King Air has a lot of them. The forward doors on a King Air are for a compartment that is full of LRU's. Iron spinning gyros and vacuum tubes.
Rich wrote:
CFIDave wrote:The 250 lb savings is in comparison to original steam gauges in King Airs, not retrofitting from older G1000 systems.
Seriously? What the heck did they have in there that weighed so much?
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Lance Murray
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Re: Next Generation G1000

Post by Lance Murray »

An interesting side note. I have about 14,000 hours or so. I can remember maybe only once having actual vertigo and only for a very brief time. This was from looking out the window when transitioning to VISUAL after breaking out near minimums on an ILS and seeing terrain that didn't agree with my mental model. It seems that spacial disorientation goes away with experience? I remember it very clearly when I was a newly licensed instrument rated pilot.
Colin wrote:Any user interface that requires a pilot to pitch their head down is a failure for me. That's an excellent way to induce spatial disorientation when you are in IMC. I would suggest that those engineers are not experienced instrument pilots.
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DavidS
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Re: Next Generation G1000

Post by DavidS »

CFIDave wrote:The February 2017 issue of Flying magazine provides some additional information about the G1000 NXi. In the King Air, it mentions that the only hardware needed to upgrade a previous G1000 installation to NXi is replacement of the PFD/MFD screens and a keypad (plus new software), all of which it claims can be performed in a day.
That makes sense, all of the software is installed on and runs in the GDU. The rest of the line cards appear to be FPGAs.
CFIDave wrote: The article also contrasts the hardware processor and memory differences. The original G1000 has 64 megabytes (MB) of memory per processor whereas the NXi has 16 gigabytes (GB), with the original single-core processors replaced by dual-core processors. My understanding is that the original G1000 uses Intel x86 processors running a real-time version of Windows NT, so I would think the G1000 NXi probably makes use of dual-core Intel i3/i5/i7 processors in the PFD and MFD to facilitate software re-use. (The use of Intel/Windows technology in the G1000 would explain why the $25 Garmin G1000 PC trainer operates identically to the airplane when simulating instrument approaches, etc.)
The Garmin units (430, g1000, g6xx, g7xx) appear to run a custom RTOS (that smells very unix-like) on ARM CPUs.

I forget what the touch ones were doing.

I believe it was the earlier Avidyne PFDs in the cirrus that ran WinNT. Don't know about the newest suite. The old Chelton ones ran DOS if I recall watching a bootup sequence on someone's Lancair.

I can look at the trainer, but there's a lot of different ways they could have done that one. :)
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Re: Next Generation G1000

Post by reinhardj »

Due to my experience it is impossible to qualify any kind of Windows version for critical aircraft aplications especially as Windows is not capable of real-time processing and it does not fulfill any software qualifications requirement of the applicable standards like DO-178B/C | DO-278 | DO-254. There are other qualifies RTOS for Intel processors available.
I doubt, that in 2002 ARM processors with the required processing performance were available, but this is just a guess.
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Re: Next Generation G1000

Post by Cschobel »

Garmin 1000 has never used windows.
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