Pete Schaefer wrote:
OK, if all you want is to record data, then yeah, whatever you want to use
is just fine as long as you can keep it from interfering with any critical
functions on your plane. However, debugging all the potential EMI stuff
could be hell just to get things to work.

I hate cables. They are a gawdawful pain to manufacture, install, even
worse to troubleshoot, and hell to fix. Installing new ones to odd
points on a plane is sometimes impossible. I flew the E-2C (whistling
s%$# can) and most of our class alphas were due to cables abrading and
causing shorts, wandering signals, fires, etc. Obviously the bad things
came from the power-carrying cables failing, but everything in the
bundle went south when they did.

EMI is obviously an issue, in ways I don't understand since I'm not a
tron-bender, but the idea that you could plunk down a sensor and have
*no* additional wiring whatsoever appeals to me. I wonder how much wire
weighs and costs in the typical airplane? What are the EMI issues for
your Mark I Mod 0 homebuilt? Nav system, obviously. What else? Sounds
like an experimental airplane kind of thing to me.

A company a friend of mine owns is developing the self-powered sensors,
so I'm familiar with the work. The ones they sell now are bigger and (I
think) battery-powered, but they are installing them on Navy ships,
which have emmisions and EMI concerns too.

http://www.rlwinc.com/