Why Not Use PC To Make Glass Cockpit?

Standard disclaimer applies: I still have my copy of Flight Training
next to the porcelain throne. Ahem.

However, as I flip the pages of this magazine, I cannot help but think
that companies like Garmin are getting off a bit easy.

Being a software developer, I am very suprised to discover that not
every aicraft costing over $30,000 has a full-featured glass cockpit.
Unless I am missing somethnig, it appears that everything that a pilot
needs can be made with very very cheap hardware.

A PC can be had for under $500 easily, the mother board for even less.
There are software programmable radios that can be made for under $100
that can tune into any frequency under 1GHz (in other words, if it's
there and not encrypted, you can get it). There are USB sensors of all
sorts (altitude, humidity, wind speed, etc.) And good software
engineers can write pretty much any piece of software that is required
so long as they receive guidance about what is supposed to do what,
with pictures of twirly things to on the display to keep the pilot from
getting bored.

So I am wondering, why isn't anyone doing this on a grander scale. Are
they?

-Chaud Lapin-

In article .com,
"Le Chaud Lapin" wrote:

And good software
engineers can write pretty much any piece of software that is required

well, for one thing, "pretty much" isn't quite up to the standard I'd
like to see for software that would be responsible for flight critical
information.


so long as they receive guidance about what is supposed to do what,

and there's the rub, the classic problem in software development.

--
Bob Noel
no one likes an educated mule

Le Chaud Lapin wrote:


So I am wondering, why isn't anyone doing this on a grander scale. Are
they?

-Chaud Lapin-

The "Blue Screen of Death" takes on a new meaning when your entire
instrument panel locks up and you have no backup.

Dave

Are you ready to bet your life on Windows XP and some $200 disk drives made
in China and designed to operate in an office?

Le Chaud Lapin wrote:

Standard disclaimer applies: I still have my copy of Flight Training
next to the porcelain throne. Ahem.

However, as I flip the pages of this magazine, I cannot help but think
that companies like Garmin are getting off a bit easy.

Being a software developer, I am very suprised to discover that not
every aicraft costing over $30,000 has a full-featured glass cockpit.
Unless I am missing somethnig, it appears that everything that a pilot
needs can be made with very very cheap hardware.

A PC can be had for under $500 easily, the mother board for even less.
There are software programmable radios that can be made for under $100
that can tune into any frequency under 1GHz (in other words, if it's
there and not encrypted, you can get it). There are USB sensors of all
sorts (altitude, humidity, wind speed, etc.) And good software
engineers can write pretty much any piece of software that is required
so long as they receive guidance about what is supposed to do what,
with pictures of twirly things to on the display to keep the pilot from
getting bored.

So I am wondering, why isn't anyone doing this on a grander scale. Are
they?

-Chaud Lapin-

In article , wrote:
Are you ready to bet your life on Windows XP and some $200 disk drives made
in China and designed to operate in an office?

Not the original poster, but actually yes I am A good stable system
that you do not touch/play with should work/last without problems. And I
don't need to run winXP I could run linux (in fact given the costs and
licenses I would) which is rock solid stable.

"'Vejita' S. Cousin" wrote:

In article , wrote:
Are you ready to bet your life on Windows XP and some $200 disk drives made
in China and designed to operate in an office?

Not the original poster, but actually yes I am A good stable system
that you do not touch/play with should work/last without problems. And I
don't need to run winXP I could run linux (in fact given the costs and
licenses I would) which is rock solid stable.

You still need sensors for attitude and heading. You also need sensors for
engine and fuel parameters, and so forth. Somehow, you need all those to
interface with your PC's flight instrument display (displays?).

wrote:
"'Vejita' S. Cousin" wrote:
Not the original poster, but actually yes I am A good stable system
that you do not touch/play with should work/last without problems. And I
don't need to run winXP I could run linux (in fact given the costs and
licenses I would) which is rock solid stable.

You still need sensors for attitude and heading. You also need sensors for
engine and fuel parameters, and so forth. Somehow, you need all those to
interface with your PC's flight instrument display (displays?).

USB. I think it would be highly appropriate for this type of
application. Theoretically, you can have up to 127 USB devices
pluggged into the same USB card on a PC. If you put multiple cards in
the PC, then you can have even more USB devices. Since the required
bandwidth for temperature sensors is very low, It is conceivable that
one USB PCI card could drive the entire control infrastructure of the
aircraft.

The design would probably entail a redundancy model where one PC
motherboard acts as a secondary to the primary controller. Windows
supports multiple displays, so you could have 4 displays in the
aircraft. One for each passenger, with radio, music, DVD's.

I think this model is the same thing that Boeing/Airbus & friends use,
only they probably get charged 10-20 times the cost of what they should
be paying.

-Chaud Lapin-

What about attitude and heading?

Le Chaud Lapin wrote:

wrote:
"'Vejita' S. Cousin" wrote:
Not the original poster, but actually yes I am A good stable system
that you do not touch/play with should work/last without problems. And I
don't need to run winXP I could run linux (in fact given the costs and
licenses I would) which is rock solid stable.

You still need sensors for attitude and heading. You also need sensors for
engine and fuel parameters, and so forth. Somehow, you need all those to
interface with your PC's flight instrument display (displays?).

USB. I think it would be highly appropriate for this type of
application. Theoretically, you can have up to 127 USB devices
pluggged into the same USB card on a PC. If you put multiple cards in
the PC, then you can have even more USB devices. Since the required
bandwidth for temperature sensors is very low, It is conceivable that
one USB PCI card could drive the entire control infrastructure of the
aircraft.

The design would probably entail a redundancy model where one PC
motherboard acts as a secondary to the primary controller. Windows
supports multiple displays, so you could have 4 displays in the
aircraft. One for each passenger, with radio, music, DVD's.

I think this model is the same thing that Boeing/Airbus & friends use,
only they probably get charged 10-20 times the cost of what they should
be paying.

-Chaud Lapin-

Le Chaud Lapin wrote:
USB. I think it would be highly appropriate for this type of
application.

It's way too easy to trip over the cord with USB -- or to have it
vibrate loose. My experience with USB indicates that it isn't reliable
enough for my servers at work, it's not good enough for any airplane I fly.

Maybe if you replaced the connectors or soldered everything well....
But, I'm reluctant to suggest USB to my users for anything more
permenant than a mouse.

-Luke

"'Vejita' S. Cousin" wrote in message
...
In article , wrote:
Are you ready to bet your life on Windows XP and some $200 disk drives
made
in China and designed to operate in an office?

Not the original poster, but actually yes I am A good stable system
that you do not touch/play with should work/last without problems. And I
don't need to run winXP I could run linux (in fact given the costs and
licenses I would) which is rock solid stable.

I agree I would put my trust on to a solid state flash drive running Linux
kernel, They can write a Linux kernel (OS) to fit on a small flash drive or
integrated chip witch means no moving parts just a silicon chip witch all
GPS units built today use IE Garmin 430, 530 ect and people put their lives
in its hands and its a proprietary unknown OS to may have unknown bugs.