Blue Mountain EFIS?

[BruceP]

Marc,
I am building an RV9A and I am planning to buy the Blue Mountain EFIS/One. I have already purchased the autopilot from them. I noticed on your website that Blue Mountain is not on the list of supported EFIS vendors. However, I really like your product and would like to use it. Can a VP-200 be used in conjunction with a BM EFIS/One?

[Marc Ausman]

We'll talk specifically about the new G4 products from BMA.The EFIS/One and other G4 BMA products all have the same connectors and pinout support. We cannot guarantee support on older BMA products.

We require an input from an engine monitor, GPS, and optionally air data. Here's how to handle each one.

GPS:
If using the built-in GPS, then set up a serial port to NMEA 183 data format.
If using an external GPS like the Garmin 430/530/480/G900 etc then run a wire from the data output to the input on the VP-200 and the BMA EFIS.

Engine data:
The engine data (if you're using a BMA engine pod) requires "calibration" and setup in the EFIS and the EFIS does not have an output for calibrated data. Therefore we cannot support the engine data from the engine pod. We recommend purchasing a Grand Rapids Technologies EIS (www.grtavionics.com) or EI MVP-50 (www.buy-ei.com) and use that to provide data to the VP-200. In this configuration, the EFIS provides primary flight data and moving map, and the VP-200 provides engine data and electrical system information and control.

Air data (indicated airspeed):
If you have a spare serial port on the efis, configure it to "external HUD" output and you run that to one of the serial inputs on the VP-200 Display Unit.

[HangarQueen]

Following up on this thread, Marc wrote:

>> The engine data (if you're using a BMA engine pod) requires "calibration" and setup in the EFIS and the EFIS does not have an output for calibrated data. Therefore we cannot support the engine data from the engine pod.

Well, I'm taking delivery of a BMA EFIS/One G4 with the BMA Engine Pod, and would love to incorporate the VP-200, so I brought the above to the attention of Greg Richter, the founder and chief architect at BMA. He responded:

>> He's wrong. They've ALWAYS been calibrated, and usually better than 1%.

So who do I believe? I wonder if this is a question of taking the engine data directly from the engine pod to the VP-200, or taking it from an RS-232 feed of the EFIS/One serial-A? I can see how the former might not work, but the latter should ... right?

Unfortunately the BMA EFIS/One has only two serial input/output ports, and this setup would consume both of them (engine put input to EFIS, and EFIS calibrated output to VP-200). I can see potentially wanting more serial I/Os for:

- Input from an external GPS into the EFIS/One
- Output to SL-30 automated tuning
- Input from XM weather

Ideally, I'd hardwire the BMA engine pod directly to the VP-200 "somehow", freeing the BMA EFIS's two serial ports for the more useful stuff.

Thanks,
Greg

[Marc Ausman]

When we talked with BMA a while back, they said that there was no calibrated output for the engine data. Maybe they added it recently. The data is calibrated in the EFIS, and so a "raw" data input from the engine pod would be useless data.

Sine BMA is no longer in production it does not make sense for us to support such an interface.

Note the external HUD display is not supported either.