Experimental Aircraft Electronics Community?

[kb1lqc]

Hey all,

New here so pardon my ignorance if this is easy to answer, did some searching but came up with little. I am curious if there's a community within the EAA that focuses on more electronics oriented experimentation with aircraft. Things like PCB design, microcontrollers, etc? I recently read an article in Sport Aviation that hinted at some builders using Arduinos and various custom electronics but it seems really hard to find more information of a general nature.

Background: I am a professional Electrical Engineer who's build avionics hardware for commercial rockets for years. Things like solenoid drivers, sensor interfacing, actuator motor control, processors, etc. are all aspects of avionics hardware I've design and flown to orbit. Naturally, I am drawn to this portion of most hobbies I am involved in. I'm a private pilot and just starting to read more EAA literature and dip my feet into what people are doing in the world of experimental aircraft.

Thanks!

[Dana]

There are a few folks who have built homemade electronic instruments, but not many. A large part of the homebuilt world is old school, people want steam gauges in a biplane, for example. The go-fast crowd wants proven reliable instruments for IFR flying. And the rest, once they've built their plane just want to put some instruments and fly, instead of continuing to tinker.

But there are a few I've seen, especially in the sailplane world, which is modern but strictly VFR. And I think there was some discussion about Arduino based instruments over on the homebuiltairplanes.com forum.

[Dana]

I think there was some discussion about Arduino based instruments over on the homebuiltairplanes.com forum.

And sure enough, it's in today's active topics:

https://www.homebuiltairplanes.com/forums/threads/arduino-based-instruments.28533/unread

[Eric Page]

I'm an electronics hobbyist and have made a few items for my Kitfox build (landing light wig-wag controller, iPad charger, etc.), but nothing that even approaches what you're talking about. It certainly interests me, but I don't have nearly the knowledge required.

There's a guy on the TeamKitfox forum who's been developing his own EFIS (https://teamkitfox.com/Forums/threads/11380-Latest-version-of-my-EFIS); perhaps he'd be interested in a collaboration.

You might also take a look at the MakerPlane community (https://makerplane.org/). They have a section on DIY avionics that might be what you're looking for.