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SDS EFI in 2019

rv6ejguy

Well Known Member
December 2018 ended as our busiest month in the last 4 years with a flurry of orders. Thanks to all who placed orders last year.

2019 brings us to a big milestone we're very proud of- this is our 25th year as a manufacturer of EFI and ignition systems with close to 10,000 electronic controllers supplied to aviation, automotive, marine, educational and UAV/ military applications. As far as we know, we've supplied more user programmable EFI ECUs for Experimental aviation than any other company.

2019 will see the release of the new CPI2 aviation ignition system and if we're fortunate, the new EM-6 series of EFI/ignition controllers as well.

You'll see some new content and pages appear on our website over the next few weeks.

 
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Congrats!

Ross,

That is a great milestone. You are really one of the good guys here on VAF. I wish you continued success!
 
Thanks Pete.

Our biggest challenge is production at the moment. We've been blown away by the pre-order response on the CPI-2. Initial production is already sold out and we'll be starting preparations to do another, much larger PCB run by the end of this month to try to prevent a supply gap from appearing down the line. We've second sourced some of the enclosure machining to reduce those bottlenecks as well.

I can't thank VAF members enough for their support and confidence in our products. This is a great community!
 
Short update for the 3rd week in 2019. We'll be adding a 3rd machine shop to handle the increased demand in orders which require CNC'd parts. Our other 2 guys are booked up for a while with present workloads.

We've also started serial production of popular sub-assemblies to try to make production more efficient with the increased numbers.

We'd like to reduce the wait time below 2 weeks by Feb. on EFI systems and 4 weeks on CPI-2 systems by March sometime. That's the goal anyway...
 
Short update for the 3rd week in 2019. We'll be adding a 3rd machine shop to handle the increased demand in orders which require CNC'd parts. Our other 2 guys are booked up for a while with present workloads.

We've also started serial production of popular sub-assemblies to try to make production more efficient with the increased numbers.

We'd like to reduce the wait time below 2 weeks by Feb. on EFI systems and 4 weeks on CPI-2 systems by March sometime. That's the goal anyway...

Ross,

Thank you for all your support to the Experimental side of aviation. There are just too many folks out there who lack guts or are too greedy to put their products out there at reasonable prices for us who fly experimental planes. I for one can attest that your company's support, even for us small fries has been super.

Thanks.

Charlie (using SDS EFI for years EM3+EM4).
 
Thanks Charlie. We really appreciate your support through the years and the kind words. We enjoy our work and I have to say that our aviation customers are some of the nicest folks around and many have some great flying stories to share.

Last week, we had a couple of customers from the US come by and visit our shop. Always nice to put a face on the voice over the phone and learn more about their project and background.

I hope to meet more guys again at Reno in Sept. this year.
 
We're firming up some of our marketing and promotional plans now for 2019.

For those racing at Reno, we have the Reno Discount Plan on our EFI and ignition systems. Ask me if you're interested.

We'll have at least 4 aircraft in Sport Class running EM-5 systems this year and a few in other classes running CPIs. We'll have some new software tweaks and features available for the big boys to push well past 400mph laps as Andy did last year.

We're also working out a deal with one of our other partners and a unique air show performer to fit SDS for this season.

Excited about both of these things and to be working with some of the smartest and nicest airplane folks around.

We'll have some new partners in the auto conversion market too who have been flying SDS for a few years now and are branching out to supply FWF kits.

You'll see some new web pages soon when these things are finalized.

Thanks to all the VAF community for buying SDS products and giving us feedback. Both help us to improve the products and bring out even better stuff for the future.
 
We just finished supplying another system to one of the top guys in Sport Class. At this time, we have 7 people running SDS EFI or EI systems in 3 classes. Looking forward to September already...:)

We received 850 parts today from a 3rd, new machine shop. These folks have virtually unlimited capacity with 87 CNC machines in total. They turn out beautiful parts and this should finally end this production bottleneck that's plagued us for 2 years now.

We'll have a partner displaying his LS conversions at SNF this year. Details later. We'll have some new literature to hand out there.
 
Reno Parts

We've designed some new parts for Reno Sport Class racers and these will be made available to anyone running SDS at Reno who needs them.



These are for Lycoming AV engines and will support up to 660hp on 360/390s and 1000hp on 540/580s at 85% duty cycle. Head mods are required to fit them. Base made from our proprietary, high strength alloy. They must use specific injectors with a narrow spray pattern.
 
Conti IO-550 Rocket



Here's the latest EFI install we're covering being done by Ralph Inkster.

Dual EM-5 install on a Conti powered Rocket. We're trying out some of the new parts we developed for these last year and we'll be tweaking these a bit more as we have the opportunity to measure things better with the project being just up the street. We'll bring out a couple more new parts as well in the coming months as time permits.

Hope to bring you some more updates on this project as it progresses.
 
Another SDS EFI RV-10 Runs

I put together a short video of Les Kearney's new RV-10 making first engine runs today with SDS EM-5 EFI doing the fuel and ignition management:

https://youtu.be/0vU0h2d-gW4

We hope to do some more videos featuring his RV-10 as we go through initial tuning and eventually flying it.
 
SNF

For those of you at SNF, you can drop by the Aero Technologies LLC booth NE41 and see an EM-5 setup on an LS-3. Talk with Scott there.
 
Service Bulletin

April 26/19 Service Bulletin Regarding 18 to 14mm Spark Plug Adapter Installation

Due to a number of broken brass plug adapters, we've changed the procedure for installing these as follows: 1. Thread the spark plug into the adapter 2. Torque the assembly into the cylinder head using the PLUG hex to 19 ft./lbs. 3. Torque the ADAPTER further to 25 ft./lbs.

Use only a thin stripe of anti-seize compound on the plug and adapter. Do not coat the threads. Although we've done multiple yield tests on the adapters torqued into a fixture and they fail at 32-35 ft./lbs., a number of people were snapping them at the originally recommended torque of 22 ft./lbs.
 
Torque education ?

Ross,
I have been using the Pmag install process of the plug in the adaptor both torqued through the plug at 18 ftlb. I now have your CPI kit in another project. So, what should we know about the difference between 18 ftlb and 25 ??
 
Hmmm... here I was thinking I would order up a set of your adapters, Ross, to replace the ones that came with my P-Mag. Many posts here and elsewhere have given the impression the SDS adapters were the best of breed.

With what you have learned in your testing, am I likely best to use a similar torquing method on my P-Mag-supplied brass adapters?

(I know, you can't speak for EMagAir and I don't expect you to, but you can speak from your engineering experience with respect to the generic aspects of the interface between steel spark plug, brass adapter and helicoil in the cylinder head.)
 
Ross,
I have been using the Pmag install process of the plug in the adaptor both torqued through the plug at 18 ftlb. I now have your CPI kit in another project. So, what should we know about the difference between 18 ftlb and 25 ??

In our opinion, 18 ft./lbs, may not be enough torque for the 18mm adapter to keep it in place. The plug OEMs recommend 22-29 ft./lbs. for 18mm plugs.
 
Hmmm... here I was thinking I would order up a set of your adapters, Ross, to replace the ones that came with my P-Mag. Many posts here and elsewhere have given the impression the SDS adapters were the best of breed.

With what you have learned in your testing, am I likely best to use a similar torquing method on my P-Mag-supplied brass adapters?

(I know, you can't speak for EMagAir and I don't expect you to, but you can speak from your engineering experience with respect to the generic aspects of the interface between steel spark plug, brass adapter and helicoil in the cylinder head.)

As I said, they don't yield for me, with my torque wrench, when lightly brushed with anti-seize, until 32-35, yet people are apparently breaking them at "22". I found one user who broke several had a torque wrench which was almost 30% off from mine when we put them together. Others I suspect are are lashing the AS compound to the threads which increases thread tension at the same torque.

With the spark plug in the adapter, you won't break it any more. I know other manufacturers want you to install the plugs first, likely for the same reasons.

We often learn that people in the field can break stuff that works fine for us. We have to find a solution and this procedure is easy to implement.
 
adaptors

We often learn that people in the field can break stuff that works fine for us. We have to find a solution and this procedure is easy to implement.

I broke the very first adapter when installing my SDS CPI last fall. Ross suggested that I have my torque wrench calibrated, which I did. It promptly failed! In fact it was so far out of calibration that the Lab was unable to certify it.
I immediately obtained a new torque wrench and had it calibrated by a certified lab. No further problems.....
 
Les Kearney's RV-10 First Flight

I managed to grab a couple photos off the videos I shot a few days ago of Les' RV-10 first flight:





Looks great with the Show Planes cowling and 3 blade prop.



Aero Sport built IO-540 with fully optioned SDS EM-5 EFI/EI. Real purdy inside and out.
 
Ross - a couple of questions regarding the last photo posted above. I recognize this is earlier in the build cycle with no baffles etc installed...

1) do you recommend the fuel lines from spider to injectors be clamped to the push rod tubes at mid-span in order to reduce flexion under vibration?

2) do you know what sensor is plugged into the #3 cylinder NPT port often used for MAP or primer lines? I see a pair of white 22ga tefzel wires coming off the sensor and am curious what it might be.

Thanks for your patience. And yes, that is a very purdy engine indeed. Gotta love those SDS machined parts!
 
Yes, fuel lines should be clamped to the pushrod tubes in at least one place.

The sensor is for engine temp, used by the ECU primarily for start and warmup enrichment. Ignored once the engine is warmed up. 6 cylinder dual systems use one sensor for each ECU. 4 cylinder systems use a single sensor.
 
Injector Hose Support



This is Les' engine again showing the very nice routing and support of injector and plug wires, plus the fuel line detail.
 
I get questions about how our ECUs talk to a typical EFIS and share info so I thought I'd address that here.

We only output rpm and fuel flow information to engine monitors at this time. The ECUs have their own temperature and MAP sensors which should be independent (not shared) of those on the EFIS for the best reliability.

Our ECUs don't take any CHT or EGT information from the EFIS.

In future, we may be able to share more info from the ECUs to glass monitors through serial or CAN connections.
 
Ross,
I have been using the Pmag install process of the plug in the adaptor both torqued through the plug at 18 ftlb. I now have your CPI kit in another project. So, what should we know about the difference between 18 ftlb and 25 ??

Lightspeed has always had a higher torque for their adapter. The install process is the same as the SDS revised instructions. With the adapter at the higher torque, it will stay in the head when you remove the plug..... and that's a good thing.
 
New Billet Throttle Body



After having some recent supply problems with our standard 60mm throttle bodies, I elected to replace the modified cast aftermarket parts and produce our own design from 6061-T6 billet.

Trevor took basic the dimensions, added a few new features I wanted and did his usual CAD magic and machining.

This fits most 320s, 360s and 540s with standard carbs or RSA-5 servos. There are provisions for 2 vacuum connections and a 1/8 NPT port for an air temp sensor down the road. This one is also O-ring sealed at the base to eliminate the gasket as with our 45 and 80mm throttle bodies. We have throttle plate arms for both vertical and horizontal mounting, made from 7075-T6 as with our other models.

This is now a straight bore 60mm all the way through unlike the older cast model which necked down slightly. We pick up around 4% more airflow which may be welcome on 540s to free up a few more ponies on the top end.

This TB is much shorter and lighter than the carb or RSA-5 servo.

We also have a version of the 45mm TB to fit O-235s and O-290s.

In the works is also a 40mm version for a new project under development.
 
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I haven't got all the bills yet for this TB but given the prices for the 45 and 80mm ones, probably around $325US.
 
Be Careful Out There

I wanted to get this caution out there to our customers on wiring and connector installation. We've seen a few instances now where people reported some strange issues with the engine running roughly and these took some time to troubleshoot and find the cause.

In two instances, the ECU connectors were not plugged in all the way. The 16 pin Molex connector at the end of the ECU carrying injector outputs, grounds for the coils and injectors and some other options, has a positive latch which will clearly snap in when engaged. Ditto for the same type of connectors used on the injector relay boxes. They cannot come loose if properly latched.

The D sub connectors used for Hall, programmer and sensor wiring have 4-40 screws on either side. Be sure these are plugged in all the way and the screws tightened down.

Please double check all connections before flying. Things can be forgotten if you get distracted and these are flight critical items.

The third thing we saw which took months to finally troubleshoot was due to ECU sensor wires being tie wrapped to the spark plug wires. The result was inconsistent running and eventually 2 fried ECUs. NEVER tie wrap any ECU wires to spark plug leads.

There is up to 40,000 volts on those leads and if you tie a sensor wire to it for any length, you can get inductive and capacitive coupling inducing voltages in that sensor wire far exceeding the logic levels normally present in the ECU which operates on only 5V. In this extreme case, current/ voltages on inputs went well over what protection circuitry is designed to deal with. (we figure over 400V to do this damage).

Finally, watch all those ground connections. They must be 100%. If the ECU cannot pull control devices to ground, it may not operate them properly, or at all. Don't stack any device grounds which have pulsing current loads (injectors, coil packs, strobes, electric motors etc. to the CPU ground (pin 18 on DB25). Use separate ground terminals for each CPU ground wire.

For wiring connections, be sure to look at our wiring page here: http://sdsefi.com/wiring.htm and our MSD plug wire tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_sakmDb2fo, plus our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiyBZlgDHg2GvQfelECCGoQ for other info.

We're also going to start stocking crimpers which will crimp most of the pins supplied with the kits. We'll make those available at near cost for system buyers so you don't need to search for one or try to use a tool which is not designed for the job.
 
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RV-10

Les Kearney dropped by today and said he's flown off the initial 25 hours now with no issues. That was pretty quick considering the crappy weather we had late last month and the forest fire smoke the last couple days.
 
Service Bulletin

June 4/19 Service Bulletin Regarding AEM Wideband AFR Meter Sensor Selection in Programmer

On EM-5 systems supplied with AEM Wideband AFR kits after Feb. 2019, be sure to select the AEM (New) setting (O2 Sensor Type) so that the correct AFRs are displayed. The defaults prior to June 1 in the ECUs, were set to the AEM Old setting which will result in richer settings than actually displayed.

The default setting will be corrected on all units shipped after June 1/19.
 
June 25/19 Service Bulletin Regarding Possible Hall Sensor Mounting Bolt Interference With Front Case Through-Bolts

Be sure the Hall sensor bolts don't hit the case bolts inside the threaded stainless steel standoffs. If they do, place another washer under the head of the Hall sensor bolts. Additional standard and light washers are provided with the assembly for this purpose and to establish proper sensor to flywheel clearance.

This appears to be an issue only with some clone engines which have slightly longer case bolts.
 
What's up at SDS?

I haven't posted too much here lately as we've been crazy busy clearing order backlogs. Those are down to a more manageable level now.

You'll see some new parts are done for Rotax 912 and Conti IO-550 kits in two other threads today.

The 2nd batch of CPI-2 boards are being loaded and soldered now and we expect those late next week sometime. Should be able to start filling new orders around the 2nd week in July.

We'll have some new announcements prior to Oshkosh and Reno.

Will be some more changes to our website coming to make it easier to find what you're looking for.

Barry was finally able to get some serious design time in on the EM-6 components this week which feels a lot better than little snips here and there.

We've got gold and red Lycoming induction flanges and CT clamps in stock again. More PV and AV valve covers are running next week.

Lightweight billet flywheels are in stock. These are the ones that don't crack, unlike another brand out on the market which were made a little too light...

Our CNC partners have cranked out over 1000 new parts in the last 60 days so we are finally well stocked on most items. That's been a long haul.

Excited to offer all these better bits to builders and to be working on the 6th Generation in earnest now. We love what we're doing. A big thanks again to all the builders and owners here who support us. This is such a great community. Keep those photos of your SDS installs coming, and the fresh ideas/ feedback coming. All good stuff.
 
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All Billet Throttle Bodies

We've recently added 2 new billet throttle bodies to our product lineup. This makes the complete line billet now, no more cast ones.



From left to right, 80mm, 60mm, 45mm, 40mm.

The 60mm one is 1/4 the weight of competing cast ones.

80mm fits horizontal induction engines, replacing RSA-10 servos.
60mm fits vertical and horizontal induction 320-540 engines using carbs or RSA-5 servos.
45mm fits Jabiru and Lyc O-235, O-290 plus Conti O-200 (2 bolt patterns available).
40mm fits Rotax 912 and VW engines.
 
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I finally found some time today to do some more website updates. I've been wanting to split the Lycoming sub pages into 4 and 6 cylinder as they were getting too long to easily find information on them. Just haven't had time to do this for 6 months.

Done now. Access the new links from the Aircraft Page, bold headings.

Also uploaded 3 revised manuals and added some more photos and info.

Hopefully will have time to split the Conti Pages the same way sometime soon.
 
Oshkosh

For those of you going to Oshkosh and are interested in SDS products, here is where you can see and find out more about them:

EM-5 EFI/EI:

Aviation West LLC booth #638/639- Ray Watson. LS conversions

Go-EZ Aerobatics- Kyle Fowler. He'll be performing on Tuesday and Sunday as well as participating in the 40th anniversary formation flight on Thursday honoring Burt Rutan. Will be parked Tues and Sunday in the Performer Parking and I believe near the Aero Sport Power booth #270 the rest of the time.

South MS Light Aircraft- Ronnie Smith. Rotax Service and Training Center, Forum 1030 Booths 265, 266, 267

Les Kearney will have his RV-10 at the show. Registration C-GROK, parked in the RV-10 lineup. Les will be happy to talk about his installation and show it.

Ralph Inkster will be doing a tech talk in the EAA Canada tent on Friday 1130 AM and EFI/EI wiring tech talk at 1 PM the same day. Ralph will also be flying down in his 6A with SDS EM-5 and will be available to show and talk about that.

CPI-2 Ignition systems:

Aero Sport Power booth #270. They'll have a CPI-2 on display.

Barrett Precision Engines booth #3036, Bldg C. They will also have a CPI-2 on display.

Also starting today, we'll have a special on the SDS Aero Products billet valve covers for parallel valve Lycomings and the SDS No Leak induction flange kits for Lycoming engines. 10% off both items until July 31st. Contact me if you're interested in either of those items or our EFI and EI products.

I won't personally be at Osh unfortunately. We are working hard at getting orders out to our customers, getting things rolling on the 2nd CPI-2 batch order and design work is forging ahead on the EM-6 as well.
 
Ralph's 6A registration is C-GEOY, white with dark blue trim. He'll have a CPI-2 programmer on hand to show at the talk as well.
 
Post Osh News

Many thanks to Marvin McGraw (RV-14), Ralph Inkster (RV-6A) and Les Kearney (RV-10) who generously showed off their SDS EFI installations and answered people's questions. I can't thank you guys enough. Les unfortunately wasn't able to get into Osh to show his plane there.

Also thanks to Aero Sport Power and Barrett who showed off the CPI-2. I understand that Barrett had some issues booting up the display early on and I chatted with them to get that working mid week.

A big thanks to Ray Watson who was displaying our EM-5 along with his LS engine packages. Lots of interest there on both fronts.

We prepare next for Reno in September and I'll be there as usual. I'd love to meet you if you can make it. We'll have several of the fastest aircraft in F1, Biplane and Sport using SDS EFI or EI systems including defending Sport Class champion, Andrew Findley and a couple of RVs of course. If you're thinking of running Reno, remember we have a racer discount program if you run SDS and our logo.

I have some new cameras and hope to have time to shoot some decent video and photos this year.

Work is proceeding reasonably quickly so far on the EM-6, considering this looks to be our busiest summer in about 14 years so lots of our time is taken up building, shipping and supporting. At least we have nights to do the R&D. Doesn't look like the 60 hour weeks will end any time soon...
We hope to detail some of the new upgrades in the Fall if all goes to plan.

Thanks to all those who gave us feedback on the EM-6 and buy SDS products. We're always excited to work on new stuff for the market.

Last of the Rotax 912 parts should be in my hands next week and hopefully I can get them on the test plane this month. Seems to be some decent interest in this.
 
First Start

A customer from Spain sent a short video of his first engine start with a dual, SDS EM-5 setup on his RV-7 over the weekend.



Congrats Rafael!
 
RV-14 Engines

Lots of RV-14s are nearing completion now and many people are deciding to buy Thunderbolt engines from Lycoming where components can be customized. If you're planning to go with EFI/EI for your 390, you may want to discuss deleting some parts which won't be needed with the new system.

Below is a list of parts not required when fitting SDS EFI:

1. Mags, ignition haness, spark plugs
2. Servo, flow divider, lines, injectors
3. Fuel pump and pushrod
4. Flywheel. Note that new Lycoming flywheels lack the 12 tooling holes which we use to mount the magnet drilling block to).

We can supply billet flywheels with trigger magnets already mounted to replace the factory ones. These do have the tooling holes which can also be useful for attaching prop balancing weights.
 
E-mail

Our E-mail server has been down for over 24 hours now. If you need any tech help or want to place an order, please give us a call.
 
E-mail service was partially restored as of Aug. 18th. We are having to use a proxy program to access still, so responses will be a bit slower than usual but the standard e-mail address shown on our site can be used again.

Thanks for your patience.
 
Air Conditioning

We get questions about the compatibility of SDS EFI and EI systems with a/c equipped engines.

We are not compatible with factory Lycoming twin sheave flywheels.

We are compatible with the Airflow Systems serpentine drive flywheels and have a CNC'd drilling jig for these.

As well, be aware that the standard, one sheave flywheels supplied on new Lycoming engines lack the 12 tooling holes to mount our drilling block. In this case, best to delete the flywheel if it's a Thunderbolt engine and order our billet flywheel with the magnets already mounted.
 
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