In a reversal of the previous road map - the Explorer will continue to live. We received a new batch of LCD displays from Kyocera in the same size and they are beautiful. They are now IPS displays. Bright and great viewing angles - lovely contrast and colors. As a result I extended the G4 firmware to support portrait mode also on these EFIS systems (so now all G4 systems will allow portrait mode - it's a simple menu selection).
I am very happy that we managed to get upgraded displays in this size - this is a size only made by Kyocera - I originally chose as it fits very nicely between the small 7" (Discovery, MX1, MX2) and the 10.4" Challenger. It is a popular size as it results in a perfect fit for many smaller panels.
I have kept the G4 as close as possible to the G3 from a pilot operational point of view so all the familiar menus are there where you expect them to be and everything looks similar. The screen displays have changed but elements are the same - they just look nicer with some effort spent on color and lighting gradients.
The one major addition over the G3 is the built in screen designer that started very humble but quickly got a life of its own. This is a really powerful addition taking customization to the ultimate level.
The G3 has powered our systems for over 12 years. Search for a replacement started some 8 years ago with several directions investigated (even using a Raspberry Pie at one stage). I was trying to find a ready made CPU board that I could use - there are many around and I played with several development kits but I was not really happy with any of them. A few years ago STMicrosystems brought out their first MPU - a dual core with a third core as MCU plus a GPU. This looked interesting and soon there where a few ready made CPU boards with this chip. I tried two of them but in each case there were issues that where difficult to work around. I liked the chip for two reasons - the MCU worked in parallel to the two main cores and had full memory visibility and I already all required drivers written for the MX1 which uses a MCU. So the idea was to bring up a Linux system on the two main cores but to run all the EFIS hardware needs and drivers on the MCU. So effectively Linux to be used where Linux is good at (file systems and file format support) but take away all hardware control from Linux itself (Linux is not great controlling hardware). Linux also allowed use of the GPU (dedicated graphics processor) which otherwise is not accessible as there is no documentation (as usual with these things).
Anyway - I designed my own CPU board (as usual) ending up with a 8 layer high track density PCB only 1mm thick. From start of the PCB design, getting Linux to run on it, getting my Embedded Pascal compiler to create programs that can run under Linux, porting the EFIS software and extending it with all the new functionality - it's taken about 2 and a half years to shipping the product.
Here it is:
