Sabre Jet Memories
Avionics Contributing Editor James W. Ramsey has published "The Buried Dot," chronicling his experiences as a fighter interceptor pilot flying the F-86D/L Sabre Jet in the 1950s.
The title of the book refers to the Hughes fire-control radar on the jet, which was built by North American Aviation. "You had a collapsing circle and a line with a dot," Ramsey explained. "In order to guarantee a hit with your rockets, you had to bury the dot [on the line]."
The book, published by PublishAmerica, is available at www.publishamerica.com, or at Amazon.com.
Fuel Indicator
Twin Commander Aircraft, Arlington, Wash., said a digital-display fuel quantity indicating system for its 690A/B Twin Commanders is available for retrofit.
The indicator, which replaces the existing analog system, features a digital LCD cockpit display with low fuel warning indicator, a quick-disconnect wiring harness and a remote processor unit, the company said.
Capacitance probes immersed in the fuel tanks consist of two conductive plates separated by a dielectric. A remote processor unit converts the capacitance signal to proportional DC voltage, which drives the cockpit display. Visit www.twincommander.com.
Air Transport Rack
Carlo Gavazzi Computing Solutions, Brockton, Mass., released its 717 Series of air-over conduction-cooled air transport rack (ATR) enclosures, engineered for harsh environments in both air- and land-based military applications.
The 717 Series’ air-over conduction cooling channels ambient air down the enclosure’s outside surfaces, providing increased cooling performance for today’s demanding computing technologies. The cooling method keeps the channeled air outside of the ATR, allowing the cards within to remain in a sealed environment, protected from the elements.
The 717 Series’ card cage is offered in both 3u and 6Ux160mm configurations. The backplane supports all VME (VITA) and CPCI (PICMG) versions and custom configurations. Input power includes AC or DC filtered inputs to military specifications. The 717 Series ATR can be configured with an avionics tray for both fixed and isolated mounting for severe shock and vibration environments. Visit www.gavazzi-computing.com.
Input Board
United Electronic Industries (UEI), Canton, Mass., released its DNA-QUAD-604, a four-channel quadrature encoder input board designed for use with the company’s PowerDNA, UEILogger and UEIPAC data acquisition and control Cubes.
The board provides standard inputs for each channel and is designed to handle the most challenging quadrature applications with a maximum input frequency of 16.5 MHz, and 32-bit counters.
The DNA-QUAD-604 provides 4 digital inputs and 8 digital outputs. The digital I/O lines may be used as auxiliary digital inputs and outputs or configured as trigger in, trigger out or clock-out signals for each of the channels. The digital I/O is compatible with both +5 and +3.3 volt logic, and the digital outputs are rated to supply ±12 mA of drive current. The board offers 350 V of isolation and 7 kV of ESD protection. Visit www.ueidaq.com.
DSP Development Kit
VMETRO and Impulse Accelerated Technologies released a DSP development kit, the V5+C, an advanced platform for rapid prototyping and algorithm development.
The kit, which includes the Impulse C-to-VHDL compiler tools and a VMETRO PMC module based on the Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA, allows military and industrial system developers to hardware – accelerate DSP algorithms and quickly prototype on FPGA within an ANSI C environment. With the V5+C kit, software application developers who may be less familiar with low-level VHDL design methods can easily move ANSI C algorithms to an FPGA-accelerated platform. Experienced hardware developers benefit as well due to a faster path to a working prototype from higher-level C code.
The V5+C kit includes a PMC-FPGA05 on a PCI-X carrier card along with the Impulse C tools and PSP. Early adopters of the kit receive special factory training and design support on their first algorithm. Visit www.vmetro.com.
Motor Dynamometer
Sakor Technologies released its Accudyne family of AC Motoring Dynamometers. The Accudyne is readily compatible with a broad range of testing applications, including conventional engine and power-train systems, hybrid vehicle drives, electric motors and rotary components, such as alternators, generators, pumps and compressors, the company said.
Available in sizes ranging from fractional to more than 2,000 horsepower, and speeds in excess of 30,000 rpm, the company said its dynamometers are appropriate for almost any rotational testing need.
The Accudyne dynamometer family offers features, such as inertia simulation, engine simulation and NVH Testing. Visit www.sakor.com.
Inventory Tracking
Tdata, Powell, Ohio, introduced its iTrax system, an aviation-specific inventory management program.
The company said iTrax provides the ability to track inventory items including serialized and life-limited consumables. The iTrax system also allows the user to specify the condition of serialized parts to ensure they are utilized in the order that best fits the operation, the company said. Visit www.Tdata.com.
Surge Protection
Raycap, Morrisville, N.C., introduced its Strikesorb surge protection device (SPD).
Raycap said the SPD provides protection for mission critical government and defense facilities, including homeland security systems, civil aviation systems, radar systems, surveillance systems, and communication and data centers.
The device features a monolithic metal oxide varistor (MOV) design that eliminates thermal disconnect mechanisms.
The Strikesorb’s fuseless design enables direct installation on busbars on the load side of a circuit breaker.
The robust design of the surge protector enables it to sustain multiple and successive lightning strikes and power surges without requiring maintenance, even under harsh environmental or poor power quality conditions. Visit www.raycapinc.com.
Viewing System
Rosen Aviation, Eugene, Ore., released its RosenView VX, a unit which features basic RosenView moving map system, single-disc DVD player and video distribution amplifier packaged in a single box.
The mapping system provides worldwide coverage with topographical and street-level detail for the United States and Western Europe. Onboard navigation equipment can be connected to the system via ARINC 429 or RS-232.
Supporting up to five monitors, the RosenView VX has two switched composite video outputs so users can select between the mapping system, DVD player and auxiliary video input device.
The RosenView VX is 7 inches wide by 7.15 inches deep by 3 inches high and weighs 3.5 pounds. The box can be mounted in horizontal, vertical or side position. Visit www.rosenaviation.com.
Inclinometer
Jewell Instruments, Manchester, N.H., released its LCF-2330 Series Inclinometer, which the company says provides superior stability over temperature and time.
The LCF-2330 is a dual-axis version of the rugged, high accuracy LCF Series. The design of the LCF-2330 provides high accuracy and superior repeatability of Jewell’s rugged, fluid damped, flexure suspension, servo technology in a small and convenient package for applications requiring a compact dual-axis solution. Visit www.jewellinstruments.com.