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MARCH 7, 12:04 EST
SAVANNAH, Ga. -- Maintenance engineers at Gulfstream Aerospace in Savannah, Ga., needed test and measurement equipment to diagnose problems in aircraft cabin management systems. The Fly-Away Kit from DPI Labs in LaVerne, Calif., met their needs. Gulfstream builds and maintains business jets.
The DPI Fly-Away Kit enables maintenance experts to test, verify, and diagnose aircraft cabin systems from the data bus and relays to shipside wiring and individual components, company officials say. Users can conduct live-system tests to identify problems by component, and eliminate mis-wiring and mis-pinning mistakes.
"Just plug the Fly-Away Kit with a laptop into the aircraft's data bus to see what's wrong, reconfigure software, or repair hardware," says David Perez, an experienced Gulfstream Aerospace Avionics Electrical Systems Lead.
"Testing is non-intrusive, so there's no need to disassemble the aircraft," Perez says. "It can save weeks or even months in misdiagnosed repair time and eliminate the expense of many service calls. The kit will save me hundreds of hours a year in troubleshooting time that I won't have to spend on the phone with manufacturers' tech reps.
Used with a standard laptop PC, the Fly-Away Kit can update aircraft configuration software, or get online troubleshooting help from DPI via the Internet. The Fly-Away Kit can replace control panels to operate any cabin-control amenity aircraft wide from lighting and air gaspers to audio, DVD, and display panels, DPI officials say.
The Fly-Away Kit includes: a shipside bus tester, a shipside tester SL-1955, a light dimmer pulse-width modulation), a relay control module light dimmer, a switch panel simulator, and a dialogue module.
Each tester comes in a non-metallic, hand-held enclosure to assure electrical isolation. The Smart-Link III (SL-III) Cabin Management Operating System integrates reading/cabin lighting, in-flight entertainment and air gasper controls, as well as attendant call functions in a centrally managed control panel.
A directional bus and SL-III "smart packs," each has an embedded microprocessor and dedicated central processor that routes and processes information independently. If a SL-III component fails, the remaining "smart packs" continue operating without interruption.
For more information contact DPI Labs by phone at 909-392-5777, by fax at 909-392-0277, by post at 1350 Arrow Highway, LaVerne, Calif. 91750, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.dpilabs.com.
Military & Aerospace Electronics
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