Ralph. No need to do the Microsoft bashing. I think the everyone bases his judgment from his own experience. That is ok . Here is mine. 1. A 7 class BMW - electronics and all electrical dies without warning WHILE DRIVING. The car id dead for at least 30 minutes and after that as if nothing was wrong. Happened a few times. BMW dealership determined nothing was wrong with the car. I sent it to the junk yard. I lived in San Francisco these days, this car was a danger. Never again a BMW!2. Jaguar with Bosch fuel injection. A malfunctioning sensor avoided any success starting the car when lukewarm. Happened to a few Jag drivers. Took me a few weeks to locate the problem -> the sensor. The repair shop found nothing wrong with the car.3. Fiat Bravo with a Mitsubishi fuel injection unit. Car starts only sometimes. At OAT over 10 degrees celsius, car starts only every second day. Car also stalled while driving. Guess what, the FIAT service station did not find anything wrong with the car. But the EFI computer hat a malfunctioning chip that was heat sensitive. That I found out myself after a long phone call with a Electronic Control Unit specialist. All 3 cases happened to me. All 3 cases were fixed by me - the BMW was just garbage, as any BMW is. Computer chips are sensitive parts. They are sensitive to almost anything. Heat, vibration etc. Now think about the environment that your electronics will be in. One static overcharge and there goes your Computer system. It can happen to you in-flight. It certainly will happen this way or another over time. Cars older then 10 years most likely develop problems with their computer systems. Be it the air conditioning or what have it. My Ercoupe has Eisemann Magnetos on it that worked over 60 years long without much trouble. I had them rebuilt when they started to miss. And they are now as reliable as before. Try rebuilding a 10 year old computer - you won't even get the parts for it - you will have to replace the system completely. And I assume the total replacement of your electronic ignition and fuel injection system will happen short after the first AD grounds the whole fleet - 3 years after you bought everything. It's a nice thought to use electronic equipment on your aircraft engine, but I anticipate that it will be a very costly one it outdates itself over a few years as do all glass panels. Probably not wisely spent money. Hartmut
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 16:41:06 -0700Subject: RE: [ercoupe-tech] New Engine..... I sure wouldn’t hang my life on anything from Microsoft. However, we depend daily on computers running engines in our autos. They’ve been computer controlled for a couple of decades. Our 19 year old Mazda just died…the automatic transmission. 225K miles. At say 45mph average, that’s 5000 hours. The engine computer never failed, and imagine the abuse it takes. In my RV build, I will seriously consider electronic ignition, and—gasp!—Vertical Power’s solid state electrical system for the whole airplane (http://www.verticalpower.com/). It’s a brave new world ;-) Ralph Finch California From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Hartmut BeilSent: Sunday, August 03, 2008 1:01 PMTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Re: [ercoupe-tech] New Engine..... I am working with computers on a daily basis. I would not hang my life on a computer controlled system. _,_._,___ _________________________________________________________________ Reveal your inner athlete and share it with friends on Windows Live. http://revealyourinnerathlete.windowslive.com?locale=en-us&ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WLYIA_whichathlete_us
