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Direct plug-in KX155A replacement to get 8.33?

On a 100+ batch, the ex factory cost of a KX165A-like radio would be about €400. On a 1k+ batch, about €300.

You could sell them for €2000, so after the dealer discount you would get €1500. That’s a gross margin which is very acceptable for manufacturing.

I looked into this product a couple of years ago. I did not go ahead with it because there would be too much of a learning curve… One of the features of mine would have been different back ends for plug-in replacing a KX155 or a KX155A. Another would have been LED dot-matrix displays; not the luminescent ones which always fail eventually.

But really the biggest issue would have been getting the certification. Not the cost of it but learning “how”. Then there is a lot of hassle. Even getting a PMA means hosting a delegation of FAA inspectors for a week, and that’s after you know the process 100%. A small company cannot possibly do it. The entry level is the charade of ISO9000 and multiple posts for QA, management, etc. TSO is more hassle…

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Especially since the certification rules allow you to declare a completely different device to be a variant of an already certified device. My EDM830 has nothing to do with the prehistoric amber screen EDM700s and offers about 100 features more and yet it is an EDM700 subvariant xyz and covered by a pre EASA STC from the 1980s.

A very similar thread is here – this time about replacing the KX155 (non “A”).

I wonder which is the bigger market?

With the virtual disintegration of the Honeywell/King GA division, and certainly a total lack of new product R&D, one wonders why the existing players like Trig aren’t making more of the opportunity. No matter where you look, if you look at aircraft that are more than say 10 years old but actually go places (the vast majority of piston GA) they are full of this old stuff, and a very long way from “most” are going to be ripping out their old gear and putting in a G500 or whatever for 40-50k. If you have “VHF radio” technology in-house, knocking up a fully digital KX radio replacement would be relatively easy.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Not that I know off. There are some manufacturers working on new radio’s. Although I think many avionics shops will have requested this, I have to see that.
What I found most amazing was the size of the Garmin GNC / GTR series, which is smaller than KX series, and larger then Garmin’s own SL series, as suchs it always requires rework to the avionics stack, to keep everything lined up.

JP-Avionics
EHMZ

The KX165A/8.33 does it but is there anything else nowadays?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
5 Posts
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