Hi Paul,

Is that a Mini Nimbus? (Or maybe a Standard Cirrus?). Either way, I've just redone my panel on my 1978 Mini Nimbus, and decided to DIY an openvario (www.openvario.org). It runs XCSOAR and integrates nicely with my existing lxnav S7 and FLARM.

Before and after pic he

http://i.imgur.com/LIAgqt2.jpg


I also took the opportunity to clean up all the rats nest of wiring and pneumatics, and made each individual piece of equipment switchable between battery A & B in-flight (without interruption) using a MOSFET switching circuit.

All DIY, other than the pre-fabricated panel blank (not strictly necessary, but the old one was aluminium and I wanted to make it safer)... oh and I bought a FlarmView.

None of this is necessary of course, but you can achieve a lot with a limited budget and some perseverance.