That's one awfully expensive UART. Most UART chips go for less that
US$20. Whack that on a PCB and maybe you're up to US$100 for a
sophisticated board (brand new). These days with such high-level
integration of PCB components (just look at what an 18 pin PICMicro
MPU running at 20MHz can do), and such a small space behind an
instrument panel, there's not too many things that could go wrong
apart from the basic building blocks of CPU, sensors, switches, power
supplies and display/output devices. I'm sure if they can do
something in software to save some hardware, that's what they'd do in
the quest for space saving.

There's nothing much that can fatally damage glider instrument
circuitry except for a lightning strike. I would expect that even if
a board were removed and replaced with a new one of the shelf,
Cambridge would be able to refurbish it relatively easily if their
repair lab is up to scratch (and will re-sell it on a subsequent
repair).


Thanks, CAI. I hope the company is able to recover quickly from its
current legal troubles and rebuild what was once one of the premier
names in soaring instrumentation. Based on this limited experience,
the owners seem intent on supporting the current user base.

I'm sure at $340 a pop for what sounds like a simple repair, their
books will be healthier by the day and they can afford plenty of
lawyers if they need them !

CU

Jason

Believe me, I wasn't happy with the cost of the repair. On the other
hand, IF repairs are limited to board swapping (and I don't know that
this is true) and IF CAI has a limited supply of boards (same
comment), and IF it took the tech a few hours to trace/fix the problem
(at the customary hourly rates), then my choices were to pay CAI OR to
buy a new FAI-approved flight recorder at close to $1,000.

I also neglected to mention that CAI included a fresh recalibration so
the "value" side of the equation is a little higher than I implied
(even though I anticipate no real need for it).

The market for soaring instrumentation is extremely small even for one
manufacturer. Throw in a half dozen other companies who have related
products and the high costs of developing and manufacturing low-volume
products plus the FAI's/SSA's insistence on a level of security that
not only exceeds that achievable by previous documentation methods but
also essentially mandates the use of proprietary recording devices and
we have a recipe for my $340 repair.

In other words, don't blame CAI. We brought this on ourselves.

Chip Bearden