Is it a habit we prefer mechnical instruments?

We used to mechanical instruments when we learnt fly in school. Whether
it is habit we can not accept digital meters. For example quartz
crystal watch, we almost accept it now. There few people using
mechanical watch. I think it is developing direction for digital
meters.
I just wondered which kinds of digital meters, electric analog or
numeric meter, do pilot can accept. Or we can accept an electric analog
meter with digital number in it?

wrote:
We used to mechanical instruments when we learnt fly in school. Whether
it is habit we can not accept digital meters. For example quartz
crystal watch, we almost accept it now. There few people using
mechanical watch. I think it is developing direction for digital
meters.
I just wondered which kinds of digital meters, electric analog or
numeric meter, do pilot can accept. Or we can accept an electric analog
meter with digital number in it?


Personally, I'd go for an analog display digital.

It's a question of how easy it is to read, interpret and understand the
information that the meter is displaying

Raw numbers takes more time and thought.

Can you imagine trying to fly needle, ball, and airspeed with
numeric readouts?


Richard

Same deal with a VOM.... For a static voltage reading a digital VOM is
nice...
But for tuning a circuit, where you are twisting some pot, etc. and
watching the reading change, the moving analog needle is the preferred
meter... The human brain is very good at seeing something move and
predicting where it will be an instant from now... Same skill as your
dog catching a frisbee, or throwing a football ahead of a running
receiver...
Even if the electronics are digital, the display should be some form of
moving 'needle' so the monkey brain behind the yoke can anticipate how
much correction to crank in to make the 'needles' slide back to
center...

denny

Thank you Mr. Richard, Denny.
Please not be sick of my more questions.
From your opinion, you like "needle" meters. I want to know why most of
digital manufacturers made numeric readouts. I think they have
investigated markets, and then they done these kinds of products. Since
I browsed aircraftspure catalogues. I found numeric readout digital
meters stand in front of selling catalogue. I guessed there are a lot
of people buy and use them. Maybe I am wrong.

Luo

wrote in message
oups.com...
Thank you Mr. Richard, Denny.
Please not be sick of my more questions.
From your opinion, you like "needle" meters. I want to know why most of
digital manufacturers made numeric readouts. I think they have
investigated markets, and then they done these kinds of products. Since
I browsed aircraftspure catalogues. I found numeric readout digital
meters stand in front of selling catalogue. I guessed there are a lot
of people buy and use them. Maybe I am wrong.

Luo

Not necessarily wrong--or right.

Numeric digital meters have been around for quite a while. When the concept
was new, a solid state analog display was prohibitively expensive--where it
was even available. So, if the requirement was only to obtain a steady
state reading and write it in a book or log, they worked just fine and
eliminated parallax and any disagreement between technicians interpolating
the numbers. In addition, many meters had a "peak hold" function which
could preserve peak values until they could be copied from the face of the
meter. Even 25 years ago, seven segment displays were cheap, bright, and
readable; and, with the available rubber cover, the package could be dropped
on a concrete floor without damage or loss of accuracy.

Besides, when we needed to tune anything, or watch anything dynamic, we
could still get the old analog meter from the shelf, supply room, or truck.
So, no one really ever converted to digital readouts--but they are really
rugged, light, and useful for some tasks.

At the moment, I can think of a few places in an aircraft cockpit where
digital flight instrument readouts are acceptable, and even useful, but none
where they have a clear advantage.

wrote:
Thank you Mr. Richard, Denny.
Please not be sick of my more questions.
From your opinion, you like "needle" meters. I want to know why most of
digital manufacturers made numeric readouts. I think they have
investigated markets, and then they done these kinds of products. Since
I browsed aircraftspure catalogues. I found numeric readout digital
meters stand in front of selling catalogue. I guessed there are a lot
of people buy and use them. Maybe I am wrong.

Luo


Digital instruments are easy to program and don't take much computing
resources. Converting the display to a form fit for human consumption
take more computing and programming horsepower.

--
This is by far the hardest lesson about freedom. It goes against
instinct, and morality, to just sit back and watch people make
mistakes. We want to help them, which means control them and their
decisions, but in doing so we actually hurt them (and ourselves)."

--------snip---------

Digital instruments are easy to program and don't take much computing
resources. Converting the display to a form fit for human consumption
take more computing and programming horsepower.

Exactly right. Plus two additional problems:
1) Most modern general purpose computers have voluminous operating
systems and take too much time to cold start (or boot up), even if ROM is
substituted for the disk drive. That means a lot more programming.
2) Presently, there is too little standardization, especially of the NAV
equipment. And integration of the NAV display(s) is a major reason for
considering electronic displays.

So it's not that we necessarily prefer mechanical instruments, but we
certainly have reason to demand that any replacement be at least as good in
all ways important to a pilot, such as:
1) Ease of comprehension.
2) Similarity of controls and displays in aircraft a pilot might fly.
3) Redundancy--at least as good as our old electrical plus vacuum.
4) Immunity from "wash out" in direct sunlight.

On 16 Apr 2006 23:44:47 -0700, wrote:

We used to mechanical instruments when we learnt fly in school. Whether
it is habit we can not accept digital meters. For example quartz
crystal watch, we almost accept it now. There few people using
mechanical watch. I think it is developing direction for digital
meters.
I just wondered which kinds of digital meters, electric analog or
numeric meter, do pilot can accept. Or we can accept an electric analog
meter with digital number in it?

just as a bum pilot I prefer mechanical needle instrument displays
rather than digital numeric displays.

when the value is changing rapidly the numeric display can be
impossible to read while the needle display can always be read.

when the value is not stable the numeric display has the least
significant digit in constant change which can be needlessly
distracting.

the colour arc behind the needle can tell me instantly whether the
value is within an acceptable range.

I'm not against digital displays at all but I prefer the dual analog
and digital displays so that I can quickly glance at a value under all
situations. if it is stable I would probably use the digits. if it is
in motion I would use the analog needle/bar graph display.

remember as well that in real world aviation environments the
instruments get cold enough at altitude to get condensation everywhere
and in our summers will need to keep working in 45 degree celcius
heat. it isnt good enough to just make instruments, you have to make
instruments that will keep on working in all situations or you may
kill people. kill people and your markets will evaporate overnight.

btw it would be really nice to see the chinese focus on quality!!!!
it is really frustrating to see our industries move to china then to
see the inexorable drop in quality in the subsequent products.
it would also be nice to see china contribute to the development of
new technology rather than the continual debasement of well
established levels of quality.
I have used a chinese made 25mm micrometer now for 15 years which is
superbly made and proves that china can produce quality goods.
unfortunetely flip over the myriad number of broken items these days
and you will see "made in china" on the bottom. this has to change!

in aviation, junk that malfunctions is totally unacceptable.

Stealth Pilot
an australian pilot.

Thank you so much that you gave us more advice.
Yes, quality is the most importance in our country. Chinese
manufacturers realise it these years. They are working hard to follow
world's step.
I should emphasized that we have a strong air industry. China has
developed their air for more than 50 years. The foreigner know a little
about Chinese air industry. We sell a few air products to the abroad.
Since we don't know what are air requirement of foreigners. The
foreigners don't know we had a strong technical powers in this fields.
Just to see our aircraft instruments which I had sold them to the
abroad markets for more than 15 years. Maybe you had seen our products,
maybe you used them. Our products quality is better in Ultralight
fields.
Please see our Web: http://www.ming-da.com

I wish to learn more comment to improve our products. Since pilot is
our finial customers. They have a full experience to comment our
products.
I have done international trade for more than 20 years. I knew our
country's industry well. I am so interesting in air field. Althought I
have not pilot licence which it need 8 months to study with
USD15,000.00 in China. I have no time to do it. I wish one day I fly
with my plane.

Luo

On 18 Apr 2006 00:44:55 -0700, wrote:

Thank you so much that you gave us more advice.
Yes, quality is the most importance in our country. Chinese
manufacturers realise it these years. They are working hard to follow
world's step.
I should emphasized that we have a strong air industry. China has
developed their air for more than 50 years. The foreigner know a little
about Chinese air industry. We sell a few air products to the abroad.
Since we don't know what are air requirement of foreigners. The
foreigners don't know we had a strong technical powers in this fields.
Just to see our aircraft instruments which I had sold them to the
abroad markets for more than 15 years. Maybe you had seen our products,
maybe you used them. Our products quality is better in Ultralight
fields.
Please see our Web: http://www.ming-da.com


that directional gyro-electric in the bottom left of the page looks
amazingly like an artificial horizon.