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 VP-X Electronic Circuit Breaker SystemWhen you're flying an airplane, it’s critical to be able to monitor the status of your electrical system. If you have a glass cockpit, it's even more critical. Only Vertical Power gives you the level of detail and control you need for today’s electric aircraft The VP-X integrates with many popular EFIS products enabling you to monitor and control your entire electrical system on the EFIS display. In addition using the EFIS for attitude, navigation, and engine information, you now can use the EFIS display to monitor the health of your electrical system, view and control the status of individual circuits, and respond to circuit faults. Vertical Power offers these capabilities through the use of our patented electronic circuit breaker (ECB) technology that is at the core of all of our products. Of course, ECBs provide circuit protection like old-fashion thermal circuit breakers, but ECBs do a lot more than just detect circuit faults. ECBs are intelligent, configurable, and offer capabilities not otherwise available with old-style breakers. For example, ECBs can detect a burned-out landing light or disable the starter circuit while the engine is running. ECBs greatly simplify wiring while at the same time provide advanced electrical system capabilities. These capabilities include solid-state power switching and circuit protection, open circuit detection, automatic landing light wig-wag, pilot and co-pilot trim control, runaway trim protection with backup trim controls on EFIS, flap control with intermediate flap stops, starter disable when engine running, flap over-speed alarms, trim and flap position display, over-voltage protection, alternator control and more. These advanced features along with the wiring harness kit give you a "quick-build" wiring experience.
Electronic circuit breakers are fully configurable to match your specific aircraft. You can set the circuit breaker value for each ECB, and you can assign which switch controls the ECB. And you can use any type of switch you want for the avionics master, boost pump, landing lights and other functions. The VP-X is built using the same field-proven hardware and software technology as our other products. It’s been proven in hundreds of experimental aircraft over thousands of flight hours. And you can easily wire backup circuits for critical avionics to eliminate any single point of failure concerns. The VP-X supports a single bus electrical architecture with a single or dual alternator configuration. It additionally supports the ability to measure the voltage on an aux battery. There are enough circuits to wire a typical RV (including the RV-10), Glastar, Lancair Legacy, Velocity, Cozy, or other 2 to 4 place aircraft. The VP-X uses a third-party EFIS screen to display faults, flap and trim position, and individual electrical device status. You get the best of both worlds—ECBs are remotely mounted yet you can view their status and reset a fault from the EFIS screen. The VP-X is hidden from view and doesn’t take up any space on the panel. The screen below is an example of an electrical system display on the EFIS where you can view and control each electrical device. |
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VP-X Key features for builders of modern aircraft The Vertical Power logo indicates features only available from Vertical Power.Electrical System and Circuit Protection Electrical fault alarming and resetting on EFIS. When a circuit breaker pops, you may or may not know it. When the VP-X detects a fault, an alarm is shown on the EFIS and also may flash a master warning light and sound an audio alarm in the your headset.Short circuit alarm. When a short circuit is detected, the VP-X opens the circuit and generates a fault on the EFIS. You can then leave the circuit open or reset it manually from the EFIS screen. Current fault alarm. When a device draws no current when turned on, the VP-X opens the circuit and generates an alarm on the EFIS. You know right away if a landing light is burned out, an avionics fan has stopped working, or the boost pump is inoperative, for example. The feature can be turned on or off for each individual circuit. You can then leave the circuit open or reset it manually from the EFIS screen. Configurable panel switches. The switches on your instrument panel for avionics, landing lights, boost pump, and other items are wired directly to the VP-X. DualBuss™ technology. Two independent power busses in a single system. Read more a few sections down. Over-voltage protection. Disconnects the active alternator if an over-voltage condition is detected. Backup power for critical avionics. You can wire backup circuits for critical avionics so in the event of a failure there is an alternate power source. Wig-Wag Land light wig-wag with auto turn on & off. When you turn the landing lights on they are steady on the ground and then automatically pulse (wig-wag) while in the air. When you come in for landing, the lights are pulsing, but then remain steady below a specified airspeed. You can also set a desired warm-up time before the lights begin to pulse (typically for HID lights).Trim The VP-X drives the electric pitch and roll trim on your airplane based on inputs from external trim switches. It supports standard trim switches on the stick such as those on the Ray Allen, Tosten, or Infinity sticks (Do not buy the sticks with embedded relays). Solid-state, no relays. The control circuitry is all solid-state, meaning there are no problematic mechanical relays to fail. For additional safety, each trim circuit has two solid-state control switches wired in series, and each switch is independently commanded (by two different command mechanisms) by the microprocessor. Runaway trim protection and backup control. If your trim switch sticks or one of the switch wires shorts, you can stop the trim from running by pressing the opposite trim button. Holding the opposite button for three seconds will disable the trim switches. You can then control the trim from the soft keys on the EFIS as a backup.Variable-speed trim. The pitch trim motor runs more slowly at higher airspeeds, making the trim switch less sensitive. While at slower airspeeds (in the pattern, for example) the pitch trim motor runs at full speed. For example, you can set the pitch trim motor to run at 60% speed above 120 knots and 100% speed below 120 knots. Flaps The VP-X connects to standard (up)-off-(down) flap switches, the flap motor, and optionally a flap position sensor. The flap switch can be located on the stick, throttle, or on the panel. The pilot and co-pilot switches are both wired directly to the VP-X. Solid-state, no relays or black boxes. The control circuitry is all solid-state, meaning there are no problematic mechanical relays to fail. For additional protection, the flap circuit has two solid-state control switches wired in series, and each switch is independently commanded (by two different command mechanisms) by the microprocessor. Motor run-on protection. Some flap motors, like the one used by Van’s aircraft, have no internal limit switches and will run continuously if not controlled properly. You can specify the maximum motor run time, after which the motor will shut off and an alert displayed on the EFIS. Intermediate stops. With the optional flap position sensor, you can set the top and bottom limits as well as up to two intermediate flap position stops. Simply bump the flap switch down to go to the next down position, and bump it up to go all the way up. You can stop the flaps anywhere along the way by bumping the flap switch in the opposite direction. Backup flap control. If your flap switch becomes inoperative, you can control the flaps from the EFIS screen.Flap switch disable above a certain airspeed. The flap down switch is automatically disabled above a specified airspeed. The flap up switch works at all times. No mechanical airspeed switch is required.Flap over-speed warning. The EFIS displays a flap over-speed warning on the screen if the flaps are down above a specified airspeed. Starter Automatic starter disable. If the engine in running, the starter circuit is disabled. This means you can install a starter switch on the stick or on the panel and not worry about hitting it accidentally during flight.Starter annunciator. You see an annunciator on the EFIS whenever the starter contactor is closed. This is important as it can be difficult to detect a starter that is engaged once the engine is running. DualBuss™ Technology  The VP-X Pro includes Vertical Power’s new DualBuss™ technology that has two independent power busses in a single system, delivering unprecedented levels of redundancy and safety. Builders can now easily divide avionics and other electrical loads between two power busses, and should one bus controller fail the other bus will continue to operate independently and be able to provide power to the starter contactor. Each bus controller is powered by an independent power supply and microprocessor. For a complete list of features click here. Wiring With the VP-X Wiring your airplane is a serious project. No one can make it easy, but we can make it a lot easier. We provide complete instructions, how-to guides, tool rentals, wiring harnesses and wiring diagrams to assist with your project. Download the wiring documents here.
Then use the setup menus in the EFIS to configure your system. You specify which power pin each device is connected to, what the circuit breaker values are, and which switch should turn each device (or group of devices) on or off. You can use any type of switch you like to match your panel. Chose the style and type of switch you want. |
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| There are two data wires between the VP-X and the EFIS. If this communications link should fail, the VP-X continues to operate autonomously and provides circuit protection and standard trim and flap operation. The video below shows how to wire your aircraft using the VP-X. VP-X Wiring from Vertical Power on Vimeo. |
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| How It Works The actual power switching and circuit protection is handled by the VP-X. The EFIS provides setup, annunciator, and status information to the pilot. Alarming is handled using the same alarming mechanism that is in the EFIS today for engine alarms. Status and manual control is provided on a new electrical system page in addition to the existing attitude, navigation, and engine monitoring pages. The switches on your panel do not carry current and therefore can be any style of switch you prefer. Each switch simply tells the VP-X whether it is either on or off. Let’s say you have a landing light switch. One side of the switch is wired to ground. The other side is wired to a switch input on the VP-X. When you turn on the switch, it grounds the switch input on the VP-X. The microprocessor then commands one or more Electronic Circuit Breakers to turn on. In this example, it will tell one ECB to turn on the left landing light, and the other to turn on the right landing light. Then, when you are above a specified airspeed, it will start to wig-wag the landing lights. This is all handled by the microprocessor, and does not add any weight, black boxes, or additional wiring to the aircraft. If there is a fault, the VP-X reports the fault to the EFIS which displays an alert. You can ignore the fault or reset it, just like you can with an old-style circuit breaker. If the EFIS fails, the VP-X continues to operate normally but you don’t have a display of the faults. Because the VP-X is microprocessor controlled (like all EFIS displays, moving maps, GPS receivers, AHRS units, weather receivers, and other new avionics in the airplane) you can configure it to match the specific configuration of your aircraft. For example, you can configure the speed at which the lights start to wig-wag, the flap over-speed limit, the landing light warm-up time, each circuit breaker value, and which devices each switch controls. You can turn features on and off based on your needs. Below is a diagram of how a typical landing light wiring diagram might look. Remember, even with this simple wiring you have advanced features like burned out landing light detection, wig-wag, automatic wig-wag in the air, and lighting warm up prior to wig-wag. |
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Below is a diagram of a typical flap installation in an RV. The flap switch can be on the stick or on the panel. No outside relays or gizmos are needed. Even though the wiring is very simple, the functionality includes intermediate flap stops, flap position indicator on the EFIS, motor braking, motor run-on protection, flap over-speed warnings, and flap-down disable above flap extension speed. |
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| Cost Analysis Below is a table showing the cost of various components for your aircraft to achieve a basic level of functionality to the VP-X. As you look at each component, consider the added complexity for the wiring, learning, troubleshooting, and mounting requirements for each one. We think you’ll find the cost and simplicity of the VP-X is very competitive. |
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| VP-X Sport: $1,200 VP-X Pro: $1,800 |
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 Weight AnalysisThe VP-X weighs 2.5 pounds. Depending on the aircraft and the way it is outfitted, the VP-X comes in about net-neutral or a few pounds of weight savings. |
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| VP-X System Capabilities |
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| * Circuit breaker value can be set anywhere between 1 amp and the maximum value shown. Start your planning Now! Use the VP-X Load Planning Worksheet and Installation Manual to begin your electrical system planning here. Software Updates and Setup Software updating and system configuration are performed using a PC application that runs on Windows and connects to the VP-X via an Ethernet cable. Interfaces The VP-X requires an EFIS for configuration, alarm and status display. The currently supported systems include: • Advanced Flight Systems 3400s, 3500s, 4500s • Grand Rapids Technologies HX and Sport SX • MGL Avionics Voyager/Odyssey Gen II Want to see Dynon on the list? Contact Robert at Dynon via email here: robert.hamilton@dynonavionics.com Specifications |
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| Detailed dimension drawing available here. For additional information on Vertical Power products click on these links below |
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Quick Start Program FAQs Vertical Power now has a Video Gallery Watch Vertical Power in action. Click here to view the videos. |
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 Click here and read past newsletters in our Archive library. |
