German avionics manufacturer AIM has introduced a new smart tool set for avionics maintenance engineers handling ARINC429 testing.
Photo, courtesy of AIM.
The new solution is structured around AIM’s ANET429-x Ethernet-based databus interface. AIM equipped the new ANET box with Wi-Fi capability that allows it to interface with a Windows 8.1-based Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) tablet computer.
Doug Ullah, director of sales and marketing for AIM’s U.K. office calls the new tool set “revolutionary,” especially for maintenance engineers that are used to simple integral black and white displays with dedicated interfaces.
“We’ve got all of the ARINC 429 monitoring capability within this box, with the addition of a USB interface such that you can plug in a Wi-Fi stick. Which basically means you can hook up this box to an aircraft on the ARINC 429 bus, and with the Wi-Fi stick it can communicate to devices like Windows tablets,” said Ullah.
“So that’s really the revolution here, the fact that we can now use Wi-Fi directly with an ARINC 429 interface and of course it’s a very mobile portable system,” Ullah added.
The new ANET box is platform independent, and can be used with any aircraft that has an ARINC429 data link onboard.
Additionally, the new tool set provides the advantage of AIM’s standard PBA.pro databus software with application specific projects such as pre-flight maintenance tasks, data logger and customizable customer created panels.
“People have just started to buy these now, because the product is fairly new, but the response has been quite good. We’ve had a number of airlines buy the boxes. It’s been quite revolutionary for them,” said Ullah.