License Agreement

Introduction

EIS Mate is, as the name would suggest, a companion to the EIS from Grand Rapids Technologies. It collects and displays information from that device, presenting it in graphical and/or text form to ease understanding of the information from the EIS.

EIS Mate contains 6 programmable pages and one fixed-configuration page. Any number of data items may be displayed on a single page. Several kinds of graphs are available for data displays, or no graph at all may be specified if you simply want to display numbers. A label may be displayed with each data item. Four fonts are available for your displaying numbers, and three fonts are available for text.

EIS Mate can act as a flight data recorder. At a configurable rate, if data changes, all data items are logged. Data is easily imported into common spreadsheet programs.

You will need a PalmOS 3.5 or greater device. These can be purchased fairly inexpensively. For example, a Handspring Visor (monochrome screen) typically sells on various auction websites for $30-40. Note: If you decide to get a device with a color screen, consider that most older color screens are NOT sunlight-readable. Palm's Tungsten devices do have transflective color screens, which can be seen in direct sunlight. Monochrome screens require less power and typically offer better battery life, but nearly all new devices (with newer battery technology) are color screens.

Connection to your EIS
EIS Mate connects to the EIS by a common serial port (RS-232, 9600 bps, 8N1). You will need a cable to connect the handheld to a seral port. This can be a serial cradle or just a cable. Mixed results have been achieved with serial-to-Infrared converters, so this connection is not recommended at this time. Most devices may be connected to a computer using a serial port. Some cables include the ability to charge the handheld device's battery, too.

If you are using the demo program, running on Windows, you can connect the computer to your EIS using a PC serial port (COM1, etc).

The distribution of EIS Mate is in a compressed archive file containing several files. Expanding this archive will create a new folder/directory. Then, double-click on eismate.prc to install the program to your PalmOS device. The installation to the device will happen on the next HotSync.

• eismate-[version].prc - This is the EIS Mate program.
• eismate-[version]-Windemo.exe - This is demo program which runs on Windows.
• Mathlib.PRC - This is a collection of math functions needed by parts of EIS Mate. If you get a message indicating, "It appears Mathlib is not installed," then install it using this file. Handspring devices already include Mathlib. Most other PalmOS devices will need to add Mathlib.PRC.
• Checklists.txt - This file contains a series of checklists, customizable by you. See the section on checklists for information on installing this.
• doc/ReadMe.html - This file.
• doc/[images]

Enter your corresponding license key. Once entered, EIS Mate stores the key, so you should only have to enter it once. The key can be entered in lower-case or upper-case. The challenge code is different for each handheld.

There are 7 available pages of displays. The other pages can be accessed by pressing up/down as needed. The page # assigned to each button, 1-3, can be changed in the "General Settings" screen.

Of the 7 available pages, pages numbered 1-6 can be customized to display whatever information is desired. Page 0 always displays simply the numeric value of all 40 data items. Page 0:

If your EIS appears to have the altimeter option, you will see the indicated altitude and corresponding altimeter setting. Pressing Up or Down changes the represented sea-level barometric pressure (altimeter setting). This does not affect the corresponding setting in the EIS unit. Rather, adjustments to indicated altitude and density altitude are made based on adjustments to EIS Mate's altimeter setting. If the altimeter setting coming from the EIS changes, the altimeter setting in EIS Mate is reset to the incoming setting. Typically, one would leave the EIS set at 29.92" Hg, so the EIS would display standard pressure altitude, and EIS Mate's setting would be adjusted to reflect local barometric pressure, showing MSL.

Configuration
Settings for running EIS Mate fall into 4 categories:

All settings are stored in a configuration database. When you first install EIS Mate, you may have an option to install a default configuration. If you do not supply a configuration database, EIS Mate will create a configuration database for you. Thereafter, you can change all settings from the configuration screens.

Saving configuration database
Once you have modified the configuration of EIS Mate on your PalmOS device and have synchronized the device with your computer, you can save a copy of the configuration database. You will find a file named "EIS_Config.pdb" in the backup folder/directory. The location of this file for a Handspring Visor is as follows: "C:\Program Files\Handspring\user name\Backup". Simply copy the PDB file to another folder. To restore that saved configuration, double-click on the PDB file and sync the handheld.

To access the configuration menu, press button #2 from the Main Menu. Lines drawn from menu choices generally connect to the buttons on the face of your PalmOS device. Press the button corresponding to "Configuration" on the Main Menu. Then, press the button corresponding to the desired category.

General settings are read once, when EIS Mate starts. They do not change when changing between pages. After making changes, the new settings will be used. To return to normal operation, tap either the X or SAVE buttons. Tapping SAVE will keep the settings the next time EIS Mate runs. Tapping X will keep the modified settings and revert to the saved settings the next time it runs.

Device
Only the EIS 4000/6000 is currently supported. The EIS 9000 is similar, and we believe only slight changes are required for its support. Additionally, support for other devices, such as EIS 2004 and other manufacturer's products would not likely be difficult to add. Contact us at info@EISMate.com for details.

Logging interval in seconds (default = 5)
Each time data is received from the EIS, if it's been at least as long as the specified interval, and data has changed, a log record is written of all data. Writing the log data more frequently may overload cumputing capacity of older devices.

Automatic logging (default = OFF)
If this setting is checked, logging will begin automatically when the tachometer is greater than 0 RPM. And, logging will stop after the first log entry where the tachometer is 0 RPM.

Button X page
There are 7 pages available in EIS Mate. One may be assigned to each of the three front buttons, #1 - #3. Button #4 is reserved to bring up the main menu.

Auto-off delay
This setting adds to the handheld unit's normal automatic power-off setting. The auto-off timer is reset each time an update is received from the EIS, so this setting is used to extend the "ON" time before and after receiving updated data. This is typically used to start the data logging feature well before powering up the aircraft. The default is 30 min. As of 1.0.6, it is not saved in the config database.

Data Settings are read when EIS Mate starts. Each data item has several settings which are used to determine the graph colors in the actual display pages. There are Normal and OK ranges for each data item. There are configurable "marker" values, which can be used to label specific values on graphs. Tap the button with the data item name to select another data item. Tap X to cancel your changes. Tap SAVE to store the changed settings in the configuration database.

Log changes
Each time the data logging interval is reached, this setting is checked. If this is set to Y (for yes) and the item's value has changed, a log entry will be written. Thus, changes in certain data can be ignored while logging data by changing this to N (for no).

Max OK
This value is the upper "red-line" value. When drawing graphs, if this value is exceeded, the graph and number will be red.

Max Normal
This value is the upper limit of normal operating values. When drawing graphs, if the data item value is between this value and the Max OK value, the graph will be yellow.

Min Normal
This value is the lower limit of normal operating values. When drawing graphs, if the data value is between this value and the Min OK value, the graph will be yellow.

Min OK
This value is the "minimum acceptable" value. When drawing graphs, if the data item value is less than this, the graph and number will be red.

Normalized
The range of values displayed on the graph is derived from the Normal and OK values. As such, a series of items lined up next to each other will nicely line up their normal values, enabling a quick scan beyond the color scan.

Dynamic
Using the graph span value, a dynamic item is such that the normal and OK values change throughout the flight. The prime example using the Dynamic setting is altitude. For example, setting the graph span to 1000 will inform EIS Mate to set the graph minimum and maximum values to 1000 feet above and below the nearest 500-foot mark, based on the current value. This takes place when changing pages.

Graph
The setting in this section define the graph range, for example, CHTH (hottest CHT) between 200 and 500. See Normalized for automatic definition of graph range based on operating limits.

Markers
You can define two special values for each data item. For example, for ASPD (Airspeed), Vy can be a labeled mark on the graph. Tap the number to set the value and tap the box next to that to set the label.

Page Data Items are the individual items on each page. These settings define the look of each of the 6 programmable pages. These settings are read each time you change pages in EIS Mate. Tap the button with the data item name to select another data item. Tap X to cancel your changes. Tap SAVE to store the changed settings in the configuration database.

Each data item has an anchor point in cartesian coordinates (X-axis and Y-axis values). From this anchor point each of the three elements (Label, Number, and Graph) are located. To move the data item, change the X and Y values. Several options are available to refine the displayed graphs.

Please see the Page Configuration Worksheet and the Page Configuration Worksheet Sample for understanding of building custom pages.

Page Lines & Text are those things (in addition to data labels and graph lines/markers) you may want to add to a page. As with the Page Data Items, editing these settings corresponds to the specific page you're on.

Note: Be sure to change your operating system default, if it is to hide filename extensions. In "Explorer" that setting is under the "Tools | Folder Options..." menu. Click "View" and unckeck "Hide extensions".

The format of logged data is to Comma-Separated Values (CSV) text inside a Palm DB file. After a session of logging EIS data, HotSync the device to your computer. You will find a file named "EIS_Data.pdb" in the backup folder/directory. The location of this file for a Handspring Visor is as follows: "C:\Program Files\Handspring\user name\Backup" You can treat the PDB file as if it were a CSV, opening it in a program that understands CSV text, such as a spreadsheet program (Lotus 1-2-3, Microsoft Excel). You may need to rename the file to something.csv, or, you might be able to simply rename the file and double-click on it. Some programs might not like the extra noise at the beginning of the file. If this happens to you, simply open the PDB file in a text editor, then remove the first line(s) and save as a CSV file. The first column is the number of seconds since logging was started.

Checklists are stored in a Memo Pad entry named "Checklists". Note that many newer devices default to using Note Pad, but also provide Memo Pad. Only Memo Pad entries are read for checklists. Inside the "Checklists" memo, each separate checklist begins with a plus sign "+" followed by the name of the checklist. Blank lines and lines which begin with a hash "#" are ignored. An example is provided. Review it for further understanding.

To install the supplied checklkists, open the Checklists.txt file, and copy its contents to the clipboard. Start the Palm Desktop, and paste it into a new Memo.

Sample Checklist: