Bench tested the BMA EFIS and GNC 300XL. I used a tightly regulated power supply to supply dc power to the BMA efis. I connected the gps receiver and magnetometer to check heading and moving map communication. The gps receiver was near the house under fairly heavy tree cover, but managed to pick up 6-7 satellites. The efis system appeared to work correctly showing satellite reception and strength, and valid heading input from the magnetometer. I cycled through all of the display and played with moving the EFIS around as if in flight. The synthetic vision display seemed to bog down the graphics processor a little when rapidly moving the efis. Normal flight operations should not experience dynamic movement to that degree except during a little tail chase or aero. Not too concerned with synthetic vision during those operations anyway.
I was happy with the display of the efis. It is not the latest, top-of-the-line display, but more than adequate for the price. The moving map with terrain alerts is phenomenal. The map will display airways, airspace, airports and fixes. With an additional screen to display approach plates, I will have a paperless cockpit (leaning towards iPad running ForeFlight). The NavWorks ADS-B receivers will also provide free weather and traffic but will require an additional display. May end up with a small iPaq running Anywhere Map wx.
I also briefly applied power to the garmin 300xl and it appeared to work as advertised. I did not have actual pins to connect power so I had to hold the power lead to the pin and thus it was too difficult to spend much time with the 300XL, but I have enough confidence to install the unit.
regulated power supply
synthetic vision with terrain enhanced moving map
synthetic vision with HSI (only internal gps applied)
