A little over a year ago, Dynon attracted lots of eyeballs with its D1 Pocket Panel, a portable, battery-operated AHRS with its own color display. At AOPA Summit this week in Fort Worth, Texas, Dynon is following up with the D2, a similar product that retains the color display, but also communicates via wireless network to five tablet apps, displaying attitude and GPS speed and altitude information.
Coincidentally, in a booth around the corner, Garmin was showing its own D2, but that ones a pilot watch with GPS nav capability. No AHRS (yet). At $1425, Dynons D2 is competitive with several of the ADS-B portables that also provide attitude information wirelessly, but it doesnt include ADS-B capability. In introducing the D2, Dynon also announced a significant price drop on the existing D1. Its now selling for $1195, according to Dynons Rob Hamilton.
The D2 uses the same MEMS-based solid-state gyro technology used in the D1, but the company managed to squeeze a wireless transmitter into the 3 by 3 by 1 inch case. Dynon also found room to include another feature, a G-meter that lives on a second display page.
Both of these products are small enough to Velcro in an open spot on the panel and both operate more than four hours on an internal, rechargeable lithium-ion battery. They can also be operated with ships power.
Hamilton told us that the D2 is shipping from a number of vendors and in todays video coverage from Summit, he demonstrates the D2s basic feature set.
