I wanted to share an experience with EI customer support. My CGR 30P screen brightness was too low that it was very difficult to read. Not unusable, but pretty darn bad.

I exchanged a few emails with Blake at customer support. Let me say, I should be way better with electronics than I am. I’m pretty bad. I couldn’t really make sense of the emails and got Blake on the phone from the front seat of my C180.

He walked me right through the system configuration, gave me the maintenance passcode, and gave me detailed instructions on how to change the brightness settings. The settings are buried in that little computer and we got it working in about 2 minutes.

Hats off to EI and Blake at Customer Support.

Thank you!!!

+1

E.I. has always had fantastic customer service. Blake, David, all of them are really helpful and make issues easy... which is the exact opposite of JPI.

Over the last decade, I have installed many many E.I. units, and think they are by far a superior product. This is because I personally prefer the GUI way better (Mac/PC kinda thing,) but more importantly, know that whatever issues pop up downstream, they will be there to happily help make it right with no headache. Great family owned company with a great track record.

Kudos E.I.

I did a test a few months ago. I called JPI and was still on hold after 22 minutes. Then just for comparison I called EI, I was on the phone with Blake in 30 seconds. They're super helpful at EI and Ill definitely never buy a JPI product again.

All good intel. That said, I have been using JPI products in my personal airplanes for thirty years, and previously in my work airplanes as well.

To date, I have had precisely one need to call customer service…..a 1000 plus hour fuel transducer, which was replaced via express delivery. That was a number of years ago, however.

I sincerely hope JPI gets their customer service back to where it used to be. But, personally, I prefer to buy equipment that doesn’t require customer service.



MTV

mtv wrote:All good intel. That said, I have been using JPI products in my personal airplanes for thirty years, and previously in my work airplanes as well.

To date, I have had precisely one need to call customer service…..a 1000 plus hour fuel transducer, which was replaced via express delivery. That was a number of years ago, however.

I sincerely hope JPI gets their customer service back to where it used to be. But, personally, I prefer to buy equipment that doesn’t require customer service.



MTV

Well my brand new JPI needed customer service. He was an absolute a-hole, kept telling me it was an installer error. When I finally proved to him it was installed correctly he said "send it back to tue factory then" and hung up on me. A couple phone calls with the sales/RMA team later they had lined up a replacement for me. I was happy and went to my 6 week ag course fully expecting the new unit to be waiting for me to install when I got home. Get home and nothing here. Couple phone calls later and they had completely forgot about it as the lady I was dealing with went on holidays shortly after getting it lined up for me. So my customer has been without his airplane for going on 3 months over a simple engine monitor install. Camtom on here was able to help me sort out a few things as far as the install goes that tech support wouldn't/couldn't do.
Long story short, I'll never voluntarily buy a JPI product again. EIs service has always been fast and prompt for me, which probably makes this seem worse, but it was honestly brutal.

I have a components from both outfits, and while I've yet to have a really bad experience with JPI, my EI experiences have almost always been better.

Question for CGR-30P or 30C users if I may stray a little,

Would you find the 'strip' gauges useable for critical stuff? They seem awful small. Case in point, The CGR-30C has no 'arc' gauges like the P model. So everything is just a stack of strip gauges. But it would appear that the 30C is the only one currently supporting Turbo props. Where is the 30T ?

I have one bird with a whole stack of early EI individual gauges that I'd like to convert to something a little more 'modern', but not sure I want do spend the premium an MVP demands for this particular aircraft. I'd pony up for a CGR, but with mostly night ops off the typical short tight ag strips, the last thing I'd want is a primary indicator that requires 'hunting' for information?

Opinions?

Take care, Rob

Rob,

Isn't one of the issues with all the CGR instruments that not all "required" instrument readings are available on one page? One of the advantages of the larger, rectangular presentations, which both EI and JPI offer. I realize the "required" parameters are typically also annunciated if an exceedence is measured, but I for one like to view all primary instruments at one glance.

MTV

I have a bunch of EI devices and I have always had good experiences with them. David is really helpful

Rob wrote:Case in point, The CGR-30C has no 'arc' gauges like the P model. So everything is just a stack of strip gauges. But it would appear that the 30C is the only one currently supporting Turbo props.

Hi all-
Thank you very much for all the kind words! I wanted to follow up on the above quote as the CGR-30C can indeed be configured with arc gauges at the top of the display, instead of horizontal strip gauges. In doing so, the main page can display eight functions instead of 10 as the arc gauges occupy the same real estate as to horizontal bar graph gauges. Pics of the 30C configured with arc gauges can be found here: https://www.iflyei.com/product/cgr-30c/

Worth noting, any primary function displayed on the CGR-30P will turn either yellow or red if violating a corresponding range. Additionally, if the included annunciator lights are installed, those will be triggered as well, directing the pilot's attention to the display.

Dave

Arctic Flyer wrote:I wanted to share an experience with EI customer support. My CGR 30P screen brightness was too low that it was very difficult to read. Not unusable, but pretty darn bad.

You just reminded me of a boneheaded move I pulled when my CGR-30P was new. One day it suddenly started blinking in and out- lit one moment, dark the next. Pretty bummed I figured it was TU and was all ready to pound on EI's desk about it. Fortunately right before doing so, I just happened to notice that my panel lighting dimmer had been turned and it was resting exactly between the CGR's idea of day vs night. Glad I hadn't come to that realization with their tech on the other end of a help call!
-DP

darata wrote:

Rob wrote:Case in point, The CGR-30C has no 'arc' gauges like the P model. So everything is just a stack of strip gauges. But it would appear that the 30C is the only one currently supporting Turbo props.

Hi all-
Thank you very much for all the kind words! I wanted to follow up on the above quote as the CGR-30C can indeed be configured with arc gauges at the top of the display, instead of horizontal strip gauges. In doing so, the main page can display eight functions instead of 10 as the arc gauges occupy the same real estate as to horizontal bar graph gauges. Pics of the 30C configured with arc gauges can be found here: https://www.iflyei.com/product/cgr-30c/

Worth noting, any primary function displayed on the CGR-30P will turn either yellow or red if violating a corresponding range. Additionally, if the included annunciator lights are installed, those will be triggered as well, directing the pilot's attention to the display.

Dave

That may have sealed the deal on my next 'box'... PM sent

darata wrote:

Rob wrote:Case in point, The CGR-30C has no 'arc' gauges like the P model. So everything is just a stack of strip gauges. But it would appear that the 30C is the only one currently supporting Turbo props.

Hi all-
Thank you very much for all the kind words! I wanted to follow up on the above quote as the CGR-30C can indeed be configured with arc gauges at the top of the display, instead of horizontal strip gauges. In doing so, the main page can display eight functions instead of 10 as the arc gauges occupy the same real estate as to horizontal bar graph gauges. Pics of the 30C configured with arc gauges can be found here: https://www.iflyei.com/product/cgr-30c/

Worth noting, any primary function displayed on the CGR-30P will turn either yellow or red if violating a corresponding range. Additionally, if the included annunciator lights are installed, those will be triggered as well, directing the pilot's attention to the display.

Dave

Slight thread drift; is it ever going to be possible to configure the MVP-50 screen with arcs? That’s the only thing the EDM has over the MVP, IMO.

Is this a recip only thing?
My MVP-50T has 4 arcs for NG, NP, ITT, and Torque

Take care, Rob

Replied to your PM, Rob.

darata wrote:Replied to your PM, Rob.

Thank you, sent you another.

My comment above was for Halestorm. Maybe he meant all arcs instead of just the compulsory 4 complimented by a stack of strip guages? I have a smaller EDM (830), and it only has 2 arcs hence my confusion. Maybe the larger EDM's can be configured with all arcs

Take care, Rob