Overdue Updates and Big Announcements!

Wow, we have a ton to talk about.

First and foremost, apologies for the radio silence. We have been extremely busy, and it is still just the two of us developing everything Atmos. Something was bound to slip, and I would much rather it be a few blog posts than the quality of Draco or anything else we have in the pipeline.

With that being said, we have a lot of exciting news.

First up: we will be at AirVenture Oshkosh! You can find us in Hangar D, Booth 4065, so come on down and pay us a visit. We will have a full demo of Draco on display, working with some partner apps that I will get to in a second. We may also have a few other things on hand that we have been cooking up while waiting for circuit boards to be made.

Said plainly, we were late to the party when it came to Oshkosh, and that is not a mistake we plan to repeat.

Story time.

We were at AEA, the Aircraft Electronics Association convention, and met with a few companies to demo Draco. Every time, we got asked some version of the same question:

“Are you going to be at Oshkosh? Because you should.”

At the time, we really were not sure if that was something we could accomplish. Atmos is fully self-funded, and neither of us are made of money. But we came together and said, “You know what? Oshkosh is important. We have to make it happen.”

So we did.

Originally, we were going to be in the Fly Market. It was the only booth we could get. It was outside, it was not ideal, but we were there and had a spot. Thankfully, an indoor booth opened up, and an appropriately sized one at that, so I jumped on it.

Now, in the spirit of being transparent, Draco is not ready for a full release yet, and it will not be fully released in time for Oshkosh.

There are still things that need to be tweaked on the circuitry side, and both the software and hardware require thorough in-flight testing before we are comfortable with Draco going to anyone paying full price for it. We are still open for beta testing sign-ups, so if you are interested in getting a free Draco unit, hit the link on the home page and put your info in. Signing up does not guarantee selection, but you do have to sign up to be considered.

The plan for Oshkosh is a soft release, along with pre-orders at a heavily discounted rate compared to what the final retail price will be. I do not have those numbers just yet, but I will have them before Oshkosh, and I will make sure everyone knows the plan when that time comes.

Earlier, I mentioned partner apps.

Atmos is proud to announce, personally this time, our partnerships with both Levil Aviation and iFlyEFB. They are the first companies to see Draco and adopt our technology as an option for their customers, and our hope is to see the number of integration-capable companies continue to grow.

Our mission, in short, is to give pilots more freedom in choosing how they build their avionics suites while still providing the full-featured experience they expect from modern avionics at a reasonable cost.

So, why have we been so busy?

Well, we started over.

Not from zero, but pretty close to it.

During our visit to Levil HQ, we learned a lot. Seriously, those people really know their stuff. After being thoroughly schooled, we went back to the drawing board and realized that the price increase in the CM5 over just the last six months or so was far too volatile for us to be comfortable with its continued use.

So we ditched the micro-computer as Draco’s brain and moved to a more standard microcontroller.

Those of you who read the first blog post might know why this is a big deal. The original intent was to use a roughly $70 brain and power board that we could reuse across multiple products. Over time, the savings in R&D would help us keep our products cheaper than most alternatives while still offering more features.

Well, in a very short time frame, that $70 became $125 at the time we made the decision. That kind of volatility was not acceptable.

So, what did Draco lose?

Nothing. Draco lost nothing.

That is why we have been so busy.

Draco is currently logging engine information in a human-readable format, just like before. It is still logging any errors that occur in flight, just like before. It is still reporting as much information as it was previously, and arguably more.

The difference is that Draco is no longer operating-system dependent like it was on the CM5. That means it is faster, closer to true real-time data, and far more reliable.

The same goes for the future. We poured blood, sweat, and tears into making sure the power board would remain cross-compatible with future products, just as it would have been with the CM5. The best part is that all of those changes have saved the customer well over $300 when talking about the retail price of a unit.

More exciting things are coming, and we would love to hear from everyone.

You can email us directly, ask us questions, and we will respond. You can sign up for blog updates and for consideration in our beta tester program. Social media accounts are coming soon, and we hope to build a community that we can interact with directly.

For now, though, the primary focus is Draco and getting ready for Oshkosh.

We hope to see you there!

-Dalton Co-founder/Software Engineer