Background Note: JPI recently was engaged in an internet marketing skirmish that we have reason to believe was fomented by those who would like to compete with JPI. Heated exchanges took place between JPI personnel and a few alleged customers.  A lot of internet noise was produced by a few zealots with an agenda who were evidently coached and orchestrated in an effort to make JPI look like the bad guys. Predictably, this all had little impact on JPI because of  JPI’s vastly superior product line.

JP Instrument’s Engine Data Management Systems Consistently Out Perform Other Engine Monitors In The Areas Of Innovation, Quality,  Performance and Features.

JP Instruments Is The Undisputed Leader In Engine Data Management JPI’s Engine Data Management Systems – Designed By Pilots, EDMs Provide Pilots  with Their Own Personal Electronic Flight Engineer JPI’s EDMs are so much more than competitors ordinary engine monitors. JPI’s philosophy has always been to produce equipment of the highest possible quality with leading edge technology based upon the features pilots have requested. JPI is owned and managed by talented engineers who are experienced pilots who use all of JPI’s products on a regular basis.  Their piloting  expertise guides their philosophy on what is practical and desired in an integrated Engine Data Management System. To this end, JP Instruments has invested millions of dollars developing proprietary, explicitly competitive advantages to maintain a leadership role in the marketplace. Notice that we do not call our devices “monitors” – they are much more than that.  JPI’s philosophy is based upon practical experience that has taught us that true flying is more than stick and rudder finesse- in today’s world, safe,  efficient flying is highly dependent on the pilot’s ability to manage failures. Whether the mission is a local flight, training or a long cross country, the real measure of how the flight went is how failures were avoided and if encountered, how they were managed. The role of the JPI Engine Data Management System is to give the pilot a powerful engine management tool in the form of an on board computerized flight engineer.  Accordingly, the JPI systems are management tools that help the pilot make every flight successful -  with the added benefits of reducing engine control workload and optimizing efficiency thereby lowering operating costs and enhancing safety.

Electronics International™ or EI  ( Electronics International and EI are trade marks of Electronics International Inc.) is an engine monitor supplier that evidently has the philosophy that they will try to capture some market share by producing cheap products that look like they do the same job as JPI’s equipment. They simply do not do the same job as JPI’s equipment and in reality, are sometimes more expensive or they are close to the same price as JPI equipment. (Example JPI’s EDM-700-4 has a lower retail price of $1475 versus EI’s 4 cylinder monitor at $1598 retail. The six cylinder EDM700-6  is $2195 versus EI’s six cylinder monitor at $1948 only $247 difference – Also, be aware that all of JPI’s Engine Data Management Systems come with the free EZ-Trends data graphing software – you have to pay $125 to get that with the EI monitors. Also, a three year warranty is standard with JPI’s EDM )   There is No Significant Price Advantage .

EI has not had an original innovative product in 25 years. They repeatedly attempt to copy JPI’s products but have only been able to come to market with cheap look a-likes. In their advertising and marketing, EI has a history of using a variety of tactics including innuendo, half truths and unverifiable data to try to make pilots believe that their equipment is equal to or superior to JPI’s. This is not run of the mill sales talk – they deliberately mislead pilots. They try to give the illusion that EI equipment is equivalent or better than JPI’s.  JPI has even had to take EI to court to force them to stop using false advertising and illegal internet practices.  Another  tactic that EI uses is to advertise their products in dealer ads with the price of the instrument only – thereby making their product look like it’s much lower cost when in reality, you have to buy probes and leads in addition to make their monitor work.  EI also uses spin tactics to the extreme in order to try to conjure up some semblance of a competitive edge. An example of insinuation is on  the EI monitor’s specifications EI says it “meets DO-160 TSO requirements”  and “meets TSO 43a” – this is a far cry from the system having the actual FAA TSO but they think they can get the customer to believe that the system is TSO'd. EI twists the obvious faults of their system into what they want pilots to think are benefits . For example, calling their slow response “stable readings” and their massive, slow response probes more durable. They insinuate that JPI’s probes “burn out”. They use irrelevant comparisons or tests as illustrations – like hammering probes to see which one can take the most blows. The relevancy as to how a sensor works on an engine is laughable.  It’s reminiscent of the old adage “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with B.S.”  To top it off,  EI puts all of this stuff in writing and on the internet in an effort to give it a further appearance of credibility. A company that purposely misleads to this extent is just plain dishonest.  EI constantly harps that JPI falsely maligns them when in reality they are the ones who use deception and omission in the marketing of their product.  Most pilots aren’t aware of the fine points that would reveal EI’s bantering as unsubstantiated and we hope to help pilots avoid being misled. EI will probably refer to this document as a viscous attack on them and they will try to rebut each factual and verifiable statement made here in with more of their unsupportable rhetoric.  They will most likely copy JPI again with a document similar to this one in an effort to justify their low end products. What we are relating to you is that JPI doesn’t use deception and doesn’t rely on B.S. – only scientific, empirical data and real life operational experience to prove our product’s superiority. Further, anyone who has had the benefit of being able to do an in flight comparison of JPI’s EDMs versus EI’s UGB, will report the overwhelming superiority of the EDM. (See the Aviation Consumer News release on the last page)  This is the true acid test of the product. Unfortunately, only a few lucky pilots ever get to do a real comparison test, so they have to rely on the statements made by others. Over the years, pilots have replaced thousands of  competitors’ instruments with JPI EDMs but it is very rare (we cannot find a documented instance) that  a JPI EDM was replaced with a competitors’ system. It’s hard to find a UGB in the field period – JPI's EDMs have outsold the UGB  thousands to one and there is a reason for this-

JP Instruments, a California based company, was founded to create advanced engine management systems for general aviation. Using their combined 100 years of engineering and piloting experience, the JPI founders have been bringing  fresh ideas and on going innovation to the engine data management market. JPI has been providing the pilot/owner with integrated information systems that surpass any existing system available to general aviation by reducing their workload and  increasing awareness and safety. Recognizing the critical nature of precise engine operation and its effects on pilot workload, the founders of JP Instruments  have eliminated the need for multiple information sources to accomplish the task of advanced engine data management. The results are the most advanced engine management systems available to general aviation and an ongoing commitment to upgrade and further this philosophy by bringing  new and innovative products to market on a continual basis.

One of JPI’s leading advantages (development started in 1989) is the engine data logging, retrieval and graphing of data of the EzSave and EzPlot and EzTrends software program products. First JPI developed a low cost, easy to use engine data recording feature. Then JPI developed EZ-Plot I which allowed pilots to graph and analyze recorded engine data very easily. Another graphing program soon followed with EZ-Trend .  (EI followed  with a data logging feature on their engine monitor –but never came out with a graphing program – they left this up to a third party who developed a program that they charge you for.)   One of the features of EZ-Plot I and EZ-Trends is that the data is locked and can not be changed.  This non- corruptible, secure data is desired by those who require the data to be free from falsification. This means that the data from a JPI Engine Data Management System can only be loaded into a JPI graphing program. However, if a user wants changeable data or to put the data into a non-JPI graphing program, they can do so by saving the data as an Excel file and then saving the file as a CSV file. The CSV data is an open and changeable format that can then be changed at the user’s discretion.  Caution: Data in the CSV format is corruptible and may be invalid for use for many applications due to the inability to guarantee authenticity.  EZTrends is available at no charge from JPI to those who wish to maintain the authenticity of their data and still have all of the graphing and data analysis capability of any of the commercially available graphing programs that can cost as much as $150. EZ-Trends is supplied at no charge with all new JPI Engine Data Management Systems.

the aeronautical environment. All of the EDMs including the EDM900 and 930 are TSO’d. This means that the instrument is FAA certified aircraft quality and is approved for use in aircraft applications. To manufacture a devise for aircraft use a devise must be either manufactured under the TSO or PMA (Parts Manufacturer Approval) quality control programs. The PMA program is much less stringent and does not qualify easily for field approved installations. Electronics International manufactures their bar graph monitor under the PMA routine.  Of course, the TSO is more costly to obtain than a PMA.  For a particular aircraft, the installation must be further approved as an advisory instrument or as a primary instrument. This approval is the Supplemental Type Certificate or STC. The installer (any licensed A&P) can put in an STC’d and TSO’d or PMA’d instrument into an aircraft under the limitations of the STC without any further approval necessary from the FAA. All that is required is that the mechanic fill out an FAA Form 337 and make the required aircraft log book entry. Having a TSO and STC greatly simplifies the installation approval process for the aircraft owner and the installing mechanic.  JPI tries to cover as many aircraft as possible under the respective STC. If your aircraft is not covered under any of JPI’s extensive STCs, let us know and we will get it covered as soon as possible.

Take a look at the insides of a JPI EDM and compare it to the insides of an EI engine monitor. JPI uses modern solid state manufacturing – the integrated circuit boards are state of the art and very little point to point wiring is necessary.  Solid state means better reliability and longevity.  Electronics International engine monitors use  lots of low tech point to point wiring resulting in lower reliability and many more opportunities for failure. It’s no surprise then that JPI’s Engine Management Systems are  Warranted for THREE YEARS – EI’s are only warranted for ONE YEAR.  EI will sell you a service contract for extending their warranty two more years . 

JPI uses high quality, fast response grounded tip temperature thermocouples.  EI uses ungrounded tip probes. JPI has documented JPI probes lasting in excess of 2000 hours of use.  EI goes to a lot of effort to try to explain away the short comings of their ungrounded, large mass probes but it is all baloney. EI now offers both their standard large mass probe and a low mass probe. Do you wonder why?  EI introduced their low mass probe after a scientific response comparison was preformed by a third party that showed EI’s probe to be substantially inferior to JPI’s thermocouples. EI’s low mass probe offering is further proof that they can’t really defend the large mass probe very well. The truth of the matter is that it is relatively easy and cheap to make a temperature measuring devise that uses ungrounded tip probes. With ungrounded tip probe systems, the instrument does not need to reject and filter out all of the spurious radio and electrical energy that is present on an aircraft. Ungrounded tip probe systems are  susceptible to noise that can not be filtered out electronically and subsequently require physical shielding. As such, the EI monitor requires shielded wire to reduce the influx of noise. Having low cost electronics may seem like a price advantage but there is a severe downside to ungrounded tip probes themselves. It is very difficult to manufacture a long life, fast response ungrounded tip probe. You either have to have a probe with a large mass – that makes it slow response - or you have to have a very expensive probe that still won’t have the longevity of a grounded tip probe. JPI has done exhaustive research on this and the best all around solution is to use high quality grounded tip probes with high quality, state of the art electronics. JPI’s EDMs feature the fastest response time to temperature changes – so fast that you can see the small EGT differences each cylinder makes between engine cycles. This shows up as a fluctuation on the numerical readout when you have the EDM in one degree resolution. For leaning and engine diagnostics this is very useful. In cruise flight this feature may not be as useful, so the EDM can be switched to 10 degree resolution for better EGT readability. Only EGT is can be switched to 10 degree resolution. EI monitors only show in one degree resolution and they slow the conversion to their display to down so much that it appears that there is no fluctuation. They claim this is inherent stability, but it’s actually a short coming because it artificially slows down the response time and is really just compensation for an extremely slow reaction to what is happening in the cylinder. This makes doing a lean find procedure an agonizingly  slow process because you have to wait for the EI system to react to mixture changes and then wait a long time for the readings to stabilize. EI blames engine factors (linkage, carburetor systems etc)  for the slow reaction time but the fact is that most engines react fast enough to see the effect of a mixture change. And with a slow response system how would you know. You can see peak EGT occur very definitively on the  JPI’s EDM. Anyone who has had the opportunity to compare the time to do a lean find on the EDM versus the EI can attest to this fact. The EDM’s are fast and sensitive for a reason- pilots should not have to spend an inordinately long time adjusting their mixtures- they often have lots of additional tasks to perform at the same time their engines need to be managed.

JPI’s EDMs have the fastest and most accurate leaning guide available on the market- EI goes to extremes to claim that their monitor is better at finding the so called common “false peaks”. False peak EGT is a rarity that occurs usually only well on the lean side of peak.  What the pilot sees as the mixture is being leaned is the EGT on one or more cylinders may reverse and a peak is detected but if the mixture is further leaned sometimes the temperature goes back up  before again reaching a peak at a lower fuel flow and lower temperature than the first peak. True false peak is a phenomenon that  rarely occurs but EI wants you to think they are common because with their monitor you have to lean so slowly that when their monitor finally catches up to the engine, the monitor senses a reversal of temperature and calls out “PEAK” – then further leaning will show another  “PEAK”- But watch this- the new “PEAK” is at a higher temperature than the first “PEAK”  - indicating not a false peak but just not having found the actual first peak.  There’s a lot of difference.  JPI’s EDMs will also show  not having reached the actual first peak – IF THE  MIXTURE IS ADJUSTED TOO SLOWLY or IF The Process Has been Interrupted.  To help the pilot avoid this condition the EDM remembers the actual peak during the lean find  procedure and it can be recalled by pushing in and holding the lean find button when the whole bar is flashing annunciating that peak had been reached and may have been exceeded. So with the EDM it’s actually better to lean too fast rather than too slowly.  You can easily do two or three lean finds on the EDM in a short period of time when you are learning how fast the EDM reacts and not reaching actual peak will be easily avoided. Fuel flow information on the EDM will also help in recognition that actual peak had not occurred.  If fuel flow is higher than normal at the peak and the peak is lower than normal, the actual peak had not been reached. In addition, the EDMs with  the integral fuel flow computers will display the fuel flow that occurred at peak EGT.  EI’s monitor cannot do this. 

JPI’s EDMs Are Accurate to One Degree Across The Entire Scale – The EDM allows one degree resolution (which is the number of degrees the  scale is divided into and has nothing to do with accuracy) or ten degree resolution on the EGT scale. This is to make EGT readings easier because the cylinders produce slightly different temperatures with each cycle and the EDM is sensitive and fast  enough to show this. It is not a shortcoming of the EDM. EI’s monitor cannot show this because it is far too slow to react to the cycle to cycle temperature variances and if they did not slow down what is displayed – their display would never be steady – it would be continually changing numbers.  EDMs electronically correct the non-linearity of the thermocouples (thermocouple output follows a curve for temperature vs. output ) EI’s monitor is not accurate across the entire scale- it follows a straight line algorithm – easy to do and cheap but not accurate. EI tries to hide this by claiming they have one degree resolution. Also EI has only two “precision” channels for OAT and Oil temp. All of JPI’s EDM channels are “precision” channels.