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I don't have a engine management system... yet, so I don't have first hand
experience with any of the available units including the two you name. I do
intend to do the same type of thing, therefore I have been doing a lot of
research including reading the manuals for the products which are available
on most of the manufacturer websites. I have also exchanged e-mail with some
of the manufacturers' tech support staff. So, I will share what I can.

The RMI MicroEncoder does have serial output that could be used to capture
data with a PC. However, it appears that it is real-time capture only. I
have not found any indication that it stores the data internally in some
form of non-volatile memory to be downloaded post-flight. It also appears
that the data comes in a more compact binary form, not clear text. So, it
appears custom software would be needed to do post-flight analysis of the
data. It doesn't appear that you could just port the data directly into
Excel or Crystal Reports. I did not find anything on their website regarding
software they offer to help you analyze or convert the data. They do make
the technical information available that you would need to write your own
code to capture the information and do whatever you wanted. That
documentation is available in PDF documents they offer for free download on
their website. The solution they have is really a potentially powerful
solution, but the technical entry-point is a lot more advanced than many of
the competitive solutions.

The Vision Microsystems website is not quite as informative on the technical
details, so I submitted a question to their tech support about this. The
response I got back was that the VM1000 reports on the display current data,
and displays min & max for many of the values, but it does not store
additional detail data to be downloaded after the flight. I also appears
that you cannot connect to it electronically via a serial or wireless IR
connection to capture real-time in-flight data as you can with some of the
other product on the market.

The MicroEncoder provides data that the JPI and Insight solutions do not
provide. Combining the MicroEncoder with an engine monitor system that
allows you to download engine in-flight data would tell a more complete
story. From the data capturing standpoint, the VM1000 is not one of the
strongest solutions. It is easier to read the VM1000 in-flight than just
about any of the other solutions though.

Hope this helps...

Don

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