Aviation Instruments Encrypt Engine-Monitor Data

kitplane01 writes "Airplanes engines need to always work, and are monitored by engine monitors. JP Instruments' engine-monitor units have begun to encrypt the data output of its monitors so it can't be read by third-party software. Whether this is to protect itself liability-wise or to discourage competitors is unclear. It seems the company is working on a fix, which may require a fee from users to translate the file format."

Comments

Also the Gemini:

[Monf]

This is from AOPA's review of the JPI model and the Insight model - the blurb below refers to the Insight Gemini. Maybe this is what JPI is now doing and why:

The Gemini goes about data-logging quite differently. When you want to see what's been happening, simply point the supplied Hewlett-Packard HP200LX palmtop at the Gemini's faceplate and the information will be transferred by infrared link. The information remains encrypted in the HP200LX--it cannot be altered by the user- -so it may be more useful to resolve a warranty dispute or to see how renter-pilots are treating your leaseback bird.

Re:Also the Gemini:

[VidEdit]

It would seem that JPI is using data integrity as an excuse for DMCA lock in. All they really need for integrity is a signature. Since their are federal regulations about engine overhauls for aircraft, I would think that there is a state interest in the data being accessible, but signed. This is a clear case of the miss-use of encryption.

There's no practical reason?

[Perryman]

Why would engine monitor data need to be encrypted? All it is is fuel flow rates, its pressure and temperature, FTIT, etc. The pilot needs to see this data anyway to monitor in-flight. Maybe they're talking about when this information goes through engine diagnostics or is stored for looking at later? Oh, and do these guys just do civilian aircraft, or military too? I'd think no one would buy their engine monitor units if they couldn't look at the logs to monitor their own aircraft statistics [think nascar]. Could be a good way to lose customers. What do you think?

Encoded (Not Encrypted)

[dubner]

Typical inept Slashdot editing: the data is *encoded* (as the original AvWeb article states), not encrypted. Sure, JPI is an evil company with a history of slimey dealings as shown here http://home.earthlink.net/~timrv6a/jpi.html but lets be accurate about what they've done. If JPI (or someone else) was to provide info on the format of the encoded data there would be no news story.

The encryption is for MSOffice-style lock in

[Anonymous Coward]

I own a JPI Engine analyzer in my plane. To respond to some misinformation above, they make various model of engine analyzers used in piston engine planes. The plane does not depend on the JPI to fly. It's used to gather the parameters from the engine as it runs for instant and with some models, stored for later analysis. It does warn of problems with the engine like overheating. The major feature is assisting with leaning the air/fuel mixture going to the engine, which pilots must do manually.

In a nutshell JPI's owner has some vendetta against a competing company that was selling software to read and analyze the data from the JPI analyzer. JPI changed the format of the data output from the serial port of the device, and the format it was stored in the device's non-volatile RAM.

JPI had sold software for Palm OS that would connect to the serial port and display the data in graphical format in real time on a Palm Pilot. Since the data stream was ASCII text you could do the same with any laptop.

JPI had also supplied what at first they sold, but later became a free DOS utility called EZ-Save that would download the data and uncompress it to a comma separated plain text file. They also made available some Excel spreadsheets with macros that would turn the data into some nice charts for easy analysis.

At some point recently the owner got bug up his backside about some competitor that is selling a competing program to analyze the data. JPI changed the steam and the stored data on current products to use encryption and removed all traces of the utilities on their web site. Of course this did not affect the 1000s of products already installed in planes. What they were doing though, was updating the firmware on any that came in service to have the encryption. Based on that, I vowed I wouldn't send mine in for repair if it burst into flames.

Some excerpts from a aircraft owner mail list:

JPI has recently made a decision to prevent the download of raw data from their EDM series of engine monitors. In the past, an EDM user could use a free piece of software, called EZSave, to transfer all the saved engine performance data from an EDM to a PC. The information was decoded and then stored in a plain text file as numerical values separated by commas (commonly called "CSV" format). This simple format made it possible to import this data in to most any software product, including Excel or any other graphing program. But recently support for EZSave was withdrawn and the program disappeared from JPI's website. In its place was a free version of JPI's fancy engine data graphing program, EZPlot. At the same time this was done, the firmware on new EDM units was updated to alter the data transfer format (from EDM to PC) so that existing copies of EZSave would no longer work. The result is that only EZPlot can talk to new EDM units, and EZPlot does not provide any way to save the raw data. This locks the user in to viewing the data only in ways that EZPlot allows. If you don't like the way EZPlot shows data, you are pretty much out of luck. Existing units in the field continue to work the way they always have, of course. But should you ever send your unit in for repair, it is likely that it will be "upgraded" with the latest firmware and EZSave functionality will be lost.

This change puzzled me a bit, as it seemed to have no purpose other than secure an additional revenue stream for JPI (the feature-full version of EZPlot costs money) at the expense of interoperability. It also seemed designed to intentionally shut out a competing engine analysis program called EGTrends. Personally I don't care for either of those programs: I want the raw data so that I can graph it in a manner than makes sense to me. Oddly enough, the way in which I like to view the data is very similar to the way used by EZPlot's predecessor: a primitive (but effective) Excel template that JPI distributed years ago. So I decided that while I was at Sun 'n' Fun I would go talk to someo