The iris EFIS puts attitude, airspeed, altitude and heading — plus navigation, 3D terrain, G-force and a logbook on the pro version — into a single 57 or 80 mm cutout, with every sensor inside the case and a backup battery as standard. This article covers choosing the right member of the family, installing it, aligning and calibrating it, and the faults that turn out to be installation rather than instrument.
Which iris
| Line | Cutout | For |
|---|---|---|
| iris EFIS | 57 / 80 mm | The full PFD. Pro adds navigation, 3D terrain, airspace, G-force page and logbook. |
| iris Gen 2 | 57 mm | The newest generation — fully round display with no covered area, WiFi built into the instrument. |
| iris all-in-one certified | — | Airspeed, vertical speed and altimeter in one device, approved for certified aircraft. |
| iris series (Gen 1) | 57 / 80 mm | Configurable single instruments: all-in-one, airspeed, altimeter, G-force, chrono. Configured over CAN2WiFi. |
All of them share the same three things: a backup battery, standard cutouts, and the same calibration process.
Specifications that matter for the install
| Cutout | 57 / 80 mm |
| Body (W × L × D) | 62 × 62 × 52 mm / 82 × 82 × 52 mm |
| Weight | 214 g / 278 g |
| Power supply | 9–30 V DC |
| Consumption | 250 mA at 12 V |
| Backup battery | built in, 3–5 h |
| Processor & memory | LX one chip™, 32 GB + 32 GB SD |
| Connectivity | CAN · WiFi · Bluetooth |
| Certification | Non-TSO (the all-in-one certified line is the exception) |
The wide 9–30 V input means the instrument does not care whether the aircraft is a 12 V or a 24 V system. It does care about a supply that sags: budget the panel honestly and fuse each run at the battery end.
Ports on the back
SD card, RJ45 CAN, RJ12 USER, RJ12 INPUTS, RJ12 FLARM, 2.5 mm OAT, 3.5 mm AUDIO, the 12 V power cable, and SMA connectors for the Bluetooth/WiFi antenna and the GPS antenna.
The pneumatic connections and the exact torque figures are in the installation manual for your variant — follow that document, not this article, for anything mechanical.
Mounting: the part that decides your attitude accuracy
The AHRS is inside the case, which makes the instrument easy to install and makes how you install it matter.
- Mount it square. Any pitch or roll offset between the case and the aircraft becomes a permanent offset in the displayed attitude until it is calibrated out. Getting the mounting right is cheaper than compensating for it.
- Mount it solidly. A panel that flexes under a thumb will feed vibration into the sensors.
- Keep magnetic clutter away. Speakers, relays, current-carrying cables and steel hardware near the instrument affect any magnetic heading reference.
- Allow depth. 52 mm of body plus connectors plus a service loop.
Pitot and static
The airspeed and altitude the instrument shows come from its internal pressure sensors, and those are only as good as three holes in the airframe:
- Connect the pitot line and the static line to the marked ports, per the installation manual.
- Use proper aviation tubing and secure every joint. A slow leak in a static line reads as a slow, plausible, wrong altitude.
- Check drains and keep the pitot covered on the ground. Insects are the leading cause of "the airspeed tape froze".
- After any work on the plumbing, do a leak check before flying.
First power-up and alignment
- Aircraft stationary. The AHRS aligns at startup, and alignment while the aircraft is rolling — even gently, toward the pumps — is the classic cause of an attitude that slowly leans afterwards.
- Let the alignment complete before taxiing.
- Set the aircraft data and pilot profiles. User settings are saved to pilot profiles; system settings are applied to the device.
- Set your V-speeds for this airframe. The colour bands on the airspeed tape are only meaningful once they describe your aeroplane rather than the factory example.
- Check the backup battery state on the info page — it also shows GPS status, coordinates, UTC time, OAT, density altitude and supply voltage.
- Set brightness for the light you will land in, not the light you took off in.
Calibration
Every iris goes through a complex calibration process at the factory — the airspeed accuracy is one of the things the line is known for. What remains to be done in the aircraft is the part that depends on the aircraft:
- Level reference. With the aircraft rigged in its level-flight attitude (per the aircraft manual, not by eye), set the attitude reference so the horizon reads level. This removes the mounting offset.
- Airspeed zero. In still air, with the pitot covered or the aircraft in the hangar, the airspeed should sit at zero.
- Altitude and QNH. Set the field QNH and compare the indicated altitude with the surveyed field elevation before every departure. A disagreement is information, not a nuisance.
- Heading. Where a magnetic heading source is used, perform the compass calibration away from hangars, steel structures and other aircraft, and repeat it if you later add anything electrical near the panel.
- G-force zero on the pro version, with the aircraft at rest.
Redo the level reference and the heading calibration after any change to the panel, the mounting or the avionics fit.
Configuration
The iris configurator is layered on purpose — from manufacturer to service shop to pilot — so that an owner can arrange the data the way they fly without being able to disturb the settings that make the instrument accurate.
- iris Gen 2 has WiFi built in: the configurator lives in the instrument, so a phone or laptop connects to it directly.
- iris series (Gen 1) is configured over the CAN2WiFi adapter.
- iris EFIS connects over WiFi or Bluetooth.
Keep a copy of your final configuration. It is the fastest way to restore a panel after a service exchange.
The controls
- ◀ / ▶ buttons — move one page left or right, cycling PFD, navigation, G-force, logbook, info and setup.
- Right knob — change QNH, zoom the map, push for the quick settings menu.
- Left knob — set the heading bug; on the pro version, adjust the G-force scale in flight.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | First thing to check |
|---|---|
| Attitude slowly leans over a flight | Alignment was taken while the aircraft was moving. Restart stationary and let it finish. |
| Horizon not level in level flight | Mounting offset — perform the level reference calibration. |
| Airspeed reads high or low consistently | Static source or a leak, not the instrument. Leak-check the plumbing. |
| Airspeed frozen | Blocked pitot. Cross-check against GPS ground speed and land. |
| Altitude drifts relative to another altimeter | Static leak, or the two instruments are set to different references. |
| Display dark, aircraft alive | Supply problem. The backup battery is exactly for this — but find the supply fault. |
| Heading wrong near the hangar | Magnetic interference. Recalibrate away from steel. |
| Instrument reboots when transmitting | Voltage drop in the supply run. Measure at the instrument during a transmit, not at the battery. |
What Non-TSO means
Most of the iris line is non-TSO: extensively calibrated, highly capable, and not certified for installation in a type-certificated aircraft. It is built for ultralight and Experimental aircraft, where one iris replaces a set of analog basic instruments. If you need approval for a certified aircraft, the iris all-in-one certified — airspeed, vertical speed and altimeter with a backup battery — is the member of the family to look at.
Where to go next
- Manuals and firmware: the LX download center, under the iris device pages.
- How to read what the instrument is showing: the LX Academy article on glass panels and tapes, and the one on angle of attack and stall margin.
- Anything mechanical, pneumatic or approval-related: the installation manual and your dealer.