pyEFIS is the MakerPlane open source Electronic Flight Information System written in python and aimed at installation on Raspberry Pi hardware. Recent interesting updates to pyEFIS include the introduction of a synthetic vision system, with early development progressing quickly over the past few weeks.
This work is being led by Will Ballard, who has been contributing new terrain rendering features as part of his work with AeroCommons.
The initial implementation began as a grid of points, progressing to grid lines with colour indicating terrain and altitude threat levels. More recent iterations have moved toward filled terrain squares, improving how terrain is represented on screen.
One of the main constraints is hardware performance, particularly on Arduino-based systems. Work so far has been limited by available processing power, and alternative hardware specifications and GPU requirements are now being explored to improve terrain rendering.
Terrain data is currently sourced from global datasets, which provide worldwide coverage but at a lower resolution than some regional datasets. This allows the feature to remain globally usable, with some trade-offs in terrain detail.
Testing has included mountainous terrain near Aspen and coastal areas such as Santa Barbara. Work in these scenarios has focused on terrain shading, lighting, and rendering distance.
Coastal rendering has also been tested, including basic handling of water. In the current implementation, water is approximated by treating anything at sea level as water. This is a temporary approach, with proper data sets for bodies of water planned for later.
The feature is still in active development and remains a work in progress. Additional work is needed to refine rendering quality, resolve interface issues such as display layering, and complete testing on physical hardware. Initial development has focused on establishing the overall perspective and visual feel of the system, with further iteration still required before it is ready for wider use.
As Will Ballard noted, “There’s probably 50–100 hours more of work to go iterating through this before it’s ready for prime time. It’s come a long way in the first couple weekends of work. I need to get the actual hardware and install it for better testing.”
He added that AI-assisted development has played a role in enabling this work, allowing features like synthetic vision to be explored and implemented more quickly than would otherwise be possible.
AeroCommons is a recently established effort already publishing technical work and contributing to projects within the MakerPlane ecosystem, including pyEFIS. We will continue to follow this work and share updates as development progresses!