noooby, thanks for that info, I guess it's nothing less than what is expected from a manufacturer of a high-tech piece of proprietary equipment, who will do everything in their power to protect their "commercial investment" in their product.
The RK EFIS manual makes it clear that "unauthorised repairs will void the warranty and may impair the performance of the unit".
Of course, it's left unsaid that no-one else but RK is authorised to repair their EFIS units.
IMO, this attitude on RK's part is identical to the one assumed by car manufacturers that has led to repair shops in the U.S. protesting that the car manufacturers were deliberately withholding technical servicing information, thus ensuring that any repairs requiring access to fault codes, ability to fix those fault codes, and repairs involving replacement of crucial electronic components such as ECU's, meant that vehicles needing these repairs HAD to be sent to the manufacturers authorised dealer.
In many cases, such as smash repairs, this meant vastly increased cost to car owners as the damaged vehicle could not be fully repaired in the smash-repair shop - but had to be towed or transported, in mid-repair, to a dealer, to enable the electronics section to be repaired/replaced. The vehicle then had to be returned to the smash repair shop for repair completion.
Complaints by both owners and smaller repairers have led to the Motor Vehicle Owners Right to Repair Act - where manufacturers have been forced to release electronic repair information and technical information to anyone seeking it - information systems that the manufacturers had previously cried were "commercially sensitive" and "copyrighted", or subject to other patent or registered design rights.
The American courts appear to have decided in the direction of fairness, and to reduce a perceived monopoly bias by the car manufacturers, that was rooted more in sustaining high company and dealership profits, than any attempt to maintain vehicle safety levels, or to protect any expensive company R&D efforts and expense.
So many manufacturers today only use off-the-shelf componentry, anyway - and I note wryly that the RK EFIS unit uses a Motorola 68020 as its primary processor!
I seriously doubt Dicks raging will alter RK's position or attitude, purely because of the niche market involved in the RK EFIS, and the fact that high costs are merely seen as a constant factor in aviation, and the fact that the companies involved see no need for justification for their pricing regimes.
It's not helped by the fact that by far the majority of excessive aviation pricing is merely handed on to the customer or customers by intermediaries who do not have to bear the costs themselves.
Bottom line is, Dick - Heliflite have two fully-repaired RK EFIS units on hand, available on an exchange basis! Just take along a large jar of Vaseline when you organise the purchase!
RK 160E015-3 EFIS exchange units for sale