PanelDesign

Crimped a connector to the flap motor and position sensor wires today. Installed flap components to measure wire lengths, etc.

FInally got a couple of new db9 shells from Dynon that fit with the splitter cables I got from them earlier. Now the servo wires can be spliced into the Skyview network and secured. Tie-wrapped the whole thing to the ADAHRS bracket.

And even more schematics drawing. It's a really good exercise though as I'm finding out about stuff I hadn't even thought about before (like a fuel warning light for example).

More schematics drawing.

Started to draw the schematics of all the electrical gear I'm going to have in my RV. Doing it with pencil for now, but will likely get a drawing program later on.

Spend some time on routing the joystick wires to the panel.

After a week of business travel finally some time in the shop again which I completely spent on wiring. I wired all the wing components to molex connectors in the wing root so that the stuff in the wing (pitot heater, lights, antenna's, fuel level senders and A/P servo) can easily be connected later.

I also routed wires for the A/P disengage switch and the trim switch in both the joysticks.

Received the EI fuel level instrument from ACS today that also was on back-order (it seems a lot of the avionics stuff is on backorder at ACS).

Received the Safety Trim device and harness from ACS today that was on back-order. I have to figure out where I'm going to mount the device; under the seat pans or behind the panel are all possibilities.

I got the ACS order in today which contained the 25ft of RAC trim servo wire. So tonight was devoted to routing that wire all the way from the horizontal stab to the cabin. Of course this meant redoing all the tie-wraps in the tailcone and undoing the clamps in the center channel, so that was done first (very challenging all the way in the back!). Next was filing a little bit of the sides of a snap bushing so that it would fit into the hole in the back of the hor stab.

Next was attaching the servo wire to the several lightning holes. Since I don't want the wire to chafe against the metal edge I thought I use some small grommets around the wire to protect and wrap the tie-wrap around it.

The rest of the wire was routed back through the tailcone of the fuselage; it took quite some time to put new tie-wraps in, but eventually that was all done. Before I could re-clamp the wire bundles in the center channel, I had to put a bnc connector on the RG-400 coax so that it could be hooked up to the transponder antenna and routed to the cabin as well. This should really be the last piece of wire through that center channel! I actually had to get some bigger clamps because the bundle had grown quite think with these two new wires.

I also received the 18 inch long tie-wraps and velcro that I ordered to install the Bus Manager on the left rib in the front. Had to drill out the holes a little bit more since this tie-wrap was quite a bit thicker (5/16 inch). Then I put some velcro on the rib and on the back of the Bus Manager. I won't tie-wrap it yet since the ribs haven't been riveted yet, but hopefully I can do that as soon as I have made the hole in the center panel for the radio stack to stick through.

Following are some pics of the new gear I received from ACS. First the ACI electronic flap controller. This is a nifty small device with 4 lighted buttons that can be programmed to move the flaps to 4 fixed positions (including full up). That way there won't be any guessing in the busy approach phase of a flight. I needed to order a position sensor as well that is going to be attached to the flap rod and that will tell the controller in what position the flaps currently are.

I also received the vertical compass a couple of days ago. This is a nifty device that takes the lag out of a standard fluid filled compass. It supposedly works really well and is easy to read.

Here is also a picture of the 406 MHz Ameriking ELT I bought. This will likely be mounted under the tail fairing (also good for W&B hopefully) while the ELT antenna will be installed on top of the fuse. The remote control panel will be mounted in the panel and the wire has already been routed from the back to the cabin.

Worked on installing the Dynon a/p pitch servo today. I ordered crimping tools and wire from Stein last week to make a servo harness that has two twisted wire pairs (blue/green and white blue/white green), red and black for power and yellow for disengage signal. The two twisted pairs got db9 pins crimped on one one side that will splice into the Dynon network with a splitter cable. I've decided to do that right at the AHADRS's because it's right there where the servo is. The power and disengage wires needed to be routed to the panel and stick through the center channel and thus I had to unscrew the cushioned clamps there. The other servo cable (roll) will be routed through the wing later. By the way, I haven't tie-wrapped the db9 connectors yet as I need another housing so that the dynon connector can be secured correctly; the connectors I ordered from Stein do not have the correct screw nuts on them.

Of course when I had all the clamps screwed in again I remembered that there is one more cable to go all the way to the tail of the plane: the pitch trim servo. So tomorrow I'll have to take out the clamps (again!) and see if I can get far enough into the plane to route the wires and redo the tie-wraps that are already there for the tail light wires.

Used clamps to finish tying the cable bundles (power cables on right side and other wires on left side) to the inside of the center channel so that they don't interfere with the pushrod.

Ordered the EI digital fuel gauge and a vertical card compass from ACS today. Two more devices I will put into my panel.

Reached a major milestone today: I crossed the 1000 hours building time on the plane!! The end is in sight :-) I worked on the static, pitot and aoa system today and connected all the tubing up with the two AHADRS's. I had a smart idea and basically build a tower of T-fittings to get all the tubing into the fittings on both the AHADRS's (2 pair of 3 each). The following picture shows what I mean. Had to find a 2 inch stainless steel screw to hold them all together on the bracket.

Next I did quite a bit of tie-wrapping of the wires in the channel. These need to be kept on the side not to interfere with the pushrod that runs in the center of that channel. I have to order some cushioned clamps from ACS to get that done and after that I can put the baggage floors in with blind rivets.

All of this took place while sitting in the fuselage. First time I spent so much time in the canoe :-)

Almost a 1000 hours on the plane! Only half an hour to go and I'm there. For sure that will happen this weekend... tonight I torqued in the bolts that hold the AHADRS bracket to the longerons and wired the two systems up including tie-wrapping the connectors. Also put in the battery grounds and attached the starter solenoid housings to both ground connectors as well. Wanted to bolt in the pitch servo, but I've decided to wait a bit with that until I have the harness attached to it. Easier to do that outside than inside the fuse.

Spent a lot of time on laying wires in the fuse today. Started with routing the 3 wires for the Posistrobe light that will go on the rudder later. This have to go all the way from the back to the front where it will be connected to switches on the panel. Next was the cable for the remote ELT switches that came with my Ameriking ELT. It's like a telephone cable, but the plugs are wired differently. All the wires were nicely bundled with tiewraps for which I had to crawl all the way into the back of the fuse.

The Dynon network cable was next; this one is connected to the two AHADRS's via a splittler cable and will be routed to the panel in the front. It will be connected to the Skyview EFIS's later. The wires from the AOA temp sensors were also routed from the back of the fuse to the AHADRS's.

While I was at it, I also drilled two holes through F705 and F706 for the pitot and AOA lines from the left wing. These will be connected to the AHADRS's the same way as I did the static line, with a T-splitter. The idea is to have a stack of 3 T-splitters, but I need to buy a longer stainless steel screw for that.

Worked more on the ADHARS mounting platform and drilled the mounting holes and primed the parts. Then I figured out a way to connect the static ports to both the ADHARS units. Looks pretty cool.

In the meantime I have received the primary and backup ADHARS units from Dynon and today was a good day to find a suitable location to install them and the OAT probes. The OAT probes were easy as they need to be out of direct sunlight I drilled a hole on each side of the aft fuse underneath the horizontal stabilizer.

The wiring for the probes got tie-wrapped to the bulkhead to make sure it wouldn't interfere with the elevator push rod later on.

Because the longerons are level with the flight path of the airplane, this location seemed best to create a platform for both the primary and backup ADHARS units from Dynon. I fabricated two lengths of angle that would be bolted to the longerons and a piece of alu stock to which the units would be bolted. Pretty easy to make this construction and the pics show the end result (everything needs to be primed of course).

Next time I have to find the best way to get the airspeed and AOA tubes from the wings to this platform.

As a nice late Xmas present I decided to buy myself the primary and backup Skyview ADAHRS modules and some wiring so that I can install them easily in the back of the fuse (now that I still have good access back there).

I send my two autopilot servo's back to Dynon for a Skyview software upgrade. They will probably come back somewhere after Xmas or New Year.

Dynon has released a first video of their Skyview EFIS in an RV-6A on youtube. You'll find it on the Videos and Pics page on this blog.

Dynon will release and start selling their new EFIS by the end of November 2009 and I've decided that I want to have these in my panel: http://www.dynonavionics.com/docs/news_technology_preview.html

Just noticed on the Dynon website that they have started shipping the servos and mounting kits!

I've pretty much decided to go with the Dynon gear for my plane including their autopilot servos which will hopefully be released soon (want to close up my wings!). Because the new panels might come too late for me I will probably go with dual D100 EFIS's (incl. backup batteries), OAT probe, wiring harness, roll and pitch A/P servos, the AP76 A/P module and the HS34 HSI module. It would be nice to have a Garmin GNS-430W IFR-certified GPS, but that's a dream for now (expensive!).

Dynon Avionics has some really cool new panels coming out in 2009: http://www.dynonavionics.com/docs/news_technology_preview.html

Since I was already thinking about their AP servos, this might make the panel choice easy!