JUNE, 2007 AVIONICS, ELECTRICS, & CONTROLS

June 2 - wire autopilot breaker, add lighting switches to switches subpanel.  I have some fit issues with the taxi and landing light switches and their indicators, and will have to order new switches.  Drew up my flashing taxi light wiring schematic.     1.5 hr

  Here is a picture of a couple Lady Slippers growing out behind the barn.  There were a whole bunch of them growing back there; all around where I'd stored some excess steel a few years ago and around where I park my race trailer.  Lady Slippers are a rare wild plant in NH.  It's illegal to pick or attempt to transplant them.  Transplanting never works, anyway.  You can't grow them.  They just come up where ever they feel like it.  I've never seen them before where they came up and next year, they'll most likely come up somewhere else.  It is not at all predictable.  When you do see them in the woods, it's usually just one or two.  I had about a dozen growing out there, so it was very cool.  They are lovely to see at this time of year.  They are a member of the orchid family.  Click on pic for a large version. 

  Here's a cluster of four of them.

June 3 - Laid out flashing taxi light circuit and tested it OK.  Found a place to mount the taxi light flasher and mounted it.  Started wiring flasher.  2.0 hr

June 4 - worked on taxi flasher wiring a bit.  Cleaned up bench some, sorted AGC & ATO fuses.  Looking into switches I need to order for landing & taxi lights with indicators.  1.0 hr

June 5 - after much research and help from Allied sales people, placed Allied order for some switches that will clear the indicators for the taxi & landing lights.  Wired landing light switch LED indicator.  Decided I can just get by with the 1.32" high DPST switch I already have for that position.  Update web site   1.5 hr + 1.0 hr doc

June 6 - bought several inline fuse holders.  Pondering how & where to mount them for DMV leads.  The DVM leads previously did not have a fuse between the hot side of each battery contactor and the DVM, so I thought I'd better add one.  I also need to install one between the taxi light wig-wag flasher and the blue indicator light.  The flasher is on a 10a fuse for the heavy 16ga wire to the light, but that's too big a fuse for the little 22ga wire going from the flasher to the indicator light, so that part needs a separate inline fuse. 

  added inline 2a glass fuses for each DVM lead.  1 amp fuses would have been OK for this, but I had more 2a fuses on hand than 1a, so 2a is fine for this 22ga wire.

June 7 - wiring inline fuse for taxi light flasher indicator.  Make single pin connector for taxi light indicator ground and tie it to connector for landing light indicator ground.  1.0 hr

  Because these 2 indicators, for landing and flashing taxi lights, mount from the front of the panel, if I need to pull them out, I'd have to pull the ground wires through the harness, all the way back to back to the ground plate.  So, I made these clever little inline connectors I can disconnect.  Each "connector" is simply a crimped machined DB pin/socket.  After connecting them, clear heatshrink tubing will be shrunk over them.  That will make them impossible to pull apart without cutting the heatshrink first.  Using clear heatshrink lets me see what's under the heatshrink.  Small black heatshrink is also over the wire and the base of each pin/socket, to strengthen it.  In the far RT of pic, the 2 ground leads for these 2 indicators are spliced into one run that will go to the ground plate on the firewall.

June 8 - received A&T Labs K11 dimmer system.  It is very large and VERY heavy.  It must weigh at least a pound.  I opened it up and looked it over to see if I could maybe mount it to the airframe as a heatsink, and not use the big heavy heatsink that came with it.  Also received my order of floor mats from Global.  0.5 hr

  This is the K11 dimmer.  Mighty big!  In retrospect, the web site does say 16 oz, but I hadn't noticed that before.  Most of the weight (and size) is in the heatsink, so I ditched that, and just mounted the power transistors to one of the custom baggage compartment walls.  That should dissipate heat just fine.

 

  I got several 3' x 3' floor mats (p/n 239227) from Global Industrial.  These are meant for wet floors, but the holes are also very handy for capturing crud from your shoes and little things that get dropped.  Instead of bouncing instantly into Lost Parts Land, they don't bounce much and if they roll, it's right into a capture hole.  They are also great for avoiding standing on the concrete.  They mate together to form longer pads. 

June 9 - Pondering what to do about K11 dimmer; install as-is, remove heatsink, return it?  Talked to Rhinehart at A&T Labs about what I can do about size and weight of K11 dimmer.  He said it should be OK to mount power transistors to airframe, if I can unsolder them from the PCB (printed circuit board) OK.  Should be no problem for me, as I used to be an electronic tech many moons ago.  Desoldered power transistors and removed heatsink.  I was also considering mounting the board separate from the power transistors, but eventually decided that was too much trouble, because I'd have to redo the PCB mounting system.  The existing system uses the power transistors as mounting for one side, and there isn't enough spare room on the PCB to drill mount holes on one end of that side.  Started mounting K11 and its power transistors to the custom baggage separation wall.  That wall should give plenty of heat dissipation.  I guess I really should have just gotten his kit, rather than paying for the pre-made system.  2.25 hr

June 10 - visit my completed hangar at VSF.  Looks good.  Worked on mounting the K11 dimmer system.  2.5 hr

June 11 - received Allied switches order & resumed populating switches panel.  I haven't been working on the plane quite as much lately, because I've been busy working with a forester, adding a few miles of trails to our property.  And of course, there's been the hangar, as well as multitude of other things.  I didn't race last year, and haven't gotten to the track yet this year, either.  I may sell the race bike.  Installed cover for K11 dimmer system.  Worked on more switches configuration.  Removed switches panel, laid out for new additional switches.  Worked to 0200.  1.5 hr

June 12 - Karla woke me up at 0500 (after I went to bed at 0200), because there TWO full-size bears wandering around the lawn.  It was pretty cool to see them, especially with their black shiny fur against the green grass.  I couldn't get back to sleep, so I worked on the plane awhile & went in to work.  It wasn't fully light, and I wasn't able to get any pictures of the bears.  I do have a pic of what may or may not have been one of those bears who wandered across the lawn last Friday evening while we were having dinner.  Continued with switches panel layout.  Added pot for K11 dimmer, and added a 12 volt "cigarette lighter" adapter jack.  I have DB9 connectors for PC connection for both the Sandia and the Dynon, but I decided to move them to the subpanel, rather than taking up critical space on the panel or switches panel.  1.75 hr

  I fired off a quick (camera) shot as the bear walked around the end of the woodshed.  I'm fairly sure the two this morning were both bigger than this.  One was considerably bigger.

 

  Here, I've cut the holes to mount my 2 PC ports, for the Sandia encoder and the Dynon EFIS, into the subpanel.  This is so you can hook a PC to them for updating the software.  This is the fwd side of my RT siubpanel, where the engine ECM and related parts are mounted. 

June 14 - Filled a couple unused screw holes with JB Weld on the switches panel.    0.25 hr

June 15 - fill another small hole on on the switches panel.  Trying to get the thing ready to paint, so I can permanently mount the switches.  0.25 hr

June 16 - fill 2 more small holes in switches panel.  0.25 hr

June 17 - installed cabin floors and center console, so I can see exactly where to cut the console notch in the switches panel.  Cut out notch for panel.  Decided to open up the bend in the switches panel angle a few degrees.  It has several benefits - fits the console better, angles the switches panel up a bit for better visibility, slightly more leg clearance under switches panel, and lets the fwd end of the console better support the bottom of the MT prop controller.  2.5 hr

June 18 - been awful busy lately with lots of different stuff; forestry work, hangar completion, etc.  Yesterday, I went to a commemoration and visit to the site of a June 15, 1947 B-29 bomber crash in nearby Perkinsville, VT.   Update web site  1.0 hr doc

June 20 - final tweak of fit & angle of switches panel.  Refill cuts in ends of switches panel with JB Weld.  1.25 hr

June 21 - clean, prep, prime switches panel.  Hook up old switches panel to do an engine run.  1.0 hr

June 22 - paint new switches panel   My EIS amps reading is 0 with Avionics Master off (see engine run) because the alternator Field breaker gets its power from fuse 26.  Not sure if I really want to change it or not - perhaps OK where it is.  Removed old switches panel from switches.  0.75 hr

June 24 - bake paint on new switches panel.  While I have the cabin floors and console installed, confirmed length of Andair fuel valve extension, and pinned that into place.  Not getting a whole lot done lately.   1.75 hr

June 26 - assemble switches to new switches panel.  1.0 hr

June 29 - rewire low coolant wiring through new DB-37 connector  1.0 hr

 

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