Hey Guys,

I’ve left the painting and finishing world on this bird and am now primarily focused on the electrical system install and expect to start the avionics install in earnest in the next week or two.

Somewhat concurrently, at least mentally (ha!) I’m working to get the rudder/brake pedals configured and installed, along with the brake lines, master cylinders and reservoirs plumbed. 

Coming up soon will be the balancing, rigging and final installation of all the control surfaces.

…getting exponentially closer to finish every day!

Yes, I plasma cut the GPS antenna puck plate yesterday and then machined the slots for the zip ties today.

I had an unfortunate (and costly) incident while machining this part: my mill drawbar is getting old and sticks a bit, often needing a sharp rap to free the tool in the spindle.  Well, in that process I lost control of the probe and it crashed into the upper left corner of the part below, shattering the stylus on the probe.  Nothing that $100 and another round of dialing in and configuring a new probe won’t take care of (sigh).

Regardless of my woes, the show must go on.  Here we have the puck plate ready to install.

Since I won’t have the required access after the puck plate is installed, I went ahead and preinserted the zip-ties in prep for securing the GPS pucks’ wiring bundles.

I then finished physically installing both the puck plate and 3 GPS pucks atop of it (HXr/ AHRS, TruTrak ADI, and MiniUni2 Mini-EFIS).  As you can see, all the copious amounts of included cabling has been wrangled, or in the case of forwardmost MiniUni2 GPS puck the cable is routed over to the left side of the avionics bay via the aft side of the F28 bulkhead.

I then continued on in my quest to find the most reasonable configuration for the Taxi Light pivot arm, with pivot arm #6 making its debut.

And here is pivot arm #6 in the up/closed position.

And also some exterior shots of it in the closed position (pic 1) and the open position (pic 2).  Again, at this point the closed position is more critical to get this bird in the air than the open position.

That being said, you can see the angle of the open light —which should be close to parallel with the ground— pointing downward a good bit… as in not stellar open fashion.

Thus after some assessment, I introduced a significant configuration change with pivot arm #7 to hopefully optimize both the open and closed taxi light positions. . .

Which works pretty darn well in the closed position.  Open position?
Doh!  Apparently I didn’t grab a pic.  I’ll include a pic in my next post and discuss.

I almost forgot to show that yet another indicator light is working as designed, with the TAXI LT on light firing up when the taxi light is deployed out of the nose.

I’ll also note that after a couple of discussions with the “WiFi Expert” cable gurus out of Valencia, California, I pulled the trigger on the 2 ADS-B IN receiver antenna cables, as well as the pigtails for the GNS-480 connections to the VOR/LOC antenna (in the canard), COM 1 radio antenna, and GPS antenna puck (top of pilot headrest).

I’ll continue to press forward in these extended wrap-up actions to get the electrical system, components and panel instruments installed and operational.

Although there are a myriad of pics here regarding the slow design convergence towards the final Taxi Light pivot arm design, there is a video at the end of this blog post showing the plasma cutting of the GPS antenna “puck plate”… for mounting the plethora of GPS antenna pucks I have on hand.

That being said, here is the inside of the nose with the Taxi Light assembly in the up/ closed position with pivot arm #3 just before I removed it.

And this would be version #4.  Notice how each version keeps getting taller?

And here is version #4 shown deployed from the inside of the nose.  I’m not fully securing the pivot arm with a nut just yet to keep from breaking anything during my assessments.

And here is how pivot arm #4 looks from the outside.  The not-quite-so-closed position in pic 2 is not necessarily the pivot arm’s fault, as the sides of the taxi light assembly are catching on the inside sides of the nose opening.  Some clearance-creation actions may be required.

And pivot arm #4 in the closed/up position.

While taxi light pivot arm #5 was 3D printing, I filled up the plasma cutting table’s water tray and aligned/secured the 0.032″ 6061 aluminum plate to be cut.  I also hauled my laptop computer out to the shop to run this operation.

And here we have pivot arm #5 just installed onto the taxi light assembly.  Again, the trend is that they keep getting taller.

And that pivot arm height is simply to drive the taxi light as vertical in the open position, parallel to WL 0, as possible (pic 1).  That being said, right now my primary concern is with the taxi light assembly fully closing and remaining secure in the nose during flight ops (pic 2).  I can always tweak the geometry more fully later, but will continue to do so as long as I see obvious tweaks that can be made now.

And here is pivot arm #5 from inside the nose, with it pretty much in the fully closed position.

I then plasma cut the GPS antenna puck mounting plate (AKA “puck plate’) and grabbed a short (yes, actually short!) video of that process.

After quickly deburring the edges and removing a few bits of very minimal dross, I then used the initial puck plate 3D printed mockup to drill the 2x 4-40 screw holes in the plate, as those are too small in diameter to plasma cut.

I also tweaked the Taxi Light pivot arm to make version #6 and kicked off the 3D print of that, which I’ll test out tomorrow.

In addition, I’m happy to report that the IBBS charged up to 13.7 volts, with 13.5 volts being the bottom threshold for the unit to be called operationally ready.

Still pushing!

This is another 2-day blog post.

Starting off, I removed the HXr from the panel to give me better clearance to install the GNS-480 mounting tube into place (without screws) to then ensure there was enough clearance for the attached SkyRadar ADS-B IN receiver… and there was.

I then checked spacing for the 2 ADS-B IN antennas, and just after confirming they would fit under the right armrest storage bin, I removed the storage bin to allow for mounting the antennas and ground plane.  I also confirmed cable lengths of 48″ and 54″, respectively, for the 2 antenna cables.  I’ll order those Monday.

In the nose I removed the tool box, battery, pitot tube and IBBS unit.  After removing the IBBS unit I hooked it up to the removed battery, via a separate wiring harness, to charge it.

With the nose stuff cleared out, I then set, drilled, countersunk and mounted the Dual GPS antenna puck mounting sleeve on the aft left side of Napster bulkhead, as high up as I could place it.

Here we have the front side of the Napster bulkhead with the front of the Dual GPS antenna puck bracket CS screw heads showing (pic 1).  These counter sinks, especially the outboard one, were a bit tricky given the internal curvature of the nose.  They were also a bit closer to the IBBS upper Clickbonds than I had expected, but again, I wanted the Dual GPS puck as high up as I could mount it.

And here is a shot of the Dual GPS puck mounting bracket without the GPS puck in place (pic 2).

Here we have the Dual GPS puck mounted in place and ready for action!

And a shot of the lower side of the Dual GPS puck mount to show the bottom side of the mount.  I knocked the mount just a hair off level as I was drilling the second hole, but this dog will certainly hunt!

As my timeline went, I was actually working on the nose taxi light’s internal open/close pivot arm that I designed in CAD and fired off the first 3D print last night for configuration testing today.

Here’s the front face of the sanded (and soon to be repainted) drop-down taxi light assembly.

And the same light assembly, turned face down, with the initial iteration of the open/close pivot arm (pic 1), and then version #2 of the pivot arm after I temporarily installed it in the nose (pic 2)… after each redesign and during each subsequent 3D printing is when I worked on installing the GPS puck mount above [out of curiosity I weighed this part, which came in at 1/3 lb = 5 oz].

Not surprisingly, pivot arm #3 is the most promising yet, and is one that I can actually live test with the taxi light deployment/retraction actuator.  Thus, in prep for the taxi light unit open/close test tomorrow, I finished wiring up the taxi light relay (#11) for the test (no pic).

Yesterday I spent about 45 minutes starting on the initial cleaning of my plasma cutting table water tray.  Tonight I spent nearly 2 hours finishing that task (a complete cleaning will involve actually removing all the slats) to allow me to add water —without it turning instantly dirty brown— to get the GPS puck mounting plate and ADS-B IN antenna ground plane/mounting tabs plasma cut.

I’ll note that I’m working the taxi light final install, along with all the other nose components, so that the next time the battery, etc. is installed the nose compartment will all be squared away to allow me install the nose hatch door…. inching closer!

Jess and I got back from our DC trip early evening yesterday.  After unpacking and doing an update on my to-do list, I went out to the shop to flip on the Master Switch to check and see if the Mini-X OAT was still alive and reporting believable temps.  And it was.  I also grabbed the lists for both the GRT HXr and Mini-X that I printed off from the GRT website that covers all the specific features included with the new software updates.

Today I spent a good half hour over coffee looking at the updates and highlighting those I wanted to investigate further.

Out in the shop I needed to address a rather tricky task of installing a screw into the HXr’s J4B D-Sub connector’s outboard side.  You see, I didn’t account for the J4B D-Sub connector needing to be installed and secured BEFORE the TruTrak ADI was installed.  And since there is less than 3/8″ clearance between them, I don’t have an room to get a regular screwdriver in there… and I’m NOT removing anything from the panel to get to it.

So I used a low-profile 4-40 hex-drive screw (visible aft of screwdriver tip) and then lopped off most of the end of a hex key (above screwdriver) to allow me to get in there to first set, then fasten the screw into place.  This entire exercise took right about an hour!

Since I plan on creating and installing the GPS antenna puck mounting plate either tomorrow or the next day, I needed to address an issue that just cropped up recently with the Starlink system dealing with both performance and price.  If you’re interested, Scott on the Canard Boulevard YouTube channel covers the issues very well here.

In light of the unfortunate very significant capabilities reduction and price increase for StarLink use in GA, I’m making my power leads for the StarLink antenna swappable to allow me to connect up my WxWorx antenna for SiriusXM Weather (as an option).

Here is the pulled StarLink power cable right behind the power wire terminated with a knife-splice connector for the power side (pic 1) and the a knife-splice connector terminated onto the ground wire (pic 2).  Clearly this will allow me to connect up either the StarLink Antenna, the SiriusXM Weather system, or any future weather product, respectively of course, that needs power.  Yep, we always need to be ready to improvise, adapt and overcome!

Again, in prep for mounting the GPS antenna puck mounting plate, I updated the zip-tie thru-holes and then printed off a thin version of the plate to check those zip-tie points.  This took a good 45 minutes in CAD to do the initial measuring and outlay of these zip-tie points.

That being said, it will need at least one more tweak tomorrow before I plasma cut the plate.

My final quick, but productive, task for the evening was taking a pair of headphones out to the shop to plug into the pilot headset jacks.  I prepped this audio check by fusing the AMX-2A 10-channel audio mixer before flipping on the Master Switch.

I then turned on the Dynon Intercom and was met with the alarm audio alerts from the AG6 warning annunciators (one for the canopy open alarm from AG6 #1 and the other an IBBS low volts alarm from AG6 #2).  Once I finished booting up the HXr and Mini-X EFISs, I was met with a myriad of EIS audio alarms —since the engine data systems aren’t hooked up (and engine not started).

Clearly these functioning audio alarm outputs are initial indications pointing to good wiring on the audio mixer, intercom, AG6s, HXr and Mini-X.

Pressing forward!

This blog post covers the past few days of the build.

Here’s a shot of the 3D printed ABS test bracket bases to dial in the screw spacing and depth required to bury the nuts into each bracket segment.

As I discussed in my last post, I determined that only #6 110° CS screws provide the internal clearance required for securing anything to the mounting tube innards.

I’ll note that I spent a considerable bit of time researching and also discussing the SkyRadar ADS-B IN receiver’s remote antenna placement and install with GRT. I also did a deep dive on acquisitioning some cable fittings, or better yet, the entire cable assemblies themselves… made to fit of course <wink>.

Fellow local canardian, Guy Williams, and I had made plans to get together last week, when/where I could update him on my build and also perhaps haul the right wing to my hangar.  Well, that fell through, but a couple of days ago we agreed to make it happen today (Day 2).

I was already prepped to do the initial install on the GRT HXr EFIS and knocked that out about 45 minutes before Guy showed up the shop.  It fired up nicely, as you can see here.

Also on my to-do list for quite some time was getting the last of the seat belt segments installed… here we have the left bottom pilot seatbelt installed.  This makes for ALL the seatbelts officially installed

After a good hour-plus BS’ing about my panel and controls installs, Guy and I loaded up the right wing and hauled it to my hangar so it could join the left wing as they both await the delivery of the fuselage…

Here we have a couple of shots with the sunset in the background of the right wing, ready to be unstrapped and placed into the hangar.  If you look closely, you may be able to see the collapsed wing dolly in the bed of my truck, which the wing will be placed upon before it gets installed onto the bird.

Back at the house/shop, I did some final 3D prints of the SkyRadar ADS-B IN receiver’s mounting brackets to allow me to attach the receiver to the inboard side of the Garmin GNS-480’s mounting tube.

Here is the initial assembly of the first of two mounting brackets.

And another shot of the first bracket’s installation (pic 1), and the second bracket ready to be installed as well (pic 2).  Note the threaded 6-32 brass inserts that I staked into the ABS plastic mounting bracket’s mating surfaces, with both a vertical and horizontal screw securing it on each top and bottom corner of each bracket.

The next morning, with the brackets fitting most excellently on the SkyRadar ADS-B IN receiver, I installed the brackets first onto the GNS-480 mounting tube before then doing the final install of the receiver into place.  I have to say, these brackets work a treat and I’m very pleased with them.

I’ll also note that the antennas mounted on the receiver’s forward end (pic 2) are the ones that will have to be removed and remotely mounted under the very aft end of the left pilot armrest.  Inside the armrest of course.  That gets these antennas the required >4′ away from the transponder antenna inside the forward NG30 bracket uprights in the nose.

Moreover, I’ll further note that when Guy was at the shop, I discussed with him a couple of distinct issues I was having with the GRT EFISs.

First off, I’ve been having very spotty reporting from the MIni-X’s OAT probe.  And then after I installed the HXr EFIS, we could see that they were not talking to each other, although they are wired with data crosslinks.

I emailed GRT with some screenshots of my Mini-X’s OAT reporting, which ranged from nothing but dashed lines for the OAT value to a negative value which interestingly put the Density Altitude in the negative thousands.  After a reply from GRT with a few things to troubleshoot —one of which was checking the settings— I decided to go ahead and update the software.

And wouldn’t you know, that seems to have done the trick [knock on wood!].

I was then ready to remove the HXr to check out the wiring between the pair of EFISs, although after some playing around with them I did discover that manipulating the inputs on the Mini-X did change those values on the HXr, but not vise versa… so one wire appeared to be the culprit.

Well, I finally got a lucky break in that as I prepared to remove the HXr, I noticed that one of the 3 data D-Sub connectors on the back of the HXr was cocked at an angle, with the top half not fully inserted into the HXr.  Ahhh, that’s something!  And sure enough, with it fully seated I powered up the panel and every EIS alarm I had been getting on the HXr was now ringing off on the Mini-X as well.  Thus the inputs on the HXr are now also manipulating those items on the MIni-X (altimeter, heading bug, etc.).

Serendipitously, all my <current> troubleshooting tasks on these displays have been resolved!

And here we have the panel with the nose poking out of the shop a hair to allow the GPS pucks to pick up their signals.  I’ll also note that I updated the HXr’s software as well.

Finally, in the mail today I got a nice surprise: the super clean (electrically speaking) 12v-5v converter that Eric Page constructed for me, replete with EZ-PZ labels to ID wire hookups.  Very nice!  This is of course for the one (out of 4 cameras) 5v video camera I have that needs to be hooked up to the Video Camera Multiplexer’s camera 12v power connector.

Tomorrow will be a busy day as we prep for a quick trip up to DC for a few days.  Upon my return I plan on working like a dog and wholeheartedly expect to be pretty much done with the instrument panel and electrical system install on this bird in the week following.

Pressing forward!

A few days ago I had 3 distinct electrical issues: the nose gear switch putting the nose gear down, the landing brake ancillary functions/notifications not aligning with the switch, and the top row indicator lights push-to-test button not working and popping fuses after every possible initial “fix.”

Well, as this build goes it’s taken a day each (along with other tasks) to get each issue resolved.  For the indicator lights, yesterday I had to disassemble a number of the connections both at the test power leads and the light power connectors in my attempt to test every circuit, which I originally believed was a simple miswiring of the circuitry.

As I was doing my continuity tests I kept getting an errant connection to ground on all the test wires, which should all should only go to power BEFORE the PTT button switch was engaged.  It was clear: I had mole somewhere in the system.  But what wire and what circuit?

Again, as I noted yesterday, I discovered that in my haste to add the new AP SERVOS OFF/PCS indicator light I misread the type of output the Trio autopilot was using for this signal.  I took it at as positive power vs ground.  Ooops!  I had inadvertently wired in a ground wire to the bundle that was coming in through the light main power feed, and moreover had at some point blown out (destroyed) the protective diode that was there to protect the circuit feed (or it was dead when I installed it).  When I tested the installed diode on this circuit it was clearly inoperative.

Once I removed that bad connection, my first task was to correct that circuit to allow the depressed autopilot servo disconnect/pilot controlled steering (PCS activates with a greater than 5 second button push: allows the pilot to manually steer the plane for a bit, release the PCS which will then hand control back over to the autopilot) indicator light to illuminate.

The issue with my original mis-ID’ing of this alarm output high vs low is that I now had a constant hot feed to contend with that goes through the control stick’s multiple ground outputs.  I had no way to isolate —without cracking the control stick open— exactly what ground circuit was on the other end of the wiring.  This forced me to control what I only had access to.  And other than simply abandoning this function and removing the light, this drove me to only one viable required solution for this control issue: a relay (yep!).

Which you can see down in the open corner of the HXr EFIS opening.  As you can also see that this relay allowed this circuit to work.

It also allowed me to reconnect all the indicator lights’ wiring and get those fired up as designed via pushing my Push-to-Test button on the side of the Warning Annunciator Sub-panel.

One unintended consequence, however, after I wired all these wires back up was that if I pushed the control stick AP servos disconnect button, all the indicator lights fired up… so it was either shorting out the entire light panel, or powering them collectively (sigh).

After messing around testing out another diode and even some high value resistors, in the end I simply punted and cut the test lead to the AP servo indicator light… meaning that it works as required when the control stick button is pushed, but from here on out it does NOT light up with the other lights when the PTT button is pushed.  Facts known, dealt with, and pressing forward.

I’ll state that I did a good half hour worth of assessment on where exactly to mount my SkyRadar ADS-B IN receiver, now that I know that it must be aligned on all axes in relation to the aircraft centerline.  To attain this alignment, along with ease of power connection and my brand new requirement of remotely mounting the 2 antennas, I decided to test mount it on the inboard side of the Garmin GNS-480 mounting tube.  I further determined that only #6 110° CS aircraft grade screws provide internal clearance for securing anything to the mounting tube, so I started some initial test component designs in CAD and kicked off some 3D prints on those bits…. after I tweaked and 3D printed the latest version of the right side GPS puck mounting plate to test out before making.

I then spent a good 45 minutes installing and securing the hardware on the quite difficult to access P3 connector (kinda visible upper left corner of pic behind wires).  Another insane-to-get-to job complete.

I then added some strips of Velcro onto the inboard side of the Trig TT22 transponder GRT serial adapter and backshell to attach it to the transponder itself.  Here is the adapter with the interconnecting wire pigtail I made yesterday, shown from the front side looking aft.

And a shot looking down at the transponder serial adapter/wiring pigtail install. I need to pick up some 1/4″ 4-40 screws to finish attaching the D-Sub connectors, which I’ll do tomorrow. After the D-Subs are fully secured, I’ll then zip tie the wiring and the adapter to the transponder which will complete the install for not only the serial adapter and pigtail, but the transponder itself.

As for component power up tests, I’m happy to report that both the roll trim and pitch trim systems and actuators all powered up nicely and are working a treat.

Pushing forward!

I started off today having a leisurely morning with Jess, as she was busy in the kitchen I focused on some arts n’ crafts time by building a 10″ long pigtail with 25-DSub connectors on each end.  One end of the pigtail connects to the Trig TT22 transponder while the other connects to the GRT adapter that allows the HXr EFIS to remotely control the Trig TT22.  The other side of the adapter will plug into a D-Sub connector that goes to the HXr.

Now the question: Why?  Because I originally planned to have the Trig TT22 mounted on the TOP shelf of the Tri-Paragon —OR— out in the end of the right strake.  But after deciding to mount my ELT antenna in the nose I found that after making up a bracket the transponder fit hanging off the right side of the Tri-Paragon’s top shelf… sort of.  To be clear, there was no clearance for it to fit on the shelf top.

All but for that GRT serial adapter.   With the TruTrak ADI installed there is simply no room for the adapter.  I figured we’re talking electrical signals here, so a quick call to GRT to let them know my eevil plan to remotely mount their serial adapter… that ironically let’s one remotely mount the transponder.  They saw no issue with my scheme.

I did a bit of research last night, but did a deeper dive today on Radenna SkyRadar ADSB-in receiver install per the manual.  As noted above with the Trig transponder, figuring out where to mount components has significant consequences to not only that respective unit, but can have 2nd, 3rd and 4th order affects on other stuff as well.

Since I originally planned on the transponder antenna being in the outboard right strake vs the nose, all was good with mounting the SkyRadar receiver either on top of the NG-30 cover (original plan) or on top of the canard.  However, with a quick check in the SkyRadar manual it states that it’s an absolute no-go to have the 978 MHz or 1090 MHz antennas mounted within 4 feet of the ELT antenna.  Ugh. (BTW, 4′ away is the bottom aft edge of the pilot thigh support where it meets the flat pilot seat “pan”).

The only saving grace is that the SkyRadar antennas can be popped off and remotely mounted, and they’re not that big (~6″ long per antenna)… only requiring buying or making the cables required to remotely mount them (again, a common practice with the RV bubbas).

So [once again] a minor install task has morphed into a significantly more involved project.

In other news, I found the culprit preventing my panel indicator lights Push-to-Test switch from popping fuses.  Again, my bad in not fully reading the wiring diagram correctly as I hamfistedly installed the new AP SERVOS OFF/PCS indicator light. A fact I quickly discovered after doing connectivity tests on my PTT wiring circuits.

A correct rewiring of the AP SERVO indicator light should have it back in the mix in short order.

I spent a few hours taking it easy after my late afternoon fun-with-wiring activities above since I had a killer headache… a rare malady for me.

But the shop lights were still on as I kept telling myself I would get back out there to knock out more stuff… which ended up just me fusing the RAM air scoop butterfly valve switch/actuator circuit.  The only panel indication that all these components are functioning as designed is the RAM AIR OPEN indicator, and yes, both switch and actuator worked a treat.

Nice… another power-up test on another component circuit tested good.

And with that, I called it an earlier night than usual.  I plan on being back on the build hot n heavy tomorrow.

Again, before I dove into troubleshooting the nose gear not-going-down issue, I wanted to knock out some low hanging fruit.

My first task was fusing the TCW Tech SmartStart unit before pressing a couple of buttons <secret?> to arm the starter for engine start.  Obviously this arming step, and ensuring the indicator light lit up, were the only test on this system at this point.

I also fused the StarLink/Cabin heat relay circuit (StarLink may get swapped for WXWorx Satellite WX depending on StarLink’s pricing and plans available) to test out the circuits.  Upon flipping the StarLink switch on, the circuit looks good (a bit more on this below)….

I then got to work on the nose gear down issue.

I checked the 2 suspect wires on the external P0 connector and they both were secure and looked good.  But sure enough when I cracked open the Relay Control Unit (RCU) I saw the brown wire socket looking like it wasn’t in the socket hole deep enough… and I was right.

The wire just pulled out of the RCU-side P0 connector socket hole when I checked to see if it was secure.  I’m guessing iterations of disconnecting the connector and reconnecting it challenged a weak-seated socket.  I flared the little catch tabs on the side of the socket out a bit and then inserted it back into the socket hole… which was a bit challenging given the space to do it.

And Voila!  The nose gear functioned perfectly up and down with this socket back in the game.

I then put everything back together, put some flexible conduit over the wire cabling, and then did another test of the nose gear system to ensure it was working.  All still good!

I’m going to put a quick plug in here for both my wiring diagrams and the connector pin-out diagrams (below) that made this nose gear troubleshooting much easier.  Although not perfect, I’m glad I took the time over these past years to keep them mostly updated!

Now, when I fused the StarLink/Cabin Heat power relay system, the CABIN HT light was not illuminating when I flipped off the StarLink switch.  Although StarLink has priority and will cut off power to the cabin heating system, with the StarLink switch off the CABIN HT light should come on when the Oil Heat System is turned on.  But it wasn’t (clearly this pic was after I fixed it…)

I’m not overly surprised, as the access to the wiring for the heating system (both oil heat and seat warmers) is virtually non-existent.  The wire I could get access to (barely) was one that I hoped would power this light, but upon closer inspection it wasn’t the right one.  Moreover, if I tie into the power wire than the CABIN HT light will simply stay on all the time… a bit silly in my book.

So to get the Oil Heat side of the system to power the light, after multiple crazy attempts over 15 frustrating minutes, I punted and decided to join the ranks of hacks and cheaters.  And although I’m not proud, I am happy this task is complete.

I’ll start by noting that this is not a safety-of-flight indicator, just a “nice to know” one.  So I used the end of the same alligator clip I used to find the good terminal off the switch, cut it and spliced it to the blue 22 AWG light wire, wrapped the clip with electrical tape and then zip-tied it to secure it.  Janky! But task complete.

I also did a function and fit test of the original design prototype for my Dual GPS puck mounting bracket that I designed up in CAD.  After the initial check, I tweaked the dimensions a good bit before 3D printing this one out in ABS for actual install.

How does it work you ask?  Well, I just discovered after all these years that the bottom plate of the Dual GPS puck has a slot to allow attaching it to a band.  The thickness of the slot is 0.09″.  The tab on this mount is the same thickness, so the puck firmly slides onto the tab to securely mount it into place.

And this is where I plan to put it, so I can simply pop the nose hatch to turn it on & off.

The one downside is that the screw holes that I need to drill to secure it to the aft side of the Napster bulkhead are lower than the IBBS unit on the front side… so that will have to come off for a bit after I remove the battery again to complete this install.

My priority tomorrow will to get the panel indicator lights Push-to-Test function online and to stop popping fuses!  Then I’ll get back to work getting these panel components and circuits tested out so I can finish up installing the remaining avionics in the panel!

I started off today knocking out a few more power-up circuit tests with the target being the USB and cigarette lighter chargers for both the front pilot seat and the GIB.  Here we have the pilot cigarette lighter charger just forward of the lower instrument panel bulkhead and just to the left of the center panel strut (pic 1).  If you look closely, you can see the green light.  I’ll also point out that this charger is on the battery bus so it’s always hot.

In the back seat area, left upper side just aft of the pilot seat and just below the longeron is the pair of chargers, both USB and cigarette lighter style (pic 2).  Again, looking at the lights you can see these are both powered up.  Moreover, with each charger I plugged in my phone to ensure that it was charging, which it did on all the chargers.  These chargers connect to the Master Bus off of one fuse.

Lastly is the pilot USB charger located on the right side of the panel’s center strut.  It has its own fuse off the Master Bus.  Here I have it charging the Intercom Bluetooth module anytime the Master Switch is flipped on.  Interestingly, there are no lights on this unit to let you know that it has power, other than charging something.

A couple of days ago I started converting the Tri-Paragon relay deck CAD model to use its screw hole patterns to create another deck one level above the relays: a GPS puck mounting plate… I have GPS pucks coming out of my ears and I think they just may be multiplying like rabbits!

In the lower left corner is the Mini-X GPS puck mounted atop the TruTrak ADI.  Yes, it’s easier cable-wise to get it sitting nicely on the ADI moreso than the ADI’s own GPS puck, which is the farthest forward (to the right) in this pic.  The GPS puck at the top is the GRT AHRS, with the puck itself situated close to the inboard edge of the shelf plate with only the wrapped cable overlapping onto the AHRS (I confirmed with GRT that this is ok).

Well, after getting the puck locations dialed in, I then removed some of the lightening holes to give both antenna pucks a solid surface to sit on.  i also rounded the corners before 3D printing Version 2.

This morning I picked up some 2″ long CS brass screws and used them —after cutting some aluminum tubing for standoffs— to temporarily install the Version 2 GPS puck mounting plate.  The ADI GPS puck wire bundle will get zip-ties to the outboard edge of the plate and hang down vertically below it.

Of course I have some tweaks that I’ll make over the next few days before I spit out Version 3, and then when the final version looks good I’ll cut it out of 0.035″ thick 6061 aluminum.  I’ll also note that I have 2″ long CS 4-40 screws on order from McMaster-Carr and will add in 2 more support standoffs towards the front of the plate.

BTW, if you think this plate is the end of the story for GPS antennas, think again…ha! I have another GPS puck for the MiniUni2 back-up EFIS/timer and another one for the SkyRadar ADS-B IN receiver, over on the left side of the avionics bay.  And I’ll go ahead and mention my standalone Dual Bluetooth GPS puck for my iPad.  I think I have a spot picked out for that as well.

Lastly, I’ll note that per the Garmin GNS-480 installation manual, NONE of these GPS pucks will be mounted on the aircraft centerline as that honor is the GNS-480’s GPS puck’s alone.  In fact, none of the GPS pucks are on the same plane in relationship to each other (close, but not directly) front-to-aft in the bird.

For more than a week now I have been designing and printing out a sleeve that in effect clamps the Fuel Fume Detector onto the AFT side of what was supposed to be its “panel” mount.  However, due to the very short throw on the nose hatch door cable handle release (<1/4″) I felt I should have a positive block to keep from inadvertently ‘popping the hood’ inflight.  That latch handle block intrudes into the space for mounting the fume detector in a normal instrument install fashion.

Now, that all being said, after the 4th iteration of this sleeve, and it fitting very well (there is nothing else holding the instrument in place at this point in this pic), I figured I should wire it up and test it out before I glue this sucker into place.  The control head (in the pic) tests out fine, but there is a bit more detailed test to do with the sensor, which is back by the GIB seat bulkhead.  Once (and if) that is good, I’ll install this unit with RTV.

I guess I should remind ya’ll that the fuel vapor sniffer above is meant to be just a temporary install to ensure that there is no fuel vapor in the cabin during the first 3-6 weeks of actual flight operations.  After it proves no fuel vapors present my plan is to remove it.  I picked this idea up from the VANs bubbas on the VAF forum.  However, if I need to plunk down any more serious cash for a new sensor, I very well might just punt and scrap the whole idea.

I also wanted to quickly show you what I see currently when I fire up the Master Switch on this bird.  I already mentioned the red CANOPY OPEN alarm on the left AG6.  Well, after a few days use with no actual recharging going on, I now am getting an amber IBBS LOW V[olts] alarm on the right AG6.  I guess these are letting me know they’re working eh?

Now, how about that Landing Brake?

Many moons ago when I first posted my switch configuration on the throttle handle, I got a call in short order from my buddy Marco, an airline pilot.  He chewed me out, called me stupid and said I needed to get my sh*t together regarding my switches!! (ok, I might be embellishing a bit… haha!).

In all seriousness, he mentioned the aviation standard, at least in the airlines, is during a go-around that all levers and switches go forward, and I had my Landing Brake switch with forward DOWN and aft UP.  You learn something every day, huh?  And looking at the diagram, which is a near exact copy of Jack Wilhelmson’s diagram, I simply reversed the leads to the switch to meet this newly learned standard (pic 1).

Now, I have recently dealt with how confusing this diagram is (to me anyway) and even had to recently rewire something that I misinterpreted since the diagram is not easily transposed into the physicality of its wiring in my bird.  And as my wife was making dinner tonight, I had an aha moment and realized exactly what was going on:
⇒ I had swapped the wires UPSTREAM of the switch and relays vs DOWNSTREAM where it simply swapped up vs down per switch input.  I needed to set those leads back to what they were, and swap the actual power/ground (which flip-flop depending on switch position) wires to the actuator itself (pic 2).

After getting into the P4 connector and swapping the wires back as per my original diagram, my point of swapping the Landing Brake power leads was under the pilot thigh support just aft of the ELT (which I obviously dislodged temporarily for this task).

Voila, it worked!  The Landing Brake operated per throttle handle switch labeling, with down kicking off the amber LANDG BRK DN AG6 alert (pic 1), and then when I flip the switch to up I get the green LANDG BRK UP notification (pic 2… not sure on the green IBBS Low V on the right. Probably need to tweak that alarm input parameters).  Moreover, full throttle resulted in the Landing Brake automatically closing.

Task complete.

Now, I failed to get a shot of this yesterday, which is simply a single light for GEAR IN TRANSIT when the gear is going either up or down… that replaced the 2 separate gear up/gear down lights.  Still, it is notifying me so I’m calling it good!

I then spent well over 2 hours tracing and performing continuity checks, taking voltage readings, etc. on the nose gear down no-go issue.  After all that work, I finally narrowed the culprit down to 2 possible wires in the P0 connector OR a single relay post connection inside the RCU.  That being said, as I was checking continuity and failed to get any tone, when I re-positioned the lead and bumped the wire bundle I got tone.  I then quickly connected it all up and got the gear to travel down for about 5 seconds.  That told me I have a contact issue in either of the two wires I targeted.

Since it was very late, and I spent way more time than I expected on my troubleshooting, I called it a night and headed into the house.  I’m very confident that I’ll figure out the gear down issue tomorrow and get ‘er fixed.

Fighting on!