Instrument Panel 1
Instrument panels seem to be one of the biggest attractions for scrutinisation of everything on an aircraft. Some are basic, some complex. Some look like someone took out a shotgun, stood back, blasted some holes, and filled them with a random set of instruments. Most are limited by budget, and man, how it can all add up is nothing short of amazing.
Over the life of the project, our panel design has gone through several iterations, in order to find a balance of functionality and simplicity. We wanted our plane to be capable of serious IFR, so we had to pack it full of stuff.... Or did we?
While at Sun n' Fun in April 2002, we ran into the Blue Mountain Avionics stand, and what we saw was nothing short of amazing. Still in it's infancy, the EFIS1 held lots of promise. I have decided to dedicate a page of this site to the EFIS1 and it's installation as it progresses. So far, things are looking great. So, the secret's out. We went EFIS1, had some back up steam gauges and an Apollo stack. Good to go. Here are the evolving developments....
It's amazing looking at peoples first attempts at an instrument panel. Just take a look at some of the websites out there. Big plans, over complicated, slapdash, and above all EXPENSIVE! Ours was no different! I'm sure when we all open up EPanelbuilder.com for the first time, we're overwhelmed by all the things we can put on there. So, that's what we do. Gung ho! Here's the first one! It's awful!
To be completely honest, it hasn't changed all that much so far as content. It has changed layout considerably. This panel originally had the first Blue Mountain EFIS1 display, which was considerably different to the one that currently ships. As time progressed, the Blue Mountain display changed it's form factor, and this in turn prompted a rethink. I think it was about this point I decided we would probably need to add some to the bottom of the panel based on the display's dimensions and the RV's panel depth. I've seen plenty of RV's with panel extensions on them, so we'd find a way to accommodate it all.
So now we have a new display, a few less back up engine instruments, and no more airspeed indicator, in favour of using the AOA. The GPS would also show groundspeed, so we were good to go..... Then I started getting greedy again when BMA announced they could support two displays! Will it ever end?! It's looking a little to much again! Airspeed indicator is back after much to-ing and fro-ing and fretting about what to have and what not to have!
Up until this point, I think we were still waiting for our quickbuild to show up. I can't remember for sure, but when we got to the point of fitting the front fuselage area, we got to thinking about the structure behind the panel... Stuff you never see. Out of sight, out of mind right? Looking at other sites, it was clear that storage was an issue. At this point, it was time for a rethink to accommodate storage, structure and let's not forget er.. Budget... We've already blown that! Better shrink the stack a tad too....
We're getting a little closer to the final design. I'd been reading about people having trouble getting their compass to work properly when it was buried in the panel, so I decided to relocate it to the windshield area. After all, the support bar for the slider is stainless steel for just this reason! Heaven knows why I put all those circuit breakers along the bottom right! It would be a miracle if you could stack them up like this. I'm not even using breakers. I'm going with the AeroElectric suggested standard fuseblocks. I'll have a couple of breakers for alternator fields, but that's it. This plane will be all electric, dual alternator per Bob's Z-10 schematic.
So, here we have what closely resembles our final design. The only thing missing here are warning lamps. Trim indicators, will be positioned on the centre console by the quadrant, and the ELT remote panel has been positioned of to the side of the panel in the side rail just under the canopy roll bar. There's a picture further down showing this. After much debate, I decided that we need a gyro of some kind if the lights go out in IMC. So, now there's an electric AI (with internal battery backup) for just such circumstance. Most recently, it was decided to ditch the CDI. The EFIS1 displays all the information we need these days from internal sources, and multiple external sources. Now we can move the AOA Pro up to a better locale.
Also, after much pain with searching for rocker switches that fitted the bill perfectly, and consistently, I gave up and went for the toggles. Further on you'll see how I made them look nicer.
Ah ha... There's that EFIS1! As you probably guessed everything had to make way for this! Looking good though. Here, it was fired up to give some of the local pilots a demo. Everyone was suitably impressed, as they should be!
Mucking about with paper templates. This effort didn't get very far....
Before we knew it, metal was cut! So much for make your mistakes on paper!
This is a good shot showing the extra panel depth. I added 2". In order to do this, I had to trim quite a bit off the control stick. There's still plenty of leverage though. These things don't take that much force to fly!
At this point, the radio stack is still made out of paper... Money, money, money..... MONEY (Sang like The Apprentice theme tune.)
Got the glove box kit from Van's... Let's see how we can work this into the design... Hmmm Perfect! It looks almost planned!
Still no radios. The paper ones finally gave up the ghost and fell off. That's be my cue to get some real ones.
Hey, hey! Here they are. I've been looking at this stuff forever, and finally got them. I was going through my Internet Explorer Favourites one day looking for dead links, and stumbled upon the Barnstormers one... I clicked it, and out of the blue I typed in the search feature the word 'Apollo'... Was this an omen? There it was... Amazing. This stuff comes up for sale so rarely on the used market, I had to have it. One phone call, and it was secured. Well, maybe not one phone call. The first call was to see if it was even still available. It was.... Now a dilemma. Always a member of the 'forgiveness is easier to get than permission' camp, I pondered... Should I just go ahead and get it? After all, this stuff doesn't come up every day, and it's a reasonable price over new stuff, and Garmin have taken over, how long will it be available new? Mind is racing even writing about it after the fact! I broke down and deviated from my normal habit and called the wife. She wasn't there. Leave a loving message, hi darling, blah, blah... Love you, bye. Didn't hear from her all day. Got home, put it to her and she of course says, "NO!" She made me beg and plead.... She knew she was in complete control, and was lapping up every bit of it. The next day over breakfast, she said, "So, what about these radios then?" I said, In a mardy tone, "I guess I'll just miss out and spend more later." About a half hour later, she told me to go ahead and buy the radios! Woo hoo! See what we have to do to get what we want? Next time, I'm going the forgiveness route for sure!
These warning lamps came from Spruce. They're quite pricey though at $12 a pop. I mounted them to a support strip of aluminium, and stood it back behind the panel so the lamps were lower profile. They look a lot neater and more professional like this. The lens caps can be removed, and there's a secondary opaque lens cap underneath onto which you can put a clear label. Then snap the coloured cover back on and you have a great looking finish.
I found some nice dome head hex socket screws for the instruments, but I'm having some trouble finding longer lengths than half an inch! I'll keep looking. These came from McMaster-Carr.
Here you can see the switches. Lot's of them. I made a channel out of 0.040" aluminium which hold the switches, which in turn mounts to the panel. The top of the threads on the switches sits flush with the panel. Looks much nicer than having all those lock nuts on display. The problems with the lock nuts I've noticed is that you cannot orient them the same way too well. Especially if you have some slightly different types of switch with different threads.
Here you can see the standoff panel attached to the panel.
This shows the standoff channel for the switches. Since these are pushed and prodded everytime you fly, it had to be stiff. It's made from 0.040" sheet, and is plenty stiff enough.
Here, it's all attached to the panel. In the foreground is the Hobbs meter. The black thing above the switches is the EFIS1 display. Snug in there isn't it?! I haven't pushed on any of the terminals fully yet. I don't want to work it all loose by pulling them off several times before it's all sorted.
Another shot of the switch array.
Here I let the switches try on their new booties. However, my feeling is after trying them on is that they look like christmas tree lights. Not good. So, I'll be changing them all out to be white, except for the important stuff like the master , autopilot master and E-Bus alt feed switches, which will be red. I thought it'd be a good idea to have them all coloured in, but maybe I 'smoked too much crack' as Cameron would say. A word of caution... If you have some booties like this, don't get impatient like me and put them on before you're ready. They don't come off too easily!
The flip cover is over the starter switch. The real starter switch will be on the stick, but this switch must be turned on in order to use the switch on the stick. Basically a safety lockout to stop you hitting the starter button in turbulence for example.
8/6/04 Update
Today, the Proprietary Systems AOA Pro Indicator arrived that I ordered at Oshkosh. I was impressed, it comes with EVERYTHING! Even a video. Looks pretty cool. So, I browsed the manual this evening, and will be heading to the hangar tomorrow to install it! Well, at least in the display and CPU. All the plumbing to the wings will come when I do the wings. Pitot and Static will come as I do those systems... Static line is waiting for me to rivet the rear skin on, otherwise the line will get in the way of the bucking bar.
Here are some gratuitous shots... The large black part by the CPU is the Pro display. Most of it is hidden behind the panel, so it isn't really as big as it looks! There is also a good manual, and a video included.
A bag of various hardware and decals.
The ports.... Basically, one is a drainable water trap, the other an way of connecting the hole in the wing to a tube. Fairly simple stuff. All the clever stuff is done by the CPU "Brain Box" as they call it.
8/7/04 9 Hours
Thunder over Michigan was on at my home airport today. It's on tomorrow too. Anna, Cameron and I had a quick look at the planes when we went down to find some food. It was pretty good. There were some Beech 18's there!
I spent the whole day at the hangar today, and got a fair bit done. My first task was to wire the turn coordinator. Now I have the cannon plug from Aircraft Spruce. Second task was to start mounting the AOA indicator. So, using the template, I made the cutout. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera again, so I brought the panel home with me. I had to remove it for the next tasks....
So, here's the panel cutout... The template was a little on the thin side to be really effective, but it worked out OK. The indicator fits really nicely. I know you'll have to take my word for it! The AOA indicator is quite wide behind the panel, and unfortunately, the EFIS 1 display is wider than the screen and bezel on this side too! So, that meant the spacing wasn't as close as I'd have liked. Still, it looks good. I've been VERY fussy about the way our panel looks. Mike and Cameron have been joking about me taking so long to do things, but even they like how it's turning out! Sorry about the flash blinding!
Next, I moved on to the glovebox area. I wanted to start getting the panel to the point where I could install all the radio trays and glovebox and wire in the avionics stack. This is where the bulk of my time went.....
Like I said, I'm fussy about the way the panel looks, and the way the glove box door opens is not very pleasing to me. It's simple and straightforward for sure, and some people like it that way. What I did admittedly was a WHOLE bunch more work. I designed hidden hinges, using a piano hinge behind the panel.
Here's a shot of what the assembly looks like behind the panel. Making the arc just over 90 degrees gives a nice door opening angle, and clears the engine instruments below. In order to get all this to fit well, accuracy was key. That's why I used pieces of angle and 0.63", rather than just bending up some sheet. As it happens, it looks like I could've got away with smaller hinge arcs!
This shot shows the inside of the glove box with the hinge in the closed position. There will be a 1/2"x1/2" angle riveted to the hinge and the glove box door. The slot has to clear the hinge mechanism, and seems flimsy at first, but when the glovebox is on the panel it's pretty rigid. In the top corner of the glovebox, you can see some small stops for the door. This will ensure it's spaced correctly to the panel.
The hinge in the open position. Now you can see where the door will stop when fully open. It appears my biggest issue will be how to rivet all this lot together and figure out the best way to paint it all. I want the hinge mechanisms to be flat black. The glovebox will be lined with heavyweight black Ultrasuede (synthetic suede that does not fade or stain). I'll also be using this material for the glareshield. Ideally, I'd like to suede the interior of the box before riveting it so that the ends tuck down between the panel and the box. You may notice I used countersunk rivets in there too.
8/8/04 9 Hours
I managed to sneak some time in today too! Quite a lot of time. So, today, I continued with the glove box, and then I reassembled the whole panel to see what it was looking like. Pretty.
Then, I took on the challenge of wiring the radio stack.... See the Electrical page for that one...
Here's the almost complete glovebox door. I need to shape the hinge arcs to match the angle stock.
Here it is closed. It's a nice fit. I will probably open up the gaps a little to allow for the tiny bit of slop in the hinge.
So, here's the almost completed panel. There's only one thing left to cut a hole for. FADEC. The display for this will be to the left of the EFIS 1 and below the AOA indicator.
8/26/04 2 Hours
Sometimes I have difficulty deciding whether some of this stuff should be filed under fuselage or panel or electrical... Oh well. So tonight I stopped by the hangar on the way home form work and mounted the PSS Angle of Attack CPU.... I mounted it on the left hand rib. I ended up putting nutplates in the lid of the CPU in order to mount it neatly. The area I wanted it was pretty tight, so using the holes on the sides as supplied proved difficult bearing in mind there may one day be a need to remove this device either for upgrade or service. This photo was taken yesterday (28th) which is why it's all wired up!
8/28/04
I wired in the AOA indicator today, and listened to the audio come through the audio panel. This thing is pretty easy to install. The instructions are reasonable. Here's a shot of the display on the panel.
And the whole panel... The wires hanging over the top of the panel are the Nav analog wires on their way to the ACU. I'm waiting for my Mouser order to come though to finish this stuff.
9/4/04 6 Hours
It started raining this afternoon, so I took a break from working on my study (look here)and went to the hangar. After getting soaked putting my tools away anyway!
Anyways, I got these push button switches from Mouser and put them in the panel. They're for the AOA. One is dim, and the other is test. They look a whole lot better than the switches provided.
9/6/04 3 Hours
Tonight, I finished up connecting the pitot/static lines to the instruments behind the panel, and routed the tubing down through to the opening inthe fuselage where it goes into the wing. Once I'd done that, I tested the pitot part of it. I heatshrunk a length of heatshring (duh) and rolled it up and clamped it at an indicated 200 knots. Then watched to see how long it took to drop off. A long time.....
Here's the first pic... time was 1:25pm
And the second pic... Time was 1:54 pm, and I've lost 10 knots.
For giggles, I left it running almost the whole time at the hangar... Now it's 3:12pm and I'm down a total of 35 knots. Not too shabby, and well within spec... Speaking of which, I need to look it up in the RV archives. I know I'm well within, because I was talking to Mike and he mentioned the spec was surprisingly loose.
11/14/04 Update
A few days ago, I ordered the FADEC cabin harness kit, with a two light LED health status annunciator. This will be the final thing for the panel Once I get that, I'll be mounting it, and then figuring out getting the panel painted and labelled.
I have seen places at some of the big shows that can paint your panel with two colours, then laser etch away the top colour leaving the bottom colour to show through. I enquired on the RV-List to see if anybody else out there knew who did it, and I got www.engravers.net out of that. They do it, but looks like a mechanical process, and they require you to paint your own panel. I'd prefer to send it away and have somebody else do all the painting, that way, if the etching doesn't turn out, then they re-do it, and don't blame me for the lousy paint varying in thickness.
Another alternative may be to silkscreen the panel. Need to do some research. If anybody has suggestions, please send me an email here. I really want to avoid the stick on labelling of any sort. Another thing I could do is find some Letraset rub down lettering and then I can clear coat over it to protect it. I need to do a test piece to see how this will look.
The panel will be a dark grey colour, to match the outside of the seats. The interior grey matches the centre panels of the seats.
11/28/04 Update
I found a thing on the web called PhotoEZ, which is basically a silkscreen type stencil maker. With PhotoEZ, it seemed like the way to go, because it's a plastic mesh with the chemicals already applied. I jumped in headlong and ordered up a high resolution starter kit for about $42. The kit only had two sheets in it that were 8.5" x 11". Tonight when I got home, I started messing around with it. Seems like the best thing will be to get some transparency film for the printer, lay out exactly what I need, and expose away. Then use it to silkscreen onto the panel. I'm going to buy some paint and make a sample to see how it turns out. Looking at the mesh, it's so fine, you can't even see the holes in it, so I'm expecting to be able to get some great detail and some sharp lines. I'll let you know how they turn out.
I also found out who can laser engrave a panel, but it might be expensive. Aero Northwest are the people, and their stuff looks top notch. I might enquire with them about how much my panel will cost. Based on the prices of some of the placards a friend ordered, I think it may be cost prohibitive. Plus, I'd have to send a big fat panel with a glovebox attached, and I don't think they could handle the glovebox part of the equation!
12/3/04 3 hours
I managed to get some bits and pieces today to enable me to do some samples... Some white screenprinting ink, some transparency film, and some grey primer to simulate the panel surface. I messed around with various exposures, and I think I overexposed most of them, including the one I decided to try and print with.
Anyways, I spent some time on the computer making up a panel, and then applying some words and lines in the appropriate places. I tried a few fonts, and I liked this one the best. I may need to go a little bigger though.
In the sample below, it's not quite as nice as I'd like. In fact it's crap. Although, I learned a bit from this.
The second sample came out a lot better, although the screen was still over exposed. I'm using the transparency films for the positive, and it seems like the exposure times are a lot less than I've been doing. Here, the ink went through much cleaner, apart from near the end of the word "strobe" and the line above it. Some of the other letters got a bit filled in too, again due to over exposure. I'm a lot happier with this, and I reckon with a few more tries I'll have it down.
Since I found outthat the FADEC ACU doesn't require panel mounting, it appears that there is now nothing left to go on the panel! Which means... It's about done! So, my next task is to find a place that can flock the inside of the glovebox. Being in SE Michigan, it shouldn't be an issue with all these auto suppliers around. It's just finding someone willing to do a one off. Once the glovebox is flocked, I can rivet it to the panel, and start working out painting the panel.
I have neen messing about with some more screen printing, but I'm not getting the hang of it. I can make some really good quality screens, but actually applying the ink is not working for me! I ordered some white, yellow and black Nazdar enamel for the screen printing, and haven't really had much luck with it yet. This enamel is durable enough for external use, so should be fine on the panel.
I've also had a mess about with rub down transfers that you make yourself, and they weren't up to snuff at all. They had the stuck on look that I'm not happy with. I might order some Letraset rub down lettering from England and see how I fair with that.
Oh yeah... I haven't been adding in the time I've spent messing with all this stuff to the aircraft total. I know I probably should, but it seems like most of the time has been somewhat fruitless. Well..... Maybe I'll have it figured out soon.