Installing an APRS system with Pete Howell

I've had an APRS antenna hanging around three different hangars for at least six years now. Pete Howell sent it along on the day I gave his wife and son a tour of Minnesota Public Radio. At the time, I believe, journalism was a possibility for the lad, who was still in high school. Last time I checked, he's in college now and, hopefully, the Howells successfully beat (metaphorically, of course) the idea of a career out of his head. No matter, I ended up with an APRS antenna anyway.

Then about two years ago, following the excellent instructions from Sam Buchanan, I ordered this gizmo, which has sat unused in that time.



This is the small Byonics transmitter and GPS encoder, which will -- if it works -- send signals to earth stations, allowing people to follow me via Google (aprs.fi). I think it's a really great safety feature to have.

I move slowly, though. Last summer when N614EF was down for the annual, I ran the power cable out to the wingtip, but you need a Ham Radio Technicians license to use one of these things and I didn't have one. So the wire dangles. Stupidly, I didn't run a data line from the GPS 296 connection at the same time. No matter, it's almost time for another annual.

I passed the ham test a week ago, and, of course, that provided an interesting story. I'd studied for weeks and was taking the online practice tests and scoring in the 90s. When I took the test that Saturday morning, I figured I had maybe one or two wrong -- three at the most.

"Robert," the VEC said as he glumly walked toward me.

"You missed by one," he said. I had 10 questions wrong.

I gathered up my material and left the room in embarrassment, adding yet another "checkride" to my ongoing list of failures. Driving home, I couldn't imagine how I possibly could have gotten 10 questions wrong. I knew that material. Then the phone rang. "There's been a mistake," he said. "There was another Robert taking the test; you passed." I had one wrong. But at least I had the license.

The next step was pulling out all the stuff I've accumulated for this project over the years. I didn't have any instructions and several of the online guides either aren't setting up the way I am, or have broken picture links, which kind of critical.

So I faced the usual dilemma that people building airplanes and APRS systems have: Where do I start?

You can get a lot of answers to these sorts of questions when you live near Pete Howell. Pete is practically the godfather of APRS for RVers. When I visited him on Saturday, all the required tools were out because he was working on building an electric vest -- presumably, to battle the icy Minnesota winters. "Just bring your wingtip, antenna, some velcro, and the encoder with you," Pete said. He had everything else necessary.

The first step was how the heck to attach the 9 pin D-sub connector to the computer board. Simple, as it turned out. It goes on the end, the connectors touching the solder joints on the board, and add a little solder to keep there. Then a 9-volt battery connector is attached to the same spot the wires for ship power (in my case I'm using ship power rather than tap into the navigation light power because in the summer, the light tends to melt the lens) and ground, use the appropriate cable (you can make them or buy them here). Sam Buchanan provides additional information on the VAF sticky. The configuration identifies your call sign (in my case N614EF and several other standard parameters). By the way, I am KD0WSO. If you're in the Twin Cities sometime, give me a call on the 146.850 repeater.



The tracker comes in a plastic case which Pete cut down, and then used a solder iron to put a hole in the end cap, cut holes where the power/ground are attached and combined the whole operation enclosed in the plastic. Pretty slick.

Then it was simply a matter of putting it in the wing tip (after he checked to be sure the antenna still works), and running the antenna wire along the base of the wingtip, and up to the top, making a big J.) For now, anyway, we attached the tracker with velcro and the antenna with some gorilla tape until we see how it works.



One note: Pete coils the coax and ties it up with some zip ties before installing, I believe in order to eliminate any RF interference. The how's and why's of the electronics of this escape me completely. Pete is brilliant. I write a blog.



Originally, I was going to run wire from the GPS 296 output out to the wing and into the traker, but Pete had an old GPS puck he wasn't using (Byonics has them here) and so he gave it to me, in exchange for later favors. Done!

And that was pretty much it, in about 45 minutes I was good to go.

The next step is to bring it all back to the hangar when it's not 7 degrees, put a molex connector on the power line from the cabin, and the locally ground wire, and then run two wires from the other gender connector into the tracker so that it will be easy to take the wing tip off.

I'm running the power from the last VP-50 small-amp connector I have left. By the way, I was upside down under the instrument panel running those wires to the switch location on the panel, and did not experience any dizziness or discomfort. Those of you following my Meniere's story will note the importance of that since I had the Gentamicin treatment in December. I'm feeling very confident now that I can get my medical back.

In the meantime, I'll finish up the wiring tomorrow (a holiday) and at some point we'll take it up flying and see if anyone can "see" me.

Update: The installation was pretty straight-forward. I velcroed in the transmitter unit and the GPS puck, and used the little sticky tabs to zip-tie the power/ground wires (I always put some blue RTV in those tabs to further secure the wires. I added D-sub connectors (didn't have Molex connectors handy)...





I powered it up and got the flashing green light on the transmitter, indicating that (a) it's getting power fine and (b) it doesn't have a GPS signal, which makes sense considering the hangar door was closed as it was only 10 degrees outsides. So I opened the door and pulled the plane out far enough to get a solid green light and then waited... and waited.... and got the flashing red for a second, indicating it was sending a beacon. Unfortunately it didn't hit a repeater so I can't prove it fully works yet. Perhaps later this week, we'll take it up when it warms into the 20s.

A new instrument

I can't say I was particularly thrilled about cutting a new hole for an instrument in a panel I'd already painted -- there's really no way to avoid some scuffing in an operation like that -- but on the other hand, I've always really liked the Electronics International fuel level gauge, which has a descending series of LED lights to indicate fuel level in each tank. I've always liked pretty colored lights.

And, as it turned out, the Grand Rapids EIS (engine monitoring system) is better for the fuel flow indicator than the fuel level, so I wanted two data references in the panel to track this sort-of important thing. Plus, the EIS seemed kind of lame in the wiring, requiring a resistor to be connected between the wiring and the fuel level sender in the tank.

So today I punched through a new hole, and installed the EI fuel level sender. That's it just above the red knob (the mixture regulates the fuel and air mixture). Glad I left a little expansion space in my panel design.

I should be able to get it wired up pretty quickly. It's very simple, from what I can tell. Even I can't screw it up.

Next to it is the TruTrak autopilot. I have a wing leveler system but haven't been able to wiring it up fully yet because of some questions I have about how it's tied in to the GPS.

I sent a note to Stein at SteinAir but haven't had a chance to get together with him yet, but maybe you can help in the meantime. Here's the questions:


On the the transponder, there were two wires remaining with no apparent home:
SERIAL OUT 1
SERIAL IN 2

My setup is the Trutrak single-axis and the Dynon D100. The only GPS I have is a Garmin 296 in an Air Gizmo, although I'll probably upgrade to a 496 before I'm flying. Do these two wires have significance with my equipment and if so, where and with whom do they mate?

I'm also looking at the TRUTRAK harness kit with these 6 loose colored wires:

RED WIRE -- Power (I know what to do with that)
BLACK WIRE - Ground (I know what to do with that)
BLUE WIRE - Serial input from GPS (I bought the GPS Garmin cable, I assume this attaches to "Blue: Port one out" or "Violet: Port 2 Out". Is this correct? If so, does it matter which?
YELLOW - Dimmer (I know what do do with that. I think)
GREEN - To Altrak Pin 9. Since I don't have Altrak, I assume I just insulate it and wait for the lottery to do its thing.
WHITE/BLACK - To control wheel switch (from pin 2). I have on idea what this refers to. What control wheel switch?

Meanwhile, I have about three or four instruments with wires to a dimmer. Anyone want to guide me on how I would wire several instruments to one dimmer switch?

Video: Vertical Power's VP-50 in action

I think I did one of the first interviews with Vertical Power owner Marc Ausman and ever since then, I've wanted one. The VP-200, which I wrote about in the RV Builder's Hotline in 2007, is the top-of-the line product from the company, and acts pretty much as your first officer. Unfortunately, like so many avionics products, my "want one" plays second fiddle to my "can't afford one."

No matter. The VP-50 has been more than adequate. I've been installing the radios over the last few weeks and I've made a video documenting the progress. Find it here.

N614EF has ears and talks

It only took about 5 months for me to get through the angst of trying to build a wiring harness for the ICOM A210 communications radio and PS Engineering 1000II intercom, but today I sucked it up and flipped the switch.

And it works!





Since the engine isn't ready yet, I couldn't test out the shielding of the harness and its ability to keep out noise, but I did flip on the strobes and all of the other electrical equipment and it all quiet as mouse. Then I transmitted on 123.45 and listened on the scanner in the hangar and things sound great.

By the way, I've recorded a video on how easy it is to install component and configure them using Vertical Power. I'll edit it down and upload it here in the next day or so.

I don't know jack

I've taken a couple of days off from work, turned off the radio, shut off the Internet (mostly), and am out at KSGS (South St. Paul, Minnesota) working on N614EF. A week of clouds, cold, and rain have lifted. All sorts of planes -- mostly amphibs -- are flying in an out of here today. Life is good.

At the moment, I'm finishing up the avionics, and working up the courage to flip on the switch on the ICOM A210 communications radio to see if it works, or whether it fries like it did a few weeks ago. Life is exciting.

Here's a jack I've never seen before. Maybe you have.



It's the input jack for music and I'm making this post because at some time in the future, someone installing a PS Engineering 1000II intercom is going to have the same question, and I can update and post the answer here. Hello future, how are things?

The question: This is a mono jack. There are three possible places to solder wires. There are two wires in a shielded cable. Which wire goes to which terminal and which terminal ends up without any wire on it? Life is confusing.

I'll hang up and listen.

2,100 hours

It shouldn't surprise long-time readers of Letters from Flyover Country to know that I fried my communications radio when I was installing it last month. If there's a hurdle to be encountered in building your own airplane, I believe I've encountered it.

Over time, you begin to wonder whether I'm just unlucky with this sort of stuff, or is it all related to flunking shop back in school? Building an airplane requires a comprehensive set of skills -- most of which you develop over the course of a project -- but the most important one is the ability to stick to it.

That sounds like a "duh" thing to say and it sounds like it's something anybody can do. But this week I passed 2,100 hours on the project so far and over the last few hundred hours I've crossed over into the camp that says not everyone can or should build an airplane.

Arrogant? Perhaps, but I'm in no position to to hold myself above anyone else and I've got a $300 unpaid bill to fix my $1,200 airplane to prove it. But here's the thing: We live in an increasingly "right-now" society and I believe we're evolving into a less patient, less persistent, less dedicated civilization. Those are three traits that are required in order to build an airplane.

I see people looking at their blackberries and iPads and iPhones all day long because they haven't looked at them for the last 30 seconds. What are they looking for? What is it about the moment that's missing, that leads you to live like that?

Building an airplane requires you to live in the moment -- 2,100 hours of them. You're not going to get what you ultimately want right now. If you're one of the people considering undertaking this task, you should obviously run the numbers, buy the tools, and prepare your family and friends. You should find a test project that will take at least a week to accomplish -- reading a book, for example -- and accomplish it. If you can, build on! If you can't, you should probably find another outlet.

It wasn't that many years ago that my family referred to me as the "Scotch Tape Kid," because I always took the shortest route to getting things done, even if I did a crappy job. That kid is dead. Just yesterday I rewired the communications radio and intercom connection after talking with my pals Kevin Faris and Stein Bruch. It would have been easier to just keep it the way I had it -- it might even have worked -- and I could've gone ahead and plugged the radios in and played; it's what I wanted right now.

But I didn't and, instead, rewired the harness and then tonight started reinstalling everything.

These are exciting times -- final installation of components. You begin to realize that this is the way it's going to be when you're thousands of feet in the air. It's not a time when you want to be wondering about that half-ass job you did on a part 2,100 hours ago. You want the plane to fly, the engine to run, and the radios to work.

Hopefully at that point, my propensity to encounter unseen hurdles will have vanished.

One step forward. One step back

My zippy (for me) progress on the RV-7A a big wall today when all attempts to power up the ICOM A210 communications radio failed miserably. It powered up fine back when I was building the wiring harness, but now that it's installed in the airplane, nothing.

I checked to be sure it wasn't a misprogrammed or mis-pinned problem with the Vertical Power 50 system by running a wire from the battery into a male pin which was then inserted into the VP connector. It checked out fine.

I checked continuity in the harness for both the power and ground connections and it checked fine.

I removed it from the radio stack and unscrewed the connector to be sure it wasn't a problem with the connector not seating correctly with the connection on the radio. Nada.

It's times like this you want to have an actual person to talk to who sold it to you, but this is the danger of direct group buys via Van's Air Force or anywhere else. This was a group by more than two years ago on VAF, so the radio is out of warranty. It was purchased through Aircraft Spruce, and shipped directly from the factory.

About the only choice I have here is just to send it back to ICOM with a note that says "make it work," and a blank check.

What should I have done? First, I should've ordered a Garmin SL40 from SteinAir or some other company with an owner you can call on the phone.

Then, I should've said, here's the PS Engineering intercom, here's the mic jacks, here's the headphone jacks, and here's a blank check. Make me a harness.

Would it have cost more? Sure. But here I sit with a busted radio (apparently), no one to call, and this problem:

Consider this image (Click to enlarge):



When checking the continuity on the connections, I get continuity between the S/15 connectors (ground) and the H/7 connectors . But not a full deflection, about a half deflection. Other than something is messed up, what's that telling me? Beats me. But I'm pretty sure I should either get full deflection or no deflection so somewhere in this rat's nest of wires between all the jacks, the intercom and the radio that doesn't work, there's probably a problem.

This is why people like me should let people who know what they're doing, handle the avionics and just write a check.

Anybody need a $1,200 paperweight?

The rules of flaw

One of these days, I'll write a book of axioms for the airplane builder, but in the meantime, here are two more that I've written down for future reference:

1) The best moments in building your own airplane are when you could take a short cut, but don't.

2) The closer you get to finishing your airplane, the more time you spend looking for a part you can't find, but you know it was here a minute ago.

As my faithful readers know, I've been working on avionics for the last few months. This stage of the project is like working in a maze. You proceed down a particular route, only to find it blocked, so you have to try another direction.



Yesterday, I tried to reinstall the PS Engineering 1000II intercom, only to find that the connector and wires (and, yes, I did rewire the power pin for the Vertical Power 50 as I said months ago) hit the bracket that holds the throttle and mixture cables on the subpanel.

I could have gotten away with forcing a fairly steep bend and maybe just muttering "good enough," but I'm past that stage of my airplane-building career. I had no choice but cut a piece of the bracket to allow the wires more freedom and, presumably, lessen the possibility that a broken wire would leave me without a radio (actually, now that I think of it, this wouldn't happen because the PS Engineering intercom has a fail-safe mode that when it craps out, it doesn't prevent you from transmitting/receiving on your radio).

The documentation for the intercom says it doesn't need to be braced. But the more I look at it, the more I think it should be. The problem is, at this stage of the construction. I can see no way to accomplish this. These are the time that challenge a builder when to press on, and when to apply a proper definition of "right," as in "do it right."

I had hoped to get all of the radios reinstalled, the Vertical Power system reinstalled, the master switch, and flap switches reinstalled, the mic jacks and headphone jacks reinstalled, and power up the system to be sure the radios worked. But, alas, the Law of Rule #2 came in to play.

It would appear that I've mounted the Vertical Power 50 control box a little too close to the subpanel and, as a result, I'm asking the antenna cable for the transponder to take a hard turn to avoid it.



The solution -- maybe -- is a right-angle antenna connector at the transponder. I bought one a few months ago from B&C Specialty Products and now I can't find it. I did locate it earlier in the day's activities, but I wasn't looking for it at the time. I was looking for some clear heat-shrink, which I know I put somewhere around here.

I never did find that, and because I wasn't looking for it at the time, I didn't think much of the right-angle connector I did find. I don't remember where I saw it, so I spent two hours -- two hours! -- looking for it. I came up empty.

During the winter months, the hangar tends to get disorganized. When it's 10 degrees in an unheated hangar, there's no time for putting things back where they belong. So by spring, the workplace is pretty disorganized.

Today, I guess I'll spend time tearing the hangar apart, and reorganizing it so that I don't spend so much building time on "looking for stuff" time.

And that's Rule #3.

Intercoms for the experimental aircraft

I got a note from Mark Scheuer, the boss of PS Engineering today. He and I met up at Lake Elmo Airport a few years ago (he's originally from Flyover Country), where he introduced me to the PS Engineering PMA 8000 intercom. It was a beautiful little intercom that I fell in love with but, when it came time to actually pay for one, the PS Engineering 1000II did the trick for about $400. It was, I think, my first run-in with the notion of making concessions to the budget.

Anyway, Mark has forwarded more details on a product his firm his introducing. I think I read about it in Kitplanes, but here's the whole news release.

PS Engineering introduces the PMA5000EX, a low-cost, feature rich, audio panel for EXperimental marketplace.

Lenoir City, Tenn. PS Engineering heard the voices from the experimental and LSA aircraft community, “Give us IntelliVox® at a reasonable price” and “We don’t need it certified”. So the company directed its engineering staff to give these pilots and aircraft builders what they want. The result? PS Engineering is announcing the addition of the all new audio control panel to round out their Experimental Audio Panel offering. The PMA5000EX achieves a new level of price/performance for the homebuilder.

Company president and founder, Mark Scheuer, said, “We listened to this extremely important group of astute customers, and we responded the way only PS Engineering can, with proven design that is packaged just right for the needs of the Experimental market. The PMA5000EX nicely fills out PS Engineering’s audio panel product line offering for the homebuilt aircraft. It joins the PMA4000 basic audio panel and the ultimate panel that does it all, the PMA9000EX.”

The PMA5000EX has just the right blend of practical functionality as well as some high end features that will complete any cockpit. It has a 4-place hi-fi stereo intercom that uses PS Engineering’s legendary IntelliVox® squelch protocol. This proprietary system uses computational power to differentiate instantly between cabin noise and human speech, allowing seamless conversation among the crew and passengers without any adjustments.

Since 1997, there have been more than 60,000 IntelliVox® systems installed in various aircraft, ranging from J-3 Cubs to the legendary P-51, and by all reports, the systems performs flawlessly.

Plus the IntelliVox® that is built into the PMA5000EX even has a High Noise capability, making the highly acclaimed automatic VOX that much more effective in the most noisy environments. This special “High Noise” capability is configured, if needed, by switch settings inside the audio panel.

Not having to go through the expense of certification helps reduce cost, as does removing the Marker Beacon Receiver and Speaker Amplifier—as a result, the company was able to price the PMA5000EX at a remarkable price of $995.00.

The PMA5000EX supports two VHF COMs, two switched navigation receivers, and has two switched Auxiliary (AUX) receiver inputs for any other audio sources where switch control is desired. One unique feature of the AUX inputs is the ability to automatically mute the audio for 60 seconds. This is useful in cases where the audio is an alert that has been recognized, but becomes annoying. After 60 seconds, the audio is automatically restored. Pilots have asked for ways to temporarily disable audio alarms, and PS Engineering has responded.

Music has become integral to the enjoyment of flight. That’s why the PMA5000EX offers a front panel utility jack that accepts most cellular phones, music inputs, and audio advisory inputs from portable devices. Volume of the music input is easily controlled through front panel buttons

In addition to the switched inputs, the new audio panel also has four unswitched inputs for the priority alert audio sources such as engine analyzers, traffic and terrain monitors that are becoming common in experimental and Light Sport Aircraft. One input is even provided to the pilot with the power off.

Another useful capability is the Monitor (MON) mode. This feature will automatically mute the audio from the Com receiver that is not selected for transmit, when the selected radio audio is active. In this way, the pilot may listen to AWOS on COM 2, but prevents the AWOS audio from interfering from the primary Com audio which is typically ATC.

A frequently requested function is more music mute modes. The PMA5000EX provides four different mute modes. By pressing the Mute button, the pilot can select Mute On, Mute Off, Intercom Mute, and Radio Mute. A new capability that the pilot can enjoy is to enjoy listening to music even when in Isolate mode.

The Telephone function will put the pilot, crew, or everybody in the aircraft on the phone. This mode is selectable from the front panel.

The PMA5000EX is not intended for installation in certified aircraft, and is not FAA-approved. “We continue to offer a full slate of fully internationally certified audio panels, including the ‘flagship’ PMA8000B that sets the benchmark for audio control capability,” said Gary Picou, Vice President of Quality Systems and Certification, “The PMA5000EX doesn’t take anything away from our existing products, but gives us another competitive tool in a significant market.”

The new audio panel will be available in February 2010 and will have 1-year Pro-Support warranty.

Founded in 1985, PS Engineering has become a leading manufacturer of general aviation intercoms and audio control systems. The company’s sole corporate focus is excellence in the design and manufacture of audio control systems for General Aviation Aircraft. PS Engineering is credited for many innovations in the field, including IntelliVox®, Softmute™, Karaoke Mode™, Split mode™, Swap Mode™, and the IRS™(Internal Recording System). With a network of over 600 authorized dealer/installers worldwide, the company is a leader in retrofit avionics as well as a supplier to other major avionics manufacturers for their audio panel requirements. Visit our web site at www.ps-engineering.com

Let's talk. I've been making pretty good progress on ye olde RV-7A in the last year or so. But some of the stuff I've bought for it are already being eclipsed by some of the new stuff. I'd actually like one of these. The price is right, although I hadn't planned to spend $900 I don't have. And it has a lot of functions.

This is where I need more discipline and more focus. I have an intercom. It's a good intercom. I usually will be flying by myself and I only have one radio. It is, as I like to say, "a working man's panel."

It's also important, I think, to keep going -- ahead -- when you get into the home stretch (in my case, that's defined as within 2 years of first flight), and not spend a lot of time undoing stuff I've already done, where matters of safety are not concerned.

All that said, if I had a little more money, if I hadn't already bought an intercom, if I had more than one radio, I'd snap one of these babies up in a minute.

Installing BNC connectors

If you're an airplane homebuilder, you should start to get in the habit of going to the EAA video tips for homebuilders before wasting a lot of time searching all over Googleland. EAA has produced hundreds of videos over the last few years and they're indexed well enough to easily find what you need.

Today, since the temperature his 30, I'm heading out to the hangar to run some antenna cable to the transponder and transponder antenna. I spent some time looking on AeroElectric Connection for a "comic book" on BNC connector installation, and I'm sure it's there somewhere but the search and navigation function on the site isn't really very good.

In some degree of desperation, I went to the EAA site. Guess what the newest video is? BNC connectors, taught by Dick Kohler, who taught the SportAir workshop on avionics that Warren Starkebaum and I went to a few years ago.



By the way, the Web site Matt's RV-7 Project, also has a good step-by-step.

The hardest part about building an RV airplane

Learning to rivet properly was hard. Making the canopy for the RV-7A was hard. Coming up with the money to buy tools and kits was hard. But you know what the hardest part of building an RV airplane is? Keeping from looking beyond the next thing you have to do on the plane.

As many of you know, this is year 9 of the great RV project and for years when people would say, "When will you be done?", I'd say, "About $30,000 from right now." Funny stuff, but it buttressed my discipline to not let others pressure me in the build. It will be done when it's done. It will be built right; except, of course, for the parts of the plane I didn't build right.

When you get nearer to the end of the project than the beginning, I've found it's difficult to keep that sensibility.

I made the mistake a month or so ago of doing some calculating . If I can get the panel completed this winter and if I can get some engine work done this spring, I can have first engine-start by fall. If I can start the engine for the first time this fall, I could be flying some time in 2011.

Let's hit the Wayback Machine. It's 2001, and I've just taken delivery of the tail kit. "If I can finish the tail kit this year, I can build the wings next year," I said to myself and, thankfully, nobody else. "If build the wings next year, I can complete the fuselage the year after that. If I complete the fuselage the year after that, I can finish the finishing kit and be flying the year after that."

Sure, it was possible to be flying by 2005; lots of people have built an RV in four years. But that was them and their schedule and resources; not mine.

Fortunately, I altered my thinking early on and went with the "it'll be done when it's done" mantra.

So, about a month ago, when I was talking to someone at work, I speculated that I could be flying in 2011. That was a mistake. Why? Because now it put me on something I've steadfastly refused to be on -- a timetable. And once you're on a timetable, you put pressure on yourself to adhere to it. Again, good for some people; not me. I've got plenty of things in my life that have to be done by a certain date; this project is my therapy, not another thing that has to be done by a certain date.

This week provided two examples. On Sunday, I finished installing the PS Engineering 1000II intercom. It was time to plug it into the Vertical Power VP-50 system. When I checked my load-planning worksheet, however, I realized I'd made a mistake. I attached a power connector, assuming I'd assigned it to a 5 AMP switch on the VP-50 unit. I hadn't. I actually had assigned it to a 2 AMP pin, which is a different connector on the other side of the VP-50 control box, requiring a DSUB pin.

What to do? It didn't make any sense to waste an open 5 AMP pin on a 2 AMP circuit, but the wire was too short to simply cut off the connector and install the correct one, and I didn't want to splice in extra wire. I'd have to take the wire harness for the intercom apart, pull the wire out and replace it.

"Screw that," I said on Sunday.

On Monday, I started on the next part of the panel: installing the transponder (a Garmin GTX 327), so that I can then install the ICOM A210 radio and be done with all the radio work. That's when I made another discovery. I hadn't cut through the subpanel for the transponder unit because it's shorter than the A210 radio. Why would I need to? Because, I learned Monday night, there's no room to attach the wiring harness to the transponder without doing so.

I did cut through the subpanel for the A210, but I placed a piece of angle across the bottom of the cutout, and that now presents a barrier for cutting through the subpanel to make room for the connector for the transponder.







Did I mention it was 4 below at the hangar last night?

See, that's the problem; It's entirely uncomfortable at the hangar; it's far too cold to be working on metal parts with bare hands. And now I've put pressure on myself to get the panel done over the winter, so I can move on to the engine, so I can start it by fall, so I can be flying by next year.

"Screw that," I said to myself after a night of tossing and turning.

The plane will be done when it gets done. The VP-50 needs to be removed, the intercom needs to be removed, and the cutout solution for the subpanel needs to be taken care of. If it's too cold to do it now, I'll just have to do it later. But it has to be done right.

So, sometime this spring, I'll resume work in the hangar, and get the panel done.

But not until I rewire that intercom harness.

Mysteries of push-to-talk (PTT)

I've been wiring up the headphone and microphone jacks for the pilot and co-pilot positions via my PS Engineering 1000II for the last few weeks (yes, I said weeks. It's -14 today.). Now I'm thinking I've been confused into doing it wrong. Yes, I used passive voice there.

Here's why.

I'm using the PS Engineering wiring harness tutorial, which you can find here, if you have Powerpoint.

Here's one of the slides.



It appears to tell me to connect one push-to-talk wire to the tip and one to Audio Lo, the barrel... ground, as I understand it. OK, fine.

Another slide shows this schematic:



So far so good? Good.

Notice that it says connect PTT to tip. Now look at this slide:



Notice the difference? In the first two schematics, it has the PTT wire on the top, indicating that it's the "tip." On the last schematic it identifies the tip as the middle.



Based on the last two images, it suggests one wire comes off the same pole as the ground (Audio LO) and the other comes off the same pole as the audio (AUDIO HI). It appears to me that the schematics in one indicate that audio_hi is the tip and on the other it seems to indicate audio_hi is the ring. In effect -- if you compare image #1 with image #3, it appears to identify a location as a "tip" in one schematic, and then as the "ring" in the other.

Or am I reading it incorrectly?

So, which is it? Let's look to Bob Nuckols of Aeroelectric Connection for help (click for larger image).



To me, that shows the AUDIO-HI wire attaching to the jack without any other wire. Which is too bad because, of course, that's not the way I did it. It's interesting to note that this particular schematic also connects at shield at the jack, which PS Engineering's tutorial says is a no-no. But that's another story for another day.

Update 7:39 p.m. - Armed with the knowledge that there are no electrical symbols here, only a physical reference, I went out to the hangar and got the jacks rewired properly. The -3 temperatures be damned.

Tales from the Crimp: Troubleshooting

You know those late-night and magazine ads that shout, "If I can make a million dollars, you can too!"? I think if Van's Aircraft wants to mirror that, they should use me. "If I can (fill in any particular skill required to build your own airplane here), you can, too." Of course, the jury is still out on whether I can (fill in name of any particular skill required to build your own airplane here).

I've taken this week off from work, ostensibly to work on the RV-7A airplane project and burn up some vacation time (I've maxed out at 8 weeks), but for the most part I've been messing around with wires to make the wiring harness for the ICOM A210 radio and the PS Engineering PM1000II. So far, I think the electrons are disagreeing with each other.

I'm pretty sure I'm not the stupidest person ever to try to build an airplane, but I am sure if I can build one, anyone can. And so, for those people who will be reading this a year, 10 years, 20 years from now, I've made yet another video to let you know that, no, you're not the first person to feel like the only idiot who tried.



If you'd like to follow along, here's the PM1000II schematic. Here's the ICOM A210 manual.

Update 9:58 a.m. 11/25 - Upon further review, pins 25 & 24 are not showing continuity. The test leads were hitting the housing. Still troubleshooting.

Update 6:37 p.m. 11/25 - Update. Took the harness down to Steinair, where Mike Hilger performed his magic diagnosis and -- what? -- it appears to work normally. Yeah, we still had the "problem" with the "not quite green" light. But we attached an antenna and it transmitted and received normally.

Many thanks to Mike and also to Stein, who gave me a Christmas present -- some coax antenna cable.

Harnessing the power

I've been wondering if I'm up to electrical work on the airplane since way back in 2006, when I attended the SportAir electrical wiring workshop at Oshkosh (and then retook it in 2007). Since then, I've installed the Vertical Power system and got a few electrical components going, but the radio harness? That's pro material, right there.

But today I finished -- sort of -- the radio harness for the Icom A210 radio and the PS Engineering 1000II intercom. I still have to select a spot and install the headphone and microphone jacks for the pilot and passenger. And I still have to run push-to-talk wires to the stick grips on the control yoke for both pilot and passenger. And I have to read up more to figure out exactly HOW to wire the push-to-talk wires at the microphone jack. But other than that, I'm done!



I also have to figure out how to wire up a small switch, which allows you to hear the last transmission you received. The PS Engineering instructions SEEM to suggest this is a separate jack, but I'm sure I'm wrong. It would be stupid to take your headphones out of one jack, and plug them into another. Oh, and I have to wire up the music input. Sure, it's all mono, but floating along listening to the Ipod (which would mute if I get a transmission) is a nice idea.

My next step is to take out all the pins that I've inserted into the ICOM A210 end of the harness, so I can slip some "snakeskin" on there. I don't like having all these wires hanging out.



Will it work? I certainly hope so. I did test the auxiliary mic and headset on Friday. I got carrier on the scanner in the hangar, but I didn't hear any voice. But, then again, the wires were all over the place and no doubt grounding everywhere.

I've learned a lot about audio in the last few weeks thanks to the help of fellow RV builders like Kevin Faris and Ted Chang, but I could stand to spend some more time learning how electrons travel over this whole harness.

I'm taking this week off from work, so it might be a good time to select a location for the headsets, and get everything wired in.

But even then I won't be able to test much other than the intercom. I haven't purchased a communications antenna yet (any suggestions?) or bought the coax cable I'll need.

But things are getting there. If -- and I think it's a big if -- it works and there's no noise in the system when I flip on the strobes, I tend to think the worst part of my fairly-spartan panel and its wiring, will be behind me. I bought the autopilot harness and the transponder harness already made. I just have to get a cable of some sort to power the portable Garmin 296 GPS and then I think we can move on to getting the engine work started and completed.

Updated: I started the process of removing pins from the Molex connector for the ICOM A210. Here's what the pins look like. See the little barb on the top? That's what holds it in place in the connector when you push it in.



So, theoretically, I should be able to insert a small wire (like this DSub pin extractor from Vertical Power (I've never been able to get the pins out of the Vertical Power power connection!) which would force the barb down and allow me to remove the pin from the backside.



No dice. I've tried all morning. I did learn one thing, though. See that loose black wire below? ICOM has this schematic which tells you to jam two #18 wires into a single connector. This is a bad idea and I knew -- after the fact -- this was a bad idea because Stein Bruch said it was a bad idea. He suggested just a single wire from both of those pins and then, to serve as a jumper, solder one to the other "upstream."



So I knew -- because Stein said so -- that this connection would fail and one of the reasons I'm pulling all the pins is to change that set-up. As you can see, it did fail. It failed on the first tug while trying to remove the pin.

Solder Central

What used to be the den and computer room at Casa Collins is now the headquarters for the RV-7A project during the cold months. With an unheated hangar, working on the electrical system at the plane doesn't make much sense.

So I've hunkered down on the wiring harnesses for the PS Engineering 1000II and the ICOM A210 radio.

I guess in the big scheme of things, installing the power cables and applying some bench power and seeing things light up and not smoke is akin to crawling on the floor, but it still feels good anyway. And it's pretty.

I'm moving on now to wiring in the copilot and passenger headsets and microphones and learning a lot thanks to fellow RV builders and, in particularly, my RV friend, Kevin Faris, who has been nothing if not patient in answering many stupid questions.

Kevin even drew out the schematic of how the two are connected and has walked me through issues such as how to terminate shielded cable.

If the project is going to get on track for a 2011 first flight -- somewhere -- I'm going to need to make significant progress in finishing up the instrument panel while the snow is flying outside.

Blue Mountain goes toes up

I have to admit that I've made many -- most -- of my purchasing decisions based on the experiences of others. And while I know a lot of RV builders have bought Blue Mountain products for their instrument panel, there were enough stories of customer service problems to make me stay away. Recently there was an uptick in products not being delivered to people who'd sent in deposits.

And this week, the company put this notice on the Web site:

Well, it's been fun. We developed a whole new class of machine, started an industry, dominated it, and are now leaving it. BMA will be ceasing production and spinning down. The best way to contact us is via email.

I'm sorry; that's just not good enough. You can't not communicate with people who've spent money with you and then just walk away, saying "it's been fun." It's not fun trusting someone to deliver a product and then fail to do so.

On the company's discussion board, a customer asks if he's "screwed" because he sent in a deposit. The message is, so far, unanswered. There are stories of other builders who paid for their product more than a year ago and had heard nothing.

There's a lesson here for experimental aircraft builders. Pay attention to the recommendations of other builders. If you find a company has a higher number of complaints from builders, walk away.

Related link
Thread: Blue Mountain ceases production (VAF)

Filling the panel

I've been spending a ridiculous amount of time on cutting the panel and getting the jig lined up right for the screw hole locations for the steam (round)gauges. But most of the cutting is done (I still have to put a master switch in and a few other things) but the initial filling of the panel is going pretty well.



With the panel mostly cut, I'm ready to put the Vertical Power control box back in and start significant wiring once I get a gizmo to crimp on a #8 terminal ring to bring power from the battery contactor to the Vertical Power system. You can see I've put in the instrument panel Vertical Power interface, which is about as easy as it gets -- a bracket, a thumbscrew and -- voila! This system brings a solid state approach to aircraft avionics instead of fuses, circuit breakers and switches.

This is not a show-stopping panel but you know what? The more I look at it, the more I love how I have it arranged for the way I fly. And thanks to Doug Weiler, Tom Berge, and Stein Bruch's presentation a few years ago, I've got everything fitting tightly but efficiently in the panel.

It's a very exciting time. I'll be hanging the engine in a few weeks, the wiring to the rear of the ship is layed, the skin is ready to be riveted on back there and things are moving right along to the point where I'm starting to think 2011 might be the year.

1,900 hours

This weekend, I passed 1,900 hours of actual work on the RV airplane project. Still a long way to go, but getting there.

One of the things I like about buying many of the wiring harnesses from SteinAir (the Dynon electronic information display and the Vertical Power system primarily), is that once you lay them in, it looks like someone did the wiring who knows what they're doing.

Today I finally got the last of the wiring runs to the aft fuselage area, which means I'm ready to rivet on the top aft skin, which will make it look more like a plane and less like a canoe.

The remaining task was to get the bracket built for the remote compass for the Dynon EFIS system. I used a strong piece of angle between gussets behind a bulkhead, made a mounting plate, and then cut some small tubing and filed them to an angle to create a pitch in the plate that matches the pitch forward of the Dynon instrumentin the panel (the panel is angled forward.)

Final check. Here's the pitch of the Dynon in the panel...



... and the pitch of the remote compass in the back of the plane...



I used a lot of Adel clamps to keep the wire from chafing on any part of the plane. I have a little cleaning up to do yet with some of the wires from the strobe power supply (on the left below). I have to figure out how to keep them from moving around but I think the only thing that can be used is tie wrap tied to an adhesive-backed tie-wrap anchor. They tend to become un stuck over time but I don't know what other option I have.

Here's the compartment ready to be buttoned up, which also means other than drilling a hole for the ELT antenna, and to do the actual riveting, I won't have to crawl back in there later.



And with all that in place, I put in the elevator push-rod tube for the final time.



In the panel, I finally drilled the holes -- using an Avery jig -- that attaches the backup airspeed indicator (and a bracket I bought from Van's). I fretted over this for the longest time. The airplane isn't parked level; it's off by perhaps .3 degrees. At the same time, I want the side of the airspeed indicator to be completely parallel with the side of the Dynon EFIS.

Since I cut the panel myself, there's a pretty good chance these instruments aren't all level; I just don't want them to look all not level. I took abut a half hour trying to get it perfect, but I didn't. It's cocked slightly to the left. The pointer is at 88 +/- vertical degrees instead of 90. But once I'm flying, and once the airspeed indicator is moving, I'm really not going to care much.



I hadn't realized up to now that I've got more work to do on fitting the back-up altimeter because it has notched portion by which you can set the barometric pressure. I'm not sure how to cut that notch perfectly.

Anyway, then I attached the static port tubing to the airspeed indicator.



I'm about ready to put the engine mount back on and if I can find an engine hoist to buy, I think we're about ready to mount the engine on this thing.

Playing with the panel

Yeah, I know, most folks would have the panel done by now. What's it been? A couple of months? You know, the lawn was looking at me funny. The deck still needs some work, the fence needed painting. The garage needed cleaning. And I was born with the ability to feel guilt.

Out at the hangar, the grill needs to come home and the bench -- the one I sit on and think deep thoughts during the summer -- needed sanding and staining. So that was my plan today. One piece of non-airplane work and then one piece of airplane work. I don't know why I feel like I need to "earn" the time I work on the airplane. But I do.

I finished up the instrument panel cutout for the ICOM A-210 the other day. So today I put it the PS Engineering intercom. Originally I was going to put this on the other side of the rib. But, you know? There's a good chunk of room underneath the transponder. Now, someday I may want to put a full audio panel there. So I can just cut it out. But for today, perfect.



Then I needed to figure out where to cut the subpanel to allow the radio tray to come through. I fired up my dad's old Dremel tool and, voila!





I'm not exactly sure what needs to happen on the forward side of the subpanel. I assume some angle needs to strengthen it and be used to screw down the tray. The holes for the screws in the tray, though, are pretty far -- farther than 3/4 angle -- forward of the subpanel. And should I reinforce angle on the bottom and top?

Meanwhile, my building friend, Brad, stopped in to check Tom Berge's recommendation that the wires from the strobe/nav light in the tail come through the center of the vertical stabliler. The more we thought about it, though, the more we decided since we've already gone through on the side (without cutting through the vertical stabilizer spar, we best leave it there.

Then he mentioned he had a power supply and a harness for the Dynon 100. So I borrowed it to be sure that when the Dynon went black when I was playing with it a few weeks ago, it was because the backup battery was dead. It was.



I played with it for awhile. It's pretty cool and will be just fine for me, the VFR pilot. I did find its altimeter to be more accurate than the Falcon gauge I bought from Van's as a backup altimeter. I set it for the field barometer and elevation and the Falcon gauge is off by about 80 feet. Not good. No instructions came with it so I don't know if there's a way to calibrate it or what.

Anyway, I left it on for a couple of hours and removed the power supply and, nope, the Dynon didn't come back to life. I don't know how long the battery needs to be charged but it's not doing its job right now.

I've got to get me one of these power units, though.

So the only holes left to make in the panel -- at least until I win the lottery -- or for switches. Master, start, flaps, electronic ignition. I haven't figured out what I need for that yet, though. All in good time. One of the good things about spending a pile of money, is it gives you time to work on stuff without spending any more.

Working man panel

If I were a typical RV builder these days, I'd be plotting out how to space out my two $10,000 Chelton flight instruments, and then sending the panel out to a special place to have it perfectly cut. Or I'd just give Stein Bruch $100,000 (as, believe me, some people have) to build the perfect panel.

But, alas, like my father before me, I have to go to work each day to earn a living and so I'm building a "blue-collar" panel. I'm cutting each hole myself, and then filing it down to the right size. By hand.

I'll know every inch of this panel, because I will have measured, cut, and touched every inch of this panel.

There are days when I read Van's Air Force and see the amazing equipment people are bringing to their project and the amount of money they bring to bear upon it, and think I'm not really much of a builder. Then there are days when I realize I'm doing all of this plane by hand, by myself, while juggling real life for a working person and I think that puts me in the company of the real homebuilders of years gone by like Tony Bingelis, who figured out how to do all of this without writing a big check.

So here's what I've got so far (left to right): Backup altimeter and airspeed indicator on the left, a Dynon D100 EFIS over a Grand Rapids EIS 4000 engine monitor, the Vertical Power VP-50 over the TruTrak single-axis wing leveler, an Air Gizmo dock for a Garmin 296 (without the adaptor to angle it toward me which turned out to be a waste of my $25), over an Icom A210 radio.

And that's where I am. So here's my question. Underneath the A210, will be the Garmin 327 transponder. How big of a gap (for cooling) should I account for when figuring out the height of the cut below the A210 radio? And I assume I'm not leaving a small piece of metal between the two, right?

Also, would it make sense to cut out a "blank" for another radio (you'll note I have no VOR capability) in the event I decide to add one and then put some sort of cover over it?