I haven't updated the blog in a few days, although I have done some work. I wouldn't say I've made any tremendous progress, just a few minutes here or there. Small bites will eventually get this thing done though!
While Van's sells a physical flap position setup that acts as a position sensor to help control flap deployment, I opted to use the functionality of the ACM instead. Van's setup basically uses a bar with detents and a physical switch to turn the motor off when a detent is reached. Simple and old school, but way too expensive for what it is. I sold that and instead purchased the small Ray Allen position sensor that the ACM can use the signal from to control the flap motor. The sensor needs to be mounted in a way that it can connect with the flap weldment and move in/out along the arc of movement. I eyeballed a location on the back frame of the flap housing and made an angled bracket to attach to it with screws. The sensor will be bolted to the bracket, and the angle allows the arm from the bracket to be connected to the weldment at a position that enables about 1" of travel of the sensor from flaps fully down to fully retracted. I am just using a piece of threaded rod from RC plane days to connect the sensor to the weldment. It'll be dialed in to the exact location and connection point once the wings and flaps are test fit.
I bit the bullet and ordered the autopilot servos this week, so in preparation for those I made the wiring harness for the roll servo.
Pulling wires through the conduit in the center tunnel has become a real pain. I decided there's no compelling reason to have the conduit under the tunnel itself, so I decided to pull it out. I will still use a small run of conduit for when the wires pop out of the tunnel and run vertically up the firewall stiffeners though(just for aesthetics more than anything). This will be a short run and much easier to manage. I also decided to take the fuel boost pump out for now. It was getting hard to manage the wires with it in the way. I only had to undo two lines to get it out. With that out, I glued down a bunch of cable mounts that will be used for the wire bundles and the fuel line.
I'm not quite sure yet where I'll route the wire bundles to get them up to the subpanel. The outer ribs are often used - one bundle clamped under the bottom side of each rib to run them up to the subpanel. That approach really restricts where the bundles pop out at the subpanel though. For flexibility, I think I may put a piece of angle between those two outer ribs. This will create an attach point for wire bundles anywhere between the ribs. It's a little hard to see, but in the picture you can see the angle I'm holding. I would use adel clamps on it to route wires.
It was painful to write the check, but I ordered my first round of electronic equipment a few days ago, and it's already here! For now I primarily just ordered the behind-the-scenes items that are necessary to figure out the remainder of wiring, subpanel layouts, etc. I decided not to order any panel mounted items (like glass screens, radios, audio panels, etc) until much later in the build. While I don't anticipate any big changes in that equipment between now and the next year or so, they are basically computers, so I may as well wait as long as possible just in case something new comes out. The beauty of the ACM system is that I don't have to have all of hose end devices in-hand to be able to wire up the plane. I just need to wire up the ACM, then when I'm ready, the devices will go into the panel and simply plug into the ACM.
So for now I've got the ACM, transponder, ADSB, ELT, EMS (engine data), ADAHRS, and one GPS antenna (I still need to order a second GPS antenna for my backup EFIS, but I have the dimensions for it and can make the mount and run the coax without having it in hand). That will keep me busy for a while.
