Avionics Tested

Before continuing on the Avionics installation and working off my to-do list from yesterday, I scrounged up a piece of aluminum I had bought quite a while ago. It's the POH holder that goes under the panel base for the D-180 dual display variation. I think it would perfectly work with the map box to keep it available for other things. That's why I bought it back then and fortunately Tony T. had provided me with some photos from the assembly instructions.
I cut out the little stop angle and deburred the part. I also verified that my panel base has all necessary holes already pre-punched, so the installation will be a quick riveting job only.

I held off on the actual installation as this one is easy and I want to make sure I am not creating obstacles now that I will later curse at when doing trickier jobs deeper down in the bowels.

Back to the Avionics. The first task was installing the fuel pump switch in preparation for powering up the Avionics system. I quickly determined that there is a lot more to real experimental aviation than just finding a nice position on the dashboard and drilling a hole for a switch. Maybe I should have kept in mind that a switch has a body attached to it that should also fit in the space allotted?

Fortunately, I was so far off, that I could reposition the hole and open it up without breaking into the previous hole. The way I intended to install it quickly wiped out any trace of my mishap.

This switch is on when the red protector is pushed down. You can turn the switch to off when you open the protector. So on my pre-flight list there will be an entry saying "Check fuel pump switch cover down".
I then routed the EMS wire from the switch to the EMS plug and decided to connect it to the General Purpose input next to the stall warning, which was pin 10.

I also did the full connection of the optional GPS mount harness, but I forgot to take photos. I connected the harness following the instructions on 42D-33 and just used the wires I had to make the connection to the plug.

And then.... I powered the thing up. Using a 30A switching power supply I had lying around, I connected a thick wire from the 12V terminal to the plug in the back of the Switch Block. This one would usually come from the relay on the front of the firewall and be switched by the Master switch. Without all this the system will come to live the moment you turn on the 12V.

The GPS power supply was obviously working. Zoom in and notice the plug symbol in the top status bar. In order to work, the Avionics switch must be on and you will have to add a fuse in the otherwise open slot for GPS/ADSB. I used a 3A fuse as this is how Garmin had fused it too.

What I found very odd is that Van's wants you to turn on the Autopilot switch to provide the ADAHRS and the servos with power. I wouldn't think of the autopilot if all I want is airspeed, pressure and temperature. However, with the SkyView Bus as the source of power for all attached devices that use that bus, I guess there has to be just one switch for all of this. I wouldn't call that one Autopilot though.

After the SV system had found all the hardware, I saw that the servos needed new firmware:

Fortunately, you don't have to download anything. The SkyView has the firmware already in it and can update the servos right away.

And after a short time of maybe 2 or 3 minutes, the system was ready to go.

Hey, if you ever felt that Van's instruction manuals are hard to read, get ready for an even better piece of literature! The Dynon Skyview Manuals easily outperform anything I have seen so far from the State of Oregon!

Debugging the radio problem I had posted earlier (PTT swap) took the rest of this day. I'm glad I can say that the system is ready for take off!
Now the rest of the plane has to follow :-).

I assume I cannot do very much over the next days while I am waiting for the 4" yoke and some other parts to complete the panel installation. I will probably go back to cutting the bulkhead cover and the floor plate. If there's more time to burn, I have some fiberglass tips for the rudder and the vertical stabilizer that need some trimming.
As soon as the panel is done, I'll clean the tunnel from debris, turn the plane on the belly again and roll it in the carport where the legs will get added. In the carport is the only flat area around where I can put the wings on and match-drill the flaperon brackets. The rigging of the rudder and stabilator will follow next.