Lancair ES - Steam Gauges to Dynon

[Ryan Riley]

Slowly...ever so slowly! Family and work take priority. Whatever time leftover goes to the panel.

[George Wehrung]

Oh don’t o know that story.

Haven’t gotten any updates on my engine. But now that I am near finishing our home renovation (1yr) maybe I can spare some for the airplane.


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[Ryan Riley]

Anyone have ideas on where to mount the Dynon ADS-B antenna? I’m not going to cut a hole in the plane. I was thinking of mounting it behind the panel and close to the windscreen. Any other suggestions?





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[George Wehrung]

So I put one of those thru the angled shelf behind the left PFD. It worked fine.


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[Robert Pastusek]

Ryan
The ADSB system communicates via ground-based stations (as opposed to GPS). Your system will work more reliably, and with fewer "lost signals" if you mount the antenna on the bottom of the airplane...as far away from any transmitting antennae as reasonable. A half inch hole in your airframe is easy to "core" to provide a substantial mounting plane, but I"d install a 5" diameter aluminum or copper (better) plate inside the fuselage with a hole in the middle that the ADSB antenna grounds to. Many installations work without this ground plane, but it improves signal strength in composite airplanes. The small hole is easy to fill/refinish later if you need to, but unlikely you'd ever want to move/replace it.
If the Dynon system doesn't have information about antenna mounting, I can look through my L3COMM Lynx 9000 system material for this? The antenna mounting considerations would be the same...
Bob

[Ryan Riley]

Bob, thanks for the info on the mounting requirements. I'm trying to avoid cutting and adding another antenna. Dynon does recommend a blade-style antenna if I have to mount outside. Can you confirm that the ADS-B antenna needs to be omnidirectional vs directional? I have a Marker Beacon antenna that I could repurpose as that is the only antenna not used. It is directional, so I am pretty sure that won't work.

I really don't want to cut a hole in the fuselage if I don't have to.

[Ryan Riley]

Project update:

As always, more progress means more tasks till incomplete. Since I had the plane apart, I updated my old-school ELT with an ARTEX 345 beacon (406MHz). New ELT wiring ran and old phone cable removed.

Flush riveted the avionics panels to accommodate the AFS 6600 panels. Still deciding if I'm going to mount the Ram Air, Cabin Heat, Parking Break knobs on the panel or on the co-pilot sub panel.

[George Wehrung]

Lots of work getting done!


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[George Wehrung]

Bob, thanks for the info on the mounting requirements. I'm trying to avoid cutting and adding another antenna. Dynon does recommend a blade-style antenna if I have to mount outside. Can you confirm that the ADS-B antenna needs to be omnidirectional vs directional? I have a Marker Beacon antenna that I could repurpose as that is the only antenna not used. It is directional, so I am pretty sure that won't work.

I really don't want to cut a hole in the fuselage if I don't have to.

I ended up putting a blade antenna on the bottom of my airplane. And like Bob said, I used a wire mesh found for screen doors, make sure it was metal, and I epoxy that into the bottom of the airplane and use that as a ground plan for my ADSP antenna, which is also my transponder.


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[Ryan Riley]

Finally! Tangible progress today...first power on since I ripped out the old avionics. For a first power on, I was very happy with the results. I had an issue getting the IFD 540 to seat properly, so it didn't come on today, but I'll remedy that tomorrow. However, the AFS 6600 panels came on, and all pinned toggle switches worked as advertised. A big shout out to AFS customer support, specifically Jonathan. He's been a huge resource in finding creative solutions for wiring/pinning advanced capabilities within their ACM architecture to make sure I'm getting the most out of the avionics.

Because I replaced almost all original wiring, I had an avionics A&P review my efforts on the main wiring (ALTs, X-Tie, Batts, fuel pumps, fuel transducers, etc.). He found a few minor issues, but said overall it was wired correctly.

Successfully tested power to Batt 1, Batt 2, X-tie, boost pump (low & high), avionics switch, autopilot, Nav & Nav/strobe, landing lights. For the Tosten stick grips, elevator & aileron trim, XPndr Ident, Comm transmit, CWS all tested good. Still need to do some EFIS configs to get the rudder trim activated as well as the Flaps.

For this project, when I decided to do the AFS 6600/Dynon system, I ended up replacing most systems since I had the plane apart. New LED landing lights, new LED Nav/strobes, new shielded wiring, new transponder, comm radio, ADS-B, new stick grips (replaced panel trim), new interior LED lighting, new toggle switches, circuit breakers moved to electronic ones. I know I'm forgetting a few.

Next up is finish the minor changes to the instrument panel and then install it. Then finish EFIS configurations, new pitot/static check, W&B, taxi, then back to flying.

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Monster gets me through wiring harness building

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10.4" screens look pretty big mounted