In the past couple of days I continued to work on smaller tasks. I listed all of the tasks that I know I need to complete and made a list of milestones. "Panel Working" is the next milestone. At this point in the project, a Gantt Chart would be helpful at times because as I look at the task list, I'm seeing "this needs to be done before that" for a lot of items. I ran into a stopping point on some tasks because of needing some parts that are on order.
Based on this mock up panel (no fancy tools were used to make this...just marked and cut with a Fein Tool and Uni-bit), looks like there's capacity for 90 circuit breakers and switches using the standard holes. A friend with extensive avionics experience cautioned me to "allow for expansion. There's always something new to add later on."
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| Found that "thickness matters. The breaker switch's necks are only .3" long. I removed one layer of ply to get some surplus test breakers mounted. Then I asked my buddy if this was enough. Vance commented, "Know you know why I have breakers and knobs all over my panel." |
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| One of the knob panels is slightly rotated and one of the breaker holes is a touch high. Not bad for cutting by hand though. I'll check with a local shop tomorrow about CNC cutting a panel. I'm using the "Panel Planner" software you can get "free" if you buy $7500 worth of avionics from ACS, so can generate a DXF file for them to use. |
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| Fits here.... The original panel is a little over .25" thick. Not an issue for the displays, but it is for the switches and center stack cage even with a .063" aluminum panel. |
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| My early version 2 panel will have three trays in it, but later will reduce it to two trays. I'll explain more later... Anyway, the cage needs to be taller, so will take out a portion of the bottom rows of holes to accommodate the top tray. |
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| I'd planned on having the bezels nicely fitting together, but as my friend points out...."these vendors do their own thing". Case in point, the PSEngineering Audio Panel would set in further than the Nav/Com if using the front edge of their tray as a guide. So mounting the audio panel tray a little further forward will put it flush with the Nav/Com. Some of the trays are 6.25" wide and some are 6.3" wide. Just enough you notice it if you look for it. I need to increase the space between the knob panels and center stack enough to accommodate the screws that secure the trays to the cage. An alternative would be to use flush rivets and keep this spacing. |
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| Having an expert provide guidance and wisdom saved me some headache. You can see where one ply was removed so the short necked breakers could be mounted and checked for clearance. |
I still need to cut the vents, USB charging ports, remote ELT panel etc. Also the center console area that joins to the panel will be constructed and filled with the SDS programmer, mixture knob and maybe the landing gear and brake switches in an attempt to have a nice flow for GUMPS.
It was a nice day and got to go for a nice ride with some friends. We flew over an airpark called Driftwood and then got fuel at XBP which is a municipal airport with adjacent airpark property. Coming back to my home field was pretty busy. ADS-B was helpful spotting a lot of aircraft but we still saw others that weren't ADSB-out.
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