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30 MAR 2008 Rear Cockpit Reassembled

                   

1) Putting the rear cockpit back together after painting.

2) Installed the eyeball vent and the screen in the Heater cover.

3 and 4) Ran a bead of foam gasket material around the oil cooler and the blower. Installed both of these. Also made the two Aluminum tubes to connect the oil cooler to the bulkhead connectors on the heater box.

With the cover installed, I did a quick airplow test. FANTASTIC. I still need to run the SCAT tube to the front seat, but the air flow for both the rear seat and thru the SCAT duct connector should be more than enough to heat my feet

29 MAR 2008 Paint Rear Cockpit

The only thing left to do in the rear cockpit is to install the heater blower, oil cooler, and make two oil small oil lines, and install the eyeball vent and screen on the cover. But, before I do any of that, I needed to paint everything so I wouldn't need to take it all apart again later.

              

Everything is taped off, strake windows, hell hole, head rest area (This is where my landing gear computer mounts). NOTE - A trick I learned in the autobody shop, rather than try and tape up complicated shapes or small items use a small piece of aluminum foil. I removed the rear seat instruments rather than tape them up. I stuffed paper up inside the strakes so the over spray wouldn't get into the front cockpit.

Also aluminum foil on the wire bundles.

              

You'll note that I taped off the areas where the rear seat arm rests will mount. I probably won't install these until after I've flown the plane.

23 MAR 2008 Released Version 3.3.8a

During the last couple weeks, I've been working on getting the latest release of the Recorder ready.

Version 3.3.8a is loaded with new features.

All screens have been resized to a standard 640x480 format. These will fit nicely on most small 7 inch displays.

Added variable screen refresh update rates for the EFIS data and Instrument screens. This vastly improves performance for slower CPU computers. Rather than update the screens real time (65 times a second) you can select update times. The Default values of 250 ms (4 times a second) for the EFIS data screen, and 70ms (16 times a second) for the EFIS Aviation Instrument Screen. I recommend leaving them at this speed, even if your machine will run with faster speed.

The photo shows the three Flight Instrument screens and the Dynon EFIS data screen all displayed on a single monitor. The purpose of this was to place the highest load possible on the CPU (need to refresh all four screens). This test was on a Dell GX150, Pentium III, running at 900 Mhz. With these screens displayed, and receiving data from all three units. I was seeing a CPU loading of around 55%. Very, Very good.

The EFIS, EMS and GPS Aircraft Instrument screens are updated. I added Gmeter, Vert Speed, and AOA to the EFIS Instrument Screen (see photo).

A new feature, Capture and save raw Serial Data on EFIS, EMS and GPS serial ports. The captured files are dated and time stamped. Older files are automatically deleted when a user set cache size is reached. Enable this feature and just forget about it. If something happens during your flight, download the files and read them with this program on another computer.

NOTE- Serial Capture is a seperate function from the original "Record" mode.

The original "Record" mode is still intact. "Record" gets all the data from the EFIS, EMS and a GPS and makes a data entry at variable speeds, The recording can be perfomed at real time (65 times a second) or slowed down to as sow as once every 30 seconds. The recorded data is in a tab delimited format that has been the corrected for the UNITS that is selected. i.e. Knots and Feet instead of Meters per second and meters.

Playback (and convert) captured serial data. Playback one frame at a time or any frame rate up to near real time speed. The playback dat appears on the data screen AND the Flight Instrument Screen. Can also convert captured file to a Tab Delimited text file.

Added MODE C transponder code generation. The Mode C altitude encoded data is generated from the Dynon EFIS altitude. Corrections can be made to the altitude data at 2500 ft intervals.(I need to work on the interface device - the box that goes between the computer and the transponder)

I updated the manual and included a Table of Contents

You can review the manual and download the Latest Version here.



OR - Read all about the new Waiters Flight Data Recorder here!

If you see any problems, send me an e-mail.

22 MAR 2008 Thigh Support Heater

I finished the Aluminum heater cover with two large holes in the front, The one on the right will be for fresh air in, this will have a screen behind it to keep your fingers out. NOTE - There is also a fesh air in hole on the side of the thigh heater. This should supply plenty of air into the heater unit.

The hole on the left will have a small eyeball vent. This eyeball vent will allow the GIB to direct heated air at their feet, or turn it off to direct all the heat to the front seat. I still need to prime and paint. the cover and the inside of the heater.

Also installed the blower mount lower plate, This is a small piece of wood that the blower slides into to secure the bottom of the blower.

Made fuel line on firewall. route from the bulkhead connection to the bottom of the fuel filter.

21 MAR 2008 SNOW SNOW SNOW

Plowing snow all day. I'll be glad when this Global Warming kicks in, I've run my snow blower more this year than I have in the past 10 years combined.

2 MAR 2008 Thigh Support Heater

The oil lines are run from the firewall to the heater box. I wrapped them with insulation and foil tape.

The fuel pump is also plumbed. I made a short tube that picks up the old original feed and inputs to the fuel pump.

The pressure relief line from the fuel pump is routed back to the sump.

The fuel pump output is routed to a firewall bulkhead fitting.

I still need to wire the fuel pump.

The only thing left is to run the Fuel Vent line from the Fuel Injection dump valve to the sump filter. This is a 1/4 inch line.

I wired the blower motor. I mounted the ballast resistor (used for MED and LOW speeds) inside the heater box. It should get plenty of cooling air from the blower.

A quick fit check of the Oil Cooler to determine how to run the oil lines from the inside of the heater box to the cooler. I have the wrong fittings for the cooler, so I'll get these ordered tommorrow. A quick airflow test, the blower runnng at all three speeds. The blower provides plenty of air through the cooler. This should work out great.

I measured the top and front cover plate. I'll cut it out and bend it at work.

1 MAR 2008 Waiters Flight Data Recorder

              

Over the past few weeks, I've been updating the Flight Recorder software. This version allows the software to be used as a remote display for the Dynon, Grand Rapids , and a GPS receiver. The screens are a fixed size of 640x480 to accomidate the small VGA monitors.

These screens can be viewed real time (i.e. a remote display in the back of my LongEZ) or can be viewed when in the playback mode (replaying a prerecorded data file).

The screen capture the serial data streams from the Dynons, Drand Rapids, and a GPS, and display it in an aviation instrument panel format.

Of course, the original ability to record this data in an Excel format is still retained.

I'm still performing minor bug fixes and hope to release this by the end of the week.

You can download the Beta Version here.



If you see any problems, send me an e-mail.

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