I have benefited from some of the installation threads already started, so I thought I'd start my own in case some particular detail proves beneficial to someone else.
Here is the original panel:
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Nothing super fancy, but very functional. The attitude indicator started to wander around a bit, and rather than replace it I thought I'd make the jump to a two screen G3X and all the benefits that would provide. There is very little room to work with, so I'm not retaining any of the steam gauges. The radio stack is remaining in the same spot, and I'm pulling out the CD player as I don't use it at all. I'll replace it with a jack for my iPhone wired into the audio panel.
Parts arrive, hurrah!
After playing around with some printouts and a blank panel, I picked a layout, put it into CAD and CAM, and stuck it in the CNC.
I used the mounting holes to locate the panel, i suck an appropriately sized drill bit in backwards for a perfect fit.
I had to keep moving it around on the table as it's a little wide for my mill.
Checking the fit
I reused the radio stack mounting bracket from the old panel. This was actually the trickiest part of this phase, more art than science as there wasn't anything to really make absolute measurements off of and the alignment and work holding were kind of a pain.
I admit it - I don't have real riveting tools... I just used a piece of round bar and beat it with a sledge. There is a piece of aluminum flat bar underneath the panel to preserve the surface finish from such a primitive method.
Picking out locations for the modules - the GEA24 should fit where the AFS is now, which keeps me from having to extend any wiring.
I carefully took pictures of all the connections, then labeled each wire as I took it off. I then wired them up to the GEA24 connectors.
Here is the original panel:
Nothing super fancy, but very functional. The attitude indicator started to wander around a bit, and rather than replace it I thought I'd make the jump to a two screen G3X and all the benefits that would provide. There is very little room to work with, so I'm not retaining any of the steam gauges. The radio stack is remaining in the same spot, and I'm pulling out the CD player as I don't use it at all. I'll replace it with a jack for my iPhone wired into the audio panel.
Parts arrive, hurrah!
After playing around with some printouts and a blank panel, I picked a layout, put it into CAD and CAM, and stuck it in the CNC.
I used the mounting holes to locate the panel, i suck an appropriately sized drill bit in backwards for a perfect fit.
I had to keep moving it around on the table as it's a little wide for my mill.
Checking the fit
I reused the radio stack mounting bracket from the old panel. This was actually the trickiest part of this phase, more art than science as there wasn't anything to really make absolute measurements off of and the alignment and work holding were kind of a pain.
I admit it - I don't have real riveting tools... I just used a piece of round bar and beat it with a sledge. There is a piece of aluminum flat bar underneath the panel to preserve the surface finish from such a primitive method.
Picking out locations for the modules - the GEA24 should fit where the AFS is now, which keeps me from having to extend any wiring.
I carefully took pictures of all the connections, then labeled each wire as I took it off. I then wired them up to the GEA24 connectors.
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