Show Us Your Panel

[Keith Williams]

While this panel update thread is alive I want to express my thanks to those at Steinair and Dynon for their excellent phone and on-line support - especially the "how to" videos from Steinair.

With their help, I have a good start in learning to work with still another aspect of the systems that make our airplanes the wonderful machines that they are.

We need to all appreciate what they, and many other small businesses, are doing to make homebuilding and experimental aviation accessible to those of us who do not have a technical background but want to learn.

[Jesse]

Just updated N2EP with this panel. To the right of the Com and Intercom is a panel covering a cutout for a second screen for when funds become available.

[dave4754]

Simple effective and very close to what i plan to do. The second screen is that a necessary thing? In my research it seems ok for redundancy but what do you feel a second screen will do for you, if you dont mind my asking thanks?

I am going to put a turn and bank coordinator and airspeed in my panel so that when night flying i can keep er right side up in a power failure....

Nice panel!

[Jesse]

Originally Posted by dave4754

Simple effective and very close to what i plan to do. The second screen is that a necessary thing? In my research it seems ok for redundancy but what do you feel a second screen will do for you, if you dont mind my asking thanks?

Thanks!

The second screen is not necessarily necessary, but it would be very nice to have. As in an plane, a second screen gives you more real estate so one screen can be PFD (synthetic vision) full screen, and the other can me moving map, sectional charts, approach plates, etc. have you ever heard anyone say, "I really wish I didn't have as many EFIS acreens as I do"? I certainly haven't.

The main reason Anthony went with the AFS is that I prefer that to the Dynon for a single screen installation, which is what he has now. For more than one screen, I prefer the Dynon. Both of these are mainly for the way they display the engine information. AFS lends itself more to a single screen efficiency, while Dynon lends itself more to flexibility and customization with multiple screens.

[WenEng]

I'm now ready to tackle switch labels. The panel is almost complete. Finally...

[Sam Staton]

Wendell and I have been running pretty much in parallel with our panels (except that I have done it 4 times - changing your mind can be costly!). He has done a superb job with his. Mine is here:

[Bill Boyd]

Seven years in the planning, six months in execution, it;s almost ready to emerge from the basement, come off the buck, and see if she fits in the real cockpit. I'm estimating another month from the time I gut the existing avionics to when I have the gal airworthy again.

DC power and switchology wiring first

Modular panel approach


Fire-baked flat black finish before P-touch white-on-black labels and matte clearcoat (Krylon)


Second pair of eyes and a keen nose for escaping magic smoke are always a help with big projects like this

The "buck" includes panel to F/W rib emulation to allow an avionics tray for the Trig TT22, TY91 transponder and comm, the MAP sensor, GPS module and single AHRS (all GRT stuff)


Service loops and fuse block buses, lacing tape galore. No more of the sloppy wiring rat's nest I've endured for 17 years. I can do better!




Lights on. 10'4" HXr. The Trio ProPilot that goes in the hole below the Mini-X is already in the old panel for familiarization. When the time comes, it will be a plug and play insert into the new panel, thanks to some adapter cable commonality I pigtailed in to the old and new panels for servo connection.


Now comes the death by a thousand cuts of programming, connecting the new to the old, and seeing if the Trig radio intercom works as advertised.

-Stormy

[Skid]

I finally did a panel upgrade over the winter months on my 2004 RV6A. I swapped the out the steam gauges for an EFIS.

This started last year when my attitude gyro died on the way to KOSH. I spoke to all the vendors at KOSH and decided to go with the GRT Sport SX.
I chose GRT for several reasons, available features, price, and I had their EIS engine monitor, which gave me the ability to display the engine instrumentation, fuel levels, etc. by connecting 1 wire from the EIS to the Sport. The amount of information displayed on the EFIS is amazing. I included an external ARINC module to communicate to the Garmin 430 and the TruTrak AP, and added synthetic vision.

I decided to rebuild the entire panel rather than plug holes in the center and right section of the panel. I did not move the radio stack as the sub panel had originally been modified to accept the depth of the Garmin 430. The EIS is mounted behind the panel as I now view all instrumentation on the EFIS. I eliminated all the round gauges, since I never flew the aircraft IFR I decided for my use this would be acceptable. Future plans include a battery backup for the EFIS.

The red light to the upper left side of the EFIS is a warning light from the EIS, the only alarm set on the EIS is the oil pressure as I do not have the EFIS powered up at engine start. All the other alarms are set within the EFIS.

After swapping everything out the net weight drop was about 7.5 lbs.

The tech support at GRT was very helpful when I had questions during the install.

So far I am still tweaking settings and getting used to flying with the EFIS. I can say it took a bit of getting used to but I really like it so far.

Here are a couple before and after pictures;

[daddyman]

Originally Posted by Keith Williams

While this panel update thread is alive I want to express my thanks to those at Steinair and Dynon for their excellent phone and on-line support - especially the "how to" videos from Steinair.

With their help, I have a good start in learning to work with still another aspect of the systems that make our airplanes the wonderful machines that they are.

We need to all appreciate what they, and many other small businesses, are doing to make homebuilding and experimental aviation accessible to those of us who do not have a technical background but want to learn.

Keith,
Great looking panel.
Message me if you are interested in selling them.

Daddyman

[redbaron]

What did you have to do to covert the EIS ?