42M-07 Ignition/Start Module

 

Ignition / Start Panel installation

42C-02 Sky View harness

Sky View Harness

42C-05 Left Panel w/ Start Module & Sky View

Another really simple page, but also another really simple page that didn’t go so simply.  The control module was easy. The Sky View should have been simple, but wasn’t.  It comes with its own collection of small, smooth black screws that are allen heads.  I think that I screwed up by not blocking the tapped holes of the panel nuts and they got paint in the threads.  It took more torque to drive the screws through the painted threads than some of the allen heads could take and they ended up stripping.  I needed to write Dynon and they are graciously sending me out a few more special screws.   

Start Module, Sky View in Left Panel

42C-04 Transponder

Transponder

42M-03 Power / Switch Module, fuses

 

This was a really easy page: just insert the fuses into the switch/power module and into the spare fuse holder.  

 

Power / Switch Module, spare Fuses

42M-02 5000A Control Module

This is the first of a long set of confusingly ordered pages.  As near as I can tell, chapter 52M is a heavily edited/modified version of a previously numbered chapter (e.g., closer to 42A or 42B or such.)  I think that’s the case because everything has to plug into the magic box (5000A control module), but there are several chapters that proceed the installation of that box, yet refer to installing cables to it.  I decided to start with the magic box and install everything that I could into the avionics bay, then close it up and go elsewhere.  That also includes the 1st chapter of the engine/prop kit which is the firewall forward wiring harness.  (Note that that name is slightly misleading as the Firewall Forward harness has to penetrate the firewall and connect to the magic box...)

I debated for several days whether to take off the forward fuselage skin that defines the top of the avionics bay.  If I ever build another RV-12, I’ll definitely order the entire set of kits and take advantage of the hard won knowledge of where things eventually end up.  In this particular case, I’d build the fuselage and firewall, install the avionics, then put on the forward fuselage skin.  Similarly, it’d probably be easier to install the autopilot servo (pitch) before all of the seats etc. go in.  Oh, well.  

Off topic:  the 5000A appears to be a passive network interconnection box.  I don’t think it has any active components, but is simply a way of routing all of the various wires/signals to each other without creating one giant m×n web of cables.  Even more interesting, I think that they use the same box on other aircraft other than the RV-12.  If so, then very clever.

 

5000A Control Module (aka “The Magic Box”)

Panels Painted

Hey, I’m back!  After a long spell of not too many hours to work on Baby Bear (the new official name for N76012), I finally got a chance to make some progress.  December was a mess of a work schedule, had Christmas to deal with, an unexpected trip to Phoenix (funeral for my nephew, Dakota James Fernandez) and a 2 day New Year’s Eve celebration in Niagara Falls.   While it was fun to get my avionics and engine, it wasn’t a lot of fun to do the inventory (not all that well, unfortunately) and it doesn’t ‘show’ on these blog pages.

This is another posting that doesn’t correspond to a specific page in The Book—I painted the instrument panels yesterday.  A guy named Rick has a hobby of building full sized comic book costumes out of foam rubber & stuff.  He has a home built ‘paint booth’ in his garage and he lent it to me to do my panels.  As it is, I think it’s a bit of over kill, but it was fun to talk about respective hobbies with him between coats.

One of the panels had an imperfection which I made much, much worse with my inexperience.  Several sanding sessions and re-coats of paint have it barely visible to me and I won’t tell you where to look.

 

Painted Panels