Little late, but wanted to get a short note written to just stay on top of the log.
Last weekend was devoted to getting the fabric on the right wing riveted down. I thought it would be fairly quick, but as usual it was not. Nothing hard for this part, but just a lot of repetition. The plastic strips all laid down nicely and seemed to go better than when I was using the strips on the horizontal stabilizer.
Maria helped out with the riveting and we got it done pretty quick. It was a quick work day, but now we’re all set to start adding exit rings, patches, and tapes.
On an aside, I have started on a side project to attempt some simple avionics. I really like the systems produced by Dynon and Garmin, but I’m haven’t been able to fully commit myself to one for this airplane. The information that I really am interested in is engine data and specifically temperatures. My idea is to use a popular micro controller (Arduino) to interface with the thermocouples and then display this data on a small screen. The end goal would be then to use the power of 3D printing to make a case for the system and be able to mount it in the panel.
I’ve looked into also using a small Linux computer (Raspberry Pi) in order to get access to nicer displays and graphics, but my lack of GUI programming has limited that area. I have a Raspberry Pi, so I may try to figure something out, but the Arduino is a relatively simple platform with a lot of community support for sensor applications.
If anyone reads this and has questions or has done this sort of thing shoot me an email. Should be a fun project and lower my desire for a full-blown glass cockpit. I’m going to add this stuff to the avionics page on the blog and try and track some progress there.
(5 h)
