Grand Rapids Horizon HX EFIS Installation

05/16/2010    Oh this is sooo cool.   I've wanted to have on-board weather for along time.  I think it is a huge safety improvement.  Let's face it, if you're going to be airborne longer than 1 hour or go further than 100 miles, the weather you experience has a very high probability of not being the weather that was briefed to you.  The boys at GRT provide a nice interface for the WxWorx package that we've activated, and we had our first rain since I got it running, so we had to push back and check it out.  I do wish that I could get the terrain at the same time as the weather, but I understand that this would:
1) Require a lot more processing power
2) Possibly be ambigious as regards color for the details

None of that lessens, in any way, my desire to have it, of course.

Weather out your window

04/03/2010    The latest kitplanes had an article by Stein about this nylon tubing and connector system that he's been using.   I really liked the look of it, and wasn't totally happy with all of the different tubing systems that I'd been using.  So I decided to switch to it.  A nice side benefit is all of the pitot tubing is green and the static is white.  You can see that we've got manifolds and T fittings for all of the users, and attached these to the backs of the EFIS so they're all handy.  

New pitot/static tubing and fittings

New pitot connection

In case you live under a rock, we've decided to get rid of our Blue Mountain Avionics EFIS/One (a generation 3 unit) in favor of the GRT system.  A variety of factors played into this decision, which we didn't take lightly.  For one, I like and respect Greg as a person and engineer, and I really like the product generally.  However there were features that we expected, based on statements by BMA, to be provided on our unit that were never delivered.  Additionally, there have been occasional in-flight operational issues (the EFIS would roll 30 degrees to one side when the airplane was in level flight, as an example).  Now BMA was willing to work with us to resolve the issues, and in fairness they felt the issue was with our powering certain sensors from the BMA board, but that was the recommendation at the time of my installation.

However, the main reason for moving away from the BMA is that we two fold.  We felt that we should have been given better upgrade pricing to move to the Gen 4 system, since it contained features we felt we'd been promised.  On top of this, many folks we know were still having issues with the new system, and were having trouble resolving them.  On the other hand, everyone I've contacted about thier GRT system has been very pleased with both the equipment and the support.  On top of that, a Velocity friend of ours had an equipment failure with their BMA system and could not get a timely repair from them (they did not stock repair parts), so we opted to sell our unit to him.  It was good for us, because we got some money out of it, and it got him back flying affordably.  Another major factor was our little incident, which required me to pull all of the BMA sensor wiring out of the airplane so I could replace the oil tubes.  I didn't want to pull them all back in, nor did I want to pay for the $1k "engine pod" as I was less than satisfied with BMA overall, so I purchased the GRT EIS system for engine monitoring (with the intent of hooking it to our GRT Sport, which was our backup flight instrument at the time).  These factors came together late this spring, and we opted to remvoe the sport and upgrade it to a dual screen, dual AHRS Grand Rapids Horizon HX with weather (small screens both on the pilot side).  We will add a third (large) screen to the copilot side later, maybe as soon as Oshkosh.  We're also going to put in a half-panels worth of dial gauges to at least to the ground in VFR conditions should, God forbid, the EFIS go totally tango-uniform.

Here are some files related to our GRT installation that might be of interest to folks.  
Serial Ports assignments and EIS configuration        Connector diagrams

08/31/2009    Defogger mounted, now to wire it.  

Defogger base

Defogger mounted

08/23/2009    Here you can see our new switches and switch panel.  Also, here's a shot of the new hangar brushes, just because they don't fit really anywhere.  Finally, here's the finished defogger duct - it just needs to be mounted and wired now.

Carling Contura II Switch

Defogger ready to be installed

Defogger and Heather Switch Holder

Hangar door brush seals

08/19/2009    So, I'm an advocate for electrical heating lately, and so one natural outcome is to finally hook up my windshield defogger.  To that end, I picked up a 200W defroster for cars.  As you can see here, I've made a foam plug to layup a transition from the device to SCAT ducting (I already had the outlet molded onto my glareshield, I just hadn't hooked it up).  This bad boy is going to need a 20A breaker.  I've picked up three Carling off-on-on illuminated switches to run the defogger and heaters for pilot and copilot.   They go green for low heat (or fan for the defogger), and orange for high.

Carling Contura II off-on-on switches

Defogger discharge nozzle ready for layup

Defogger discharge form/plug

Defogger discharge form/plug glassed

GRT with GPS lock

GRT WX (XM) weather unit installed

07/15/2009    Here you can see that I've drilled a hole for the EIS Outside Air Temperature probe, and the fuselage was too thick for the nut to hold it on.  I removed the inner skin and foam, shaped it, and laid 4 BID in the recess.  After curing, I drilled the hole back out and installed the probe.

OAT Probe

OAT Probe

07/13/2009    So, Blue Mountain is officially out of business.  I hate to see them go, but the writing was on the wall.  But, I'm firmly on the GRT path.  This weekend we had a EAA meeting, so that sort of boogered up working on the plane, but I did finish wiring up the GRT and powered it for the first time.  All that's left is the OAT probe, and to start doing the configuration.  Here you can see the USB connectors to the right of screens for updating the GRTs, and the new backup EFIS power switch above them.  The backup power is fully redundant for the EIS, both screens and AHRS, and GPS (the only thing not supported is the weather unit).

GRT powered up

06/22/2009    We've bonded the aluminum support brace into the panel and opened up the cutouts for the instruments we have.  We'll buy a backup electric attitude indicator for the middle of the 2 1/4" guages, and put a 3 1/8" Trio autopilot on the bottom right, probably during Oshkosh (pictures to come when I get home from work...

Aluminum panel bonded

Panel cutouts opened

06/19/2009    So, I picked up these snazzy quick disconnect couplings from US Plastics right here in the buckeye state, with 1/8"-27 NPT shut-off connections on the instrument side (to keep dust out of the instrument), and hose barb connections on the airplane side.  I got the 1/4" flow size, and 1/8" and 1/4" hose side connections.  Incidentally, USP are the folks that I purchsed my "furniture" connectors (3 and 4 way elbows) for my paint booth PVC tubing.  These guys have super fast shipping, which is always a plus in building circles.

Instrument connectors

Behind panel

06/13/2009    Alright, things are really starting to move now.  The new dual AHRS, dual screen (with weather!) Grand Rapids Horizon units and the backup ASI and altimeter have arrived.  Things are getting interesting now.  We hope to have the fuselage painted and the new instruments in yet this month.  And we hope to get Dave to test fly her before he stays with us for the Aiventure Cup race, which starts in Dayton, just 7 miles from our airport again this year.  

Backup Airspeed and Altimeter (2 1/4")

Panel with GRT Horizon fitted

Panel aluminum frame

Patched Panel

Pitch Servo

Pitch Servo

Roll Servo

04/23/2010    Our new Trio Pro autopilot has 'auto-trim', so in addition to wiring it up to power, ground, and the servos the pitch servo has an output to the pitch trim actuator  There are a couple of different ways for this to interact with the pilot, either you can install a dual pole dual throw switch to select manual or autotrim (which I didn't want to do, and seemed like a bad idea), or you can install a bridge rectifier and a relay that will norally allow autotrim, but energize the relay and pull the normall open contacts to when you activate manual trim.  This is a very slick way to handle it, and so I grabbed a project box and some Radio Shack bits and got to work.

Autotrim defeat circuit

Autotrim box constructed

Autotrim box installed

08/18/2009    Our new Trio Pro autopilot (with 'auto-trim') has arrived!  Getting the head unit in was pretty straight-forward, we'd already planned for it, just zip the 3 1/8" hole open, and bolt her in.  We'll get to the servos down the road here..

Trio Pro Autopilot

Autopilot installed