Sep 30, 2022     Position and Strobe Lights - (7.2 hours)       Category: Lighting

Completed build of FlyLeds wingtip position and strobe lights. Connected the light boards and tail light to the control board and tested using a 9V battery. Got a chance to use the new heat gun and Hakko soldering tips. It took me a lot longer than the estimated time. I enjoyed the process and it works great. The only thing that needs to improve is the connection between the pairs of wing boards. I struggled to make the ribbon cable work and it has come loose twice. I'm going to try individual wires with ferrules and see if I can get that to fit in the space allowed.

I test fit the pair of boards in the left wingtip and the cut-out was sufficient.

  Sep 28, 2022     Wingtips - (1.7 hours)       Category: Lighting

Reviewed avionics questions and resent previous list and new questions to Garmin again. Printed questions to discuss when I meet with tech counselor. Meeting got delayed until later this week.

Filed wingtip lens until it is almost small enough to fit. Decided to leave just a bit to allow options when I polish the edges and clean up the wingtip for paint. Plan to ask the tech counselor for ideas. Removed part of the wingtip per FlyLed instructions so the parts on the back side of the board can fit inside the wingtip. Used permagrit files on the lens and a dremel tool with cut-off wheel for plastics on the wingtip. Cleaned up edges of fiberglass and added relief holes on corners with permagrit files.

  Sep 27, 2022     Wingtip Lighting - (2.2 hours)       Category: Lighting

Completed cutting and filing FlyLEDs PCBs to size assuming they still fit after I finish the lenses.

Filed one lens to where it almost fits. Need to finish final filing and cleanup of edges.

Arranged to meet up with tech counselor to discuss power distribution and look at a G3X Touch based system.

  Sep 10, 2022     FlyLEDs and Wingtip Lens - (1 hour)       Category: Lighting

Met goal for another week. Was in town 3 full days so goal was 9 hours. Actually worked 11.8 hours. Also did some work or research every day. The main accomplishment for the week was finalizing and placing the Garmin Avionics order (received a third of it this week and will get another third of it next week and should get the final parts by early January). I also placed an order for a lot of the tooling and supplies I will need for the avionics.

Marked the wingtip boards to match the wingtip pocket and started filing the PCBs using a Perma-Grit coarse file that arrived a few days ago. Slow, but it will work. Will work on it again in the mornings so I can file outside when it is cooler.

Marked and cut the VA-172 wingtip lens into two pieces using a Dremel SawMax and CM500 blade. I need to cut them to size while it is still warm. It looks like they will fit nicely.

  Aug 10, 2022     Position and Strobe Controller - (2.5 hours)       Category: Lighting

Completed assembly and testing of the FlyLEDs controller board. The picture shows one LED illuminated. What was actually happening was the three different LEDs were blinking in different patterns depending on the settings on the red switch. Very cool!

Discussed how to scale the panel printout with Marwan from FedEx Kinkos and also searched for options to scale PNG, JPG or PDF files.