Day: August 25, 2009

… there’s at least one nasty one. At least that’s how it feels at the moment.

I had a very useful conversation with Ben in the BMAA Tech Office today who I found to be very pleasant and approachable. I’d sent him an email about the TIL107 three socket problem and wanted to ask him about it personally. One of the suggestions I’d received on the BMAA forum from Andy Buchan who knows a lot about these things is to put in a 2-pole switch between the car cigarette lighter socket and one of the DIN sockets so that either could be selected but only one of them could be in use at any time. Ben said that he would have no objection to such an arrangement which as far as he was concerned would then meet the requirements of TIL107 as a Standard Minor Mod so long as they were fused accordingly. However, he said that there was an alternative which was to keep all three sockets working, and which, so long as they were also fused accordingly, would be acceptable as a non-standard Minor Mod. The latter is slightly more expensive to be approved but even though I’ve already sourced a 2-pole switch it’s the one I’m going to go for. Having all three sockets and no future hassles is a much better arrangement and hopefully will mean that I’ll need make no additional connections for example, for a radio 12V supply or a supply for an intercom or other radio interface. Either or both will be plug-in and totally removable, which will also save all sorts of other approval hassles.

So that was the nice surprise. Now what about the nasty ones?

Well, there have been two. The first one, which is quite major and hit me totally out of the blue, came when I measured the sheet size of the polycarbonate that I need to make a new screen. It needs to be at least 2300mm wide. However, the largest standard size 1.5mm thick sheet that you can get in the UK is only 2050mm wide. A larger width is available but only if you order a minimum of 20 sheets, which isn’t acceptable, of course. I’ve put out a couple of feelers and have a friend who works in the plastics industry making some enquiries for me so I’m waiting to see what the outcome will be. I’ve also looked at buying sheet in from the USA where 0.06″ (1.5mm) x 4′ x 8′ is the norm but I’m keeping that on the back burner for now.

The other nasty surprise is more minor. When I came to mate up my new panel (that came from MYME) with the panel top (that came from MYRO) I found that the fastening holes do not match up. I suppose when the AX3s were built the parts were undrilled and the builder just got his electric drill and put the holes in where he wanted, by eye, so they were more or less evenly spaced on each side. I almost called Mark at Galaxy to ask about buying MYME’s panel top but then it occurred to me that if I did that the holes in that would not match the fixing holes that are already drilled in MYRO’s pod. So as they will be almost totally covered by the panel top, I decided to fill the existing holes in the instrument panel and effectively start all over. As I type this I’ve already patched the holes on the back of the panel with fibreglass cloth and epoxy resin and I’m just waiting for it to cure before I fill the holes from the front with fibreglass. Then I’ll have yet more colour matching to do! I’m getting quite good at it now 😉