J160 Kit#14 various with Photos

[Ross]

22-09-2008

 

Not too much rain here today as you can see by the dust in the view towards the town of Leeton in the first pic. Shall post another one in a couple of days when the sun comes out. The second pic was taken on 25th after 18 mm of rain.

 

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I thought a flashing 12 Volt LED might be a better idea for the low oil pressure LED so I went up the street and bought one with no information sheet with it plus some 3/16" Al pop rivets with matching washers.

 

Is the red LED polarity sensitive? Don't know was the answer! The black & red wires should have been a clue. Anyway tried it out with the red on positive and the black on negative. Worked fine flashing on & off!

 

So tried the opposite polarity - now it works on neither! $5.00

 

At the sound curtain whalebone the previously glued on hook patches were being pulled off when the sound curtain was removed.

 

So stuck on a couple of new self adhesive hook patches and drilled and pop riveted all the hook patches applying a washer to the pop rivet on the back side of the whale bone.

 

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I think the sound curtain is upside down in the last pic - probably fits better the other way up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ross]

25-09-2008

 

Glued down some loose roof felt in the luggage 2 area using "Brush on Contact Adhesive".

 

Adhesive is fairly easy to use if brushed onto both surfaces and then left to get tacky almost dry but you only get one attempt at sticking it on.

 

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Refitted sound curtain

 

Refitted instrument panel after adding oil pressure LED

 

Straightened up some instrument labels.

 

 

 

 

[BigPete]

Hey Ross - What's the doo - hickey on the far left 1st photo?

 

regards

 

:big_grin::big_grin:

 

 

[Ross]

Hi BigPete

 

That's the strobe power supply. According to the plans it was supposed to be on the floor in luggage 2 on the port side.

 

But I had a fair bit of noise from it in the radio so I wanted to run the aerial wire away from most of the power wires behind the panel which are mainly on the starboard side.

 

So the power wires for the strobe now come from the strobe power up the starboard side to behind the panel. The aerial wires come up the port side over the top and down the side of the windscreen and through the side of the panel into the radio which is centrally mounted in the panel.

 

It did not make any difference to the noise although it can be tuned out with the squelch (a lot of squelch). It may not be a real problem as it might be insignificant when only tuned to local stations. At the moment while parked in the garage I have the radio scanning many stations like Griffith, Narrandera, Mount Gambier, Mildura, Dubbo and Melbourne Centre.

 

This testing so far has been done without running the motor and without any transmissions on the radio as the plane is unregistered and not yet ready for flight.

 

The prop has not been balanced yet and has not been checked for tracking either although it looked a fair way out when I tried mounting it. It has been removed again while I was checking the boss to crankshaft connection for the propeller.

 

I note that the strobe power supply is now mounted on the engine side of the firewall for J230s which I presume might eliminate a lot of the noise from the strobe. It is fairly heavy so might have a significant effect on a J160 C of G position.

 

I need to find out more detail from someone on how to suppress RF noise out of the strobe power supply from getting to the radio via the 12 volt wiring system.

 

In fact does some or all of the noise actually come through the 12 volt wiring system which is shielded until it gets back behind the panel.

 

 

[Ross]

26-09-2008

 

Wings Orbital sand for painting

 

A pair of trestles was set up outside the carport.

 

Each wing was sat on the trestles and sanded with #400 grit sand paper using a random orbital sander.

 

Each wing was done on both sides using two patterns - fore and aft across the wing and left to right along the length of the wing.

 

The idea is to roughen the surface so that the undercoat will take to the existing surface.

 

Also any high spots of epoxy or gel coat may/might be removed by sanding.

 

Low spots will have to be filled with bogging undercoat or micro-ball epoxy.

 

[ATTACH]6586.vB[/ATTACH][ATTACH]6587.vB[/ATTACH][ATTACH]6588.vB[/ATTACH][ATTACH]6589.vB[/ATTACH] Apologies for the wrong camera setting.

 

Bad areas will show up better after the initial undercoat is applied and sanded going by experience on the part of the fuselage that has been started on with sanding and undercoat.

 

This was the second attempt at posting as I had exited w/o doing the "Submit Reply" and had to start again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[biggles]

Ross ,

 

I have mounted my fin strobe power supply on the engine side of the firewall on my J160 and the sound of the thing ' firing ' still interferes with radio reception . Like you , I have yet to fire up the engine so the effect of that is unknown . I believe that Jabiru now have coax that is much better than that supplied with my radio . Daniel Mulder at Jabiru is the man you should speak to .

 

Bob :thumb_up:

 

 

[Ross]

2008-09-27

 

Orbital sand both flaps after removing a few rough high spots with a scraper.

 

Washed down both wings and both flaps with "2K Wax & Grease Remover" using a cotton rag & elbow grease.

 

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Pic 2 shows a rough area on the starboard wing that should come up OK once it is undercoated with the filler and sanded down and probably undercoated again once or twice.

 

 

 

 

[Ross]

Biggles

 

Thanks for that. I really did not think of the interference coming through the coax for the aerial although I did note that it seemed a fairly light coax.

 

I actually used a heavy shielded pair for the power supply to the strobe power supply.

 

 

[brilin_air]

Ross,

 

If you go to Dick Smiths you can get some ferrite coils that seem to stop a lot of radio interference.

 

Brian

 

 

[Ross]

Brian

 

Thanks.

 

I know of ferrite rings but not how to use them.

 

 

[brilin_air]

Ross

 

They are called Ferrite clamshell and they come in 3 different sizes, the smaller ones are 6.5 mm about the size of a pencil inside diameter and the part No is R5120 at Dick Smiths, you will find the next sizes with a similar part No. Basically they are about 25mm long and split in half and you just fit them over the wires or antenna cables and they have a clip that holds them together. I had to get some of the next size up from the 6.5 as I had to fit them over the wire loom at the rear of the radio as well as the antenna wires, I also fitted them over the strobe cable to the light which also helped.

 

Keep posting pictures Ross as it is great to watch your progress, you are getting close now.

 

Brian

 

 

[BigPete]

Me too Ross - I really enjoy seeing your progress, as I'm sure many of us do. Looking forward to hearing about your first flight.

 

regards

 

 

[Ross]

Thanks Peter and Brian for your information and experience

 

I rang Dan Mulder at Jabiru and he said to replace the original supplied high voltage unshielded wires from the strobe power supply to the strobe with shielded three core wire and only to earth one end of the shield onto the body of the strobe power supply.

 

I had already tried good quality shielded wires (heavier) on the low voltage side of the power supply which probably doesn't do anything or make much sense now that I think a bit more about it. Temporarily putting the power supply in a metal cage did not make any difference either which possibly only leaves the high tension leads to the probe as being the problem.

 

Dan said words to the effect that shielded wire on the high tension side should knock out the rising sound of the charge build up and most of the bang when it fires.

 

So I went down to our local electronic shop which carries a fair range of stuff. I was looking for ferrite rings and shielded wire. However they are in the process of moving down the street to new premises and will not reopen until Wednesday.

 

I am not sure that I will be able to replace the strobe high voltage wires due to the instructions and incomplete marking of holes in the fuselage that was on this particular early number kit #14.

 

 

[Flyer]

Hi Ross

 

Not sure if you've already tried this so I'll give my thoughts. Make sure your power cables and coax cabless aren't running next to each other. Seperate them as far as possible and by that I mean power down one side of the fuz and coax down the other side.

 

Also try to not have the power cables and coax cables running parallel to each other as coupling can occur...wont explain what all of that means cause I cant think of how to do it in 1 line at this time of the morning...

 

1 more thing, make sure your coax cables and power cables are as short as possible i.e. not run all over the place or coiled up just because.

 

The ferrite rings that Brian mentioned are a good thing as well.

 

Quite often noise needs to be treated with a combination of fixes....all the best Ross and I look forward to another installment on the build...:thumb_up:

 

Phil

 

 

[Ross]

Hi Phil thanks for your info

 

I had already conformed to most but not all of what you have recommended in your post.

 

The other thing I had thought of when doing the original installation was to mount the dipole aerial inside the fuselage. There is enough room vertically at about the rib between #1 and #2 luggage compartments.

 

I did not know what the radiation might do to the pilot or how much the pilot might affect the transmission and the reception. Plenty of GA planes have their non dipole type aerials mounted on top of the usually metal fuselage.

 

I bought some 3 core shielded wire yesterday (the only one in stock locally) but one of the wires, the "earth" wire, is not well insulated from the shield and does not have it's own insulation. The owner thought he had some clamp type ferrite rings but could not find them having moved his stock into the new shop over the previous few days.

 

So ordered some 4 core shielded wire from Jaycar pus some clamp type ferrite rings to suit the diameter of the wire. I still might have to do some radical surgery in the vertical stabiliser to get a new shielded lead for the strobe in there (or don't bother) or be more extravagant & install the twin model with a strobe on each wing.

 

 

[Ross]

20081002

 

Using #400 grade orbital palm sander on ailerons, strut fairings, fuselage fairings, elevator and spinner.

 

Then used wax and grease remover on the same parts except the elevator where I need to install some more cloth to secure the mass balance weights. Should have installed it all at once.

 

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It was noticeable that the positions of the ribs in the elevator showed up after sanding. Although it does not show in the photo.

 

This will probably result in some extra undercoat and weight being added there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ross]

20081004

 

We had some nice rain here last night 12.5 mm and a bit better in most of the snowy catchment.

 

Fitting last layer of cloth reo to the elevator mass balance weight connection.

 

Rub down the the proposed area for the reo cloth using a drill with abrasive tool fitted.

 

Blow away dust with air.

 

Clean up with acetone & rag.

 

Mix epoxy

 

Apply epoxy to elevator joint mass balance reo position.

 

Apply cloth to epoxied area & press into place - apply more epoxy to surface to wet up fully. Makes it easier to prevent air bubbles than applying a fully wetted up cloth.

 

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Wiped up any epoxy dribbles on flying surfaces with acetone soaked rag.

 

Take epoxy sample & leave new reo to partially or fully cure before attempting to dress it up.

 

Record Time, Temperature and Relative humidity until reo is cured.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ross]

20081013

 

Remove strobe from fin top & disconnect original 3 core power line for strobe.

 

File down joint area, abrade cloth join area inside - clean up with acetone

 

Mix up epoxy, apply epoxy to inside join area

 

Apply epoxied cloth to inside join area backed by peel cloth

 

Back the peel clothed with stiff cardboard and use spring clamps to hold the cloth in place.

 

Allow to cure then remove clamps, cardboard and peel cloth.

 

 

[Ross]

20081014

 

The strobe was producing a lot of noise in the radio reception and is possibly the reason why some Jabs produce horrible static when transmitting.

 

A reduction of static noise was noticed if the detached powered strobe was temporarily tied to the static probe roughly doubling the distance from the strobe to the top of the dipole aerial.

 

Removed strobe 3 core unshielded cable.

 

Bought 3 core shielded cable locally to try for reducing strobe noise in radio which could be eliminated using a lot of squelch. This cable proved to be unsatisfactory as one of the core wires was not insulated.

 

Ordered some 4 core shielded cable from Jaycar and 4 clamp on style ferrite RF noise suppressors to cover the frequency range of the radio. The core wire in this cable is very light copper instead of a steel like wire in the original cable. It will be easy to replace if necessary.

 

At this stage I managed to damage the strobe globe so also ordered one from Aircraft Spruce with freight by the US Postal Service.

 

$US49.50 plus about $US28 freight became $A121.88 by the time it arrived here yesterday. The cable and ferrite clamps arrived from Jaycar the day before.

 

 

 

20081023

 

It was apparent that the short piece of 3/4" hose I had inserted to facilitate feeding the rudder cable and the strobe cable was too small in internal diameter and would have been better a bit longer. It made inserting more than one cable very difficult with a high probability of damage.

 

To gain access to the previously fitted 3/4" hose cut a hole in the top of the fuselage above the hole in the bottom of the top roof channel.

 

I removed the hose that was epoxied in place and then replaced it with about 80 cm or 36" of grey 25 mm OD electrical PVC ducting tube. It has an ID of about 21 mm and enough flexibility to be pushed up into the over head channel in the fuselage in the same place as the 3/4" hose was located with the entrance to it being set forward of the nearby whalebone in contrast to the hose entrance which was difficult because it was set about 15 cm aft of the whale bone.

 

So the electrical duct 25 mm OD PVC tubing has a bend in it where it enters the overhead channel.

 

The aft end of the tube was chamfered with a pocket knife inside to make extraction of the rudder cable less likely to catch on the entrance.

 

The aft end of the tube was also chamfered externally to make it easier to push it up into the channel from inside the cabin with my knees on the pilot seat and hanging over the back of the seat. I would love to have a back door in a J160 Kit.

 

The hole for access into the channel where the previous piece of hose entered was extended to allow a fairly flat entrance angle of the tube to prevent it kinking therefore allowing a greater depth of penetration as well and less likely to restrict cabe insertion or extraction.

 

It was also better to have a very gentle bend there to allow the control cable to be fed through the bend without damaging the universal type joint on the end of the cable.

 

 

[Ross]

20081023

 

Some pics covering some of the activity over the last few days.

 

The strobe and cable routing activity seems to be two steps forward one step backwards-trial and errors!

 

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Pic ! cable has been pushed up to the tail here with a piece of wire from the cabin end. Pic 2 shows hose-replaced later.

 

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Pic 1 shows PVC 25 MM duct tube; Pic 3 & 4 this row, rudder cable has been extracted then pushed back to avoid paint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ross]

20081024

 

Had to go to Wagga today so got some more heat shrink plus some cable joiners.

 

Finished assembling and fitting the shielded 4 core wire from the probe power supply to the strobe mounted in the same as original place on top of the vertical stabiliser.

 

One of the four wires is not used-different colours compared to the original which matched the colours on the strobe and the power supply - so be very careful!

 

I used the matching heat shrink colour on each end of the four shielded cable core wires that were used.

 

Connected the steel shield braid of the new cable to the case of the strobe power supply.

 

I had already used shielded wire from the strobe power supply on the low voltage side to the a/c power supply bus and probe switch. The shield of this wire was connected to the case of the strobe power supply as well.

 

Before installing this shielded cable from the high voltage power supply to the strobe the radio required an extra half turn of the squelch knob to eliminate the strobe associated static on receive.

 

 

 

 

After installing the shielded cable to the strobe on the tail the thresh hold for the strobe static and the background noise is the same.

 

 

 

So no additional squelch required on the radio after turning on the strobe.

 

I wonder what will happen after the motor is started.

 

I do not know if it would have generated noise in the transmitted signals before or after fitting the new cable.

 

 

[Ross]

20081025

 

Not as good as I thought in daylight now compared to last night.

 

Did I have the strobe turned on! A check list s needed for these sorts of tests to make sure all possible sequences and conditions are checked.

 

Changed some of the bullet connectors used yesterday as when heat shrink was used on them applied to cover the insulation on the connector, the subsequent heating also shrunk the insulation (very thick tough heat shrink) already on the bullet connector.

 

So the female half shrank compressing the joint making it impossible to insert the male half of the joiner because it actually also extended past the end of the female bullet connector by about 2 or 3 mm and was even smaller in diameter there.

 

The other problem was that the wire was inserted too far into the bullet joiner before crimping it therefore interfering with the male half when it was inserted.

 

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The white lead wire in pic one connected to the outside shield on the cable was turned around a bit to be further away from the multi-pin plug cutting down some static.

 

 

 

 

[Ross]

20081105

 

I thought that I had a problem with wiring for the passenger side radio and intercom as I could not get any radio reception on that pair of jacks.

 

Maybe I had a cold joint in the solder on one of the jacks or I had cut a wire drilling the holes for the cable ties or I had wired it incorrectly.

 

So I cut all the cable ties anchoring the radio harness behind the seats to the fibreglass cross beam behind the seats and removed the anchor nuts from the jacks so that I could pull them out where I could examine them.

 

I then examined all the wires and the soldered connections to the jacks and the tags that are still attached to the wiring leads.

 

All was in order but not a peep out of the passenger side earphones which worked fine on the pilots side.

 

Then I remembered about the intercom. It has a push button switch to power it up and another switch to select either "ISOL" or "ALL".

 

So I discovered (again) that unless the power is on the Intercom panel (and the radio) and the selector switch is on "ALL" the passenger will hear neither the radio or the pilot via the intercom and will also be unable to talk to the pilot.

 

I cannot tell by the switch position if the power is on or off the intercom and there is no led to indicate power on or off.

 

So I pressed the power switch to power the intercom and moved the selector switch to the "ALL" position.

 

So today I put the jacks back in place and attached the nuts to keep them there and replaced the cable ties to secure the loom behind the seats out of harm's way.

 

Tested the reception and mike again - it still works despite my efforts!

 

I also fitted new seals on the swimming pool sand filter selector valve as well as the guts of the damaged valve with a slightly modified new one. Then spent a few hours removing heaps of gum tree leaves from the bottom of the pool which is full of very green water. Hopefully tomorrow I might get to see the bottom of the pool again. The salt chlorinator was not having much effect on the free chlorine level in the pool by the time I eventually turned it off.

 

 

[brilin_air]

Hey Ross!

 

Brian and myself were just wondering how are things going with the 160?

 

See you haven't posted since the beginining of the month.

 

Love to hear how you are going at it matey. :thumb_up:

 

Keep up the good work

 

-Linda

 

 

[biggles]

Hi Ross ,

 

We have come to a standstill , and are anxiously waiting to get a lead as to what we should do next !!

 

Biggles :thumb_up: