Panel done

Everything (and I mean everything) in the panel is now wired and verified to be working.  All the wiring is now secured behind the panel as well.  I wish I’d planned my wire routing better, but what we have is acceptable.  Our next airplane will be better (just kidding, Kelly). 

All the instruments are communicating with each other, and we can attach a computer to the Dynon systems to update software and download data.  Here I am configuring the Garmin 696 to receive flight plan data from the Garmin 430 GPS. 

Interestingly, in the garage, the 696 gets 8-10 GPS satellites, which is excellent.  The 430 can usually get 3-4, which sufficient to get a fix—I think the lower number is due to the receiver not being as good and the antenna being further back in the garage.  The XM antenna gets all 3 “test” audio channels, but I haven’t subscribed to the weather service yet, so can’t vouch for that.

I also bought a DC power supply, to enable us to power up the panel without draining the battery.  This will be useful in the future, as well, for installing software updates, etc.