12/9 VP-100 Start Up Sequence

I thought that while I was waiting for the Engine monitor to arrive, I would show how I use the VP-100 during engine start.
I have decided my start sequence is with all buttons on the VP-100 switch panel turned off.
The first step to to press and release the button on the VP-100 switch panel to turn on the VP-100. The VP-100 goes thru its test sequence and then shows the current volts and amps being used and the button turns green.


















The next step is to run the boost pump which primes the line to the carburator. I currently have the boost pump on switch 3, but it can be programmed to any of the buttons. You can see that my volts dropped from 12 volts to 11.7 and the amps increased from .5 to 1.3 amps while running the boost pump.



















The next steps are mixture rich, crack the throttle and use the keyed ignition switch to start the engine. When the engine starts, I move the first switch from its center position to the up position. This engages the primary alternator. If I moved the first switch to the down position, it would engage the backup alternator.
The volts now show 14.4 volts and indicate that the alternator is charging the battery.


















Turning on switch 2 engages the rest of the avionics. The switches have a colored led in the tip of the switch. A green light indicates there are no problems with the circuits that are controlled by the switch. If there is a problem, the led at the end of the switch turns red.



















With every light and avionics engaged, the RV-4 uses 24.6 amps. The Plane Power 60 amp alternator should be able to handle this load with no problem.


















For shutting down, I turn every switch off and then mixture to idle to stop the engine and mags off.


















Final step is to hold the button on the VP-100 in for about 3 seconds and then the VP-100 turns off.
The starting sequence is really not that much different from our old system, but for the first time, we am really aware of what is going on with the electrical system. If any problems show up, the VP-100 will alert us immediately. Between its monitoring of the electrical system and the engine monitoring of the Dynon EMS, and the Garmin 496 audio warnings, hopefully, we will know right away when any problems occur and we can spend more time looking outside the cockpit instead of at the instruments.

11/12 VP Programming and install clean up

Ok, I didnt get much done tonight. Too busy playing with the VP system. Of course, this is necessary training so its ok.
The picture below shows the settings for the primary alternator. Its on J6 pin 2. I named it ALT1. The circuit breaker has been set to 5 amps. Its energized when switch 1 is in the Up position. The little "p" means its the primary alternator field.



















This picture shows the device setup for the SD-8 alternator.
It shows connector is J4 pin 4. The device name is Alt2 (backup alt, you can name it whatever works for you). The circuit breaker value has been set at 2 amps. The last numbers on the right show that the SD-8 backup alternator is energized when switch 1 is in the down position. The little "s" shows its the secondary alternator.


















The picture below shows what a device listing looks like before you program any values into the fields.



















I programmed the remote keyfob to work with the VP system.
There is a little antenna that you have to screw onto the control unit.
Then under the setup menu, you select Program Remote.


















I tried the remote from about 1o feet away and it turned on the power as its supposed to. The manual says its good for up to about 30 feet and if you want a longer distance, you can buy a different antenna from VP to increase the range.

The picture belows shows the current draw for the field wire on the primary alternator with the engine off. I was surprised to see so many amps on it.


















Heres the latest picture of the panel with all instruments turned on (no nav or strobe lights).
It shows 6 amps being used of which 3.2 is for the alternator.
I dont think I am going to have a problem keeping the total current draw under 8 amps for my essential bus if the primary alternator fails and I use the SD-8 backup alternator.

11/11 Final Vertical Power Install

I started work this morning by making the shelf to hold the fuse block and terminal strip behind the instrument panel. I had originally designed it to bolt in. I decided to change it to a drop down design so if a fuse needed to be replaced, I could do it without removing the top skin (lots of screws). Below is the main shelf with hinges being added to either end.


















Here is the primed shelf with the hinges installed that is ready to be installed in the aircraft.


















The shelf fits right behind the Vertical Power switch panel and before the control panel.
The fuse block is for a "get home back-up power wiring" from the Vertical Power website at:
http://www.verticalpower.com/docs/Backup_Wiring.pdf
The terminal strip is for extra wires from the Dynon EFIS, Dyon EMS and the Vertical Power Control Unit. They are either for some function I am going to add in the future or I need more parts/understanding before I add it.


















The Vertical power installation manual has you do single pin testing of the vertical power wiring with the connectors removed from the control unit. Vertical Power supplies 2 cables with connectors that you use to plug into the front of each connector for each power wire you run.
You put a 10 amp fuse in line with it and connect it to the battery. For the data wires (trim) you use a 2 amp fuse.
Since I already had a fuse block I used it as part of the single pin testing to supply power direct from the battery to my test wire.


















When you insert the test probe into the connector it applies power to whatever component is connected to that wire. This makes sure that the right component is connected to the wire (It should match your load planning worksheet) and that the component turns on or works correctly. I also hooked an ampmeter to the test probe wire so I can record the actual amps used by the component. As part of the load planning worksheet, you enter the estimated amps the component uses, but it was interesting to see the actual amps.
My left landing light uses 4.62 amps but the right landing light uses 6.25. They use the same bulbs. Not sure why the different amps.
(Once the Vertical Power switch panel is programmed, the individual amps for each component can be viewed one at a time on the switch panel.)
The flaps also had some different amps based on what they were doing.
When the flaps are up but the motor is kept running, they draw 3.6 amps. If the flaps are put all of the way down and the motor is kept running, the flaps only draw .6 amps.


















After the wiring was all checked out and verifed to go to the correct component and the component works, the next step is to hook all of the connectors up to the Control Unit, run the cable between the control unit and the switch panel and hook the battery back up and turn on the system. This is done by pressing the green button on the upper left of the switch panel.
The panel cycles through a couple of boot up screens and then displays the current volts and amps that are being used. The OK on the right of the screen tells you there are no faults.


















As part of the beta test, Vertical Power asked me to disconnect the 20 amp inline fuse which powers the e-bus. After disconnecting the fuse, an "E-bus Failure" message shows on the screen.


















After reconnecting the fuse and recycling the power, the next test was to disconnect the battery contactor while the Vertical Power system is on. This simulates a battery contactor failure.



















I then started programming the individual devices from the load planning worksheet. Below is the boost pump after I programmed the correct settings for it. This screen basicallys says that Connector J4, pin 3 has a device named "BPMP" (Boost pump) connected to it and the circuit breaker has been configured for 5 amps. This device is energized whenever switch 4 is in the up position.


















After programming all of the devices listed in the load planning worksheet, all of my component started to work properly.












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11/10 Vertical Power Equipment arrives

I decided to switch the brackets for the Vertical Power Control Unit so they are under the Control Unit instead of outside it. This freed up about an inch more room on each side for access.


















While I had the panel out, I decided to rebuilt the brake master cylinders. The left one was feeling like it was bleeding off a bit when brakes were applied hard. The brake master cylinders in the Vans RV-4s are mounted upside down, at least the earlier ones are because of interference problems with the center tunnel.


















I decided to do both sides while access was so easy.


















The left brake master cylinder has black oily gunk on the rod and spring, confirming my suspicions that it was leaking.


















A Snap-On Snap ring tool easily removed the snap ring from the top of the master cylinder. I give my wife a list of Xmas presents I would like each year and she picks some of them for presents. A set of Snap On snap ring tools was one of them.


















After the snap ring is removed from the top of the master cylinder, you just pull on the rod and pull the whole intermal assembly out.


















Only two o-rings show but there are two more hidden inside. Another small snap ring is at the far right of the assembly. When it is removed the rest of the assembly can be taken apart.
The small o-ring now shows in the picture below.


















The fourth medium o-ring is hidden inside the assembly below. I had to use a dentists pick to remove it. You can see some black crud on the teflon washer in the picture below. There was a lot of black crud on most of the pieces and also in the brake fluid in the master cylinder. I wasnt sure what it was until a friend, Mike Taylor came by and said it was probably parts of the o-rings that were rubbed off or decomposing. This makes sense to me. Really happy that I decided to rebuild these cylinders.


















A quick trip to the local parts chick (Aerozona Parts) and I returned with 8 o-rings. Each master cylinder took
1 MS28775-110
2 MS28775-112
1 MS28-775-113























After lubricating the o-rings with brake fluid, they were assembled in the reverse order and reinstalled on the aircraft.


















The Vertical Power box of goodies was delivered friday afternoon to the airport. The switch panel was heavier that I was expecting. Must be a lot of gear inside it. Hopefully that means its tough and durable.


















I had left the cutout for the switch panel on the instrument panel undersize until I had an actual switch panel to mate up to the panel. I spent about an hour with a file enlarging the panel to fit the switch panel.
The picture below shows the backside of the switch panel.


















The next picture shows the backside from the pilot side which made me realize I had made a slight design miscalculation. The pilot side of the switch panel contains a telephone type jack for connection to a laptop for upgrades and saving/loading profiles. This side is only 1 inch from my radio stack which is going to make it really hard to get to. However, this turned out to not be a problem as the mounting bracket on the back of the switch panel can be turned by hand. Its really easy to put on and off. I will plan on just reaching up from below the panel and unscrewing the mounting bracket and pulling the switch panel out an inch and access the jack from the front of the panel, then reinstall it once the update is complete. Another idea is to just leave the connector that hooks to the laptop plugged in. ( http://katiesrv4.blogspot.com/2007/10/wiring-programming-cable-for-vp-100.html )
It has a 9 pin D sub connector serial port on the end that plugs into the laptop. Since the Dynons each have a serial connector to connect to the laptop, I now have 3 serial connectors on the RV-4. This is more than I have on my desktop computer at home!


















Vertical power sent serial No. 3, so I definitely have one of the first units to beta test.


















The accessories bag that came with the switch panel includes a cable to go between the switch panel and the control panel, a key fob that lets you turn the power to your aircraft on and off remotely as well as program other functions and a short antenna that I assume is for the control unit to receive the key fob transmissions.


















Here is how the switch panel looks from the rear when it was installed in the panel.


I had to break off work to take my sweetheart out to Abuelos for some good Mexican cuisine.
Tomorrow I should be able to apply vertical power to my Dynons and start programming everything.

11/07 Vertical Power VP-100 Switch Panel and Control Unit

Vertical Power sent a picture last night of my actual switch panel and control unit. They will be shipping soon.

11/05 Vertical Power Wiring - continued

Tonight after work I wired up the strobes. I put the strobe leads across a battery and measured the current draw with an ampmeter. Both strobe power supplies drew 3.35 amps total. I put each strobe on a separate 5 amp circuit from the CU. I could have put them on one, but I had plenty of spares and decided to use separate wires.

I started wiring up connector J7 on the Control Unit. J7 is a 37 pin D sub connector. The trim controls all use this connector. Pin 13 of this connector is a 1 amp keep alive circuit. This is always hot and I connected pin 13 to the two keep alive circuits on the Dynon EFIs and EMS.

The wiring for the J7 connector comes with the pins already crimped on but not inserted yet in the connector. This allows you to make any changes you want. In our case, the RV-4 has electric roll trim but not pitch trim. So we can use the wires for the roll trim instead of pitch trim and just change the wire numbers on our load planning sheet and program the Control Unit accordingly.














Another option I am considering is to just run a power lead to the roll trim and use the existing wiring temporarilly until I can replace the wire from the aileron servo to the fuselage. There are only 3 wires coming into the fuselage now and there should be 5. The position wires were evidently never ran.

11/04 Vertical Power wiring - continued

I continued wiring the J3 connector first on the Control Unit. I was originally going to show step by step pictures of each wiring, but decided it wasnt necessary. It has turned out to be a lot easier that I envisioned. Just run the wire to the component that needs the power, cut it the correct length and connect it to the component. The thing I spend the most time on is making sure that the wire is all run together in neat wire runs.














After wiring J3, I wired connectors J4 and J5. The wires that are loose in the picture below are either extras or havent been connected yet. I did not wire up the power to the KY-97 radio yet as we are replacing the radio with a new ICOM A-210 that can monitor the standby freq while monitoring the active channel. Some questions and options came up that we have to sort through before we wire it. The ICOM comes with two different backplates and connectors that you can choose between. It also has a built in voice activated intercom. If we use it, it would eliminate the PS1000-II that we currently use.














We reused the firewall penetration holes that were left after removing the vacuum pump fittings and the tach cables. These firewall penetration fittings were intended to be used for throttle and mixture cables, but they work great for wiring as well. Just cut off the long end that sticks out and smooth all of the surfaces. The center part will get filled with fire proof putty as a last step.














Al came over today and volunteered to hook up the Dynon EMS probes for CHT and EGT. This saved me about 1/2 day of work. Thanks Al!














The picture below shows the EGT fitting that goes is the bottom of each cylinder.














The EGT fittings go in the side of each exhaust pipe. The plane already had one EGT of cylinder 3. It was 1 3/4 inches below the cylinder, so Al placed all of the EGT probes at the same distance.














After connector J5 was wired up, we started on connector J6 (on right side of Control Unit.














The picture below shows the ground bus tab. There are 24 connectors on it and about half are used so far. Its going to be close as to whether we have enough tabs or not. All wire ties are temp fittings just to hold wiring in place during the install process.














The items that are left to wire on the Control Unit because of questions are:
ICOM A210 power,
2 Strobe power supplies (not sure how much power they pull each),
Roll trim (wiring from aileron servo does not have all 5 wires)

11/02 VP-100 wiring start

Tonight I started wiring the VP-100 Control Unit.
I have already created a load planning worksheet. In it you assign all of your power loads to different pins on the Control Unit.














I started with the J3 Power cable. The wires come in different lengths for different applications.














Each wire is stamped with its function. If it is dedicated, it has the name of the function on it, or the number from the load planning sheet so you can cross reference it. Power wires are red, ground wires are black and data wires are white.














The number of each wire is stamped on the back of the connector also.














I wired the flaps first. Pins 1 and 2 from J3 are dedicated to the flaps. I decided to replace all of the wire running to the flaps with the supplied wiring from Vertical Power instead of just splicing into it. I used knife edge connectors instead of soldering or crimping connectors because I have had to remove the flap motor in the past and wanted to be able to remove it again without cutting wires.



















A couple of pieces of shrink tubing was applied and shrunk over each connector.














The mag/start switch was rewired next. The existing magneto grounds were left alone. The wiring from the battery was replaced with wiring from the Control Unit to the switch. There was enough wiring left after this to replace the wiring from the mag/start switch to the starter solenoid with the correct labeled wire.