David Lesher wrote:

I have often speculated that iffen I were clean-sheet designing a
nav/com; I would do about what ICOM did on at least one series of
VHF amateur transceivers.

There'd be a control panel, with display and controls. It has fiber
fiber back to the box under the rear seat. The control panel is say
1" deep -- it has nothing but the displays, LED's, optical spin
encoders, and a minimum of drive electronics.

This gets all the electronics of import out of the jungle oven known
as "in front of the panel" to where they can be easily wired, seen
and cooled. CG permitting, you could add a adjacent 3AH GelCell as
emergency power.

You could also do the same with GPS, xponder, etc. In fact the
panels might be the same hardware, except for labels.

Yea, I know, that's ~~what the ARINC standard used to do on DC-6
era beasts -- remote everything down to the radio bay. One issue
you add is the interconnecting wiring as failure points. But if we
use flexible fiber jumpers, instead of 18-odd wires, that's a
different kettle of fish. Further, if it loses the fiber connectivity,
the radio can revert to ?121.5? and preset volume, etc.

Now, I don't think anyone will ever do this -- for all the reasons
the GA fleet is what it is. But I still think it is a fun engineering
dream, at least.
--
A host is a host from coast to
& no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433

Back in the "good old days" when I was an avionics tech, they HAD to
put things in the back; the equipment was just too big to fit it all
behind the panel.

The equipment rack in the back of your average Cessna/Piper is no
heaven for equipment. It vibrates just as much and it is actually
hotter than behind the panel. Remember, there are no vents back there
while up front you have cabin vents.

Most of the problems with the old MK-12 solid state inverter power
supplies and the AT-5 transponders were due to the heat and vibration
in the back.

Running cables of any kind from the back to behind the panel is also
highly labor intensive when done correctly. Basically, you just about
have to gut the seats and carpets to get under there and make sure
the cables are properly secured and protected so they don't wind up
interfering with control mechanisms or getting chaffed in two where
they run over all the sharp metal edges down there.

Lots of problems turned out to be nothing more than marginal installation
of cables under the floor done by somebody on the cheap. The only solution
was to rip it all out and replace it correctly.

While you could replace a lot of the wiring with a fiber optic data cable,
you still have to run power back there and you still have to keep the
cables protected and out of the workings. Plus splicing and putting
connectors correctly on fiber is a pain in the butt.


--
Jim Pennino

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