fiberglass or carbon ? Need your help....

I need your help identifying what material my mushroom panel is made of. It's from a DG-202. Given the age, I'm assuming it is painted fiberglass. But the black pigment runs deep - as if it is really carbon. I'm asking because I'm considering putting the GPS antenna puck under the panel. But if it is carbon, I need to mount it externally. I'm not sure if this is the stock mushroom panel.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darlin...57660836834946

-ZP

On Friday, November 6, 2015 at 10:13:45 AM UTC-8, Dirk Darling wrote:
I need your help identifying what material my mushroom panel is made of. It's from a DG-202. Given the age, I'm assuming it is painted fiberglass. But the black pigment runs deep - as if it is really carbon. I'm asking because I'm considering putting the GPS antenna puck under the panel. But if it is carbon, I need to mount it externally. I'm not sure if this is the stock mushroom panel.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darlin...57660836834946

-ZP

The drilled holes for the speaker look like fiberglass as does the rest of the construction. You could put a multi-meter across the exposed fibers and check for continuity. Carbon is conductive and glass isn't.

On Friday, November 6, 2015 at 10:13:45 AM UTC-8, Dirk Darling wrote:
I need your help identifying what material my mushroom panel is made of. It's from a DG-202. Given the age, I'm assuming it is painted fiberglass. But the black pigment runs deep - as if it is really carbon. I'm asking because I'm considering putting the GPS antenna puck under the panel. But if it is carbon, I need to mount it externally. I'm not sure if this is the stock mushroom panel.

The pod and panel are fiberglass with thick paint, and I have mounted antennas underneath with no obvious issues. But, I preferred to mount puck style antennas either on top of the pod, or on a bracket at the top front, well clear of the compass (if mounted on top), and run the cable through a hole in the front of the pod. Just because it is fiberglass and paint doesn't mean it would attenuate the signal to some (small) extent...

Marc (past owner of DG-101, 303, 600)

On Friday, November 6, 2015 at 10:54:08 AM UTC-8, wrote:
On Friday, November 6, 2015 at 10:13:45 AM UTC-8, Dirk Darling wrote:
I need your help identifying what material my mushroom panel is made of.. It's from a DG-202. Given the age, I'm assuming it is painted fiberglass. But the black pigment runs deep - as if it is really carbon. I'm asking because I'm considering putting the GPS antenna puck under the panel. But if it is carbon, I need to mount it externally. I'm not sure if this is the stock mushroom panel.

The pod and panel are fiberglass with thick paint, and I have mounted antennas underneath with no obvious issues. But, I preferred to mount puck style antennas either on top of the pod, or on a bracket at the top front, well clear of the compass (if mounted on top), and run the cable through a hole in the front of the pod. Just because it is fiberglass and paint doesn't mean it would attenuate the signal to some (small) extent...

"Would" should be "wouldn't"...

On Friday, November 6, 2015 at 1:13:45 PM UTC-5, Dirk Darling wrote:
I need your help identifying what material my mushroom panel is made of. It's from a DG-202. Given the age, I'm assuming it is painted fiberglass. But the black pigment runs deep - as if it is really carbon. I'm asking because I'm considering putting the GPS antenna puck under the panel. But if it is carbon, I need to mount it externally. I'm not sure if this is the stock mushroom panel.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darlin...57660836834946

-ZP

its definitely fiber glass. two reasons:

Carbon is more expensive and in a part like this which is non-structural, there is no benefit for incurring the extra cost for the unnecessary stiffness. also, if you zoom in on the pictures, you can see a little green (fiberglass/resin system) where the paint has worn, also the inside of all the drilled holes look white/green (fiberglass/resin system.)

Thanks guys! That is what I thought. I'll consider still mounting the antenna on the outside, but i wanted a cleaner look if attenuation isn't a problem - based on other posts on this site, it shouldn't.

-ZP