Thoughts on panel upgrade?

On Fri, 03 Feb 2017 21:37:46 -0800, Surge wrote:

I used single side, copper clad, FR4 PC board soldered together to make
the case. Don't do this unless you like to itch and make all your tools
blunt! In hindsight an aluminium case may cost more and be a bit more
difficult to manufacture but it would be better than working with FR4
board and look more professional to boot.

That sounds good to me. I've made up a number of bits for my Libelle
this way, though I use epoxy (24 hour Araldite) rather than solder to
join the boards. Here's a description and photos of a replacement battery
box lid that also serves as a logger mounting:

http://www.gregorie.org/gliding/libe...ttery_lid.html

The main platform is a sandwich of 1.6mm epoxy board top and bottom with
3mm balsa in the middle so its a sort-of mix&match with my Libelle, which
has balsa wing skins.

I've also used epoxyboard to build the adapters you need to attach a PNA's
mounting clip to a RAM flexi-mount and to make a latching mechanism to
clip a Glassfaser 'bum bag' onto the Libelle's wing assembly lever
attachment points.

If you don't want copper-clad epoxy-board, plain epoxyboard is readily
available as model building material in a variety of thicknesses from
0.2mm to 6mm (1/128" to 1/4"). Copper clad PCB is typically 1.6mm or
0.8mm. I think no workshop is complete without some of this in the supply
cupboard. I normally use 0.4, 0.8 and 1.6mm sheet.

In the UK I get epoxyboard from HobbyPlastic,
http://www.hobbyplastic.co.uk/ but in the USA I'd use Aerospace Composite
Products, http://www.acp-composites.com/ if the local model shop doesn't
stock it.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

On Friday, February 3, 2017 at 11:37:47 PM UTC-6, Surge wrote:
On Friday, 3 February 2017 07:57:40 UTC+2, Paul wrote:
That sounds pretty cool! Does it work well? Do you have any details/photos?

Some photos
https://s29.postimg.org/700iji3ev/pisoar1.jpg
https://s29.postimg.org/j35u72eh3/pisoar2.jpg
https://s29.postimg.org/f82g4hvbb/pisoar3.jpg
https://s29.postimg.org/wmr9qihtz/pisoar4.jpg
https://s29.postimg.org/pktc4be87/pisoar5.jpg
https://s29.postimg.org/76it0c1xj/pisoar6.jpg

I used single side, copper clad, FR4 PC board soldered together to make the case. Don't do this unless you like to itch and make all your tools blunt! In hindsight an aluminium case may cost more and be a bit more difficult to manufacture but it would be better than working with FR4 board and look more professional to boot.
I made an oversized case because I have plenty of space behind the panel and to leave space for additional circuity later.
The screen is a 1000 nit, 7" Xenarc resistive touch screen (works with gloves) with HDMI connection to the Pi. GPS source is from a FlarmMouse via an S80 vario into RS232 to USB cable (using RS232 levels - not TTL). I'm not a fan of wireless technologies such as Bluetooth since they both introduce RFI and are themselves prone to external interference so I stuck with shielded, wired connections.
The 40mm DC fan is at the bottom and a covered vent at the top rear.

The Raspberry Pi 2B runs XCSoar on framebuffer so there are no overheads from a window manager. I can still launch an LXDE window manager to use a web browser once I've quit XCSoar.

The main reasons why I built it is because XCSoar rocks, I like tinkering and I didn't want to spend $2000+ on a commercial solution that I can't customise later or find out X years down the line that the device is no longer supported (please upgrade).
The OpenVario project looks like a nice solution without requiring R&D. If I had to do it again I'd probably go that route than build my own solution.

On Sat, 04 Feb 2017 22:11:59 -0800, Surge wrote:

On Saturday, 4 February 2017 14:50:44 UTC+2, Martin Gregorie wrote:
If you don't want copper-clad epoxy-board, plain epoxyboard is readily
available as model building material in a variety of thicknesses from
0.2mm to 6mm (1/128" to 1/4").

I used the copper clad board primarily to help keep RFI from the Pi and
12V to 5V buck converter inside the case. I used to think only ferrous
metals could be used for shielding but evidently non-ferrous metals also
work.

Yes, I understood that - an excellent idea.

My background for this stuff comes from model building, so I naturally
think 'epoxy' for joining any type of epoxyboard. If I was making some
thing similar I'd probably assemble it with epoxy and then solder wire
links on to connect all the copper areas electrically.



--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

I upgraded to S80 with AHRS, Nano3 and use an android tablet running TopHat - very similar to XCsoar and same formats...pretty happy so far, but I had no logger or flight computer previously. S80/S100 are really good instruments with great support from LXNAV. If interested in x-country flying, fly often, pick the brains of all the experienced pilots and beg or borrow a logger. Google maps is good for assessing the course, but be aware the imagery is dated!