Autopilot control panel trim controller

[bajapilot]

I have an RV-12 with a SkyView touch and autopilot control panel installed. Must say I really like the auto trim. I'm installing a control stick grip with trim control buttons on it and I would like to be able to control trim from both the panel switch as well as the stick switches.

Looking at the electrical semantic for the 12, it looks like I should just be able to wire up the stick input as secondary to the panel switch using the co-pilots inputs on pin 5 & 6 of the 15 pin dsub. Has anybody done this and if so do you just run pin 5 & 6 through the grip switches to ground?

Thanks for any help.

Bill

 

[Raymo]

I have the AP Panel and Infinity grips in my RV-7A. Not sure why you would want buttons on the panel but it should be a simple as splicing the grip wires to the panel wires such that either will close to ground on any axis you choose to change.

You would essentially have a configuration that most have where they do not have the AP Panel. The pilot and co-pilot switches are connected. The down-side to this is that you can have two inputs from two sticks at the same time. The AP Panel avoids this with internal circuitry.

 

[bajapilot]

Thanks for the reply Ray,

It's not that I want to put buttons on the panel but it's an RV-12 ELSA, which already has a trim control rocker switch as part of the switch cluster on the inst. panel.

I want to add stick buttons and since I already have the autopilot panel with the built in controller it seems easiest to use the unused co-pilot trim inputs to the autopilot panel since the pilot inputs are already used by the panel switch.

Mainly I just wanted to make sure that pins 5 & 6 go to ground through the stick control buttons. Was hoping Dynon would pipe in but maybe I can find somebody over on the RV forums who went this route.

Thanks for the info.

Bill

 

[Raymo]

If you will only have the panel and pilot stick controls, I see no reason why you could not wire the stick into the co-pilot pins in the AP panel. And yes, they simply go to ground (same as the AP disconnect and PTT).

Keep in mind that one will have priority over the other. Wired per your first post, the panel switch would have priority since it is wired into the pilot position.

 

[bajapilot]

Thanks again Ray, that's exactly what I wanted to know.

Bill

 

[rogersmart]

Question about Auto Trim feature of the Autopilot panel. I understand that if you have a stuck trim switch, ie switch terminal is low or grounded; the Autopilot panel disregards the switch after 5 seconds. So if a short to ground occurred in a switch terminal, would the auto trim still work when the autopilot is engaged or are all trim functions inoperative? If the stuck switch was on the co pilot side, would the pilot switch still work since it would have priority?

 

[Raymo]

Arpb,

The install manual says the following on page 18-5.

If a trim control button is pushed for more than five seconds (or longer, such as a stuck button), trim control on that axis will be temporarily inactivated until the button is first released.

 

[Dynon]

Every button is independent. So the "up" being stuck doesn't affect the other stick at all, nor the "down" on that stick. If you have two sticks accessible you'll still have full trim control.

 

[airguy]

Dynon - are there any plans to enable trim control for Skyview users that DON'T have the AP control panel? My panel is full and I don't have room for the stand-alone control head, I'm quite comfortable using the screen access to all the AP functions, but I would really like to have the autotrim function.

 

[vlittle]

Here is a third-party autotrim controller for SkyView: http://makerplane.org/?p=1919 .

It actually pre-dates Dynon's offering. It requires no panel space, as the lamp/pushbutton can be mounted anywhere.

Full disclosure: I developed this product and it Has been selling for 3 years under license by Makerplane. The prototype was installed on a Harmon Rocket, with perfect performance. It even took over autopilot control when I had a roll servo shear pin fail this summer.

It can be used as a speed-scheduling trim controller stand-alone in the event of a SV failure, but the autotrim function depends on a SV serial stream to operate. It also provides stuck-switch detection and correction.

Vern