Every Defect a Treasure HOBBS 2116.5 hrs

During my Engineering Management graduate studies at the University of Colorado, we talk a lot about quality and Dr. Deming. A Japanese quote that I like, shown below, sums up my experiences lately on the project.

"One of the early leaders of the continuous improvement movement, W. Edwards Deming, worked in Japan in the 1950s and was instrumental in building that country’s industry into an economic world power. As the Japanese were studying Dr. Deming’s work, they coined a term which translated into English as “every defect a treasure,” meaning that errors and failures are opportunities for learning to generate changes that can improve the system." [1]

Ponder that and I'll come back to this quote, but first let me explain. I have had all kinds of troubles getting my comm's and intercomm working correctly. The first issue I had was just wiring the push-to-talk (PTT) to the sticks properly. I must've scratched my head for hours wondering what I had done wrong...it is an easy circuit to wire. Just pull the PTT to ground with a momentary switch on the stick (or elsewhere)...easy, right?

Well, it actually is. It turned out that my PTT circuit was just fine, what the problem was is that I had crossed up several wires going from the mic jack to the audio panel. For some unknown reason, I got tunnel vision and went down the rabbit hole. I wrestled with that PTT circuit for hours. My advice, if something doesn't make sense when doing continuity testing...quickly move past it and onto other items, start checking your wires. My wiring troubleshooting skills have improved drastically the last couple weeks.

After the PTT fiasco, next I couldn't get my intercomm working. Its just been one headache after another and I have to say this has been the most frustrating part of the entire project for me. I was just about ready to throw up my hands and get some professional help, when I saw the light.

I swapped several emails with Mark Scheuer at PS Engineering and he helped me get over the hump with nudges in the right direction. Let me make a clarification about PS Engineering. They clearly state they dont have the resources to provide in depth troubleshooting expertise for homebuilders. But that doesn't mean you are out in the cold, Mark is very responsive to help as much as he can, but in the end you will need to do the grunt work and rightly so. They also have a troubleshooting section on their website and a nice powerpoint presentation on harness building to help you. I didn't discover these until late in the game, I recommend you use them.

My advice, before even starting a discussion with anyone in support, check each and every wire to make sure you have it wired correctly. Each and every time, that indeed, was my problem. It had nothing to do with the product itself, nor did I make adjustments with sidetone and mic gain...they should work just fine out of the box, its likely you just wired it wrong.

Now back to the quote. After agonizing through all of these wiring headaches with my comm's the last couple weeks, it dawned on me, without the mistakes I would never have really known the system as well as I do now. As much time as I've spent on this, I feel like I could now teach a class on how to wire a comm system! Without the many mistakes, there would have been no discovery, no opportunities to learn. Its the same when I fly aerobatics with Dagmar, the mistakes, the unintentional spins I get myself into is where the real learning takes place. We learn much more from our mistakes than our successes. So...embrace the defects, and take the opportunity to learn along the way...even if its a little painful. :)



http://www.dynonavionics.com/docs/support_documentation.html




http://www.dynonavionics.com/docs/support_documentation.html



One thing that I believe contributed to wiring my jacks wrong was not reading the schematic properly. Dynon published these two great graphics that really helped me interpret the symbol properly. Also, make sure you isolate the jack from your mounting surface (ground) with nylon spacers/washers.

Its been a hot summer this year in Denver, and doing wiring while its 89 degs in the hangar is a pain. Although, I have gotten used to it...sweating like a dog is part of the game.

To use the Vertical Power unit for configuration, you need to hook up a laptop. From there, you use the VP-X configurator to turn on components in the system. During this phase of testing, I am on the laptop quite a bit. Here are some FAA shots...remember, I have to prove I built this plane! ;)

This is the fun part...configuring the SkyView...and playing with my new toys! This is cool! Here is the PFD screen. Notice the large g-meter, I like that.

There are several different screen layouts you can use on the SkyView. This layout is probably the one I will use most, with the Garmin GDU375 being my main GPS. Notice how much more dim the GDU375 looks compared to the SkyView? I don't like that...I wonder if it will change when I update the firmware? Or maybe there is a setting? I need to look into that.

Here is a split screen with the engine monitoring shown. When I first powered up the SkyView, the EMS and ADAHARS weren't showing up. I first had to download the latest firmware for each (go to Dynon's site for a package download), then configure each unit. Only then will they show up on the screen.

Lastly, this shows the screen with PFD, EMS and MFD if you so desired to have them all on one screen. As you can see, you could easily get by with this 10" SkyView alone for a nice VFR ride. In fact, this is what the new RV-12's have in them.

In closing, this will be the first year in the last six that I haven't attended AirVenture. I have too much to do trying to finish up the plane and also need to use the money elsewhere. To all of my friends that are going...enjoy, and have a cold one at SOS for me!