L@@King For Auto Pilot Information

11-29-2008, 03:30 PM

Mike | L@@King For Auto Pilot Information

I have gone back thru the old posts to no avail.

Those with auto pilots.......

What are you using and how do you like them? Do they work?

Do you know what model servo you have or the inch pounds of the servos?

Thanks

11-30-2008, 10:32 AM

Fred Lohr | autopilot history

Back when i was deciding on an autopilot, around 2002, there was a rift between the seawind organization and s tec. they were not interested in helping out. I ended up going with Trutrak and i am very glad i did. They have focused their business on the homebuilt market and give great support. I found that i needed more power in my roll servo cause it is a little stiff with the mixer and all. They came up with a good solution which was to install a servo with more torque. Trutrak also came up with a system to mount that roll servo directly to the yoke for seawinds. It works very well. The elevator servo is cable driven behind bulkhead 140. I have the DFC 250 but they have some newer auto pilots now that are called digiflight. they also have an integrated EFIS that I wish had been available at the time. I do not have the yaw damper and get a little oscillation at times. probably if i were to start over i would go with the yaw damper but it can be added at anytime.

the post from mike Bowes (post 305,337,441,445,456) covers the early developement and there were pictures posted way back when. The guys at Planemakers are dealers for trutrak and have far more knowledge than i do about this. here is the link to trutrak http://www.trutrakflightsystems.com/home.htm

If Chris and John have any thoughts on autopilots i would like to hear their comments.

has anyone installed the trutrak EFIS and if so do you like it?

12-02-2008, 06:39 AM

Mike

I am considering either the tru track (VSGV) http://www.trutrakflightsystems.com/instruments.htm or the trio (Pro) http://www.trioavionics.com/ProPilot.htm . It really depends on the torque of the servos and the mounting locations. I have looked at the tru track efis and was not impressed with the cosmetics. I really didn't like the hokey looks of the display as compared to the others. Steam gauges on a efis...NOT. Most likely going to go with the Grand Rapids HX efis.

12-02-2008, 07:00 PM

Fred Lohr | auto pilot

one thing you could do is call and talk to Jim Younkin at Trutrak. He knows more about autopilots than just about anyone else on the planet. He can talk with you about response rates/torque and any thing else you can think of and can also tell you what all the other companies are up to and how their products compare. The servo mount that they engineered for the seawind mounts directly on the control column of the passenger side and the lever turns the sprocket and wheel, no slop in the system at all. Without the mixer, you might not need the higher torque servo i am using.

12-02-2008, 07:56 PM

Mike

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fred Lohr View Post

This is what happens when you use the quote button instead of the post reply button.

Fred,

Thanks for the info, I will call Jim. i am a little nervous about the cross bar that already has been installed behind the dash. Not sure how the yoke mt servo will fit.

12-03-2008, 10:16 AM

Fred Lohr | one more thing

when it comes to mounting the servo for the elevator, it has to be somewhere along the run of the cables. Most people have ended up mounting it above the floor, about 10 inches behind the 140 bulkhead. Same for the servo for the yaw damper if you go that route. Mounting it under the floor puts it in a fairly moist environment if you are going to do much water flying as i do. I started that way but had corrosion in the connectors and so moved the servo up top. I will say that it is extremely painful to have a servo motor jabbing you in the back as you are lying there trying to fix or maintain things. You can make a cover with some rounded corners which helps. I have thought about putting them back further, but did not want the aft weight penalty.

12-03-2008, 06:52 PM

Mike

Did you have to extend the lenght of the cables due to wrapping the cable around the servo or did the cable mount via a clamp? How does the servo connect to the cable.... I saw the pict a while ago with the servos mounted in the back. Seems like the best spot. How much do yours weigh?

12-04-2008, 03:50 PM

Mike

Ok, I think I'll bite the bulletttttt. The digiflight II VSGV offers the most for the configuration I have.

12-05-2008, 11:25 AM

Fre Lohr

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike View Post

Well, the servos from trutrak come with a 1/8 cable, the wheel shaped drive on the servo and clamps to attach to the exisiting cable. You have to make up a row of pulleys either two or four depending on whether you have, or ever intend to have, the yaw damper. Those pulleys mount under the floor or to the bottom of the access cover and redirect the cables to the level of and parallel to the control cables. I may not have described that well, but once you see the photos from trutrak, it is pretty clear. So you really don't mess with your existing cables at all other other than to clamp these to them.

Those little devils are at least a pound or two.

good luck

12-05-2008, 07:21 PM

Mike

Fred,

Thanks for the input. I am planning on ordering next week....Hey someone has to buy me a christmass present!

As I progress I shall post pictures.......

12-21-2008, 05:47 PM

Mike

What kind of mounting issues did you have when mounting the roll servo..??

So far two.

1- The chain hits the mounting bracket

2- The servo hits the cross bar when pulling the yoke out (back).

12-22-2008, 09:39 AM

Fred Lohr

As I recall, the mounting bracket can fit two different ways, and I had to try them both before I found the orientation that avoided chain contact.

The bar is already in place on yours as on mine, and really cannot be moved much, so my solution was to tip the servo down just a little so it clears just under the bar. The servo dimensions are different between the high torgue and regular one with the high torque one being not as long.

12-22-2008, 02:38 PM

Mike | True Trak Installation - DigiFlight II VSVG

True Trak Installation - DigiFlight II VSVG

1- Wow; It’s here…………. After opening the package and inventorying the parts, I noticed that a spacer was missing.

2- This is the roll steering servo mounting hardware. The roll servo will be installed on the control yoke cross arm in the co-pilots electronics bay.

3- Here is the roll servo installed loosely to see how it fits.

4- After installing the servo in the co-pilots electronics bay I noticed that the servo prevents the control yoke from going all the way back due to the cross rod. If the servo is angled down a little bit and the yoke brought all the way back, the servo hangs down by the co-pilots knee caps by about six inches.

5- Notice the chain touching on the aluminum support on the top and bottom. Some of the support will have to be removed to allow free travel of the chain.

12-22-2008, 03:11 PM

Mike

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fred Lohr View Post

As I recall, the mounting bracket can fit two different ways, and I had to try them both before I found the orientation that avoided chain contact.

Fred,

Do you have any pictures of your roll and pitch install...?

Anyone else....?

12-28-2008, 06:43 PM

Mike

1- V bracket mounted on the roll sprocket

2- Side view. The servo is at an angle to miss the cross bar. Because of this it is about a 1/2" back from the push rod assembly. The three servo standoff's have to be shortened a 1/2" to move the servo closer to the pushrod assembly.

01-01-2009, 04:53 PM

Mike

Roll servo Is finally installed.

1- I tried to align the mounting hardware different ways to no avail. so a few modifications had to be made to the to miss the chain.

2- The push rod assembly lines up well. Notice the bolt at the servo arm has to be reversed otherwise at full travel the end of the bolt will hit the chain.

3- The bolts mounting the servo to the mounting plate are safety tied. The other bolts are have lock tight on the threads. This is one area that will be added to the annual checklist.

All thats left to do is wiring, put the nuts on the rod ends and final adjustment of the pushrod assembly.

Oh yea.......and install the pitch servo and the control head...

05-16-2009, 06:09 PM

Mike

he roll servo works great. I need to make final adjustments. Alll should be fine. Next step, the alt hold servo.

I found some pictures while doing another backup to the old software. Does anyone know who put the alt servo in the tail? How well does it work..?

The following pict's are the picts I found, not mine...!!

05-18-2009, 10:12 AM

Planemakers | Auto Pilot update from Planemakers

Hi folks,

We have tried to contact TruTrak lately with some dealer type questions and have received no reply. We have not purchased anything from them in a long time and I believe they have pulled our dealer status. Oh well, their product still works just fine and I recommend it highly. You'll just have to buy it from someone else. *sigh*

We have changed a few things regarding the placement and mounting of the servos. So many of the latest instrument panels we have seen here have been stuffed full of so many avionics that there is not enough room behind the panel for mounting the roll servo to the tubing on the controls. So, we came up with a mounting point out in the wing just forward of the bellcrank.

http://www.planemakers.com/sw002/sw002197.JPG

http://www.planemakers.com/sw002/sw002198.JPG

http://www.planemakers.com/sw002/sw002199.JPG

The servo goes out in the wing and there is a push rod connected directly to the bellcrank.

As for the pitch servo...

Having it on the floor just behind BH140 is easy to get to but when you want to work on anything in the mid deck area, you have to lay on it and that starts to get annoying after about 10 seconds. We put the pitch servo in the area just under the engine/prop controls with a connection directly to the elevator bell crank at the base of the control console.

http://www.planemakers.com/sw002/sw002136.JPG

http://www.planemakers.com/sw002/sw002135.JPG

This is the first one we have done this way so I'll have no official recomendation untill after this Seawind flys and we get a chance to test it out. But, I don't see any reason why it shouldn't work just fine. The pitch controls are being moved directly from where they would be moved by the pilots hands. What I meen by this is, there are all hard control-rod inputs between where the A/P is hooked up and the control yolks. The roll control is directly hooked to the bellcrank so the A/P may have even finer control than the yolk inputs.

We'll see when she flys.

If you have any questions fee free to ask and have a great day,

John J

05-18-2009, 10:18 AM

Planemakers

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike View Post

The roll servo works great. I need to make final adjustments. Alll should be fine. Next step, the alt hold servo.

I found some pictures while doing another backup to the old software. Does anyone know who put the alt servo in the tail? How well does it work..?

The following pict's are the picts I found, not mine...!!

Hi Mike,

I belive these are pics of N8UU's pitch servo. It is a Blue Mountain Avionics servo. We have not been able to get the A/P to work yet so I can't say for sure how it works. For now... It doesn't.

John J

05-23-2009, 05:04 PM

Mike

Is there any reason why the tru-track wouldn't work back there???

05-26-2009, 08:47 AM

Planemakers

We mounted the BMA servo in N8UU in the tail because it wouldn't fit under the center console. Mounting it in the tail moved some weight aft but we didn't really have many options. I don't see why the TruTrak servo couldn't be mounted in the tail. If you can put that weight further forward it would be better but it should still work. The tail fin and the rudder fairing protect it from the rain.