Retrofit of autopilot

[Stevehaley]

Has anyone retro fitted an autopilot to a built rv10.
How difficult is it. The yaw and pitch servos look doable but worried about acess in the wing both to fit the servo and wire it. I presume it is best to remove the wing?
Any hints tips etc
Stephen

 

[TomSpencer46]

retro auto pilot

The garmin servo fits in the wing at the last inspection access they provide a bracket to change the aileron push rod attachment. You will also have to fish a cable out there. Should not have to remove wing.

 

[BobTurner]

The garmin servo fits in the wing at the last inspection access they provide a bracket to change the aileron push rod attachment. You will also have to fish a cable out there. Should not have to remove wing.

Same thing for a Trio Pro, which I installed after the wings were on.

 

[PhatRV]

I have the Dynon autopilot servos and the servo mounts are sold directly from Dynon. In my RV8, all the bolt holes from the Dynon servo mount matched exactly to the bolt holes of the Vans wing spars and the bell-crank. The bell crank assembly is directly above the access panel there is plenty of room to install it. The hardware installation was a breeze. I thought the hardest job was installing the wiring, trying to figure out which are the power wires and which are the controlling wires.

 

[rleffler]

AP

What brand of EFIS do you have installed?

It’s not a big deal upgrading from brand x to brand y.

I have AFS and recently upgraded from Trutrak to Dynon servos. For both Dynon and AFS, the AP functionality is built into the EFIS. I also added a Yaw servo.

The Trutrak servo mounts are very similar to the Dynon mounts. I would recommend replacing the mounts. Use the mounts provided by the servo vendor.

You don’t need to take the wings off. You can reach anything from the access panels.

Trutrak didn’t require twisted pair wiring, but Dynon does for the Four SV-Network pairs. I tried to re-use the Trutrak cabling. It cost me a lot of time a frustration.

 

[Thor RV10]

Bob, Did you notice a difference when you switched from Tru Track to Dyson AP and rigging?

 

[vas4vans]

Hi Bob,

I think you and I exchanged messages about the AP soon after I bought my plane a year ago. I have a similar setup to your old one (TruTrak AP with AFS EFIS) and have thought about replacing the TT with Dynon servos. How do you like the Dynon servos compared to the TT and approximately how much time did it take (in terms of labor hours)?

Thanks,

Vas

What brand of EFIS do you have installed?

It’s not a big deal upgrading from brand x to brand y.

I have AFS and recently upgraded from Trutrak to Dynon servos. For both Dynon and AFS, the AP functionality is built into the EFIS. I also added a Yaw servo.

The Trutrak servo mounts are very similar to the Dynon mounts. I would recommend replacing the mounts. Use the mounts provided by the servo vendor.

You don’t need to take the wings off. You can reach anything from the access panels.

Trutrak didn’t require twisted pair wiring, but Dynon does for the Four SV-Network pairs. I tried to re-use the Trutrak cabling. It cost me a lot of time a frustration.

 

[rleffler]

Bob, Did you notice a difference when you switched from Tru Track to Dyson AP and rigging?

Hmm, I don’t know Dyson was making servos. Although you would probably get better support than bendix is providing these days.

Hi Bob,

I think you and I exchanged messages about the AP soon after I bought my plane a year ago. I have a similar setup to your old one (TruTrak AP with AFS EFIS) and have thought about replacing the TT with Dynon servos. How do you like the Dynon servos compared to the TT and approximately how much time did it take (in terms of labor hours)?

Thanks,

Vas

Both servos worked well for me. I had the Trutrak servos for over ten years.

The differences are in the head. Both AFS and Dynon EfIS have more processing power and speed than any of the TT heads. Because of that there are more features that TT couldn’t implement.

I added a yaw servo, which I really like.

Some installation notes.

You must use twisted pair wiring on the the four SV-Network pairs. TT didn’t use twisted pairs.

If you are installing a Yaw servo, you’ll need to run separate power wiring outside the sv-network cables. You can make you own cables, the Dynon’s sv-network cables makes your live much more easier for installation.

The pitch and roll servo brackets are almost the same, but there are differences. Using the Dynon brackets will make for a quicker install. Sell the TT brackets with the servos.

My config was almost perfect. The tuning process didn’t make any significant changes.

The amount of labor to install isn’t significant. It’s an easy weekend project.

Overall, I’m very pleased with the upgraded. Vendor support is important for me. Support from AFS during the install was and is always great.

I am very pleased with the solution. It’s worked flawlessly since installed.