i don't remember making this many holes!

A bit of time in the shop this week.  Dismantled the elevator (again) and deburred the holes now that everything is drilled to right size.  It's points like this in a project that make you feel both accomplished and behind at the same time.  You realize all the work you've done to this point by the number of holes you've drilled, but taking it all apart for deburring seems like a backwards (but necessary none-the-less) step.

Deburring the trim tab after it is bent is problematic.  The holes for the hinge can't be drilled without  having it bent to shape first.  How to debur the holes on the inside angles (see yellow arrows)?  Make a tool!

Normally we'd use a rotary debur tool, but access is too tight.  To get access, I came up with this idea.

​1. Slot a piece of wood

2. Insert sandpaper

​3.  Slide onto flange

4.  Gently and carefully slide back and forth along the length of the flange.  The goal here is to remove the burrs, not to sand the flange.  It worked really well!

A follower of the blog had asked me why the elevator skin looked wrinkled in the pictures on the bench and the look of wrinkles is due to the protective plastic coating on the sheet aluminum.  I've now peeled that back anywhere there are rivet holes so I can properly debur them.  I'm leaving the remaining plastic on the skins to help prevent scuffs and scratches as I work with them off the skeleton.

With the elevator skin off the spar, now is a good time to fit the trim servo.  The bracket I made will work, but now that I'm fitting it I've discovered something I hadn't thought of.  If I have to remove the servo for replacement or repair, orienting it this way (mounting screws are sideways in the bracket) means it will be painful if not impossible to remove it through the access hole!

I decided it best to create a new bracket similar to the one Ron is planning for his 701:

It took a couple of tries to get it right, but it turned out well!

I'll need to add a grommet or strain relief at the pass-though hole to prevent the servo wire from chafing:

The servo will sit on an angle, parallel to the inside of the skin surfaces - the more direct the push/pull rod can be to the trim tab control horn the better.

  
As I sit on nightshifts at work, I have some time to ponder what else I can do with the Arduino.  The ideas are truly endless and easy to implement.  One thing that really excites me is the ability to display data on little screens.  For example, here is a picture from the internet where an Arduino programmer has an OLED (Organic LED) panel emulating a basic cell phone display.  OLED displays are super cheap and highly customizable and some models are capable of displaying in different colours.

Here is another example of a development board with an OLED display connected to an Arduino mini exactly like the ones I'm using.  They are very small in size, but can be used to display lots of things at really bright contrast and resolution.

Here's an animated guage from the interwebs being used for something someone was developing:

If animation can be done, animation in colour can't be much more difficult.

I'm pondering a small display like this on my instrument panel, with a custom display graphic.  Perhaps a overhead drawing/graphic of my airplane with animated lights that blink in co-ordination with my navigation/strobe/wig-wag lights!  How cool would that be?  Here is a (very) rudimentary idea about what it might look like.  I can't animate this picture, but I think you get the idea - the red/green nav/beacon/strobe lights would blink or in the case of the landing lights alternate back/forth when in wig-wag mode.  Maybe I can animate the prop too hahahaha!:

Maybe instead of the bar graph LED showing elevator trim like I already have planned, I can integrate the bar graph onto an OLED display, either by itself or with the light display above:

My engine gauges will be traditional mechanical versions - much more robust.  Everything I propose here is for non-critical indications.
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I've got a long way to go before I have to worry about this stuff anyhow, but it is cool to think this is easily and cheaply within reach for a simple hobbyist like me!

Some my regular readers might have noticed I've removed the countdown timer from the right navigation bar of the blog.  I originally intended this to be a motivator for me.  I had set the goal of first flight to be my 50th birthday, but that is never going to happen.  I got behind in my build with changes at work etc., so I'm removing it for now as it doesn't reflect reality.  I'll continue to strive to get the build done.

Next up, priming the elevator pieces and reassembly for riveting!

Thanks for reading :)