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[September 5, 2009]


One thing that has been bothering me is how to secure the stick grips to the sticks. The instructions that came with the grips suggested gluing them with a silicon glue. I really didn't like that because I felt like it limited me if I needed to service the stick, adjust the position of it or cut the stick down. I needed something to make the stick secure, yet removeable.


As pictured above there is a small hole in the stick that I put 1 3/4" above the bottom, which is 1" below the top of the stick. On the inside of the stick I installed on of these nuts. I have no idea what it is called, but it is basically a nut with spikes in it to dig into wood. I found them while rummaging through my roommates remote control parts box, so I imagine you could find them in TowerHobbies.com. What I did was put this on the inside of the stick, after bending it slightly for the curvature. This made the stick touch to install, but I like the friction. Now I used the hole on the outside of the stick to tighten an allen-keyed screw into the nut. It worked really well! I didn't like making a hole in the stick, but there was little I could do to avoid that to gain the benefit of making the stick removable.


Next I put some connectors on the flap position sensor.


Cool...the GRT EIS is reading the data from the position sensor -- 155 in the up position I think.


And a reading of 0 in the down position.


However, the flap position didn't make itself apparent on the EFIS screen. That didn't make any sense since the EIS just passes this data to the EFIS, and there is plenty of other data going from the EIS to the EFIS (such as Manifold pressure, oil temp, etc). So I started digging through the menu system and found I needed to calibrate the EFIS for the flap positions. Once I did that, the indicator on the EFIS worked well.


Next I installed a MATE-N-LOK connector for the flap motor. I tested it with the relay and it worked perfect.


Next I ran a connector from the battery bus to behind the EIS so I can plug a trickle charger in.


Well I havent seen this in a while. Clean empty garage. Man this thing was filthy.


I wanted to test out the GPS receivers. They amazingly get spotty reception in my garage, but I wanted to see them work in the real outdoors. So I rolled the project to the court at the end of my driveway and fired up everything. The small puck GPS had 10 satellites in view by the time the EFIS was ready to go! WOW! The 430W took a little longer, but I only think its because it go through a lot more accuracy checks since it is certified.

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Last Modified: August 13, 2023