April 15, 1999

Full Featured

Annunciator Panel

with an

Open Architecture

For Experimental Aircraft

April 15, 1999

Proprietary Software Systems, Inc. (PSS)

(952) 474-4154

Email

ann-mml.doc

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YOU MUST!

The annunciator parts enclosed are not intended as a replacement for any system. It is an additional system designed to further enhance safety. You assume all liability for the appropriate application, construction, and interface to other user supplied equipment. The instructions which follow are of an advisory nature, may not apply to the particular installation, and may contain errors. You must read the manual in its entirety. Each installation is different and the fabricator, installer and owner is solely responsible to insure that the usage is appropriate and safe.

You must include in your receiving aircraft checklist an Annunciator Push to Test Check that is faithfully executed prior to each flight,

ANNUNCIATOR PANEL...... CHECKED

and you must add to your Aircraft Operating Handbook pilot operating instructions for verifying that the annunciator system is working properly (see Appendix F).

Inspection and verification that the annunciators, control board, and user supplied ground fault switches works as intended must be performed at each annual condition inspection and the results recorded on a annual condition inspection checklist.

It would be inappropriate to enunciate faults like gear positions and stall warnings on the enclosed annunciator light panel. These safety critical warnings warrant their own double bulb and in flight replaceable bulb enunciation's which the light panel enclosed does not provide.

Upon installation, the installer/pilot is solely responsible to insure the annunciations work as intended. Complying with advisory circular Acceptable Methods, Techniques and Practices (AC 43.13) is required and its instructions takes precedence over this manual. A simple user supplied ground fault switch failure, or wiring failure would cause a portion or all of the annunciator system to fail. Thorough after installation testing is mandatory in accordance with AC 43.13.

This system, like other electrical systems, requires a minimum voltage and fuse protection to function properly. The electrical specifications are listed in Appendix E.

Free Technical Consultation:

If you need help or advise, please call (952) 474-4154 or e-mail . It is advisable to have the manual and schematics on hand for reference.

Warranty Registration Card

To receive notification of Service Bulletins, service difficulty reports, system upgrades and to activate your warranty, please fill out the following and mail to:

Proprietary Software Systems, Inc.

950 Iris Circle

Excelsior MN 55331

USA

Registered owner's Name:______

Address:______

______

City:______

State:______

Postal Code ZIP:______

Country:______

Home telephone:______

Business Telephone:______

E-mail:______

Aircraft:______

Installer:______

TABLE of CONTENTS

I.Overview

II.Cautions

IV.Planning the Panel Layout

V.Planning the Annunciator Layout

VI.Installing Control Board and Tray

VII.Completing the Light Panels

VIII.Mounting the light Board to instrument Panel

IX.Preparing the cable

X.Power for the light boards and a plain Jane test

XI.Full Feature Annunciator Wiring

XII.Testing the Full Featured Annunciator Panel

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Appendix D

Appendix E

Appendix F

Appendix G

Appendix H

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1

April 15, 1999

I.Overview

You wanted a full featured annunciator that has an open architecture, and lots of options. As a result this manual is a bit long and at first glance may appear complicated. Don't worry, it is all quite basic! Prior to beginning the process of installing the sub assemblies, an understanding of annunciators and the built in full featured functions is required. A good review is contained in Apendix A.

Free consultation is available but please, save our time and yours, read the following material first. Your comments and suggestions will be greatly appreciated. If you note any errors, please advise and we will promptly make the correction and send out a revision.

The instructions enclosed refer to the standard 2 rows by five column light annunciator configuration but any configuration up to a 20 light system is possible.

Now is a good time to inventory the shipment. Refer to Appendix G for the list of materials shipped.

Your Annunciator Control Board (upside-down on right) was plugged into a test fixture just prior to shipment, and all 20 channels thoroughly tested.

The control board was thoroughly electrically checked for proper operation of the audio and timer circuits, master warning fault circuits set and reset, and PCB shorts and open circuits using a test box. The light boards were visually inspected. For all the other components we relied on the reputation of the vendor. If you encounter any quality control problems, please return the part to us for repair or replacement. "At your own risk" means that we have not specifically tested the particular configuration but theoretically it should work. Use caution and proceed with some understanding of the task at hand when venturing into the "At your own risk" areas. This product interfaces with a variety of other products. Fully understand the nature and limitations of these interfaces and how a failure of one product will affect the annunciator system.

The full featured annunciator system you are about to install has three major components.

The following is a brief discussion of design limitations for each.

Annunciator Light Panel

The Annunciator Light Panel is designed to run from a 14 Volt or 28 Volt DC drawing about 0.4 amps maximum for each 10 light board. The lights will be either red or amber with a dead font display (the annunciators will be readable only when back lit). Protecting the light boards and wiring with a user supplied 2 amp C/B is required. The resistors are built into the annunciators and are sized to limit the current through the light emitting diodes to about 30ma at maximum voltage. The method of wiring each annunciator will be either in parallel or series depending upon whether your system is a 14 or 28VDC system.

It is not necessary nor desirable to put the light board on a dimmer bus. If a dimmer is desired, use a two step bus or limit the dimmest setting so that the light board is never set below half brightness or 20ma per annunciator. Annunciator dimming is not compatible with instrument dimming. During bright daylight hours, the instruments can be turned off or fully dimmed while the annunciator should be set to full bright.

Annunciator Control Board

The control board is powered with 11 to 28 VDC and must be protected by a 2 amp user supplied C/B. The control board has 20 fault circuits, 12 cautionary and 8 warning. Only the warning circuits will activate the Master Warning and the audible headset tone. It has two built in power conditioners/voltage regulators. One power conditioner is set to 8VDC and runs the logic chips, timers and audio amplifier all located on the control board. The other power conditioner runs the Master Warning Light push to reset button and is set to 12VDC and is limited to 0.8 amp loads which is much more than required to power the incandescent master warning bulb. The replaceable incandescent Master Warning bulb supplied in the kit is a 12VDC bulb. The Master Warning voltage regulator can actually be reset to any voltage by changing the value of R34. See Appendix C for instructions to change the master warning output voltage.

Ground Fault Switches (user supplied)

Up to 20 switches (or more when wired in parallel) when closed to ground turn on the annunciator lights and activates up to 8 warning circuits. These switches are standard equipment on most GPS units, most engine monitoring systems, some oil filtering systems, some cabin controllers and etc. You are responsible for providing these switches. Switches to detect open doors, high temperatures, low fluid pressures, and powered electrical equipment are readably available through a variety of sources (see appendix B). Multiple switches can be wired in parallel and connected to one ground fault annunciator circuit if desired. These switches are not analog switches. They are the simplest and least expensive of switches, simply on or off.

II.Cautions

  • The light emitting colored diodes that are pre-installed in the diffuser assemblies are polarity sensitive. Although these diodes are very hardy, reversing the voltage or hooking the diode directly to a battery can damage these units under some conditions. The polarity marking is embossed on the white housing. Please observe polarity when testing these little aluminum indium gallium phosphide (AlInGaP) lamps. Incidentally, these lamps put out 400 milli lumens outperforming many incandescent bulbs. If you compare these to other LED's, don't be fooled by the milli candela rating which is a function of cap focusing optics and brightness. By narrowing the beam, the milli candelas increase without an increase in lumens. We chose the Hewlett Packard HLMA-KH00 and HLMA-KL00 lamps for maximum brightness with a viewing angle of 45 degrees to avoid hot spots on the filter diffuser.. A failure to observe the proper wiring will ruin the LED's in the annunciators.
  • The numbering scheme on the D-Sub's is embossed next to each pin and is very hard to see.
  • Don't look directly into the LED bulbs at a distance of less than a four inches for more than 100 seconds. Once these bulbs are installed in the diffuser box behind the filter, you can look at the lit annunciator all you want.
  • If you opted to use someone else's light board, do so at your own risk. If the light board uses incandescent bulbs, diodes must be added in series with each bulb to insure the master warning circuits reset after a fault. In addition, many solid state ground fault switches supplied with GPS and engine monitoring suppliers are limited to 70ma which when switching incandescent bulbs could be over heated and ruined.

The switches that you supply must switch to ground (ground fault switches) and not a power supply (power fault switches). To change a power fault to a ground fault, see the appendix A.
III.What to Do First

Designing your custom open architecture annunciator panel is fun. But a simple fun project can turn into a big project if the instructions are not read in their entirety. Read these instructions first! It is recommended that the steps be completed in order. A small box has been inserted in front of each ordered instruction for you to check as you complete each instruction. This is an open architecture project and as a result there are many options available. We'll touch on some of the options but not all. If you want to do something different than detailed in the following instructions, it probably can be done. The system was designed to be simple but also customizable.

The annunciator system consists of several subassemblies, the annunciator lights, the control PCB, the fault switches, the master warning and the push to test switch. We have supplied you with nearly everything except the ground fault switches because you already have most of them supplied with other hardware.

For example, if you have a GPS, it already comes with several airspace warning ground fault circuits and possibly a navigation warning ground fault. If you have the popular engine monitoring system, you may already have ground fault switches like oil pressure low, and cylinder temperature high. Some oil filtering systems like the Olberg comes with ground fault circuit when the oil is bypassing the filter “oil filter bypass.” The Electro International also comes with six or more open collector or ground fault switches. Oil chip and water detectors also use ground fault circuitry. Refer to the installation manuals for these other devices to determine which pin on their system provides the ground fault.

Of course some of the faults you desire may not be on any of the electronics you have planned to use. In this case you will have to install your own ground fault switch. Simple low current AC or DC switches rated at about 1 amp or less or single pole microswitches, proximity switches, pressure switches and etc. are readily available. A canopy open switch can be as simple as mounting a microswitch or proximity switch to your canopy latching mechanism.

This and most other warning devices work on a so called ground fault circuit or open collector circuit. Simply explained, one side of the warning light is hooked directly to a +VDC power supply. The other side of the light is hooked to a normally open switch. When the switch is closed by a fault like CABIN DOOR OPEN, the circuit is completed to ground through the switch and the light illuminates. Obviously, one side of the switch is always connected to ground. This makes it possible to put all the lights on a dimmer bus if desired. In this case a standard low cost microswitch (like the ones on your gear position indicator mechanically closing when the door is closed) could be used. The COM spade would be hooked to ground, the NC spade would be hooked to the light and the NO spade would have no connection.

More complicated switches or relays can be used to convert positive voltages applied to the hydraulic pump or starter motor into a ground fault signal (see Appendix A).

The more expensive analog devices used to measure a range of pressures or temperatures will not work as ground fault switches. The ground fault switches required for this application are simply switches that have two states, either on or off.

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IV.Planning the Panel Layout

Where should it all fit? There are several devices in addition to the light boards that must find some realestate on your panel. They are the Master Warning Push to Reset switch and the push to test button.

A.The light boards normally will be mounted in the instrument panel. About a 0.800 by 6.040 inch cutout will be required for the typical two by five 10 segment light board. The area behind the panel needs to be slightly wider since the light board tray mounting tabs are about 6½" wide. The tabs could be removed if necessary. If the light boards are stacked one above the other, it will take 1.6" vertically. Light boards can also be mounted side by side. Tight side to side mountings for a 2 row by 10 light system may require removal (at your own risk) of the inboard standoffs. Since there is some slight variation between light boards, it is recommended that you measure the light board tray and bezel after assembly to get the exact cutout dimension. Custom sized trays are available.

B.The Master Warning is a back lit engraved red momentary push to reset switch included with the accessories kit. It is the attention grabber and should be located near the attitude indicator directly in front of the pilot. We selected a small unit and you should be able to easily find some space without getting the crowded and unplanned look. The bulb provided must be installed and is a 12VDC bulb and is powered from the annunciator control board voltage regulator set for 12V.

Locate the Master Warning light and switch
within your instrument scan.

C. Install the T 1¾ bi-pin lamp into the switch. Your control board supplies 12VDC to this lamp regardless of your A/C voltage thus the lamp is rated at 12 VDC . This could be changed if you wish (see the Appendix C). The pins of the bulb must align with the holes. A firm push is required to seat the bulb properly. The top of the white bulb cylinder should not stick above the black cylindrical housing.

D.Install the red switch cap paying attention that the short retractor tabs on the cap align with the slots in the switch housing. Of the four possible ways to install the cap assembly, only two will work.

E.The panel cutout is easily accomplished by using a Greenlee #731 punch. As an alternative, use a Unibit drilling a 1/2 to 5/8" hole at the panel location. A file is then used to enlarge the hole into a .625 square as shown.

F.Adjust the panel locking tabs for different thickness panels from .047 to .266" using the table guide below. Test fit the switch into the instrument panel keeping in mind that once fully seated, the switch will be difficult to remove. Did you orient the switch so the engraving reads right side up?

G.The push to test button when pushed grounds the 9 pin D-Sub J1 pin 5 on the control board activating the test features. If you already have another momentary switch that goes to ground, you could use it for the annunciator test function as well. But if not, do below.

Position
Number / Panel
Thickness
Min. Max.
1 / .047 .078
2 / 0.94 .125
3 / .141 .172
4 / .188 .219
5 / .234 .266

H.If you don't already have a push to test button, locate a spot for the push to test annunciator button supplied in the accessories kit. I would suggest that it be located somewhere near the annunciator light panel or near the master warning light switch. Drill a hole in the instrument panel to size and temporarily install this switch for a fit check.

V.Planning the Annunciator Layout

The most difficult part of this whole process is to decide what annunciations you want, whether they should be warning (red) or caution (amber) annuciators, and where to locate the annunciations on your light panel. The following discussion and tables are designed to help you make these decisions. With a little planning, you can locate the master warning and caution annunciators wherever you like on the light panel. Just keep in mind that you are limited to 8 master warnings.