RocketBoy Aircraft Products

Parts and accessories for your Rocket or Homebuilt aircraft.

   Cool Products

   Free Software

  F1 Canopy Covers
  
 Cosmic Rocket Stuff

    Flight Test

   Heater control  Module

    Homemade EFIS

   HID Landing Light

  Equipment cooling

   Pitch Control Module

   External Power unit

  Painting it!

  Electrical

  Alternator

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Copyright © 2002, 2003 by
R. Gross
Rocketboy Aircraft Products Inc.

Heater Contol

This airplane has a regular heater. The heater valve comes from Vans. I powder coated it and installed it on the firewall. Rather that have an ugly cable (left over from a lawnmower) to operate the valve I tried something different. I used a servo from a model airplane to move the valve. The servo is controlled by a potentiometer via a PIC 16F84 microprocesor. Thre whole thing weighs 3 ounces. Maximum power consumption is 300 mA at 12 V.  Time to program/build this module... 4 hours.
This gives me the flexibility of installing the control knob anywhere in the airplane I want. It also removes an ugly cable and keeps the clutter under control. My experience with R/C servos is super. I have slammed these little servos into the ground at over 100 knots and never had one fail. They seem to last for ever, and the vibration caused by a big Lycoming is childs play compared to what a .40 cu. inch engine will do at 15,000 RPM.

Here are the two knobs that control the Cabin Heat and instrument light dimmer. The knob on the left is for the heat. The ECCS module gets a signal from the pot on the right to adjust the instrument light brightness. 

The heater control module in installed on the firewall above the right rudder pedal. A very small pushrod passes thru the firewall to the heater valve itself. This module consists of the actuator servo and embedded microprocessor/voltage regulator etc..

The heater valve is mounted opposite from the HCM. It came from Vans and has the stainless steel option. Note the little pushrod coming thru the firewall

"You can't use runway behind you, altitude above you, or speed you never had"
- Rocketboy