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Am looking for advice on mounting locations for the remote compass in a Long EZ. The best place for me would be under the rear seat but it's near the transponder antenna. About 12" away, should this be a problem? Also the alternator wires to the battery are within about 18" or so......?
Thanks.
The Dynon remote magnetometer is really sensitive to electro-magnetic interference. Placing it only one foot away from the transponder antenna in a fiberglass airplane will virtually guarantee you all kinds of problems with it. It really needs to be at least 2 or 3 feet away from any wires that carry significant current or RF transmissions. It also needs to be well away from any ferromagnetic metals too. Make sure the connecting cable to it also does not run close next to, and parallel to any RF-carrying coax from a transponder or COM radio, or any strobe wiring. I installed one of these in the rear fuselage of an RV-8 at the top of a bulkhead near the skin as far aft as I could still crawl down the tailcone and and do the install and it works very well there. We also installed one in the rear fuselage of an RV-10, just behind the rear cargo area, at the top of a bulkhead, and it is at least 24 inches away from the battery, strobe power pack, wiring and transponder antenna mounted on the belly underneath the battery... and we still get a noticeable compass swing whenever turning on the transponder, strobes, landing lights (draws high current from the battery & master relay back there) and a HUGE swing when the starter is cranked.
A lot of builders have good luck mounting this box inside a wingtip or inside a wing, but I dunno if that's an option for a Long-EZ or not. Maybe way up front in the tip of the nose?
Thanks Neal. Will start looking for a place that meets those needs as best possible. Have gotten mixed theories on the transponder affects so will research further but your experience seems to verify the effect. Wings are not an option and the nose is full of power etc.
Thanks again!
I installed the magnetometer of my Dynon D180 under the canard just in front of the F22 bulkhead in my VariEze; it works fine. I have a standard worm-drive nosegear, no battery on the nose.
Hoping it helps.