fiberglass or carbon ? Need your help....

[Dirk Darling]

I need your help identifying what material my mushroom panel is made of. It's from a DG-202. Given the age, I'm assuming it is painted fiberglass. But the black pigment runs deep - as if it is really carbon. I'm asking because I'm considering putting the GPS antenna puck under the panel. But if it is carbon, I need to mount it externally. I'm not sure if this is the stock mushroom panel.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darling_family/albums/72157660836834946

-ZP

[Craig Funston]

On Friday, November 6, 2015 at 10:13:45 AM UTC-8, Dirk Darling wrote:
> I need your help identifying what material my mushroom panel is made of. It's from a DG-202. Given the age, I'm assuming it is painted fiberglass. But the black pigment runs deep - as if it is really carbon. I'm asking because I'm considering putting the GPS antenna puck under the panel. But if it is carbon, I need to mount it externally. I'm not sure if this is the stock mushroom panel.
>
> https://www.flickr.com/photos/darling_family/albums/72157660836834946
>
> -ZP

The drilled holes for the speaker look like fiberglass as does the rest of the construction. You could put a multi-meter across the exposed fibers and check for continuity. Carbon is conductive and glass isn't.

[[email protected]]

On Friday, November 6, 2015 at 10:13:45 AM UTC-8, Dirk Darling wrote:
> I need your help identifying what material my mushroom panel is made of. It's from a DG-202. Given the age, I'm assuming it is painted fiberglass. But the black pigment runs deep - as if it is really carbon. I'm asking because I'm considering putting the GPS antenna puck under the panel. But if it is carbon, I need to mount it externally. I'm not sure if this is the stock mushroom panel.

The pod and panel are fiberglass with thick paint, and I have mounted antennas underneath with no obvious issues. But, I preferred to mount puck style antennas either on top of the pod, or on a bracket at the top front, well clear of the compass (if mounted on top), and run the cable through a hole in the front of the pod. Just because it is fiberglass and paint doesn't mean it would attenuate the signal to some (small) extent...

Marc (past owner of DG-101, 303, 600)

[[email protected]]

On Friday, November 6, 2015 at 10:54:08 AM UTC-8, wrote:
> On Friday, November 6, 2015 at 10:13:45 AM UTC-8, Dirk Darling wrote:
> > I need your help identifying what material my mushroom panel is made of.. It's from a DG-202. Given the age, I'm assuming it is painted fiberglass. But the black pigment runs deep - as if it is really carbon. I'm asking because I'm considering putting the GPS antenna puck under the panel. But if it is carbon, I need to mount it externally. I'm not sure if this is the stock mushroom panel.
>
> The pod and panel are fiberglass with thick paint, and I have mounted antennas underneath with no obvious issues. But, I preferred to mount puck style antennas either on top of the pod, or on a bracket at the top front, well clear of the compass (if mounted on top), and run the cable through a hole in the front of the pod. Just because it is fiberglass and paint doesn't mean it would attenuate the signal to some (small) extent...

"Would" should be "wouldn't"...

[ND]

On Friday, November 6, 2015 at 1:13:45 PM UTC-5, Dirk Darling wrote:
> I need your help identifying what material my mushroom panel is made of. It's from a DG-202. Given the age, I'm assuming it is painted fiberglass. But the black pigment runs deep - as if it is really carbon. I'm asking because I'm considering putting the GPS antenna puck under the panel. But if it is carbon, I need to mount it externally. I'm not sure if this is the stock mushroom panel.
>
> https://www.flickr.com/photos/darling_family/albums/72157660836834946
>
> -ZP

its definitely fiber glass. two reasons:

Carbon is more expensive and in a part like this which is non-structural, there is no benefit for incurring the extra cost for the unnecessary stiffness. also, if you zoom in on the pictures, you can see a little green (fiberglass/resin system) where the paint has worn, also the inside of all the drilled holes look white/green (fiberglass/resin system.)

[Dirk Darling]

Thanks guys! That is what I thought. I'll consider still mounting the antenna on the outside, but i wanted a cleaner look if attenuation isn't a problem - based on other posts on this site, it shouldn't.

-ZP