Electrical 2
9/4/04 6 Hours
I finished up the wiring to the ACU from the radio stack, and also to the E1. That's about it now for the stack.
The EFIS end... The ACU outputs go into Analogue 1. There are eight required, CDI L/R, Nav pass/fail, GS Up/Dn and GS pass/fail. For some reason, the E1 doesn't utilise the To/From outputs. I need to read a bit more about this to find out why.
The other thing I did tonight was to tie in all the Grounds for the stack. Then I started testing it. No antennae still. I need the connectors. Anyways, the radio checked out great, and I could send/receive transmissions loud and clear to/from the handheld in the hangar, The AOA voice annunciation worked perfectly, the intercom works great and even more amazing was that there was no smoke! This audio panel has a six place intercom. Perfect for an RV! Maybe I should hook up an exterior set of plugs for ground grew to plug in to!
The one loose ground wire is for the Marker Beacon antenna.
3/6/04 8 Hours
Today was a day of electrical work. I started with a mission to try to see if the EFIS 1 would work with the VOR's properly. Turns out, it wasn't gonna happen since getting a VOR signal was nigh on impossible on the ground at YIP. Our closest VOR is DXO some 7 miles away.
I started the day by cleaning up a bit around the hangar. It was getting a bit messy. Then I went to work making the VOR antenna. It's a Bob Archer wingtip style. Cameron made one for his plane, and while he was at it, he made all the pieces for mine and cleco'd them all together. Thanks Cam! I had received the Apollo antenna connectors from Wentworth aircraft too, so I made up a piece of test cable to try the antenna with my handheld. Works great! Well, it could barely pick up the DXO VOR, but for com it was great, even without being connected to the plane!
I had received the Apollo antenna connectors from Wentworth aircraft too, so I made up a piece of test cable to try the antenna with my handheld. Works great! Well, it could barely pick up the DXO VOR, but for com it was great, even without being connected to the plane!
So once I established that I wouldn't be getting very far with testing the EFIS 1, I decided to carry on with antennae and made the Com1 cable and mouted the underbelly Commant CI-122. I made a doubler for the antenna, and managed to rivet it on myself, reaching through the aileron hole in the side of the fuselage!
Here is the Radio end of the cable. The connectors are pretty easy to fit to the cables. I only did one though. I need to do another three!
Here's the doubler I made. I put nutplates on to make removal of the antenna less of a chore. Of course, this means it will be easy to steal! Hmmm.
Here I am trying to dimple the holes for countersunk rivets. This was a lot easier once I figured out why my rivet puller wasn't working properly. A while ago, it exploded while I was attaching the rudder stops. I didn't find the missing piece for months, then I just stumbled across it. I must've assembled the whole shebang wrong, because when I took it apart and put it all back together again, it worked fine. I think I need to get my hair cut. What a mess!
And the end result from the inside...
And the outside!
So, once this was done, I plugged in the 'phones, switched on the radio and viola! Voices! So, it's working pretty well, even in my metal hangar with the door closed. Funny thing is, if I stand in a certain place, I lose reception completely. It took me a while (over an hour) to figure out what was wrong, and in the process of this, I put a new connector on the antenna cable (waste of a connector and time), wiggled every wire between the headset and the antenna and all for nothing. Just moving around worked. A bit strange. Well, I also got a lot of noise on the YIP tower frequency, but no noise on DTW's tower frequency. When this plane is on it's wheels, I'll push it out of the hangar and try it out again. Something else I haven't done yet is put the cork gasket in between the antenna and the plane, so maybe this has an effect. I didn't want to put it on now because I'm surely going to take the antenna off sometime before I complete this bird and I didn't want to ruin it.
7/10/04 Update
I also finished up some of the wiring for the audio panel (aux input jack), and the buttons for the AOA pro. These all required soldering, which I wasn't to happy about, but not a lot of choice really. I made sure we had plenty of strain relief. Last thing I want to be doing is crawling under here trying to fix these suckers.
10/23/05 9 Hours
Well, it's been a long time since I did any wiring! I still have some odds and ends to tidy up in the fuselage as far as wiring is concerned, and I need to get them done to get the console in place. My list of things includes the trim wiring, starter wiring, the flap sensor for the AOA Pro, and the flap position sensor. It's not really all that much, so I should be able to get it all done fairly quickly.
Having said that, lying on my back, upside down under the panel is no fun at all. Aart, Harm, Pimm and Rene, I do not envy you guys and the position you've got yourselves in with wiring! It's hard to reach in there and do this while theplane is on it's wheels. I'm so glad I got the majority of it done while the plane was still on sawhorses. I spent a lot of time in and out of the plane today running htis one wire. Grossly uncomfortable!
The only wiring I got done today before going home was the starter contactor. It's now fully wired apart from the wire to the starter. Everything tested out great.
10/25/05 3 Hours
Tonight, I stopped by to carry on with wrapping things up in the Electrical department. First up was to wire the Nav antenna cable out to the wing root. This was pretty straight forward. See how much different the colour of the cable is! The lighter stuff seems to have faded, and the darker one hasn't since it's always been in a drawer. I still need to secure all these wires correctly. Currently, they're temporarily tie wrapped into place.
Next task was to figure out the AOA flap switch mounting. Now this was a head scratcher. I really wanted it inthe centre of the plane, because I didn't want wires running to the outside areas in any visible places. My baggage floors are already in, so I can't go drilling new holes across the ribs under the floor. Eventually, I figured out that mounting the switch directly on the flap weldment would work out the best. Here, you can see how I mounted it with some No. 4-40 screws. I put an AN3 bolt in the rib in the tunnel which is adjustable for height to get the switch to actuate exactly where it needed to be. I also bent the end of the switch arm to make sure it always rides up over the bolt head. Seems to work a treat! Simple and effective.
Here's another shot.
I spent a bit more time wrapping up electrical stuff inside the cockpit too today. Mostly the trim indicators. Here, I've put some Molex plugs on the indicators. I made them different (male and female) so that the plugs couldn't be mixed up when connecting them to the main harness. If there's only one way to do it, it will always be right when it goes together right?! The white wires are for the aircraft dimmer circuit. Something I haven't even considered yet. I did by a dimming kit, but haven't fitted it yet.
The elevator trim wasn't fully wired yet either. I'd run the multi wire cable from the rear of the plane to the front ages ago, but never did anything about it after that. I think at some point, I got bored with running wires, and took a long break from it! I wired it all in properly, and connected in the Matronics Governor III. It seems to run a bit slow at the moment, but this can be fixed by a couple of turns of the speed screw under the seat cushions (where the governors are located).
Here, you can see the trim indicators all working. Next task is the flap indicator. There isn't too much left to do in here now. Just the fuel pump, and the fuel flow transducr after the flap indicator. Then, it's a wrap! By that time, hopefully I'll have the new prop cable from Van's, and I'll be able to get the centre console in for good.
