2 hours.
I don’t know whose brilliant idea it was to use terminated 4-conductor phone cable for the ELT’s GPS data, but they should be kicked in the groin until they pass out. First, the ends don’t fit through the pass-through holes in the bulkheads so the cable can get from behind the baggage compartment all the way up to the panel. Second, the cable provided is too short, by about 5 feet. Third, the end connectors are single-use, and taking them apart (to run the cable through bulkheads) pretty much destroys them so you can’t use them again.
After utter failure on that front, I went back to wiring the avionics stack. It’s progressing nicely. Still, Shelley commented that it looks like C-3PO had diarrhea all over the shop, indicated by this shot:
The GMA340 audio panel is a wonderful thing. Not only do I have inputs for music, 4 radios, various navigation equipment, and an antenna. I also have an altitude warning audio input. I need to do some research, but that seems like the logical place to run EFIS audio. So far I’ve got almost everything half-connected. The next step is to connect the devices together and make nice wire bundles per AC-43.13 or whatever it is. I’ll be using zip-ties, because as cool as lacing is, I want to get this done fairly quickly.
I’m about to bugger off to Vancouver for a few days for the Gathering of Geeks known as SIGGRAPH, so I’ll probably be out of the game until next Friday, but if I can get some stuff done this weekend, I will.