2 hours.
Almost done. Yesterday before 4th of July festivities, I was able to finish up the pax stick wiring. I ran to Fry’s and picked up a DB15 connector. Some of you oldschool computer geeks might remember this connector as the “game port.” It’s got enough contacts to handle all 11 stick wires, and it’s small enough that it doesn’t interfere with stick travel. I don’t have any photos of it right now, but it goes something like this:
Stick wires exit detachable stick through 3/8″ snap bushing. These wires go to the DB15 plug, where there are multiple layers of heat shrink tubing protecting and securing them at the connector. I even found heat shrink tubing large enough to go around the back side of the connector. Backshells were out; they took up nearly as much space as the CPC connector. On the stick side, the wires going to the terminal block were done in the same fashion, with the socket connector zip-tied to the base of the stick. When the connector is plugged in, the two holes normally used for the screws in the backshells will have zip-ties holding the connection together. I settled on this as a semi-permanent install. I don’t expect to take the pax stick out except for special occasions like XC trips where I need all that space for Shelley’s in-flight activities or cargo, so for the most part, it stays in.
Some questions though.
Will wiring a panel switch into the ground wire of the pax stick for Enable/Disable of the stick cause a big fat ground loop?
Is having the start relay (not the starter contactor) always live when the master switch is on a good idea?
Am I asking for trouble running the trim, trim sensor power, and flaps off the same power feed? The trim motors hardly draw anything (they use 24ga wire FFS).
I now get to move on to the ugly process of wiring the avionics stack, but after finishing up this job, I’m a lot more confident that I won’t let all the magic smoke out of $10k worth of gear.
Comments (0)