Category: Electrical

It’s a minor detail that you don’t usually see, but I like the finished look of neatly-bundled wire harnesses. While zip ties are convenient, they can damage the wire over time – under vibration, the edge of the zip tie chafes the Tefzel jacket, and eventually can cause intermittent...

In my last post I detailed my first attempt to build up the d-sub connector for the Garmin autopilot; I was using their G3X video series on YouTube for instruction. Surprisingly, the official G3X install manual recommends a process for wiring the connectors that’s quite different, but it’s much...

I finished adding all the needed wires to the main electrical harness. Now, I can begin adding terminals to the wire ends, and for some of the connectors, putting the terminals into the connectors. I have to leave some connectors off until the harness is installed in the fuselage...

One of my first new year’s resolutions is to complete the fuselage wiring so that I can start tacking on the fuselage skins. So, I spent most of New Year’s Day working on wiring and a few other small tasks. First, I finished off the install of the roll...

My special-order fuel selector valve from Andair arrived yesterday. I’m pretty impressed with the build quality, it certainly seems worth the price. I opted for a remote install version due to the solid fuel lines I’m running. The remote version comes with an extension bar and a u-joint. Now...

I received my Garmin GSA 28 servos on Saturday, so I’ll focus on some tasks this week related to the servos: making the pushrods, pinning and building the electrical connectors, and then installation of the servos. In reading about these servos, I learned a few things that I’m really...

On Sunday I continued running wires for the fuselage electronics, in particular the autopilot servos and the magnetometer. I also gave some thought about how to secure the wires and created some small brackets so that I could use cushioned clamps inside the center tunnel. The brackets are made...

I began laying out the wires in the center console for the headsets. I’m using lacing cord, spaced every 12 inches, to tie together the wires into a bundle. I’ll do this for other groups of wires too. This is the first time I’ve used lacing cord, and it...

With all the updates I posted yesterday, I forgot to mention that I also bought a pair of Tosten “Military Style” grips. They arrived in the mail yesterday, and they look and feel amazing! Very high quality finish, and the switches have a satisfying feel to them. I ordered...

In addition to working out plumbing for fuel and brakes, I’ve spent a lot of time the last two weeks investigating the various avionics options available. I have to do this now because I haven’t settled on what my avionics suite will be. While most avionics are wired similarly,...