Wiring Harness Modification

1/18/05

Over the last couple of days I've been working on the wiring mod Orv suggested.

We're still not sold on the total idea but since the ship was already torn down this was the best time install the new wire that runs to the alternator.

We're still pondering the total idea so we haven't rewired the panel itself.

If we decide to go all the way with this mod, when it's finished, we'll have 2 power lines, one from the battery and one from the alternator, feeding 3 systems, FADEC 1, Ignition 1, and Fuel Pump 1 opposed to using the factories method of using 3 wires, 2 from the battery and one from the alternator to power all 6 systems.  That will give us 2 seperate feeds to the ships main systems.

It sure looks like a better way of doing it but with Rotorway saying it isn't necessary we are reluctant to do it. I still think bringing the alternator lines into the panel is stupid but it is a back up power supply in the event the primary feeds give it up.  With it wired this way it brings alot of interference along with it that can jump into every thing in the ship.  If the alternator was wired only to the ships battery it would use the battery as a condensor and giving the rest of the ship clean noise free power. Bringing two of these lines up there can't do anything more than make it worse.  If we had the standard headset jacks up there I'm pretty sure we would be picking up all kinds of noise.

At first glance we have found another item that doesn't look to good.

Looking at the way the upper panel is wired if the avionics fuse is blown for some reason we would also loose our alternator since it draws it's power from the same fuse the avionics circuit does, that sure doesn't sound like a good thing does it?

On our ship there isn't much of a chance of that happening because all that switch does is energize a relay that in turn powers our avionics stack.

Anyhow, if and when we decide what were are going to do we'll add it here.

1/18/05

While we were at it we installed post light on the upper instrument panel which was something we never thought of at the time we built the ship.  When dusk sets in we can't see what switches were flipping so this was a much needed item.  Lord willing it won't reflect back at us from the windshield.

Did you know there isn't a ground wire up there?

We got lucky and found one and ended up tapping into the switch for our Pro-Drive electric clutch for a ground so it would be a good idea while your wiring your ship during the building stage to be sure to run a couple of ground wires up there just in case for future add ons.

END