Time: 4 Hours
I’m planning on using AeroLED’s Pulsar NSP & Suntail NAV/Strobe lights as well as their LED AeroSun Vx Landing/Taxi lights. Since I’m working on wiring and I already ran the wire for the Suntail I figured that I could finish up their wiring. Basically I will run wire to the fuselage area where the wings mount, like the autopilot servo wires and terminate them in a Molex connector. From inside the fuselage all three, left wing, right wing and tail need to run to the VP-X power supply. These wires will be a 3 conductor shielded wire. One wire from each side and tail will go to a strobe power, one wire from each will go to a NAV power and one wire from each (sync) will tie together so that when the strobe flashes all three flash at the same time. Now with any srobe you can have radio interference even with LED lights so the wires are shielded. This shield needs to be grounded on both ends unlike radio wires that only need one end grounded. So I came up with an idea to use a two place terminal block. One half will connect all the grounds and a lead to my firewall ground block. The other side will combine the three wires for sync.
To handle the termination of the shield I’m using solder sleeves. These cool little items are a clear heat shrink tube with a internal ring of glue at both ends and a low temp ring of solder in the center. I have some that are pre wired with a 6″ length of 22g and some that are not. The idea is to remove the shield except for a small sector then slip the sleeve over there wires and shield that remains. Then while holding everything in place you heat until the heat shrink wraps the wire, the glue and solder melts. This creates a sealed joint and a soldered connection between the wire and shield. Now you can use the other end of the wire to tie the shield to whatever you need.
I used these at both ends, once to tie to the terminal block and the other just outside of the fuselage to a Molex connector.
I tested the continuity with my ohms meter and all was good. After finishing up the right side and tail I completed the left wing. While on the left wing side I started the wiring of the Dynon pitot heat. The pitot tube is for airspeed and angle of attack measurement and will be heated to prevent I’ve accumulation. I need a 14g wire run from the VP-X and one to the ground block. I terminated those wires just outside the left side of the fuselage with a 12″ pigtail to allow connecting them while inserting the wings to be easier.