Electrical Log 
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 February 3, 2021

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Electrical
June 12, 2003 - 0.2 hours
The canopy frame was about to drive me nuts so I decided to start building my battery box. I got the parts out and marked the center of the lightening holes.

July 14, 2003 - 1.9 hours
I finally remembered to borrow the 2" Greenlee punch from work so I worked a little more on the battery box. The 2" punch is for the lightening holes. The circle cutter was just not gonna work on the steel, but the punch worked really well.

This 2" Greenlee Punch makes a great hole in the steel battery box.

July 15, 2003 - 1.75 hours
Finished the battery box and started installing the nutplates and doubler plates on the firewall for mounting the battery and starter contactors.

Finished battery box mounted to the firewall.

July 19, 2003 - 1.2 hours
Finished mounting the contactors and made the copper bar that connects the two together.

The battery contactor and the Starter contactor mounted to the firewall. I couldn't find any 0.032 copper so I used two 0.025 and put some heatshrink tubing on it to protect it a little.

August 30, 2003 - 1.5 hours
Installed the flap position switch for the PSS Angle of Attack indicator.

The PSS angle of attack instrument needs to know the flap position. My dad made me a little nylon cam for the flap switch.

August 31, 2003 - 5 hours
Removed the roll bar and the roll bar brace and repainted them. They had gotten beat up a little bit during the construction phase. I also ran the wires from the strobe power supply. This was one of the items on my to do when there's nothing else to do list and since I was waiting for help on the canopy I decided to do the strobe wires.

This is the strobe power supply with all the wiring done.

September 10, 2003 - 0.3 hours
I got a few toys from the mailman today and one of them was my Odessey battery, so I installed it. I also piddled with the alternator a little bit.

I used Van's optional Odyssey battery mount and it worked really well.

Here is another picture of the Odyssey battery.

September 13, 2003 - 1.5 hours
Mounted the starter and worked on some of the big wires.

September 14, 2003 - 1 hours
Mounted the ground block and started trying to find a place to put the fuse blocks. I started building some stand offs for the fuse blocks because I'm going to mount them on the firewall but I don't want all those nutplates on the engine side of the firewall. I'll rivet the standoffs onto the firewall (flush side forward) and mount the fuseblocks to the stand offs.

September 20, 2003 - 2.5 hours
I finished fabricating the stand offs for the fuse blocks. I also mounted the ANL current limiter base and figured out where I am going to put the alternator contactor, and made the doubler plate to mount it.

September 21, 2003 - 5 hours
Mounted the fuse blocks and the alternator contactor. I had to remove the battery box to rivet the stand offs for the fuse blocks. I started making the big cables.

Since I am using an internally regulated alternator I am putting a contactor on the big wire so it can be shut down.

The block on the left is the main buss, the one on the right is the endurance buss.

The small block is the battery buss.

I am soldering the big terminals on. This is what one looks like when done.

September 27, 2003 - 5 hours
Worked on big wires. Finished the Alternator wire. Mounted and connected the diode between the Main Buss and the Essential Buss. Made the ground wire for the battery to firewall connection. I also mounted the SD-8 backup alternator to the vacuum pump pad on the engine.

This is the vacuum pump adapter where I am going to put the SD-8 alternator. I had it off to check the seal.

This is a fusible link.

September 28, 2003 - 4.5 hours
Made the 4AWG cable for the main buss connection and passed it through the firewall with a rubber grommet and a stainless cover. Passed the battery buss feed through the firewall. I also mounted all the components for the SD-8 backup alternator.

This is the relay, voltage regulator and the capacitor that is part of the SD-8 alternator installation.

Here the SD-8 alternator is installed

The 4AWG wire that connects the main buss to the battery contactor.

The small square is a bridge rectifier. It is being used as a diode to connect the the endurance buss to the main buss.

October 19, 2003 - 4 hours
Worked on the wiring a little more. I got most of the SD-8 alternator wiring done. Put in the small wire that goes to the alternator and spent some time securing wire with Adel clamps.

November 3, 2003 - 1.5 hours
Finished the starter cable, and played around a little with how I am going to run the wires through the little tunnel in the center of the floor.

Here is how I routed the starter wire.

November 28, 2003 - 0.75 hours
I drilled a hole at the bottom of the pilot's control stick for a grommet to pass the wires through from the stick grip.

This is how I passed the wire from the Infnity stick grip through the bottom of the stick.

April 15, 2004 - 1.5 hours
Worked on mounting the Hall Effect current sensors and re mounted the capacitor for the SD-8 alternator. Replaced my 10 slot main buss fuse block with a 20 slot version. 10 was going to work but it was going to leave me with no spares, so I now have a 20 slot fuse block for both the e-buss and the main buss.

September 18, 2004 - 1.5 hours
Hooked up the starter circuit and Main alternator circuit.

October 31, 2004 - 2 hours
Wired up the Aux alternator and the fuel pump.

November 22, 2004 - 1 hours
Worked on wiring the trim

November 29, 2004 - 1.5 hours
There are more wires in these two little trim systems than I thought. I spent the evening running wires from the aileron servo to the controller and from indicators to the controller.

I had intended to make a fancy solid state trim controller for the plane. I will still do that at some point but I want to get flying so here is the cheesy relay replacement circuit.

December 2, 2004 - 1 hours
More trim wiring.

December 5, 2004 - 3.5 hours
Finished up the trim wiring and finished soldering the connector on my little home grown annunciator.

January 8, 2005 - 2.5 hours
Worked on a little wiring. I connected a few more points to my annunciator panel.

January 11, 2005 - 0.5 hours
Hooked up the wires to the GPS connector. Since I can't install the GPS until the forward top skin is on I put the wires in a Mate-n-lok connector.

January 12, 2005 - 0.6 hours
Soldered together my little voltage regulator and tested to make sure it would work. This voltage regulator is for the lamp in the autopilot and the comm radio.

This is basically a small LM317 voltage regulator with a couple of small resistors to set the voltage all soldered and shrink wrapped.

February 12, 2005 - 3 hours
Installed and wired the Low Voltage Monitors. I made these circuits from a schematic that Bob Knuckles sent me. I also wired the small inverter that will eventually power the E.L. light that I plan to put under the glaresheild.

Here is the little low voltage detection circuit that I made. I had the circuit board etched at one of these online PCB milling places.

I used a couple of stand-offs from radio shack to mount it on the rib close to the buss.

June 26, 2005 - 4.5 hours
Installed the ELT behind the baggage compartment on the lower rib that the elevator bellcrank is mounted on. I put the antenna under the emp fairing.

The ELT is behind the baggage compartment, right behind the mount that might have an autopilot pitch servo on it someday.

Here's a close up of the ELT.

The ELT antenna is under the emp fairing at the back of the plane.

June 27, 2005 - 1.1 hours
It took entirely too long for me to run that wire for the ELT but I finally got the little remote installed on the right side of the panel.

I made a little sub-panel for the ELT remote. I just really didn't want to cut a hole in my panel for it.

Disclaimer:
This web site and the infomation contained within it are for entertainment purposes only. The opinions expressed on construction techniques are my opinions only and should not be confused with proper construction techniques. There is undoubtedly more than one way to build an airplane and some methods that I use may or may not work in any given circumstance. If there is any question please call the kit manufacturer. I love to help but I am not responsible for the misuse of any information contained on this web site.

 February 3, 2021
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