/Despite all your comments I am still putting one in my bird.
/I have pushed the test unit I had to the limits and it came through
/every time. . . .
I presume you're speaking to electrical "limits" and I agree, the
polyfuse may be expected to to it's "electronic" thing with reliability.
/The removal of the switches from the front gets it through
/an ISO shock and vibration test quite nicely and if my plane vibrates
/that much then I am getting out!!
So, fresh out of the box, you've invested time and effort on the
system that did not go directly to the production of your airplane.
/Basic electronics puts the fear of God into many homebuilders
/which is why I recommend your book so regularly. Even with
/the book I find there are many who just don't want to spend
/time on the electrics and this type of product meets their
/requirements.
This is the part I don't understand. You speak to "requirements"
established by individuals who by their own admition would push
as much of the electrical wiring efforts as possible on someone
who offers to "save" them somthing; time, money, nothing else to
be learned, etc. How can these folk evaluate the validity of
their own requirements?
/You may be surprised as to how many Europa builders don't do
/any work on the panel themselves. In England building the panel yourself
/seems to be the exception rather than the rule. With the UK definition
/of a homebuilt being a plane you spent 500 hours on rather than the
/FAA/NZCAA 51% rule we live by, the requirement to do work (read
/play) on the panel and other electrics is largely removed.
There are plenty of custom job shops popping up in the US offering
to do panels for amateur built airplanes. I doubt that one Lancair IV
panel in ten is built by the owner. The electrical system should be
the fun part. It's like putting a puzzle together except that there
are road maps and lots of folk to help. The hazards are very few,
unlike drilling a hole in the wrong place in a canopy or wing spar,
electrical systems are infinitely reconfigurable and mistakes rectified.
/Maybe, just maybe, having the core of the electrical system pre wired
/as in the Homebuilders Panel or EXP BUS will give a small group of builders
/enough confidence to grab a crimper in one hand a wire in the other and do
/the rest of the wiring themselves. In that case, these products will have
/given the builder another skill and give them an opportunity to craft
/the panel totally when they build their next plane!
Again, I'll have to ask, what efforts are "saved" by the EXP BUS? You
had to dismount the switches, you still have to drill and lable all
the holes. NOW you have to ADD two wires between each switche and a remotely
located etched circuit board. The EXP Bus may look like "the core"
of an electrical system but only because they've co-located so many
of the parts in one place . . . added parts to the system to do it . . .
and written advertising hype to justify the design. I've got to
stand up in front of other engineers and justify everything I put into
our product. No matter what happens in a Critical Desing Review, it's a
win-win situation. We either take my idea to production and I'm grinning
ear-to-ear or we kept a bad idea from going out to customers. BOTH are good.
/At our Sport Aviation meeting last month another builder brought in an
/EXP BUS to show. It was interesting to see how many established
/builders, even those with good electrical experience, commented that
/they would use such a system in the future.
Please invite them to share thier rational for support with us. Critical
design review will happen only in forums like this and if I've missed some
obscure virtue of this product, I'd really like to know about it. I'm
always looking for practical ways to offer builders the means to save
weight, dollars and/or time without compromising system performance.
After you peel away the advertising hype offered for the EXP BUS I can
find none of these virtues. The only thing MODERN about it's concept is
the "solid state fuse" which can and will do the task of protecting
ship's wiring . . . but where do they come off "better" than $40 worth
of fuses and fuse holders?
/ . . . . . Unlike you and I who have
/been brought up with rosin in our blood, most of these builders see
/aircraft wiring as something that slows down the flight date and
/anything that brings that moment even five minutes closer is worth the
/money.
Okay, explain that to me. Even for your own case, you've already spent more
time evaluating and modifying the EXP Bus than I say should be required to
install and wire it's equivalent collection of parts. Based on your
own experience, how would you recommend that anyone purchase and apply
the EXP Bus to their own project, and compared to what other technique
is anything saved?
BTW . . . my goal here is NOT to disuade you from using the EXP Bus or
any other product on your airplane. But as individuals who offer our
experience and reason to others, we have an obligation to speak in clear
and concise terms that permits others to evaluate our opinions irrespective
of their personal expertise . . . I see lots of stuff offered in magazines
and out of the booths at conventions with little more going for them than
the marketing's ability to convince the un-initiated that the product is
a good deal. You and I need to rise very much above that.
Kindest regards,
Bob . . .
AeroElectric Connection
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(o o)
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