Fred Klein wrote:
> Did you separate the strobe wiring for your wingtip from that for your
> position lights? Do you then have separate connectors for your strobes
> and position lights at the wing root?
I also received a 5 wire cable, but did not use it. Instead, I used
separate cables for the strobes and LEDs. It was lighter as well, as the
5-wire cable I received was rather heavy.
Think about it this way: The purpose of the shield of the cable is to
shield the outside world from the bad things happening on the inside of
the cable. But if you put the ground wire and power supply for the LED's
within this enclosure, these wires are not shielded for the bad things
happening on the adjacent wires, and they will happily pick up all noise
and bring it into your electrical system.
And yes, my strobe/LED combo's already had separate connectors for the
strobes and LED's.
For the electrical connection between the wings to the fuselage I use a
single 24 pole connector, one half of it bolted to the fuselage, the
other half on a flexible cable emerging near the wing spar. In this
cable, everything runs closely together, but only for a short distance.
And of course, the strobewires are still shielded.
Oh, and I forgot to mention it because I thought it to be obvious, but
now I think about it maybe not: As the shield is to be connected to the
strobe power supply housing only, and nowhere else, you need at least a
4 pole connector between the wing and fuselage. The shield is to be
treated as a seaparate wire onces it leaves the strobe power supply. If
you were to use a 3 pole connector between fuselage and wing, and
reattach the shield to ground at that point, you defeat the whole
purpose of the shield between the strobe power supply and wing
connector. This will create a lot of electrical noise within the
aircraft. Maybe this is why some people experience so much problems with
a in-fuselage-mounted strobe power supply?
Maybe you wonder why I used 24 pole connectors: It soon adds up. 4 wires
for the strobe (including shield). 2 wires for the position lights. Then
some wires for the aileron trim, provisions to install a heated pitot
heat in the future, and a shielded cable for a future camera mount on
the wing. Further a short-cut between two pins, so I can install a
warning lamp that lights up when the wing connectors are not properly
connected.
The connector on the fuselage is also used to connect to ground power
13,7 Volts when the airplane is not rigged. This way I keep the
batteries topped up during storage, and also have a few power resistors
inside that generate a tiny amount of heat, just enough to keep moisture
out of the ship. And it makes it easy to play with the electronics on
board, without having to worry about the batteries.
You might think about all this before closing the wings. It is good to
have some spare wires inside the wings. ;-)
--
Frans Veldman
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