Ron's RV7 Aircraft Factory


Welcome to my personal blog. This site was created as an informal description of my build progress in the construction of a Van's RV7 aircraft. A place where family/friends/builders/curiosity seekers can follow along. It is not intended to be a detailed description of every step in the building process as that would be much too time consuming. There are plenty of sites that do a great job in that arena, that is not my intention with this site. My intention is for this to be a philisophical/motivational/inspirational account of the emotional ups and downs of the life changing journey...and it will change your life. I hope this will give you an idea, through my eyes, of what its like to make this transformation. A note to other builders, I am not an expert so do not put your safety at risk by attempting anything you see on this site until you have done your own research, or send me an email so we can discuss it. Any deviations from the plans are not approved, nor endorsed by Van's Aircraft or myself. Thanks for visiting.



Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Battery Cables and More Wiring HOBBS 1588.5 hrs

I was up at o'dark-thirty Saturday morning working on the Vertical Power harnesses. I did this on the dining room table for more comfort, soft music, fireplace going, nice...the lighting isn't so good though, which is why you see my little LED flood light. The iPad has my Vertical Power pinout...very handy as I work my way through these.
 

If you are going this route on your plane...some advice, be sure to use the correct length wire for each application. There are 20 ft, 10 ft and 5 ft lengths in the harness bundle. So, you will have to do some planning to use them correctly. Also, if you read this soon enough...don't run wires to your nav lights/strobes or any thing that will terminate at the VP box. It will be wasted effort. In fact, I need to either rent a crimper from VP or send my shielded nav/strobe wires in for crimping since they terminate at the box. Part of the learning...


Labeling all wires as I stuff them into the connector.



These are about 95% done...as mentioned, they are missing shielded wires for the strobes.


I started running my heavy duty 4 AWG wires...this one from the starter contactor to the starter.


That was all well and good, until I read in the VP instructions (which are great by the way) to NOT hook up the starter. If I mistakenly do something to engage that starter, my very pretty prop will be running into some interesting stuff. I pulled it off...and taped over the end just to be safe. Part of the large learning curve for a Mechanical Engineer as he ventures into the world of flowing electrons!! duh! Think...


Routing from the master contactor to the battery. The black ADEL clamp in this pic is temporary as I need to order some more of the white high temp SS versions for the FWF. Notice the red shrink tube designating positive (+)...maybe not needed but a nice touch I thought.


I cut this boot back...its designed for a right angle application, not straight on...I didn't like the way it bunched up...looks better this way I think.


Added a conduit on the inside of the firewall for wire routing. The RG400 coax going to the 978 MHz UAT antenna (from Delta Pop) is the first occupant. This will terminate at the GDL39.

 
This pic shows my 978 MHz UAT antenna location...I will put the transponder antenna behind the baggage bulkhead so I have 60" separation between the two.


I realized I never showed a pic of the back of my seats. They are very professional looking, just like the rest of the seat. A hard plastic reinforcement is attached where the seat rests on the fuselage cross support. The center device is for adjusting your lumbar support. And of course, each seat has a map pocket.

4 comments:

  1. I applaud your wiring efforts! I took a bit of a dice into the world of electronics myself over the past few weeks and managed to make a working prototype of an idea I have to make my bird my own. To see it actually work and know that a little bit more wire in the just the right places will make it a reality is a very satisfying feeling. In another life I should have been an electrical engineer!

    Gonna fly the Citabria this week and see if I remember how. Build on wire man!

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    1. That's dive and not dice - geez!

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    2. Awesome Bryan! Must be those new skills you acquired from the SportAir electrical class eh?

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    3. Hehe, in part, yes - the class was invaluable. In fact, I have had to go back and enhance a ton of notes that I took so that I can more clearly understand what I was trying to remember when I review them again in the months and years to come on this project.

      The rest has been obtained from a father who was "in the business" of selling electric drive motors and components to customers like Coors and others, and also from some great electronics intro books from radio shack.

      That, in addition to a ton of searching on the internet, is the basis of all my electrical knowledge. I am eternally gratetful to those who have figured out how to shoot and post great YouTube videos on a variety of things electrical, including EAA HFH videos.

      Hope you have a great turkey day.

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