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How do I learn panel building/wiring?

Trying to find resources to learn how to build a panel. Mounting trays, wiring, avionics, the whole bit.

So far I've purchased:
The AeroElectric Connection-Bob Nuckolls
Aircraft Wiring Guide-Marc Ausman
Building a glass panel-Homebuilt Help
Electrical wiring 101-Homebuilt help

I found various books on Amazon but I don't really know if they're applicable for what I want to learn.

http://www.amazon.com/Aircraft-Wiri...id=1446518539&sr=8-1&keywords=aircraft+wiring

http://www.amazon.com/Aircraft-Elec..._UL160_SR125,160_&refRID=1T9H0RAZFPS6B1W6H479

http://www.amazon.com/Avionics-Tech..._UL160_SR124,160_&refRID=1T9H0RAZFPS6B1W6H479

I've watched all the electrical videos on EAA's site and I also plan on taking the EAA Sportair workshop for electrical systems to get at least a little hands-on experience. What are thoughts on the books I found on Amazon and are there any other resources that I missed that might be useful in my quest? Thanks in advance for the help.
 
Just start

I know the feeling. I got a little help from Stein. They wired the audio panel and radio interconnects for me. Bought all the expensive items, and just read the manuals. A friend, and fellow builder told me a wire only has 2 ends. Start at one end and run the wire to the other end. Double and triple check all the lengths and connections, especially before adding power. I spent hours every evening looking over the manuals. It was overwhelming looking at all the wires and wondering where they go. Take it slowly, and things will fall into place. After a while, it all makes sense. There are tons of ways to wire it, and many ideas. Just make every connection clean and run the wires with future servicing in mind, and follow the installation manuals.

BTW, worked a contract at Watertown Hospital a few years back. Love the town. Great group of people we worked with.

 
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Read a lot of others' build threads and see what they've done. That helped me immensely

To simplify things, I bought the Garmin GTR-200 radio with the built-in comm, and had Aircraft Spruce do that part of the harness for me. Other than that, I followed the schematic included with the plans, and use a combination of breaker switches and fuses for circuit protection. For me, the panel and the wiring were the most satisfying parts of the build.
 
Courses seem good

These courses look great. I'm worried they're kind of short for what they say they're going to cover, but I'll take it.

Does anyone know how I can buy bound installation manuals for the G3X touch and GTN 650/750? I downloaded the pdf from Garmin's website, but I don't feel like printing 750 pages and I'm not reading that many pages off a computer screen.
 
I think the first book (wiring) you listed would be helpful, and good reference material.


I think the 2nd 2 books would be of little to no value for your purpose.

All the resources mentioned above are, in my opinion, excellent suggestions.

You also learn by just jumping in and doing. Mistakes are inevitable and are great teachers.

No matter how much you read and watch you will be re doing several items. It's part of the process.

Get started, post photos and ask questions.

"Experience is what you get when you are expecting something else" (at least that's what Crunk told me)
 
Nice, how did you label the wires?

Printed the text on standard white paper, cut out the words and slid them under clear heat shrink tubing. Used way more tubing than I thought I would. Worked very well though.
 
Does anyone know if you can order wires for your build pre-printed from an Avionics Supplier?

Thanks Jim
 
Labeler

Hey Jim,

It's the guy east of ya....i have a label printer that uses shrink tube....works great for my wires.....when I'm finished my wiring, you can borrow it. Just have to buy some white or yellow shrink cartridges for it.

Don
 
The basics can be found many places, youtube etc. I found the back of my
Garmin manuals to be extremely helpful for the exacts.

I pulled and placed every wire in my plane including the full G3X, gtn650, D-6 panel....and I believe it was the most enjoyable part of the build. It was not simplistic, but nothing easy is very rewarding....
 
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It was overwhelming to me and I made some mistakes but I wouldn't trade it for nothing now! The things you learn is priceless!...I wired everything in the plane but if I had it to do over again, I would set up the panel on my workbench and build a removable harness.
 
Hey Jim,

It's the guy east of ya....i have a label printer that uses shrink tube....works great for my wires.....when I'm finished my wiring, you can borrow it. Just have to buy some white or yellow shrink cartridges for it.

Don


could you share some details on this printer and the heat shrink it uses?
 
Hi Don ... long time no chat! I'd love to take you up on your offer. I'll get you a call later in the week.

Cheers Jim
 
Hey Jim,

It's the guy east of ya....i have a label printer that uses shrink tube....works great for my wires.....when I'm finished my wiring, you can borrow it. Just have to buy some white or yellow shrink cartridges for it.

Don

Hey Don

Which size heat shrink tube do you use, especially for the 18-22 ga wire? Does the 1/4" tube shrink enough?

Thanks
 
You can have a local copy shop print (double-sided) the manuals and wire-bind them. The spiral wire binding lays flat and you can flip the pages around to the back. Since the manuals are still rather thick, you might prefer to find a convenient place to split them into two volumes.

You can buy a couple connectors and the wire and you'll have your tools, and make some practice joints. Kind of like riveting practice.

Dave
 
Printed the text on standard white paper, cut out the words and slid them under clear heat shrink tubing.

Another way I found easier and faster is to simply write the label/descriptor on white heat shrink with an extra-fine Sharpie. If you have decent printing, it's plainly legible after you heat and shrink it onto the wire. For me it was w-a-y faster than trying to predict ahead of time all the necessary printed labels, only to find after 15min of wiring work you need three other labels you don't have.

To the original question: I too had never done any complicated or extensive LV wiring before. With the sources the OP mentioned, and the wonderful help available in these Forums, it was a fun and satisfying part of the build. Like others, I'm really glad I built the panel. There are no mysteries "up there" for me; I know where every wire starts and ends. It makes future troubleshooting MUCH easier.
 
I use the brady cable label printer. it prints nice easy to read labels that are wrapped around the cables/wires. I've been using these for years in datacenters and it works very well under the panel.

http://www.bradyid.com/en-us/produc...ries/bmp21-plus-label-printer-and-accessories


Another way I found easier and faster is to simply write the label/descriptor on white heat shrink with an extra-fine Sharpie. If you have decent printing, it's plainly legible after you heat and shrink it onto the wire. For me it was w-a-y faster than trying to predict ahead of time all the necessary printed labels, only to find after 15min of wiring work you need three other labels you don't have.

To the original question: I too had never done any complicated or extensive LV wiring before. With the sources the OP mentioned, and the wonderful help available in these Forums, it was a fun and satisfying part of the build. Like others, I'm really glad I built the panel. There are no mysteries "up there" for me; I know where every wire starts and ends. It makes future troubleshooting MUCH easier.
 
Sportair Workshop

I went to the EAA Sportair 2-day Workshop for electrical. It helped build my confidence. When I took it you built a small electric lighting/dimming circuit and also an intercom harness with d-sub and mike and phone plugs that was tested at the end of the exercise. Dick Koeler was our instructor. Good handbook too.
 
Vans

Get the" OP" electical layout drawings from Vans! Shows electrical
Layout for basic panel. Easy to figure out from there.
 
Don't forget Stein's videos on Youtube. Search under SteinAir. Lots of how-to videos there and discussion of tools, etc. It's one thing to put a good schematic together, it's another to execute it in a reliable and professional way. I personally found this part of the build to be rewarding. I'd rather be wiring any day than sanding fiberglass, as I am now
 
For motivation...

Invite a non aviation minded family member over to view your progress once you have about 10 dozen wires going every which way. Having my younger brother tell me that there was no way in heck that I'd ever get all that stuff to work was magic. There was no way in the world I'd let that go unchallenged. Failure was not an option.

Everyone else's suggestions are very good. I'll add a few:
  1. Post your wiring schematics and panel layout here for peer review.
  2. Memorize that Aero Electric connection book
  3. Buy good tools.
  4. Pull test every single wire connector.
 
Hey Don

Which size heat shrink tube do you use, especially for the 18-22 ga wire? Does the 1/4" tube shrink enough?

Thanks

This is the one I used...

http://www.ksun.com/label-printer/bee3-ez/

Relatively inexpensive, but the cartridges of heatshrink are on the pricey side. Fortunately, even with labeling both ends of every wire, you don't use *that* much heatshrink.

And I agree...this was one of the more enjoyable parts of the build, designing the entire system, drawing the schematics, routing wires, learning to use lacing cord instead of zip-ties, learning to do proper crimps (and buying the proper tool$ :) ).
 
I'll also put in a plug for Stein here...they worked with me on what I was going to put in the panel, sent me questionnaires to fill out, and provided excellent harnesses for the avionics, as I ordered each piece (e.g., bought the 430W first, and they asked what it would be connected to, then made the harness for the 430 w/ loooong wires so I could finish the other ends of the various interconnects). Also provided nice schematics for the interconnects so I didn't have to puzzle through the tons of irrelevant (for my suite of instruments) data in the 430 Installation Manual.
missing connections or anything. I was stunned :)

Awesome dudes...can't say enough good things about them.
 
Does anyone know if you can order wires for your build pre-printed from an Avionics Supplier?

Thanks Jim

That would be awesome...I actually looked into doing this and couldn't find a source that wasn't prohibitively expensive and had huuuuge minimum lengths (for an RV) to run through the printing tool.
 
Wiring

Love the advise, "every wire has two ends".
First time I saw one of these, I thought OMG!
In no time I was working them no problem.
Hopefullt my panel won't look like that!
LicrK.jpg
 
Panel vs harnesses

If you tell Stein what you're putting in the panel and have them build the harnesses, how much work is there actually left? Wouldn't all I'd be doing is cutting holes in the panel, mounting stuff, and connecting each side of the harnesses to their corresponding spots? How much extra cost would it be just to have them build the panel and ship it at that point?
 
If you tell Stein what you're putting in the panel and have them build the harnesses, how much work is there actually left? Wouldn't all I'd be doing is cutting holes in the panel, mounting stuff, and connecting each side of the harnesses to their corresponding spots? How much extra cost would it be just to have them build the panel and ship it at that point?

That is what I did and I am SO glad I did. I don't remember the cost for putting it all together as out of line. I am having enough trouble just getting all the other things wired up!
 
If you tell Stein what you're putting in the panel and have them build the harnesses, how much work is there actually left? Wouldn't all I'd be doing is cutting holes in the panel, mounting stuff, and connecting each side of the harnesses to their corresponding spots? How much extra cost would it be just to have them build the panel and ship it at that point?

Don't forget all the engine monitoring wires, magnetos or electronic ignition stuff, antennae wires, strobes, nav lights, taxi/landing lights, transponder unit, ADAHRS, ADS-B, autopilot servos, pitot heat controller, transducers, relays, trim, switches, breakers/fuses, contactors...the panel instruments and their harnesses were pretty easy to finish up on the bench, then mount in the panel and connect up. But it was surprising to me how much *more* wiring there was to fabricate and run throughout the plane.
 
Printed the text on standard white paper, cut out the words and slid them under clear heat shrink tubing. Used way more tubing than I thought I would. Worked very well though.

+1. Worked well and very durable. Like you said, I should have bought stock in the heat shrink company before I started. :)
 
If you tell Stein what you're putting in the panel and have them build the harnesses, how much work is there actually left? Wouldn't all I'd be doing is cutting holes in the panel, mounting stuff, and connecting each side of the harnesses to their corresponding spots? How much extra cost would it be just to have them build the panel and ship it at that point?

It depends - It took me a year. Based on that, spend some time to know exactly where ALL your boxes will be located, how the wires are routed, and then give that information to Stein crew and it will be easier. Remember you will still have to depopulate the connectors to thread them through the spar and other holes. The wiring diagram is perfect to know how to reassemble them.

Decide where you want the grounds to collect too.

One way is to get some 36" wide paper, make the firewall, floors and fuse sides in real size, then set about with post-its and put in the stuff. Yes it takes time, but a lot easier to move a post-it than a wire in a beautiful bundle.

It makes the job for Stein easier, and a big time saver for you. Others have made a plywood buck with all the things I'm place, so they can wire it from a stool. Not a bad way to go either.

The more methodical you are the faster it will go. And more fun too.
 
Tips I did not see:

When each wire is terminated in its connector, check it off in the schematic/wiring diagram.

Also, if wiring to a different vendor (e.g. Dynon to Garmin), make notes in both manuals on what you did (e.g. pin 3 Garmin goes to pin 22 Dynon connector D37).
 
I created a some big drawing of my radio's connector sections (4x4 feet) then I got together with two different guys from my local EAA chapter that were avionics guys with separate drawings and had them go through the wiring with me and draw each wire where it connects. After this I studied the drawings to find any differences and then went back to each of them to discuss the differences and figure out which was correct. My panel is not glass but King radios and steam gages so it may not work this way for you. I also used a shrink tube labeler to label both ends of any wires that were not visible for their whole run and built up a bench set up to wire it on. This was worth it's weight in gold.
Good luck, it is not simple!
 
You can be fancy, or you can be simple. Simple wins with me every time.

I've found it easiest to draw up the wiring diagrams on a system-by-system basis. As an example, I have one page for dimmer wiring. It includes everything from the circuit breaker to the dimmer pots and dimmer module, right down to the individual lamps, or the connector pin for dimmer input on the radio. This makes for very easy troubleshooting in the future.

Oh, by the way, I draw my original wiring diagram on quad-ruled graph paper using pencil and ruler. Once I'm reasonably satisfied I have the drawing right, I photocopy it with my cheap laser printer at home. I slip the original into an acetate 3-ring binder sleeve and slide the photocopy in on top of it so only the photocopy is visible - this acts as my "working copy".

As I'm wiring and doing the initial troubleshooting, I annotate the photocopy in red ink to show changes/modifications. Once I'm certain I've got things working correctly I transfer the corrections/edits/modifications to the pencil diagram, updating the date on the corner of the page, and again photocopy it. Now the first "working copy" gets the word "superseded" written on it and all three copies of the diagram are returned to the acetate sleeve.

Only after the system is fully operational does the wiring diagram get copied again and also scanned into PDF format. The scanned diagrams get copied onto a USB stick for retention in the aircraft and the photocopy goes into a lightweight binder that stays at the hangar and can go with the aircraft as necessary.

This technique works reasonably well and doesn't require technology any more complex than a photocopier.

Oh, I should mention I'm a big fan of using white heat shrink and black fine Sharpie for wire labeling - it allows for spontaneity that other systems tend to limit.
 
Wiring harnesses from Stein

I also had Stein build all the harnesses, but did not choose to do a complete panel build. They delivered it 4 months ago and I am almost ready to power it up for the first time. My main harness definitely had an orientation to it so I mounted my garmin boxes accordingly. Ended up needing a longer IBBS battery harness as the layout just wouldn't work.

Laundry list of todos:

1) Cut hole in subpanel for GTN650 and add reinforcement angle to support the trays
2) I had to slightly modify the two upper support ribs to fit each GDU. Then had to reinforce what I cut out.
3) Mount the throttle bracket to the panel
4) Mount the transponder in the front bay somewhere.
5) Decide where to mount your GSU25
6) De-pin harnesses in order to route through the fuselage
7) I had the flush mount D6 backup. You will need to modify the subpanel in order to make the wiring and pitot lines work as the unit almost hits the subpanel without anything plugged in. I chose to place this on the left most side of the panel.
8) Mounted other boxes in rear fuselage. GTR20 and GDL39R
9) install the GMU22 mount bracket
10) Installed pitch autopilot. Still need to do the roll.
11) Install the EDC-D10A.
12) Route all the red power wires to the appropriate bus (i am using fuse blocks). In order to tidy this up I ended up cutting the wires to length and crimping on a new faston.
13) I also did some work on the firewall to mount shunts and ANL limiters which I want in place before I add power.
14) Once I saw all the wires to route through the center section I removed the manual trim cable and started down the electric trim path.
15) For a newbie the GTR20 cable was hard to de-pin as there are many-many wires going into the dsub. Also many of the wires are the same color so I tried to mark them so I could reassemble.
16) Mount IBBS battery, GEA25, GAD29 to subpanel
17) Route pitot, AOA, and static to D6 and GSU25


I am probably missing stuff as I am just doing a brain dump, but you get the idea. Plenty of work todo even if the harnesses are already done.
 
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Dymo Rhino

Hey Don

Which size heat shrink tube do you use, especially for the 18-22 ga wire? Does the 1/4" tube shrink enough?

Thanks

Hey Mark,

I have the Dymo Rhino 4200 and am using the cartridges 18052 which is the 1/4 x 5'. It seems to shrink enough not to move on the 22 gauge wires. I have some smaller heat shrink for the smaller wires, put that on first and then *** the yellow printed shrink tube....no issues.

Cheers,


Don
 
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