Wing harness and manufacturer recommendations

[Rteem]

This is great feedback and discourse. Thanks everyone.

Bob makes an undisputable and compelling argument:

Originally Posted by n982sx

For my last point, I have now flown my airplane with Van's standard wiring and have had no issues with any of the wiring.

However, I can't just go against all manufacturer recommendations I can find and sleep at night, so Carl most closely aligns with my personal plans. Based on posts, quite a few people are getting warnings or outright failures of the GMU when mounted in the wing with stock wiring harnesses. I would rather be proactive.

Running the ground wire through the wing as pointed out by Bob was an afterthough by Stein / Vans, and I'm still really confused why they would run shielded for the nav/strobe to the tail but NOT when going past their recommended location for the magnetometer. It's such a trivial change.

Additionally, it appears that a heated pitot (which I am installing) has the potential to cause conflict when placed in the left wing.

As a result, for anyone curious, I plan to use the stock Vans harness in the tailcone on the left side only. I'll place the OAT in the left wing, with all high-power active equipment (pitot, ap servo, trim) in the right wing away from the magnetometer. Wing lighting will be shielded (at least on the L side), and unfortunately fuselage wiring will have to be custom because I've now departed too far from the Vans plans.

[TimO]

I can agree with Carl too that I think many people who build the plane can also wire it just fine. Not 100% of them, but a large portion. People just chicken out. There's a lot to be learned and gained from obtaining that skill that will help with future upgrades. And if you do use the factory harness, fine, but you will still need to get a nearly full understanding of what everything does, because you're going to find things that require modification along the way for your needs. Considering that you really need to understand what all of these signals are that run up and down the wires, it's not THAT much additional work to just lay it all out and pull the wires. I guess I'd say that if you're going to go with a stock panel where everything is done 100% per plans, you should probably get the stock harness, and then be prepared to make some minor mods along the way. If you're going to deviate on the panel a lot, you may as well scrap the factory harness idea and just build your own. You'll spend more time analyzing the harness and determining what you should do to modify it than if you simply chose your wires and laid them out. And if you build it yourself you can buy the wire fairly inexpensively and have plenty on hand for changes along the way.
It was my most fun part of the build. Plus I got to run the ground wires wherever I wanted them and don't have any noise in anything to speak of, so there was that bonus.

[salto]

I note that it seems to be a given that a magnetometer be fitted when a Garmin system is being installed but seems like an optional extra with the Dynon system.
I can't get a definitive answer reading through the Dynon system requirements. Dynon has the ADHRS box which I'm assuming does all the remote sensing required.
The question is should I accommodate for a magnetometer with the Dynon system and if this is the case run an independent earth lead through the wing back to the fuselage. Thanks.

[rvbuilder2002]

Originally Posted by TimO

because you're going to find things that require modification along the way for your needs.

I fully understand this is the case for you Tim because you have specific ideas of what you want and you are fully capable of implementing them.

Being able to look at this from a different angle because of all of the tech assistance help time we spend helping people through electrical problems, I can tell you with certainty this is not the case with a large percentage of builders (or all of the effort to design and produce it would not have been invested because of little return). The RV-12 has proven this. A large percentage of the RV-12 builders have said that it is a primary reason they chose it as a kit to build.

[rvbuilder2002]

Originally Posted by salto

I note that it seems to be a given that a magnetometer be fitted when a Garmin system is being installed but seems like an optional extra with the Dynon system.
I can't get a definitive answer reading through the Dynon system requirements. Dynon has the ADHRS box which I'm assuming does all the remote sensing required.
The question is should I accommodate for a magnetometer with the Dynon system and if this is the case run an independent earth lead through the wing back to the fuselage. Thanks.

The ADAHRS for Skyview has the magnetometer inside it.

[Carl Froehlich]

Originally Posted by salto

I note that it seems to be a given that a magnetometer be fitted when a Garmin system is being installed but seems like an optional extra with the Dynon system.
I can't get a definitive answer reading through the Dynon system requirements. Dynon has the ADHRS box which I'm assuming does all the remote sensing required.
The question is should I accommodate for a magnetometer with the Dynon system and if this is the case run an independent earth lead through the wing back to the fuselage. Thanks.

No. What you do need to do is get the Dynon ADHARS backing plate that lets you stack one module on top of the other. That way the single mount you get for the left wing with the RV-14 kit works for the dual ADHARS install you want to do with the Dynon SkyView.

Then of course throw away the Van's wiring as it is useless for his application.

Carl

[n982sx]

Originally Posted by Rteem

unfortunately fuselage wiring will have to be custom because I've now departed too far from the Vans plans.

From what you list, I'm not so sure. The AP servo and roll trim are already in the right wing so no interference there. If the left wing strobe wiring bothers you, just add the twisted/shielded wiring you prefer to the left bundle.

As to the heated pitot, just twist up some 14 gauge wire - about 6 or 8 twists per foot and add it to the left wing wiring also. Everything will merge with the fuselage harness fine.

I'm not opposed to rolling your own wiring, I just think a blanket statement that you are better off without the kit wiring is too strong for most builders. I enjoy the challenge of designing and installing wiring, that's why I didn't just have Stein build the panel complete for me. Even though I like wiring I also liked the idea of having all the wiring harnesses in the structure done for me.

I've met many builders who think that is nuts and don't even want to understand how all the wiring works. While that's not the way I think about wiring, don't get me started on my thoughts about fiberglass.

[salto]

Thanks Scott and Carl for clearing this up. 👍