Shielded Strobe Light Wire Questions
 

I am routing the shielded wire for my strobe lights in my 9A right now, and I was planning on having a connector between the wing and the fuselage, so that I could essentially completely wire the fuselage before I put the wings on.
With regards to the shield on the wire, I am assuming that I should use a connector of some type to connect the shields as well. Is that assumption correct?
Also, is there a site that shows how the 'right' way to ground a shielded wire? I know that I need to ground the end at the power supply, but I have never done it before, and haven't seen any pictures of how to do it either.

Thanks!
Ron
RV-9A - Wiring

Ron,

I've done exactly what you've described. You can peruse my web site if you want to see some photos of the install. Yes, you need to pass the ground wire through the connector as well. To ground it at the power supply, just crimp on a ring terminal and mount it underneath one of the hold dowm screws of the power unit. Nothing more than that is required.

You DO NOT want to ground the wire anywhere else (including at the wing disconnect fitting) as that creates multiple ground paths for the same circuit which = noise.

Ron,
I used a flat 4 trailer connector and you must connect the ground on each side of the connector.

*****
I also used a trailer connector (6 pin) for NAV and strobe lights, works great.

I would like to add that if you are using Whelen units, I recommend you attach a ground wire to the casing in addition to the black (NAV light) ground wire.

To see why, unscrew the cap on the NAV light connector and see how Whelen 'bridges' the black wire to the case: They use a thin 'blob' of solder...I spent over an hour troubleshooting why my NAV light stopped working. Connect a ground wire to one of the case screws too! :)

Thanks for the help! Does anyone have a link to a good place to buy a 4 or 6 pin trailer connector?

I used a 12-pin bulkhead Molex connector and used it for my position lights, landing lights, and heated pitot tube wires as well as the strobe wires. I got it at Mouser. www.mouser.com

Trailer connectors are available at Advance Auto Parts, NAPA, Auto Zone any number of places. Probably at Home Depot, Northern or Harbour Freight.

Thanks for all of the help and suggestions! I ended up getting some 6 pin connectors at radio shack, similar to the connectors that come with the nav/strobe light kit that van's sells.

Ron
RV-9A

These Micro-X connectors from Newark electronics make for nice small connectors, which are low-cost and weatherproof.
A picture of one is here...
http://www.newark.com/productimages/...rd/4079284.jpg

This page lists them all. The nylon ones are under $5 and are a good alternative to the $$$$ metal mil-spec type.

http://tinyurl.com/6zwzr


These also make neat connector for the trim servos and stick wiring. They have a postive lock and won't vibrate off.

gil in Tucson :)

Update..

This Newark web page has a better picture of these connectors....

http://tinyurl.com/6jgo4

...gil in Tucson :)