Cannon Plug vs DSUB for Infinity Stick Grip

[blueflyer]

Infinity says to use a 16 pin cannon plug for ease of removal of the stick. Any reason to not use a 25 pin DSUB that I have laying around, or is there a reason for the Cannon type plug?

[Joe]

Originally Posted by blueflyer

... Any reason to not use a 25 pin DSUB ... ?

No reason in the world -- go for it. I used every pin of a 15-pin D-sub connector but did not combine grounds (which I wish I had done to reduce the bulk of the cable).

--
Joe

[Champ]

Had to replace the rear trim hat switch (kicked it one to many times while on my back under the panel) and I expect I will have to put a bend in the rear stick, so I cut in a 25 pin DSUB on my rear stick today while I was at it.

The Infinity wire harness has coloured wires except for 2 greens, 2 reds and 4 solid blacks. Will have to do some tracing to make sure the pin outs are right. A common ground would have simplified the blacks.

[Bicyclops]

A removable pax stick with the wires hanging out of it is one thing. How about the pilot sitck? If you ever need to replace a switch in the grip, it would be much easier to work on it on the bench. But how do you plan to pull the wires out of your stick if you have either a Cannon or D-sub hanging on the end of it? I put D-sub sockets on all the wires coming off the stick grip and pins on all the airframe wires. Connect them one at a time and individually heat shrink them and they will be fine until they need to be separated.

Ed Holyoke

[blueflyer]

Thanks for everyone's input. I think I may use go with Ed's suggestion. I hadn't thought of that. Thanks again.

[skylor]

Originally Posted by Bicyclops

A removable pax stick with the wires hanging out of it is one thing. How about the pilot sitck? If you ever need to replace a switch in the grip, it would be much easier to work on it on the bench. But how do you plan to pull the wires out of your stick if you have either a Cannon or D-sub hanging on the end of it? I put D-sub sockets on all the wires coming off the stick grip and pins on all the airframe wires. Connect them one at a time and individually heat shrink them and they will be fine until they need to be separated.

Ed Holyoke

And believe it or not, this method of connecting wires (pin-splice) is well used in the spacecraft industry.

Skylor
RV-8

[edsong]

I think it would be easier to remove the pins from a d-sub connector than it would be to remove a bunch of heat shrink tube.

[maus92]

I used CPCs (circular plastic connectors - inline male/female) for my infinity grip. Works well, and is relativity compact with plenty of conductors. The connectors use standard dsub pins and sockets.

[RV7A Flyer]

Originally Posted by maus92

I used CPCs (circular plastic connectors - inline male/female) for my infinity grip. Works well, and is relativity compact with plenty of conductors. The connectors use standard dsub pins and sockets.

Same here for my Ray Allen grip on the pilot side, which has PTT, Smoke, A/P D/C and aileron and elevator trim. Quite a lot of wires. Easy to remove a pin from a CPC vs. undoing all that heatshrink (which was a pain to do on another wire bundle when I had to do it one time). The CPC is supported by an Adel clamp to keep it from bouncing around.

I eventually went with small CPCs in several places (wingtip lighting, tail light, strobes...all Aveo LEDs so no "high" voltage lines). Makes removing them easy-peasy.

[Mich48041]

Why is it necessary to pull wires out of the control stick? Can't slack be left in the wire so that the grip can be pulled out far enough for maintenance? How about using a stretchable coiled cable inside of the control stick?