Panel wiring

[southernav8tor]

Do most people wire their own panels or do the send them off to be done?
I understand wiring but have never tackled a job such as this.
I am just looking for input.

Thanks

David

[plehrke]

I had never done wiring myself either and was not looking forward to it. Mostly due to fear of getting it wrong and ruining expensive instruments. I found that it was fun. It really is just like everything else where you just take it in small steps. Each componet is just a small job. Everything comes with a wiring diagram. I used Van's wiring scheme for an overall electrical architecture.

Your results may vary though if you have a very complicated all glass panel. Then you may send it out to one of the several very capable companies that have a lot of experience and do great work.

[mike109g6]

Originally Posted by southernav8tor

Do most people wire their own panels or do the send them off to be done?
I understand wiring but have never tackled a job such as this.
I am just looking for input.

Thanks

David

David,
I really feared wiring my panel from the standpoint of just plain blind ignorance. Electrical is NOT my forte. But like building an airplane for the first time, I thought, heck why not. Did some homework, VAF electrical is an excellent source, got the AeroElectric book from B&C(did some reading and looked at the diagrams), and basically got my head around the process. It's a learning curve, just like building. You need some basic tools, depending on how deep that you want to get into wiring, and some basic supplies, ie wire, switches, breakers/fuses, etc. The complicated stuff, radios, gps, A/P, etc, I bought wiring harness premade, Stein is awesome for this, and will help you with questions, ie how do I get my GPS and A/P to work together? And how do I wire my stick grip to make it work? Think things through BEFORE wiring something up, ask questions if in doubt(VAF is excellent for this), don't be in a hurry. I actually had fun AFTER the initial fear subsided(thought that I would fry everything when I went 'hot'). But guess what? When I threw the mains on the first time, and all the bells and whistles lit up-it was AWESOME.
Just remember, there are no dumb questions, just dummies that don't ask,
Take care and good luck,
Mike H 9A/8A

[rv8180]

Nothing to it!
I might not be this cocky after the soon to be done "smoke test"!

[n468ac]

We used http://www.aerotronics.com/, Jason setup up just what we wanted, the way we wanted it. They built it, tested it, and gave us an easy to follow diagram of what wires we needed to be run and were to connect them. With their setup you connect ‘your wires’ to a set of large connectors … then just plug and play. Take a look at our site http://www.checca.net/n468ac_panel_panelupgrade2.htm , the third picture down will show you what the connectors look like.

[chrispratt]

Like some of the posts above, I had never done any electrical work other than the HeathKits I built as a kid (age giveaway, right?). I took it one wire at a time, and while behind the panel my wiring may not look as neat as some of the professional bundles, everything works and has for 260+ flight hours.

An additional benefit of doing the wiring yourself is that if you decide later to add something or need to troubleshoot something, you'll have a good grounding in how your system works and how to approach the addition or problem.

Lastly, it costs less to do it yourself. Professionally built panels can look great but there is a cost involved.

If you have the time and the interest in knowing more about wiring, then I recommend you try it.

Chris

[Rivethead]

I'm glad I wired my own panel. I fretted about it for a lot longer than I should have. When it came time to get serious about the job I drew up several schematics for the radios, which in the end didn't really do anything for me except get me familiar with which wire went were but very little as far as a confidence builder. As far as wiring everything else up I realized that for me anyway I'd be way ahead if I just wired the panel and fuselage one wire at a time. So I installed everything in the panel the way I liked it and set off to wiring. In the middle of everything Dynon announced their Auto Pilot and my wiring changed a little bit. In a nut shell, I KNOW my wiring. Everything tested no smoke and all instruments communicate as advertised.

[SteinAir]

Easy answer is quite frankly most people do their own. If you take all of Aerotronic's and our output of completed RV panels along with a few other panel shops, the output of completed panels is but a drop in the bucket of yearly RV registrations. Aerotronics and us easily account for the majority of completed professionally built RV panels, but there are other shops (some come and gone) that have and continue to do some as well.

So, just by simple numbers it means that most builders do their own - either with our without assistance. That being said, if you have high $$ glass and lots of avionics in it, that is where you often times see the shops come in. The simple truth is most panels are not that complex, and a lot of the complex ones are done by the shops. But - you'll see some very complex panels done by individuals who do a great job, but you'll also see very simple panels done by shops. Aerotronics does a lot of the really high end fast glass stuff that we try to stay away from - as RV builders ourselves we like to stick with what we know and what we've built so obviously we do more RV panels than other types of planes (also just because there are more RV's than anything else being built).

Anyway, if you had/have a subscription to kitplanes you'll see that they have spent the last year (and more coming next year) on articles to help you do this yourself if you don't have the resources to do it yourself. Some say I'm being a bit dumb by writing these articles (some of my colleagues in the business have given me a little grief about it) telling you how to do your own panels and wiring, but the simple fact is that not every builder needs or can afford to have a panel professionally done.....so looking at it from my perspective many years ago when I was building my first RV, I sure as heck would have liked to have some pointers about the panel - because I had to learn it all the hard way! That's why the articles are there and will continue to be as long as I have my say.

It kind of comes down to what you want to learn, what you are able to learn and where your value of time / money. Basically shops like us turn money into time. Sometimes it makes sense for people to spend their hours at their job, then pay a shop to get the panel done. When you get it you know it's been tested, and if you have a lot of money into avionics you won't have to worry about the smoke test.

Anyway, I don't intend to extole the virtues of having it done professionally as your only choice or try to stump for business. Obviously it's been proven by the majority of homebuilders that it has and can be done by the builder. Like shooting your first rivet, it's something you can do if you're carefull, patient, willing to learn (along with willing to make mistakes) and have the time. If you don't have the skill or time, then go work at what you do well and pay someone else to do what they do well as a professional avionics shop. If not, do it yourself!

The last option is somewhere in between (what we end up doing for more builders than just doing complete panels) is to have the basic avionics wired up by a shop and then do the rest of the panel yourself. You have to buy the avionics anyway, so having the shop make sure everything is appropriately wired together isn't much more. Read some articles, get the Bob Nuckolls book and maybe even have someone help you. I think you'll find the better known avionics shops who are experienced with RV's will be flexible within your needs and help you with what you can. Sometimes that is doing the whole panel, and other times it's just helping you do it yourself.

In the end, it comes down to each persons situation. I spent time sheet-rocking my basement years ago because I wanted to do it myself and save the money....it came out ok, but Lord I learned a lesson.....now I'll just do what I'm good at and pay those who are good at what they do to come and do it for me. That sort of is how us avionics shops survive!

Cheers,
Stein

[bcondrey]

I did my own for a variety of reasons - money savings (Stein's sheetrock analogy), desire to learn, pride in the end result, etc. Kind of like doing the entire plane slow build, I did it all and it is now a flying marvel. If there's a next time I'll probably get a quickbuild kit and will definitely have SteinAir do the panel. I'm not unhappy at all with how mine turned out, but I've done it once...

Bob
RV-10 N442PM

[Pat Stewart]

A good compromise is to have the avionics shop wire the radios, intercom, headset jacks and encoder. They will also burn them in for you. You can send them your panel and most will make the radio cutouts and mount the racks. When you get your panel back the remainder is your flight and engine instruments which most are very simple. Building the bus is also simple and straight forward.

Pat Stewart
RV8A