RV-12 Wiring

[climbingduo]

Solution found! Agreeing with one of the previous posts . . . talked to SteinAir who supplies the wires and micro-mini pins to Vans. They sent us their SAT-018 Open Barrel Crimper (about $31) and we got a set of male and female micro mini pins to practice on. Worked like a charm!

Hint: set up a large magnifying glass on a stand in order to see what we were doing!

Happy crimping!

On a side note: 4 weeks building empennage kit; wings kit coming today!

[climbingduo]

Received our wing kit last week. Ordered optional lighting kit . . . more micro-minis to crimp!

[kevinl4000]

Originally Posted by sandpiper

I heard at EAA today that new kits from Van's come with these connections completed. Any truth to that?

One end of the aft trim wiring harness comes with the molex mini plug already on it (female, I think). They didn't let us off scott-free though... You still have to connect the wires from the Ray Allen servo to the mini-pins and male plug.

[JEG]

I finally soldered and heat shrink-ed all connections. After making sure all operation was correct.

[keny]

Those pins are problematic because of their size. I think I'm going to use, at the trim servo, a D Sub, male and female, connector and solder the wires into the connectors. Two screws will hold the connectors together and I'll have to enlarge slightly the holes in the mounting bracket. Anybody see a concern about this?

[deene]

I have used D subs in many places for wiring and they work quite well (be sure to limit current to 3A per pin). I would suggest that you not use the solder type which is very difficult to fabricate and will lead to failures in the joints.

A better solution is to used the machined pins and an appropriate crimper (SteinAir has a good one at a reasonable price). The gold plated machined (Milspec) pins are about 30 cents each in quantity but are very reliable and easy to use. The connector bodies are very inexpensive...I buy them at the computer supply outlet Altex in Austin.

Also D subs can be easily connected by using nuts specific for this between the connectors (small 4-40 1/4" tall nuts). And if space is tight, you can forego the shell covers.

In the specific case of the trim wires (26 ga), I have had good success with using the male and female pins directly plugged together without the connector bodies. The normal crimp pins are not sized for the small servo wire, so you have to double the wire in the pin. Use shrink tubing to insulate and hold the pins together and if you have to disconnect later, just cut the shrink off...

And as normal, all wires need to be bundled and tied with tywraps or lacing cord to eliminate any vibration.

[climbingduo]

Found this tool on-line; great for holding wires while you work. Ordered ours from amazon.com - cheap and works great!
http://www.kikkerland.com/products/l...weighted-base/

Good luck!

[John-G]

I purchased a Tool Aid crimping kit and am very pleased with the results. I bought the kit which has various quick change interchangeable dies for all sorts of connectors. HOWEVER, the kit did not have the die for the small.062 Molex pins so I ordered the 18937 dies for that size connector directly from Tool Aid.

The 18937 die has two crimping dies I used the smaller of the two on the .062 molex pins and had great results. I the kit was around $79, but the crimping tool can be purchased separately for much less. I think 18937 die was under $25.

I have photos on the blog that show the crimping tool here:

http://www.dogaviation.com/2013/01/happy-new-years.html


http://www.dogaviation.com/2013/02/c...-progress.html

Happy Building,
John