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Learning Avionics Wiring?

Trooper11040

Well Known Member
So I picked up a Dual G5 and Garmin 375 this past week from my local avionics shop. The owner and I are very friendly and he has of course offered to help me with my install but he is also like many avionics shops is super busy with the certified planes he has coming in/out daily. He has offered as part of the cost of me buying the equipment, to use his wiring, crimpers, etc. He did make me a mount so far for the GMU11 and I will be mounting the GAD29 behind the luggage bulkhead in my 9A.

Is there any place you guys learned wiring, etc to help you when reading these diagrams from Garmin? They look somewhat confusing even though I know they most likely aren't. Thanks!

Dan
 
Look for a book called "The AeroElectric Connection". The chapters can be downloaded for free from a file server somewhere. I'm way off from wiring but I scanned through it and it looks useful.
 
Is there any place you guys learned wiring, etc to help you when reading these diagrams from Garmin? They look somewhat confusing even though I know they most likely aren't. Thanks!

Dan

Are you asking for help on how to read/interpret the Garmin Electrical Diagrams?
 
I did the AEA experimental (=G3x) course. It’s pricey, but very good both from a wiring technique and system architecture perspective. It a mix of presentation and hands-on building a harness. It certainly cemented my decision I’d doing the wiring (mostly) by myself.

http://aea.net/Training/courses/exp/
 
I also took the AEA class and found it to be an excellent class for learning about the G3X systems/architecture and avionics wiring methods. I highly recommend it.
 
Are you asking for help on how to read/interpret the Garmin Electrical Diagrams?

Little bit of everything. I am definitely wanting to learn. I have all the diagrams printed out and understand the pin #s, and symbols, etc….I just want to get it right lol
 
The most confusing thing for me was the wide variety of crimpers, connectors, and pins that can be used. I sorted it out using the hunt/peck method with a lot of help from YouTube and a friend who was guiding the process.
 
AEA Course

In the AEA course you get to use the crimpers and various tools of the trade. I had my very own tool box at my table. Was worth every penny!

JET
 
Little bit of everything. I am definitely wanting to learn. I have all the diagrams printed out and understand the pin #s, and symbols, etc….I just want to get it right lol

And the various types of shield termination and CAN bus.
Garmin and Steinair have very good videos on the topic. But nothing beats guided hands-on practice.

I only have one thing that could be improved in the AEA:
Data protocols (MAPMX, CONNEXT, ARINC 429, AIRDATA etc) and where/how they are used.
 
Here's another vote for the AEA experimental avionics course. It was a fantastic training experience.

During the course you will definitely find some tools you can't live without and will leave with a list. I took it a number of years ago and the first part is a short course / review of soldering, stripping, crimping and terminating. Then it was a review of wiring schematics and what the different symbols mean and how to properly terminate shields to match the schematics. The next part was planning out the wire harnesses by measuring the run lengths and then laying out out the runs with masking tape on a flat top table to make a pattern matching the aircraft and component locations. Then measuring out the different wire sizes and lengths and placing along the flat table run patterns between the correct components. We were shown the correct way to use waxed lacing to tie up the wires into professional-looking harnesses. Real lacing is a mark of a professional job and is superior to plastic tie wraps (although zip ties have their place). Then it's crimping pins and splicing signal wires. The proper way to wire CAN Bus nodes and terminations is covered and practiced along with the proper way to assemble D-Sub backshells and config modules. And then it was how to check the harnesses by running continuity checks between different component connector pins. Along with the ever-important training on how to use pin extractors to correct mistakes in the connectors.

There was also specific discussion about how to configure the LRUs in a G3X system including autopilot settings. That's as important as the wiring to a successful install.

There is a great instruction manual you take home with you along with many learned tricks of the trade and hints. When I signed up I was unsure of the value, as the course isn't cheap but after the first day I knew it was worth every penny. And a large part of it is put into a scholarship fund for the AEA membership at large.
 
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