Stick Disconnect Question

I am putting the control sticks in my project. I have Infinity Stick Grips which give me flaps, trim, ident, A/P disconnect, PTT and comm flip/flop. There are a total of 17 wires coming from the stick grips.

Van's has a metal tab that holds a Molex 12 pin connector that allows you to remove the sticks.

With 17 wires and only 12 pins on the Molex I need to find an alternate solution. Has anyone else had this issue, and if so what did you do to rectify it?

Skip the tab and use a bigger Molex seems to be the best option.

Thoughts?

bruce

Personal choice, of course, but do you really want all those things on the stick grip? And especially on the passenger side? We’ve all read about the sudden deviation from level flight after a passenger rested her book on the trim switch.
But I don’t see why so many wires. Are you using a common ground?

Bruce,

Yep - that Molex is one of the downsides of the RV-14 trying to do everything for you.

On the RV-14A I wired I used 15 pin D connectors. If you do not use the pinky switch on the Infinity Grip you have 15 wires.

Over a couple of RVs I stopped wiring the pinky switch as it was easy to accidentally activate. For you I suggest the IDENT function is the easiest to live without on the stick.

If you really want all 17 wires, then you can use a bigger D connector.

Carl

Larger D-Sub

I went with the larger D-Sub - and to Bob?s point used a co-pilot disconnect switch on the panel. Unless with another pilot, the co-pilot functions (except for PTT) are dead. Accomplished using a common ground disconnect.

Good points

I did build a co-pilot stick defeat switch on my panel. It makes all the functions inop except PTT.

Now if I could figure a way to keep my wife from talking during night IFR approaches. That always seems to be the time she wants to discuss a bathroom remodel idea she has...

Amazon-1 said:

I did build a co-pilot stick defeat switch on my panel. It makes all the functions inop except PTT.

Now if I could figure a way to keep my wife from talking during night IFR approaches. That always seems to be the time she wants to discuss a bathroom remodel idea she has...

Click to expand...

Intercom pilot isolate.

Amazon-1 said:

I am putting the control sticks in my project. I have Infinity Stick Grips which give me flaps, trim, ident, A/P disconnect, PTT and comm flip/flop. There are a total of 17 wires coming from the stick grips.

Van's has a metal tab that holds a Molex 12 pin connector that allows you to remove the sticks.

With 17 wires and only 12 pins on the Molex I need to find an alternate solution. Has anyone else had this issue, and if so what did you do to rectify it?

Skip the tab and use a bigger Molex seems to be the best option.

Thoughts?

bruce

Click to expand...

I think the biggest question is: under what circumstances would you need to completely remove the control stick(s)? If the answer is "almost never", and if you could make that even more true by having a generous service loop, you could forget the connector and use the dsub pin/heat shrink method (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8DCvBV2V4M&t=1s) to connect wires giving you a way to disconnect all or some for service or troubleshooting, or just permanently splice knowing you may need to cut and re-splice at some point in the future (new stick grip etc). Another option would be to use two 9-pin d-sub connectors secured somewhere near the stick base (taking care to properly chafe protect wires in the area of movement). There's plenty of room in that area to secure a nice long service loop.

Infinity stick connector

I used 2 of these DB 25 breakout boards under the pilots seat of my RV8 to connect the various stick wires to their stick functions. eBay item below.

DB25-G2-01 Male 25-Pin Adapter Terminal Module Breakout Board Connector https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/202972198750

This way the stick wires use DB pins and can easily moved around on the db25 plug with a pin extractor if needed. I needed to do this more than I had thought. A molex connector is a nightmare for this type of wire connection.

Each Sticks functions were connected through a SPST switch to ground on the panel that allows total back seat stick function deactivation. And if the rear stick needs to be totally removed its db25 plug can be easily removed from the break out board connector.

Cecil

If it helps, here's a schematic of what I did.

http://www.vx-aviation.com/sprocket/photos/panel_elec/schematics-2/GRIP.pdf

You can tie all of the ground wires together at the stick. I think the inifinity grip has something like 6 ground wires! You only need one ground wire passing through the connector.

On the 14, I would seriously question putting the flap switch on the stick. When deploying flaps for the 14, you will be making big trim adjustments. During a go around, you will be trying to undo all of that with one thumb. Makes for tricky flying at a critical time.

I flew Van's 14A configured this way and while doable, it was a two handed affair at times. Using a GAD27 for flap control on a Garmin system does make it a little easier but I would still put the flap control on the panel.

I use a 15 pin DB style connector on my sticks. I removed most of the mini molex from Van's design. Also, simplify your grounds is good advice from the other posters.