Infinity Sticks and Grounds

[macrafic]

For those of you who have combined the 6 grounds into 1, in order to decrease the size of the cable bunch exiting the stick, how did you do the 1-to-n connection? I have searched VansAirforce and Aeroelectric but did not see anything that would help. Pics would help.

Also, did you keep the grounds for the PTT and A/P disconnect and just combine the other 4 grounds? I saw one post that indicated they did this to allow them the ability to shield those two later if there was a noise problem (apparently, they had heard of this). Comments?

[cfiidon]

Several ways to skin that cat...

Soldering is the best option followed by heat shrink, but if you are not into that, then use a butt splice, 2 into 1 (times 3), then 3 into 1. Stagger them as required for spacing. You might get away with 3 into 1 (times 2).

In close quarters, I like to use non insulated butt splices with heat shrink.

If you think about it you can do 4 wires into a butt splice with two on each end, the last one being a pigtail to the next downstream splice.

Don

[Danny King]

Let's see. About fifteen years ago, I looked at the big blue cable exiting the bottom of the Infinity stick grip, and decided that it was unmanageable. I dissembled the grips and removed the blue cover, shielding, and un-soldiered all of the ground wires for the following functions:

1) Trim
2) Push to talk
3) Autopilot disconnect
4) Boost pump
5) Remote starter engage
6) Flaps

I soldiered in a single, larger gauge, black ground wire, connecting it to all of the switches, reducing the cable exiting the Infinity grip to seven. That bundle could easily exit the control stick through a 1/4 size hole.

I mounted a 12 connection strip connector on the floor rib on the right side of the control column. I connected the individual switch wires to the strip connector and routed the aircraft's wiring there connecting each function as required. It was easy to organize the wiring that way. I left a large enough loop in the Infinity grip's cable to allow for movement of the controls without fatiguing the wires. It has worked flawlessly for the last fourteen years.

[flyboy1963]

excellent info, .....

can we assume that there is no serious repercussion to joining all grounds in the grip?
It's on my list 'to do', #237.
(bought the grip, scared to cut the stick and wire everything! )

[Ron RV8]

Think about how you want to wire things like the fuel pump and start circuit. On mine the starter solenoid grounds through the case, and I wanted to take a power wire to the fuel pump with a panel back-up, not ground it through the stick.

By the time I realized this, I had already grounded all the buttons on the stick (except the PTT) through one wire. Because the sticks are so fiddley and I had already wired to a junction panel, I ended up wiring the fuel pump to a switch on the panel, and put in a starter button on the panel as well. It was just too much effort to go back and do it right...

Smarter people would probably make it work through relays or ? For me... Lesson learned.

Heres a shot of my junction panel...

[flyboy1963]

sounds like most guys join the ground;
the scaredy-cats and electron-challenged like me, perhaps isolate a few vital things like PTT etc.

Ron, you have a nice setup, but where's the smoke????

[Mark Dickens]

Keep in mind that some intercom/audio panels have a dedicated ground for the PTT...you definitely need to think through your wiring before tearing anything up. I had to re-wire my Infinity grip because of this. PITA

[Ron RV8]

Ron, you have a nice setup, but where's the smoke????
__________________
Perry Y.

Yeah---ask me about that at a meeting some time...

[wirejock]

Originally Posted by Ron RV8

Ron, you have a nice setup, but where's the smoke????
__________________
Perry Y.

Yeah---ask me about that at a meeting some time...

You'll get a kick out of this smoke story.
I worked several years as board level electronics repair. We had a tech who knew it all and always poked his nose in every job. One day a bunch of techs messed with one of his repairs while he was gone. They ran a tube under the part into another cubicle. This was back when smoking in the workplace was common. When he came back and started on his job, they lit a cigarette and blew smoke into the tube. He chased that smoke for a long time before figuring it out.

[GalinHdz]

FWIW I used the Solder Sleeves from SteinAir to connect the wires together. They work great.

The main question is what are the grounds going to control? Most of what the grip will control will have a very minimum current flow (PTT, Com Flip/Flop, Trim, etc.) so you can connect them together to one 18ga wire. If you are going to directly control something with "significant" current draw (fuel pump, flap motor etc.) then you should use a separate ground wire. Remember, Infiniti grips mostly use 20AWG wires while the switches are only rated for 6A at 12VDC.

On my grips I control PTT, Comm Flip/Flop, VOR Flip/Flop, Trim, Transponder IDENT and the Fuel Pump via a separate relay. All of them together don't draw 1 Amp. But I have the trim ground (from each stick) exiting the grip separate so I can select via a DPDT micro switch which pilot has control of the trim. In my installation I have three ground wires from each stick, two 22AWG for trim (one for Pitch, one for Roll) and one 18AWG common ground for everything else.