Ramblings from the hangar...VP-200 Replacement

[Auburntsts]

As some may recall, my Vertical Power VP-200?s Display Unit died on me a few months ago. I had the unit repaired but it was subsequently lost in shipment by FEDEX. As the VP-200 is an obsolete system, I was faced with one of 2 choices moving forward: upgrade to a VP-X (nearest thing to a plug-n-plug replacement but expensive) or transition to ATC type fuses and CB?s (significantly less expensive, but requires more labor and thought to execute). Long story short, I chose the latter and added trim and flap controllers to the mix. The hard parts were mapping out the new architecture and figuring out where to physically mount the new components. In the end I mounted everything to a removable panel that was in turn mounted to the same location on the instrument sub-panel where the VP-200?s Control Unit used to reside. By doing this way I was able to utilize the existing mounting holes that had nutplates. This allowed me to A. not drill any new holes into the sub-panel, B. do a lot of work outside the cockpit, and most importantly C. not have to contort myself under the panel trying to install additional nutplates, or even worse, nuts and washers. Once I got all that wickered, I had to fabricate some filler panels to fill in the holes created by the removal of the VP-200?s display and switch panel in the instrument panel. These filler panels are where I mounted all of the switches and a few CB?s that I now needed to control power to individual devices. Then in theory it would just a simple matter to wire in the new components to the existing wiring harness. To speed things up I retained the VP-200s MOLEX MX150L connectors and just wired in new MOLEX Plugs and a few D-subs as applicable in order to ?splice in? the new components to the existing harness. My rationale for this was to retain VP components in case I decide to go back to a VP system in the future and also to hopefully speed up the splicing process. In actuality it was a pain in you know what and took much longer than expected (what's new in the world of E-AB ). It wasn?t particularly difficult skill wise, but trying to keep that rats nest of wires under control was harder than I expected it to be. But in the end I preserved and now have a new electrical system architecture that's pretty close to a Bob Nuckoll's 2 alternator, 1 battery concept (Z-12 in the AEC). I do still have a aileron trim issue to chase down, but the plane is once again "flyable" and I managed not to fry anything expensive in the process.