Where to start?

[flybill7]

I?m finishing up the canopy and am getting ready to take on the panel, wiring and electrical system. I have or soon will have all the avionic boxes, buses, wires, contactors, etc. But I?m a little bewildered at where to start and the order in which to do things. Any words of guidance? Should I mount the boxes into the panel, mount the buses, then run the wires? Run the wires first? One system at a time?

Here?s what I?m putting in.

Dynon FD-180 (w/harness)
Garmin GTX-327 transponder (w/ harness)
SL-60 GPS/Comm (no harness)
PM-3000 Intercom (no harness)
Garmin 486 GPS w/ Airgizmo dock
Pictorial Pilot wing leveler (w/harness)
Elevator Trim
Whelon System 6 nav/strobe
Duckworth land/taxi lights

I?ll be using the AeroElectric Z-11 diagram.

Thanks in advance.

[hecilopter]

I wish I would have thought about before doing my panel. Position the avionics where you want them on the panel because when finished you will have to put cut outs in the sub panel for your radio trays and things that are just plain too long.

Also, you will probably have to cut/reposition at least one of the subpanel to panel ribs to accomodate your chosen instrument placement.

If you are building a tip-up, allow about 1 1/2" from the top of the subpanel for the tip up to close! I sheared off the first placement of my main buss because I placed it too high on the subpanel!

I found it easier to run wires from the extremeties first (landing & taxi lights, nav lights, strobes, ELT, remote compass, electric trim, etc.) basically running a wire at a time and testing it when hooked up.

I put a firewall entry point at the top on each side above the engine mount to route wires thru. Sure made it easier to route things.

It will all work out, it is just hard to get started!

Good luck!

[scard]

Just think it through and mount all of the "components". Then just one wire at a time, testing as you go. Don't let yourself get too freaked out about the potentially huge wiring task. It just kind of congeals a wire at a time.

[johnp]

I?ll be using the AeroElectric Z-11 diagram.

good start. i'd recommend you make diagrams for the rest of the aircraft (e.g., avionics, etc) before you start. then you can make copies of the diagrams, and highlight each wire as you install it. like scott said, then it's one wire at a time (although you may want to build "harnesses" for the avionics.)

[Jim P]

On the surface, this is a really daunting task depending on the avionics complexity. Since I'm just completing the wiring (or at least all that I can do for now), it's fairly fresh. Here's how I skinnned this cat...

Assumption: you have some preliminary wiring diagrams for each system and know where the routing will run to the aft fuselage

1) After laying out the panel, get it cut and temp install
2) I'm not sure about the length of the SL-60, if necessary, cut the hole in the sub panel and install your trays.
3) Stare at the Z-11 diagram a lot. Then start there. As someone told me, start at the battery and work aft. Wire the basic power distribution first.
4) After the basics were in, I wired most of the switches, from buss to switch first, then switch to the individual components. Do as much as possible before tackling the avionics. Each step pretty much builds on the previous so it's the crawl-before-you-walk thing.
5) Avionics: I had Stark do my harness so it was intimedating pulling this ball of wire from the box. It really boils down to one wire at a time. For avionics, I wired grounds, then power, then interconnects. Test each as you move along.

That's generally a high-level process and seemed to work well for me but everyone seems to have their own way of dealing with this task.

Jim

[zkvii]

Hi,

Just another set of thoughts, we are pretty complete on the wiring - just tidying to do.

I started by just running the wires, slightly long both ends, focusing on the long runs / edges of the aircraft first - ie, Rudder / tail, Wing tips through to the mid section. Then central cockpit (stick controls, strobe PSU, flaps etc), then FWF going aft to panel / buses. So as things were terminated the surpless was left at the panel.

For each area I did the 'biggest first', so sort the aerial, strobe, air lines, audio cables (all 1/4" OD), then pitot power, lights, flap, signal - you get the idea...

The biggest 'thinking' area was the routing, particually through the spar and aft through the cabin into the tail. We split the transpoder and strobe / pitot lines from everything else where possible, or put it with things like the air lines. GPS and Nav aerials plus screened audio cables given air where possible. So far with everything powered, no whine / noise from strobes / transponder.

We were very methodical on labelling every end of every wire as it was pulled, just using a simple bit of tape with a number, or heat shrink with a 3 digit number for final assembly. At the end we have about 200-250 cores labeled. Having a PC / spreadsheet with the core id, start / finish locations is a huge help. I've also got a full list of all connectors, and which cores go to which pins - including the avionics DBs - really useful in trouble shooting.

We added a DB25 male / female which has most of the avionics data lines, so GPS RS / ARINC lines, SL RS lines, TT RS lines, P1 / P2 push to talk are there, sort of like a poor / simple "approach hub". Means we don't have to muck around with the avionics rack connectors for the intra-connections between units.

With regard to the panel layout, a similar type approach, 'big stuff first' - but obviously the small stuff needs to go somewhere. I used CAD to do all the layout, partly as it provided a way of marking out the cutouts, partly as a 'thinking white board' and partly as if I need to redo the panel in the future I will get it laser cut (however as a first time builder it would have taken 3 or 4 cuts to get a workable panel). Once the major blocks are in, bus distribution (CB / fuses), then switches, then devices.

With the single ground principle from Bob, the resource that is / has caused the biggest headaches are the ground connections, we have over 50 ground lines - mixture of groups of 10 ground tabs and a DB9 (should have been a DB15 or 25).

With tip up - as mentioned be aware of the fwd and side edges of the canopy.

It isn't 'hard' but can be difficult, the planning / visualisation of the routes and the long term access / maintenance took significant thought - still probably the 80/20 principle.....

I'll stop rambling!

Regards, Carl