Instrument lighting

[tonyjohnson]

I am planning my electrical system. I need to determine what size dimmer I will need for the instrument/panel lights.

Do you put the internal lighting for the GPS 430, transponder, EIS, EFIS, and other avionics on the dimmer? Is there a seperate lighting lead for those avionics? Do some avionics adjust their own light levels?

Thanks for your comments to my novice question.

[RV7Guy]

Hi Tony,

Check out the LC40 from www.fdatasystems.com. I have a full Garmin stack that is internally lit same with the Dynon. I needed lighting for the TruTrak T&B, EL strip and the Garmin 106A CDI. I'm using 3 of the 4 circuits on the LC 40.

The system is very small and easy to wire. The rheostats were a little tedious to wire but not difficult.

BTW, it dims the EL strip fine!!

Darwin N. Barrie
Chandler AZ

[tonyjohnson]

Darwin,

Thanks for the heads up about the LC40. Does that unit mount remotely from the control knob, or perhaps 4 knobs? I did not see a knob on the unit pic on their website.

[RV7Guy]

Hi Tony,

The little unit mounts remotely then you can put the rheostats anywhere you want. They give you plenty of wire to put them where you want. Separating them would cause some wiring complications but doable. I mounted the unit on the subpanel of my Tip up and the rheostats vertically on the panel. I wired and mounted all four even though I'm only using 3 initially.

I'll get a picture tomorrow and post.

Darwin N. Barrie
Chandler AZ

[tonyjohnson]

Darwin,

Did you go with the LC40 or the LC40E? Any suggestions on which I should use? I like the enclosed aspect of the E, but it is larger.

Thanks,

Tony

[SteinAir]

Just a quick note. Those are REALLY nice dimmers, but with the Avionics you sound like you're going to install, it's WAYYY overkill. The radio stack will mostly likely all be internally lit and self dimming, all the new EFIS's have dimmers built in, same with the Engine Monitors, etc..

So, that leaves the few round gauges you have...maybe 6 or so? Remember, even the cheapo $20 somethinth dimmer from Van's puts out 1.5 amps, which is enough to drive well over a dozen post lights from (almost the same as most internally lit instruments.).

Anyway, not knocking the LC dimmers as I think they are great, but for your install I'm just pointing out you won't need that much power!

Cheers,
Stein.

[RV7Guy]

Hi Tony,

I went with the E model which means "enclosed." Spiffy little unit.

I'll post a couple of pics tomorrow. I forgot to do it the other day.

Darwin

[tonyjohnson]

Stein,

Thanks for the info. Do you know if the cheaper dimmers will dim the EL strip lights? If not, what do you use to dim them?

Thanks,

Tony