Tip: Ray Allen servo wiring

[Mike S]

I have posted this in the RV10 forum, but seeing as it applies to most models, figured it would be easier to find here.

This is the method I used for hooking up the electrical for the elevator trim servo.

I used these connectors from the local Radio Control hobby shop.



I removed one connector by bending it back-and-forth with a pair of needle nose pliers till it broke off. This yielded a polarized three prong connector that I used for the sensor.




I used a pair of dikes to cut off a pair of plugs to make a two prong, not polarized, for the motor connection. This allows reversing the leads in case the motor was running backwards. (BTW, it was. Easy fix with the connectors set up like I did.)





Here it is all hooked up, ready for the smoke test. Note caterpillar grommet protecting the wire from the edge of the trim mount in the background.



All buttoned up, you can just see the lacing cord used to tie the two half's of the connectors together, probably overkill, but makes me feel better about something buried away in the tail of the plane.

[jferraro17]

Awesome, Mike. Great tip/method. I'll be stealing this in the next month or so...

[Wayne Gillispie]

then used the deans 2-pin connectors for my 80 mm defrost fans. Much easier to troubleshoot/replace this way. Another good tip Mike.

[Experimental Chaos]

Cool, I?ve been looking for a sanitary way to wire the servos, and still have a quick way to disconnect them if I wanted to remove the elevators. Did, you splice into the short pig tail that comes out of the servo? I?ve been trying to avoid having a splice there, and then having a quick disconnect splice 20 inches later at a handy spot under the fairing.

[Wayne Gillispie]

I slipped a piece of heat shrink over most of the pigtail to protect wires. I then installed the male 9 pin dsub(SteinAir) on the servo pigtail. Female on the "powered" side 26 ga/5 cond cable. Used goop on the back sides of connectors to protect wires. I slipped a 3" piece of 1" heat shrink (ACS) over the connected male/female connectors. Then secured with wire ties. As always we try to keep splices/connectors to a minimum but in this case it would make it much easier to troubleshoot/repair down the road. We would need to buy the five male dsub pins to replace with the servo.

[Mike S]

Originally Posted by Experimental Chaos

Cool, I?ve been looking for a sanitary way to wire the servos, and still have a quick way to disconnect them if I wanted to remove the elevators. Did, you splice into the short pig tail that comes out of the servo? I?ve been trying to avoid having a splice there, and then having a quick disconnect splice 20 inches later at a handy spot under the fairing.

No splice used, the pigtail from the servo was long enough for what I did.

The D-sub connector mentioned above will work also, but it is a bit heaver, and it is harder to reverse the motor wires if they are wrong the first try.

This cat can be skinned many ways

[aerhed]

It may be overkill, but I like to mount a square flange CPC receptacle (series2) on the rear bulkhead and a pigtail on the other end. Easier tail removal. Looks good & the wires ends are all encased in the round shells. That bulkhead is easy, but bulkheads where one side is blind I like to set rivnuts in the corners of the CPC receptacles. If you need to get at it later its really quick to unscrew & pull out especially if you're alone.

[sglynn]

I like your ideas of the Dean and D-Sub conntectors for the elevator trim. A couple questions for you.

Please, what did you do to make these connectors fit thru the forward hole on the elevator spar for when you want to remove the elevator? Seems like you'd want to remove the elevator for painting. This is an RV 10, servo mounts in the tail cone, so I did not have to deal with the issue you are asking about.

And do you get enough positive closure on these connectors so they wont jiggle apart? Are you doing something to fasten them together? See photo above, they are tied with lacing cord. Mike

much appreciated.