I'm thinking about running a single wire from my nav light switch down the center tunnel (Rv7) and splicing the wing and tail lights to the single wire from the switch just aft of the spar.
What so most people do?
I just replaced my original lights with AeroLEDs. I replaced an earlier set of experimental LEDs that were not reliable. I ran a separate wire from each tip and tail all the way to the switch. The wire is shielded and was easier than changing to a larger shielded wire to handle the extra load if I would have connected them under the floor and ran a single wire to the switch. My lights are bright and noise free! I highly recommend them.
I have single wires for the nav, landing and taxi lights through the tunnel and spar to a terminal strip under the passenger seat. There it splits for the nav tail & wings, two landing and two taxi lights. Trouble shooting would be a matter of undoing a single wire at the terminal strip.
Similar to above I fabricated all of my terminal strips using phenolic. All three wires terminate near panel and switch for easier troubleshooting later.
Hi Kent, were your previous LED's homebuilt or an experimental only purchased option. I'm curious as I've been looking at options and would like to learn from other's experiences if possible.
I'm using the Ztron Labs position/strobe units, so just one distribution point for the 4 wires (power, ground, synch, strobe disable). There are small clips that gang together each pair of tabs on the block.
Block is bonded to the floor skin with proseal.
Wire comes in from the front, then splits off to each wing and tail.
So long as there are no noise issues with your brand of nav lights, just run a single wire to the spar, then use a butt splice to go to three different directions from there. You'll end up with two wires coming out of each end of the splice. This is the lightest, simplest way with the fewest connections. I learned this from Aeroelectric Connection. Once the wings go on you'll never be messing with these wires in the future.
Cyrus,
My LED nav lights and flash tube strobes came from Thor, LLC, http://www.thorllc.net/. The LEDs worked very well, no noise but did have to have them repaired as the LEDs detached from the heat sink after a year of flying. It was the strobes that kept burning out. I just could not keep having them repaired and I eventually lost faith in the system and went with a much better system at twice the price. Customer service was excellent. Thor no longer sells the strobes.
