Chapter Log

Step 0 - Parts and Materials
Status: Completed 
Est Time: 20.00, Actual: 0.00
Est Cost: $ 500.00, Actual: $ 0.00
Date Completed: 00/00/0000

Step 1 - Main Design
Status: Completed 
Est Time: 10.00, Actual: 8.25
Est Cost: $ 0.00, Actual: $ 0.00
Date Completed: 04/13/2009

My electrical system is a single-alternator, dual-battery configuration with a manual battery switch. The batteries are identical 20Ah Panasonic batteries are installed just behind the front seatback, on the floor. The battery switch is a Blue Sea Systems 9002e, a 4-position marine-rated device with alternator field disconnect. This is a very simple setup with only a single bus to worry about.

Step 2 - Main System Wiring
Status: In Progress 
Est Time: 25.00, Actual: 12.00
Est Cost: $ 0.00, Actual: $ 0.00
Date Completed: 04/13/2009

The batteries and main switch are installed. The plans call for batteries either in the nose or above the spar. In the nose requires less ballast for solo pilots, but limits your weight and balance range if you fly with passengers. Above the spar gives you more flexibility, but flying solo you have to ballast the nose all the time.

I went with a middle-ground solution - behind the front seat back! I'm a relatively light pilot (less than 160lbs, depending on proximity to Christmas), and the weight of my batteries more or less right behind my butt just makes me a heavier pilot. I'll still need nose ballast, but maybe a FEW pounds less, so I might save a few bucks in gas over the long haul without sacrificing much CoG range.

But the real reason is noted above - my design has a manual battery switch, which eliminates the load from the main contactor(s). It's located in the middle of the front seat back, about where the fuel valve would normally be placed. I don't need a fuel valve there because I have a Mazda Rotary (see the engine chapters for details).

One battery is behind each seat, for redundancy. The switch connects to a fuse panel just below it (easy access), and there is a grounding panel just behind the pilot's battery. You can see a lot of grounds here because I'm using a single-point star configuration grounding system, which helps eliminate noise. Larger cables run back to the firewall, where it will connect to the alternator and the starter contactor.

I still need to make upper covers for the batteries to prevent them from sliding out if I'm ever inverted (such as during a crash), but otherwise this system is basically done.

OK, it's a minor bit of progress but an important one to me. Until now I've kept all my switches and wires and such on a small temporary panel. This let me work on things without actually installing them, but was sort of an anti-commitment thing, too. This switch controls the speed brake - I'll install the landing gear switch next, but I need to rewire the interface because I want to remove the AEX unit. I'm not happy with how that thing behaves.

I know it doesn't seem like a big step, or something that should have taken this long. But today I installed the switch for the Wilhelmson nose gear lift.

Several years back, when I purchased this unit, I also bought the AEX1 auto-extension module. I quickly came to hate it - every time I turned on the power, it wanted to extend the gear, and nearly caused several accidents in the build process because of that. And I didn't like the standard answer of adding a breaker or switch - what good is a safety device that you can disable?

This also came with a big rats-nest of wires, some of which didn't even match the supplied wiring diagram. For instance, "white" for me was actually grey. Blue was purple. It took a while to wire, and it looked like a mess. I never did get it neatened up to my satisfaction.

Today I cut all the wires out of the rats nest, removed the AEX1, and rewired the unit with the bare minimum of wires. I kept everything neat, bundled all wire bundles together with heat shrink tubing, and now I have a clean and simple installation that I'm finally happy with! The only thing I have left to do is replace the LED grommets - they're just sort of sitting there right now. I need deeper grommets for my instrument panel. I'll address all the LEDs at once when I do the full panel setup later. Besides, I'd just have to remove them anyway when I do my panel overlay (which I may do with carbon fiber trim sheets off eBay.

Step 3 - Instrument Panel
Status: Not Started 
Est Time: 14.00, Actual: 0.00
Est Cost: $ 0.00, Actual: $ 0.00
Date Completed: 00/00/0000

Step 4 - Overvoltage Module
Status: In Progress 
Est Time: 2.25, Actual: 0.00
Est Cost: $ 10.00, Actual: $ 0.00
Date Completed: 00/00/0000

Step 6 - Lighting
Status: Not Started 
Est Time: 0.00, Actual: 0.00
Est Cost: $ 0.00, Actual: $ 0.00
Date Completed: Incomplete

Step 7 - Radio Testing
Status: Not Started 
Est Time: 2.00, Actual: 0.00
Est Cost: $ 0.00, Actual: $ 0.00
Date Completed: 00/00/0000

Step 8 - Engine Monitor Integration
Status: Not Started 
Est Time: 8.00, Actual: 0.00
Est Cost: $ 0.00, Actual: $ 0.00
Date Completed: 00/00/0000

Step 9 - Avionics Calibration
Status: Not Started 
Est Time: 0.00, Actual: 0.00
Est Cost: $ 0.00, Actual: $ 0.00
Date Completed: 00/00/0000