I needed to complete one more task before playing into the solenoids. My session of installing the rudder fairings yesterday ended in finding out that one of the holes was too close to one of the J stringers to be able to get the pop dimpler in.
No other option than to modify those nice dies and grind away some of the steel. After that, it just fitted and I was able to dimple the hole.phheeeww...

Next I installed the solenoids. I had done this before so it was just a matter of putting the bolts into place.

Then I cut the copper bar and drilled two big holes in it to fit over the posts of the solenoids. It's a double bar. The first is quite easy. The second is a bit more tricky as it has to fit exactly over the second.

View from the front. They are mounted nice and straight but the camera lens more or less distorts the image.

Next I got into the battery work.The box was already installed but I had not made the cover bar yet.
It's a fat bar of aluminum that needs to be trimmed, lightning holes cut and rounded corners. I used the rotary cutter for these holes.

As per the plans.

Match drilled with the holes on the angles on the sides of the battery box.

Finally made the spacers. I made these a little oversize so that I can adjust the height once the real battery is installed.

I have not yet started designing a panel layout.

Up to this point, I'm quite convinced to use the Garmin G3X touch system for my main instruments.

Going for a dual screen setup with dual garmin autopilot installed. (Configured with 2 GSA 28 integrated servos for pitch and roll autopilot)

With 2 displays, you can configure your panel to provide more information in the least amount of space. Seamlessly integrate two 10.6-inch displays. Configure 1 display as a split PFD and MFD, and the other as a dedicated display for a variety of features, including traffic, geo-referenced charts or engine information. A cobnfiguration like this also offers full backup capability in case one display fails.

Each G3X Touch system comes with :

• 1 or more displays (with or without SiriusXM weather capability)
• Air Data, Attitude and Heading Reference System (ADAHRS) sensors
• Magnetometer, which determines the aircraft’s magnetic heading
• Outside air temperature probe
• Engine Indication System (EIS) interface with engine sensor kits.

The G3X Touch comes equipped to take advantage of Connext, which is anetwork link and in-cockpit wireless connectivity system which can connect a mobile device to your flight system.

It shows engine parameters, moving map, PFD, ND and drives the autopilot servo's.

Some video sampling the G3X at Sun'n Fun  here.

Another full scope G3X flight solutions video presentation by Garmin  here

So far, I already purchased the following components related to the instrument panel :

- VERTICAL POWER VP-X-P PRO with connector kit

- throttle quadrant

- magnetic compass

- starter contacts

- TRIG TT22 XPDR W/ 4FT WIRE HARNESS

- COMANT CI-105 DME XPDR ANTENNA 

- Altimeter from Vans

- HSI from Vans

 - RAC STICK GRIP G407 and RAC G401 

- toggle switches with colored covers

- COMANT CI-122 VHF COMM ANTENNA BNC

Worked on the ground block installation on the firewall. All electrical negative ground wiring will be concentrated here, squeezed between the airframe and on the firewall forward side routed back to the negative pole of the battery.

The left image shows the firewall forward side. The right image is the rear side inside the cockpit. I drilled an extra connect hole on the right side for a more stable install on the firewall plate.

Next I started working on the installation of the throttle body. I purchased this years ago and have always been eager to install it.

My setup will be to have the throttle quadrant in the center under the cockpit panel with connecting angles that firmly secure it to both F7103 instrument panel and F7105 sub panel.

First step is to drill the holes for AN3 bolts on the side of the throttle body into the angles.

Clecoed the angles and made a mockup installation of the cockpit panel layout for positioning the throttle quadrant.
This wasn't really necessary as it should sit right in the middle but it looked kind of cool.

 The Red line indicated the center, the blue lines the sides of the quadrant body.

From the back. 2 screws will hold it to the instrument panel flange and in the back, a beefy angle will support the two angles. I want this to be stable as it will also hold and support the throttle and mixture cable and probably some other cables over the top. To get the angles level, you need the angle to be lower than the sub panel. The sub panel is shorter (higher) than the instrument panel. The angle is wide enough to counter for that.

Final measuring and drilling the attach holes for the throttle quadrant structure.I used 8R8 screws and will install nutplates (probably on the angles side)

In the next image, I also drilled the vertical part of the larger attach angle on the sub panel

 Back side. Now that everything is defined, I can mark the exact length of the angles and cut them of.

This is what the structure looks like off the airplane.

 Reinstalled and cut the angles to length.

Finally some electrical systems work. I took on the job of installing the antenna's. There's a whole theory behind where and at what distance tansponder antenna's have to be distanced from com antenna's. I read a couple of the online resources and decided to place the com antenna under the pilot seat, just behind the F704 bulkhead for ground clearence and best possible signal detection when on the ground. The transponder will be mounted behind the baggage compartment panel on the right side behind the passenger.I'm installing the transponder radio in a bay underneath the baggage floor in order to keep the antenna coax cable as short as possible.

You need to make a doubler on the inside of the fuselage to support the forces induced by the antenna's subject to airflow.

I used some 063 sheet to create a doubler plate. The sides will be bended up as flanges.

Here the doubler is cut out and pilot holes for rivets and centerpoint for the antenna coax connector are drilled

 I used a straight perpendicular form to ensure the antenna is straight on the direciton of airflow

 Drew a line on the right location and drilled through the fuselage floor #40.

 In the next picture, the antenna is temorarily mated and installed

This is how it looks from the bottom of the fuselage

bottom view

deburred and dimpled the doubler. I will not prime this part as the airframe makes up as ground for the antenna.

I removed the primer underneath the doubler for good grounding contact.- I should have scuffed the paint away before dimpling, it would have made things easier but it worked out anyway.

 Rivetted the doubler plate in place and rechecked the fit.

The parts of the throttle quadrant came back painted black. I couldn't resist test fitting it before starting with the actual work of the day.

 I have choosen the second bay behind the F704 bulkhead pilot side to be the location for the com-antenna.

Made centerline and after checking location again, drilled the hole for the coax connector of the com-antenna.

 Just as with the transponder antenna, I'm making a doubler plate to support the antenna due to the external forces of airflow working on it.

 Drilled in place and temporarily mounted.

Bottom side

 Scuffed the primer away and after dimpling, it's now ready for dimpling the skin and then rivetting the doubler plate on.

3rd antenna up for mounting is the gps antenna from Dynon Avionics. The gps comes with a template that makes the installation of the screws easy. However, I found out after the fact that the wire coming out of the antenna is moulded in some kind of sillicon rubber and the wire was coming out on the side which after cutting the center hole put the wire very close to the edge of the cut out. I enlarged the hole slightly but if I would have known upfront, I would have placed the center hole in a different offset location. Just my 2 cents if you are planning to install one as well.

I started  by making a doubler that will be on the inside of the fuselage and hole 4 nutplates fo the screws.

A gps needs a clear eye-on-the-sky so the best position is on top op the fuselage. I had to temporarily reinstall the canopy to ensure that the sliding of the canopy would not interfere with the gps puck.
In the location drawn below it doesn't. The rear skirt slides nicely over it with lots of clearance.

Here's the doubler place cut and drilled. I checked if the screws were ok through the gps and into the doubler. Using a template is always less precise but it came out very well.

 I used the doubler as a template to match drill the upper fuselage skin. The small #40 holes are for rivets holding the doubler.

 Doubler plate dimpled, primed and nutplates installed.

Here's a shot of the finished product.

Inside view of the doubler plate rivetted to the upper skin.

Time to find a spot for the transponder. I had made these baggage compartment cut outs and decided to use the passenger side one to position the transponder body. This is aft of the CG and adds some weight aft but I prefer to keep the RG400 cable very short. If at weight and balance, some CG problems arise, I can still move it behind the instrument panel if needed. I kept a free space next to the COM radio box just in case.

Installing the TRIG transponder can't be any easier.

A mounting tray that comes with the radio is installed on the baggage rib and screwed in place with some SS screws. I positioned it so that the spring in the back can still be easily opened and closed. The spring is what holds the transponder in place.

Some screws installed.

All done, transponder in place. The TNC connector is in the back. A d-sub connector will connect to the remote panel head.

screws are temporarily on with lots of washers.

Next I found the ideal location of the VPX. I had purchased a VPX mounting tray years ago and I'm very happy I did so because looking now on the website, it looks like they don't make them anymore.

The tray holds the VPX and 2 large machines screws hold it in place at the top.

There is a bit of an offset of the place from the sub panel. There's like a 5mm clearence created by the little feet on the mounting tray. These allow the use of round head screws and lucky me... it created enough spacing to have the plate standover my beefy angle from the throttle quadrant (black angle in the image).

This position seems very good to me. The main input power comes from the passenger side hole through the firewall and will connect nicely to the main power input on the top right. The other connetors have good clearance under the ribs. The bottom of the VPX is almost flush with the sub panel which is a bit higher than the instrument panel.

 Another view of the VPX in place. By the way... I love that red color of the VPX box. I should remind myself of trying that when I make some painting scheme's later on. I must look fabulous on the outside of an aircraft as well

Easy little task today as I only had a short time to work. I pulled out the OAT (outside air temperature) sensor from the Dynon box and installed it on the rear fuselage.

OAT sensor mounts into the ADAHRS module and is used for various calculations such as density altitude and true airspeed calculation.
You cannot just place it anywhere. It can obviously not be exposed to direct sunlight and shouldn't be influenced by hot air being expelled from the exhaust pipes.
The best position according to me is in the rear of the fuselage, centered underneath the horizontal stabiliser.

Installation is as easy as drilling a hole through the skin with first a pilot hole #40 and then enlarging it with a unibit.

The sensor has thread on the end side and a plastic nut screws onto the probe. A very long wire is delivered. As my ADAHRS uses the ADAHRS Vans tray behind the baggage area cover, I'll probably need to shorten it. But that's worries for when I mount the ADAHRS module.

My aircraft spruce order with the hardware for attachting the shunt and breaker finally came in, which enables me to continue working on the connecting wiring of the 2 items.
Well it ain't really wires. I'm using the left overs from the copper bar that connects the master and start solenoid to make the high current connection of the master solenoid to the shunt and fuse..

Bent and drilled the holes in the bar and then cut it to length.

This is how it will look like. The fuse will screw on on top of the two studs.

I realised I would need a doubler plate on the opposite side of the firewall to support the shunt and fuse. and cut this funcky form out of 0.64 alu.

Drilled the rivet holes in the side of the doubler and used it screwed in place from the front side to drill the holes through the firewall and use the doubler as a drill guide.
Drilling holes through the firewall is and remains a pain up the butt, and it's even worse with the engine mount already in place. I do hope I will be able to rivet it on. Thinking of using the back rivetting set from the inside and placing a backing plate against the front.

almost all drilled...

I also got my 3M Fire barrier tube in the delivery and used the occasion to make a final installation of the safeair firewall passthrough parts on both sides.
Applied a coat of the product and then screwed all in place. It is oozing out quite a bit in the center and I think that's a good thing. I'm not touching it and let it dry out this way.

Other side

Did the same for the hot air vent.You can see here the amount I'm putting on.

I protected the insides so that there is no product blocking full closure of the lever.

firewall forward view of the finished product.

I had some time left and countersunk the rivet holes on the doubler plate.

I got some sillicone caulk from the local shop which is paintable and was able to install the gps antenna for good.

A little bed of this product is more than enough to make it squeeze out. The purpose of this is to avoid moisture to enter through the holes when standing in the rain. the bottom already has a rubber cushion so I wonder if it's really required but it won't hurt adding the sillicone barrier.

Also did the final installation of the transponder antenna. it requires some cleaning up after thightening the screws. The stuff oozes out all over the place. It looks white here but becomes transpanent when it dries.

 Also installed and thightened the castle nut on the tail wheel. The purpose is to make sure that the wheel can still rotate. It can have some friction as it will still "set" within the first hours but it shouldn't be too thight either. You don't want the tire to be stuck and create chafed spots. Installed the cotter pin.

Next up is the com antenna which I completed as well by didn't take a picture.

It's been short working sessions lately and in this one I have rivetted the shunt and fuse doubler to the firewall with my girlfriend as a backing plate holder. I used the back rivetting technique to rivet these 3/32 rivets. The gun just doesn't fit on the front side between the engine mount and the firewall so there wasn't really another option.

 Inside view of the doubler plate.

With the transponder installed, it's time to connect the cable between the txpr antenna and the txpr box.

The illustration below is for documentation and illustration purposes. I have to admit that I had to redo the crimping of the coax connector after I took the pictures.
I had bought a coax stripper tool at Steinair and it works quite well, however, you will have to calibrate it at first use. There are some adjustment screws on the tool that allow controlling the dept of the cuts.

The idea of crimping is to have the right part in the image fully stripped up to the core wire. This is the part where the little pin will slide onto and this will be crimped first.
The plastic over it is the insulation between the outer ground mesh and the signal wire. Don't forget to slide on the crimp colar and some heat shrink tube before continuing with the connector it self.

Once the pin is on, rotate the pin and plastic insulation in a 360° motion. This will open up the outer sleeve and allow the connector to be clicked on with all the mesh wires on the outside.

Then slide on the connector. You will here a subtle click and the pin will protrude through the center and sit almost flush with the inner plastic of the coax connector. Now check that there aren't too many mesh wires sticking out over the connector. Ideally they are still long enough but completly covered when the colar is slided over. With the colar over and bottoming out over the connector, now crimp the colar. You may need 2 crimps to cover the entire length.

Make sure pushing the colar does not move the connector forward again and check that the pin is still the same dept as the white plastic core. (ask me how I know...)

Then it's just a matter of shrinking the heat tube over it.

As said, I had to redo the connector because my coax cutter tool cut too deep in the white plastic and removed some strands of the inner core. The inner crimp didn't hold the pin firm enough so I cut it of and redid it.

Colar crimped on the connector.No outer sleeve wires exposed. Pin aligned with white inner core. all good.

Then I did the same on the other end. This is not a BNC but a TNC connector but the procedure of installation is identical.

Connected the TNC to the txpr in the baggage area bay.

Behind the baggage area, the wire comes through the web of the baggage wall F-706 and connects on the antenna.

One of the things that kept me busy and worrying for a while was crimping the batter wires, or let's call them "cables".
The battery cable draws up to 60 amps when the start is engaged and needs to be a very thick cable that can withstand this flow of energy. Some people use welder cable but I did purchase the electrical kit from vans before and that came with some 2AWG cable and the connectors and protector covers. Today, I made the ground block to battery ground cable and the battery positive to master solenoid cable.

The master solenoid is actually nothing more than a switch that can be engaged from the cockpit to allow the full power of the battery to be released in the system. A battery doesn't push energy, a device pulls energy. This means that carefull thinking is required when chosing cable sizes throughout the airplane. Most of the power goes to the engine start when engaging the starter switch. So all of the wires between battery and starter system will be pretty beefy.

If you would use a regular switch for the master switch would need to pass through 60 amp of current and the full current would flow into the cockpit and back into the FFW. A master solenoid is a device that is controlled by an external switch which when grounded engages the master solenoid and allows the electrical current to flow through. However, the switch itself only operates at very low amperage. The starter solenoid works in more or less the same way.

This connector needs to be installed on that wire. I had looked up crimpers before on aircraft spruce and they all were extremely expensive and only for one wire size. I'm talking hundreds of dollars for one.

Thanks to my friends from the "Fans Of Vans" dutch whatsapp group of RV builders, I found this hydraulic crimp tool from HBM-Machines which is perferct for the job and only costed 50€, and had metric sizes for all wire gauges. The conversion of metric to AWG can be found easily online. The tool can push up to 6 tons of pressure.

The cable has some inner woven cables which in themselves are woven and twisted together.

Here 's what is looks like when cutting of the shielding with a razor blade.

Crimping the cable on with the right tool is actually very very easy and a no brainer. Just slide on the connector, eventually already bent in the right angle and start crimping with the pneumatic tool using the correct crimp set until it bottoms out

 My installation required me to bend the connector 45degrees for easy installation on the negative pole of the battery.

It's very important that you pay attention to the orientation of the connectors before you start crimping. These stiff wires won't bend themselves anyway you want. The connector angle has to be checked upfront.

Also don't forget your shrink tube before crimping.

 With the ground cable ready, I installed it on the ground block firewall forward side and on the other end screwed it to the battery negative.

Forward view with the covers on.

Next I moved on to the positive battery cable. One of the connectors need a good bend because of the angled connection to the master somenoid.

The other side is flat. Again, keep control of the angle of how you crimp the connector on the cable. The cable won't twist much.

Installed the positive side as well and here is a picture of the completed work of the day.
I also connected my external charger wires on the groundplack and at the master solenoid so that I can easily switch on and off charging of the batter with the trickly charger.

I previously bought the BatteryMINDer 2012-Agm 12V / 2A Charger / Maintainer / Desulfator For Optima And Odyssey battery charger at spruce with the extention cable ring connectors.

 Different angle view of the positive cable side.

Detail of the negative cable side.

Spent most of the time today on drawing the panel layout for all currently known instruments on the instrument panel.

When that was ready. I could determine the location of the switches and started drilling holes in the cockpit panel.
Used a unibit to drill to size.

Some switches installed. Looks very cool !

I also cut out the hole for the starter switch. This has a little tab that has to remain on the panel so that the entire switch would not rotate. So it's not a full size hole and you need to carefully file and remove metal.

Next drilled some more switches. I think all of them are there now. I have foreseen a landing light switch but not sure yet if I will install landing lights or not at first. At least it's there and better having it ready than having to find a spot for it later.

Again a short worksession but 2 vital modules installed. I planned to place a 5 SV-NET-HUB for the dynon network in the panel for future expansion and easy of installation of the EMS module.

The EMS goes on the front of the sub panel while the sv hub sits on the opposite side facing the cockpit side. Clamped the hub in place and drilled it to the subpanel.

Then installed the SV-EMS-220 Dynon module which will be the central collection point for all engine sensors. (Engine Monitoring System). the connector on the right which is visible will be connected to the network hub on the opposite side.

Temporarily installed with SS hardware.

Lots of new holes. Deburred and cleaned and then final installed both modules.

With the doubler plate rivetted to the firewall, it's now time for final installation of the shun and 60 AMP ANL fuse.

The copper bars are used to connect the components positive bat side.

Fuse installed as well. The dynon shun below is used to measure current. The 60AMP fuse above protects the wiring to the battery.

Only one picture but a very exciting moment as the VPX Sport Pro was fired up for the first time.

I wired the master switch and connected it to the master solenoid. The master solenoid is wired directly to the solenoid and is not controlled by the VPX.

When master switch was wired, I fired up the vpx. Lights came on as expected.

I wired the other switches to the pins on te d-sub connectors for switches on the VPX.

Then ran the cross ethernet cable to my laptop and started the vpx configurator software. No firmware updates were required.

The configurator has a test page which allow you to monitor the position of the switches. Very cool to see some life in the cockpit.

I cut the static line at F707 and installed a T- connector for static air supply to the Dynon ADAHRS module. the rest will be routed forward. Also solved a bypass issue on F706 where the static line had a chance of rubbing against the screw  of the canopy blocks.

Some more instrument panel work. I have planned for 2 analog backup instruments : an airspeed indicator and analog altimeter.

After carefull measurements on the panel and some test cuts on scrap, I used the flycutter to cut out the hole and used a small 3M deburring wheel to enlarge the contour to fit the instrument.

The 4 screws are a bit of a challenge and I decided to make a template out of scrap which coult be used as a drill guide so that the screws would be in the good location.

Clamped the template on the panel and drilled the 4 screw attach holes.

Then did the same for the altimeter.

Drilled the holes as well using the template.

The altimeter has some additional challenge as it requires a cut out for the barometer adjustment knob.

Drilled out the rough contour and then used some key-files to get the final shape.

Then installed the panel and found out this disaster ! I did some serious miscalculation on the location of the instruments and the bottom flange of the center rib is in the way.

Fortunatly, it's only the lower flange and not the rib vertical part by itself. That would have been a major disaster. I did some bending on the flange but soon realised that this is not going to work.

There can not be enough cleance and the bending won't go far enough.

 My solution will be to cut off the lower flange of that rib and to install and aluminium angle on the opposite side. That will clear enough space for the instruments and ensures strength is still there.

After cutting the circular analog instruments. It's time to cut out the modules template of the Dynon modules. The Dynon modules consist of the autopilot AP panel, the COM radio panel, the Baro and Heading knob panel and the intercom panel. All panels have the same cut out template except for the intercom which is rectangular.

I started by drawing the first panel cut layout on the panel. The four modules will be vertical and aligned in a 2x2 block between the analog instruments and the actual Dynon HDX1000 display unit.

First I drilled holes in the corners in order to maintain rounded corners.

then started drilling away along the contours in order to make cutting easier.

Then used a cutting wheel on the dremmel tool to cut through the centers and ended up with this hole. Now it's just a matter of filing down to the line and fitting the module.

Next I deburred and smoothed the edges until there was a good fit of the module.

It looks cool getting these things mounted to the panel. The holes for the screws will be drilled at a later stage when all modules are installed and alignment can be assured.

I continued on the other modules and got some help along the way from my son Matthias.

I continued cutting out Dynon modules from the instrument panel. When doing so, be carefull as the intercom does have another shape than the other modules.

I drew and cutout the rectangular intercom shape as last one of the modules. I try to make them sit as close as possible together .

Here is the result when sliding them into the holes. I'm still missing the radio SV-COM-833 panel which I will get pretty soon.

Smoothed and sanded the edges. This is now ready for drilling the screw attach holes.

Close up view with analog engines installed as well.  As last I also installed the elevator trim button on the panel. I will have them both on stick and on the panel.

This is the back view of the elevator button. I made a mistake when drilling the two corner holes and made them too low. Fortunatly I could identify the error soon enough before cutting away more material. I installed 2 AD3 flush rivets which solves the problem. Drilled the hole for the screws. You can see the small error in the picture below. The front plate of the button covers the rivet heads completly.

Continued some work on the elevator pushrod. Installed the pop rivets to secure the threaded rod ends that hold the rod end bearings on the F789 elevator pushrod assembly.

Finshed F789 product

Next I decided to continue on the panel cut outs. This is a dull task so I try to spread this work. I have drawn the location of the Dynon HDX1100 PFD and started drilling it out.

The easiest way to do this was to drill lots of small holles on the perimeter, use a cutting disc to do the final cutting and then use a phile to remove the left overs

In this image, the cutting was done and it's ready for the vixen phile.

After final cleaning, I temporarily fitted the screen. It looks very neat and clean.

View from the back side with the screen installed.

Drilled and countersunk the holes for the nut plate ears of the MK2000-6 nutplates that allow screwing the dynon modules to the instrument panel.

Used the pneumatic squeezer to rivet the nutplates in place.

Did a fit of the modules using #6 screws. These are not the dynon black screws but temporary testing screws. I only want to use the dynon screws upon final installation to keep them nice and clean.

Next I drilled the holes for the HDX1100 screen and installed the nutplates.

Temporarily installed the screen with the dynon allen-screws.

View from the back side. Still very open and clean here. This will definitily change when the electrical wiring will be installed.

I received some aircraftspruce goodies. Some of it were new adel clamps which I wanted to use to fixate the conduit line that runs through the cabin floor and the firewall. Drilled the holes to fix the clamps and final installed the conduit line.

Pulled the first wires through for the POS12 flap sensor wiring.

The image below shows how both lines will run through the fuselage tunnel. From the F704 side, the wires will run left and right through the electrical bushing provisions in the F704. Wires may run left or right depending on the need.

The cable is a shileded 3 multiconductor wire. Crimped the pins for the molex connector.

 Installed the cable and tested the installation on the flap assembly. The black box is the POS12 sensor that sends the flap position to the dynon system.

A long day with lots of trial and error. Wiring the Ray Allen tirm motor is NOT fun.
I thought this would be a non event as I found the technique based on crimping dsub pins on and connection them, then putting heatshrink wrap over them and be done.

Well.. reality turned out a little different. The wires attached to the trim motor or soo small that the crimping to a dsub pin did not work. The pin came of after a light pull test.

So I decided to solder the wires. I may revise this at a later stage but can't think of a better way right now. I don't want to experiment too much now as the wires are also very short and the more you try, the shorter the wire becomes.

Used my 3rd hand stand to bring the wires together and apply soldering on the join.

 Mechanically twisted the wires together.

 Apply solder and then put transparent heat shrink tube over it as stress protection.

 To avoid having all soldering at the same place, I displaced the trim motor wires position from the pos sensor wires.

 these are the trim motor wires.

 After all individual wires were heat shrinked, I covered the hole with a larger piece of black shrink wrap.

 This is how it looks like when finished

I also pulled the trim wire from the cockpit panel to the rear side underneath the stabilo.

And drilled and installed a support plate that will hold a DSub connector.

Continued work on the elevator trim wiring. Plugged in the dsub pins in a connector on at the connector side of on the aft deck.

Here's an image with the connector installed on the aft deck.

Next I wanted to put the trim up down switch on the panel in place. After reading the documentation I realised the default wiring of the trim switch is not fit to work with simple vpx switching.

The image below shows the switch internals as received by Ray Allen.

 You receive the switch as a RS2 rocker switch and will have to convert it into a momentary SPDT (single pole double throuw) switch.
The manual that comes with the motor has instructions how to rewire the switch.

 Here's the same switch after rewiring. I carefully reinstalled it inside the button harnas.

 Then Soldered the wires to the wires that will run to ground and the vpx dedicated trim switch inputs (J2-18 and J2-19).

-> note 1/3/24 : I first wired the trim to the VPX using the dedicated trim circuits. However, I do have a Dynon AP panel and found out later that the trim wiring had to be installed via the AP Panel and that the VPX trim is not used.

Behind the wires, you see a printed paper and some cutouts. This illustrates how I text-mark the wires using small print printed text and transparent heat shrink over it. A lot of work now, but image what a nightmare it would be having to find a wire behind the panel once everything is closed up.

Short session today, I  found the best possible spot for my bus bar 1. This bus bar will receive the button inputs from different input sources (stick and panel buttons for elevator and aileron trim) and it will distribute power to the Aerloeds Pulsar NAV/Strobe lights and suntail light. Drilled the holes and secured with an AN3 bolt.

 The first two connectors from the elevator trim buttons  installed.

The Dynon system communicates through the Dynon network. There are dedicated network cables identified as SV-NET cables which the Dynon system uses to communicate between the different components and devicdes. The cables exist in different lengths and the short ones have the connectors pre-installed in both ends. For the longer wire runs, only one connector is pre-installed and the other one left off to facilitate routing through the different conduits, grommets and bushings.   You can install multiple SV-NET-HUBs which serve as connection and routing points for the different SV-NET connections.

I installed one SV-NET-HUB on the cockpit side to connect the control modules, HDX and EMS.

Today I installed a second one on the F-728A bellcrank channel which will serve as connection point for the ADAHRS SV-NET cable and the SV-NET-SERVO that feeds the autopilot servo's.

The back side is close to the bellcrank channel but interferes in no way.

Next I routed the 3 nylon wires that lead into the ADAHRS module for AOA, Pitot and Static air input

I ran the long SV-NET cable from the hub behind the panel, through the center conduit, F704 and conduit underneath the passenger seat towards the new SV-NET-HUB on the bellcrank channel.

Mission accomplished, cable installed with some service loop.

I had some time left and started playing with adjusting the elevator trim pushrod. The trim is at 0° in the neutral position aligned with the elevator skin.
In the Flight inspection and test part of the manual on page 15-2 you can find the maximum  deflection of the trim tab.

Maximum up is 25° and maximum down is 35°

In my first attempts, I exceeded these values. Too much up trim and way too little down trim soo far. This will require more tweaking in the near future.

Today is a big day for the instrument panel. I installed the sub panels and the Dynon HDX panel and fired it up for the first time.
No smoke !

Here's the first boot video:

The screen on startup is not very impressing as it doesn't find any connected system after startup.

I connected ly SV-GPS2020 GPS wires to the D37 connector that feeds into the HDX display.
GND and Power go to pin 24 and 29, the signal itself is a serials RS232 signal that I attached to Serial line 5 on pin 11 for Receive and pin 12 for Transmit.

After detecting devices and firing up the screen again, we have a screen ! It has no idea yet where I am as I am in a closed garage but it clearly is seeing the GPS unit. I'll move the plane out in some days and give this a real try.

 Instrument panel removed once more and this is how the second upper bulkhead looks like with the sv dynon hub, dynon radio and vpx. The ems module is located on the other side of the bulkhead behind the sv-net hub.

 I had some time left and decided on a place for the Dynon USB data port. This is not a charging port but used to load new software and charts to the dynon screens.

 After cutout gave it a try and looks very good. Will put a label above it to indicate a data-only port

Combining the images of some short work sessions.

Positioned the TRIG transponder head in a convenient location near the HDX screen. TRIG provides a convient template sticker to facilitate the cutout.

 After cutting out, this is how it looks like with the control module in place.

I have been bugging my head for a while on the rotation of the control switches. I found and ordered some anti rotation washers at Steinair and decided the best way to do this was to add an additional layer behind the panel where I could drill a hole for the anti rotation notch to fit in . This will make the notch invisible from the forward side and still perform it's locking feature. Here is a look of the switch panel from the back. The image below is now sharp in the right place but if you look well, you see the small additional hole for the locking key of the antirotation washer below the switch hole.

With the switch in place now, it can no longer turn or move.

 Will do this for every switch in the lover end of the panel and repeat the doubler also for the trim disconnect switch middle left of the panel.

 Put all back in place. The panel starts looking real good.

I also installed the serial data connection line between the VPX serial line and serial 1 RX/TX pins of the Dynon D37 connector. VPX seems to send and transmit packages.
The on screen module itself  is still not working as I discovered that you need to order a seperate license key for VPX usage in Dynon. A bit stupid... all users with a dynon are using VPX, why not just include it into the price on purchase.

All it did now was cost more, and cause some additional delay.

I installed the Dynon SV-BAT-320 backup battery. Next to hanging the unit itself, you have to connect two wires to the D37 dynon harnass.
Then check in the setup menu where the backup battery is detected and testing status is shown.

Then started assembling the wiring harnass for the remote TRIG transponder radio. Part of these wires connect to the TRIG control unit head on the panel, one goes to VPX for power and GND block.
My TRIG transponder is installed remotely under the baggage area so that it's close to the antenna and the TXPR coax can be kept short. This requires some long wires going to the TRIG control head.
Started crimping pins and inserting them in the connectors according to the pinout scheme in the TRIG manual.

 Same for wiring on the control unit connector.

Then installed the connector on the TRIG box.

 The wiring runs forward through the passenger side conduit and moves passed the F704 on the right side, then back to the center and through the conduits to the panel.

 In the top right of the picture below, you see the connector installed in the TRIG control unit head.

Below this head, I installed the master trim disconnect switch. This is an ON-OFF switch which will disconnect the signal on the aileron trim and elevator trim power wires when switched in OFF mode. I decided to do this in order to have an interuption control on the trim motors in case of runaway trims.

After installing the COM antenna underneath the pilot seat, I needed to run the coax cable from the COM antenna to the COM radio unit. Antenna cables need to be kept to a minimal length and by preference don't run in the viscinity of other electrical wires. Therefore, I decided to make a dedicated pass through hole through the F704 bulkhead for it. Vans Aircraft provides templates that show the location where you are allowed to make holes in the F704 bulkhead.

I cut out the template and attached it to the F704 to get a better idea of where I can make this connection.

 This is the location from the forward side. The fuel line is kind of in the way a bit to have it centered and I also wanted to keep it low because of the aileron pushrod being in the way on the rear side.

Lower left of the fuel line connection, you can see where I made the whole. I will install the bushing and run the coax through.

The coax connector could only be crimped after being moved through the F704 bulkhead in order to keep the hole small. In the image below you can see how the shield is nicely cut off at the connector so that it will be completly hidden underneath the sleeve which will be crimped on.

The wiring is starting to become a bit of a spaghetti. It's time to start lacing up those wires and organise the bundles.

The coax cable connects on the com radio from the bottom side using a TNC connector.

In the image below, you see the connection from the antenna through the center bulkhead. I used a 90° adapter so that it runs straight through without sharp bends.

 From there it runs parallel to F704 forward bulkhead and then up from the side. I decided not to run this antenna through the center line conduit as there are too many electrical wires in there already and I want to avoid magnetic interference as much as possible.

As I installed the adapter on the com antenna, I stumbled upon this problem. The whole in my support plate is too small and the connector can't  bottom out all the way... grrr... more work to adjust this so that it will be able to lock in place.

Short work session but it has been a task I have been postponing for a long time because I couldn't find out a way to drill new holes through the seat ribs using a step drill.
I didn't have any drilling device which would fit between the ribs. It's really narrow in there. The step drills don't fit in my angle drill so that also was no option.
Fortunatly I found a small air drill from a friend that had a similar hex adapter where the back of my needle step drill fitted in.

I drilled the two holes so that I can run the Pitot line and AOA line from the outerbay through 2 ribs to the conduit which runs to behind the baggage area where I have free routing access to the ADAHARS module.

 Inserted the nylon tubing through the new holes.

 I connected the SV-NET cable from the dynon EMS module to the SV-NET-HUB and after detecting the new module in the skyview network, I now have a full visible display without the ugly red crosses. In the lower part of the screen, I now get the engine data.

I also wired programmed the avionics switch so that it fires up the transponder and com radio's. The TRIG transponder also shows some signs of life.

 The master is the first switch lower left, the avionics switch the 4th one.

 I also received the intercom wiring harnass. I have been puzzled by the shield connections leading into a single ground and opening the connector reveiled a lot of info for me.

Seems that all shields are brought together here by a kind of clamp. I won't need all of the wires so I'll probably have to cut out some of them.

 Another view at the merging of the shields and a single black ground connection. All this to avoid ground loops.

The goodie bag from Steinair was delivered today so I could continue working on the Dynon ADAHRS module. Fittings to connect the nylon tubing is not delivered by Dynon so had to order these little snap-on connectors extra from Steinair.

The fittings I ordered are product SKU: P-501, Fitting Straight 1/8 NPT..

They come with teflon tape preinstalled on the NPT fitting so it's easy as screwing them in and attaching the nylon tube.

I attached the nylon foots on the bulkhead ribs to secure the tubes with tiewrap strips and routed the lines to the ADAHRS. I had to buy also some extra hardware to attach the ADAHRS to the ADAHRS bracket. By preference these have to be non ferrous to avoid magnetic interference with the magnetometer in the ADAHR module. I found a website where I could order some copper bolts and screws.

I also received the USB charger. I had been looking for this for a while as I wanted a charger that had 1 classic USB port and a new style USB-C port.
Drawn it on the panel and drilled out as I usually make openings in the panel.

Next image, the inner surface has been cut out but using a little dremel cutting disc and cutting through the drilled holes.

After smoothing and sanding, the USB charger is in place.

Continued work to install the wiring on the Dynon COM radio. My COM radio is a 8.33spacing radio.

Splitting power and ground wires and heat shrinking

COM Radio connected. The skyview network communicates with the radio through the COM-Panel-Module.

The COM-Panel module is wired to the actual radio remote box. Now the COM radio functions are available on the HDX display.

COM radio can be controlled by using the touch screen or using the knobs and buttons on the dedicated COM-Panel.

I found out recently that the trim motors have to be connected to the Dynon SV-AP-PANEL autopilot panel in order to have the ability to have the autopilot control the trim.

Additionally, trim positions only show on the display if they are connected to Dynon instead of directly to the VPX.

So I had to disconnect the wiring again from the VPX pins and reroute and reinstall them to the SV-AP-PANEL and the EMS module.

The 3 sensor position wires are connected at the EMS module and the TRIM switches are connected to the SV-AP-PANEL.

In the diagram below, you can see how my trim system is wired.

First I tried to configure the EMS220 to detect the flaps settings from the VPX so that the flap positions would be visible on the HDX screen.

The flaps pos12 sensor is wired to the VPX and the VPX is connected to Dynon using a serial data line.

By default, the flap position sensor is configured on pin 22 as Position. This has to be modified to "Unused".

Then the link of the flap position has to be made to the vpx. This is done in the VPX settings screen of the HDX and setting it to "VPX" instead of Skyview EMS.

 When these settings are made, you can go back to EMS Setup screen and go to Sensor Debug Data. At the end, you see the VPX related data.

Another screen is the Hardware Calibration screen where you can calibrate the positions for the different flap positions. Select Flaps VPX calibration.

The system takes you through the steps to measure the various voltages at the different flap positions for up, 10, 20 and 30 degrees. Just set the flaps to the correct position and push the button to move to the next step. Dynon remembers the voltages at each setting and will use this to display the needle on the main screen.

here is the needle on the mainscreen at 20° flaps.

 In the next step, I started playing around with the tirm settings. Here you have to select Skyview EMS as the trim position wires are wired directly to the Dynon EMS module.

 Continued working on the wiring run of the elevator motor wiring and the empenage fairing.

 I made an additional hole for a busing through F-710 bulkhead as I'm moving my SUB-connector one bay more backwards as initially planned. Touched up with primer as I damaged the initial primer a bit. Just used a brush so it looks a bit messy.

Then reinstalled the dsub connector plate for attaching the trim motor wiring. This makes it easy to disconnect and remove the elevator if needed. As you can see I initially installed it in the forward two lightning holes (left) but filled those up again with 2 "rivets to nowhere"

 Bottom view of the connector and wiring run through the new hole in F-710 bulkhead. The wires running through this are: temperature sensor, trim motor multiconductor and aeroled suntail multiconductor.

 The aeroled suntail connector wire runs through the  F-711 secured by and adel clamp.

 It creates no disturbance for the elevator pushrod and goes straight down behind the F-711 to exit low on the F-712 final bulkhead.

The difficulty with being passed the Vans Manual plans is always the question : what will I do next ?

As I'm working on wiring and becoming summer time (able to move plane outside with wings on), I decided to tackle the aircraft lightning.

Started with the Aeroleds VX Landing lights. These are lights that Aeroleds produces especially for the RV fleet and contains both Landing Lights as Taxi lights which fit perfectly in the rear tab of the plexi wing tips.

The landing light installation kit coms with a precut wooden template and a nice and clear set of instructions with lots of pictures.

Although the instructions are clear, doing the actual fitting raised a number of doubts.
The little gaps around the cutout area are inspection holes to verify how much material is still visible in the hole and to be able to align that so that finally you end up with equal clearence from the tip border on all sides.
Easier said than done. On one tip, I found that the upper side of the gap was going to be awfully close to the wing tip edge and decided I needed to move the template down a bit.
Doing that creates a problem on the lower side as the wood interferes then with the curved 90° edge inner corner of the tip.
So I sanded a radius on the bottom of the template and tried again. This time got satisfied with the alignment and drilled the two holes which position the template

With the template positioned, you can now draw the countour using the template

This is how it ended up after drawing. I still wasn't satisfied as I found the upper edge still too close to the tip corner.
As you can see in the image below, I made some epoxy and closed the holes again to restart from scrath :(

After curing, redrilled and got closer to how I wanted it.

 Still pretty close but better than what I had before.

Cut out the plexy with the dremel and a cutting wheel and then will continue with sanding drum on the dremel to sneak up to the line.

Installation of pilot side landing light continues. I finalised that cutout and sanded it smooth.
The next step is to protect the landing light with masking tape and then slide it into place using the two set screws on the inner corner.
Be carefull doring this, The ears on the landing light are in plastic and not very strong.

The next procedure is to sand away more material from the contour until the landing light can freely move and kind of floats in the gap just supported by the two inner ears and a single connection point in the wing tip outer corner.
The size required around the perimeter is close to the thickness of a card or business card. I used small carton cards to slide between the lamp and epoxy to check for clearance. It 's a process that requires patience.

 First cut out complete, next wing tip ready for the same work.

 Applied the template other side and traced the perimeter with a sharpie. Surprisingly, using the same template, the upper edge clearence on the passenger side is more liberal. That means there must be some small differences in the molds of the wingtips.

Same procedure of installation on the passenger side. My cutout on the inner side is a bit liberal but I will live with it. If I have a lot of patience and time left, I may fill it up with some epoxy later but I doubt it is worth is.

 This is the inside look with the screws installed. The light floats inside the gap and is support by the two screws. and a single tab on the outside. The screws allow the lamp to be tilted slightly up or down.

 Left wing also close to done.

At the point I made the pictures below, I didn't realize yet how bad it was to do this. I followed the manual and looked at the pictures there and installed the screws to the depth as also specified in the manual and the prescribed distance that the light protrudes through the front. Well... I can tell you: DO NOT DO THIS !

Some later after making this, I found out that the ears on the landing light (the black extensions) cracked and broke at the nut. These things are very vulnarable and cannot get any tension.
If you screw them on this much, the presssure on the tab is too high. Either by the spring, or touching the epoxy. Anyways, I learned the hard way.

Fortunatly I received a new one later on from Aeroleds and they classified it as a production problem but they did tell me that what's in the manual is wrong and you should never have to screw the screws to the depth you see in the image below. (although there are similar pictures in the manual)

Having said that, I started installing the outer connection point for the landing light. I will make a combination of the drilling and epoxy methods.
First I will drill 2 holes in the tab to position and secure it on the inside. Later I will epoxy the tab, put the clecoes in and remove them as they are nearly dried and will then fill up the 2 drilled gaps with some epoxy.

With the landing light finally positioned. I decided to continue following their manual and install the Pulsar NSP lights on the other side of the wing tip. Positioned the lines according to the distances specified in the manual and drilled the holes for the Y shaped form that will hold the nav light in place.

Drilled.

Did the same for both the wings and also made the pass through hole for the wiring of the navlight.

Temporary install of the nav light. Looking very good.

Nice and centered. A set screw in the rear of the nav light holds it in place.

 Next up will be the wiring of the lights. There are some special pins for this one but I can use my regular molex crimper on them.

Scuffed the plastic tab that will be epoxied to the outside of the wingtip outer edge. you need to mask the innerpart to protect it from binding epoxy as it contains a rubber ring which gives the light some vibration resistance.

Epoxied in place and ready to cure... as you can see in the image, the disaster which I described in the previous article already happened. the op tab broke off and gave me a lot of frustration.

 As you can see it cracked on the side and then broke of in the middle of the nut. There can be no pressure on this thing. In my opinion a bit of a weak design.

I have been thinking for a while about the installation of connectors at the wing root for wiring of the nav and landing lights, fuel senders, stall warner and Dynon autopilot wiring.

I went through all the debates of having an additional potential point of failure and the fact you will probably never ever remove the wings again.

I initially bought some CPC connectors but these finally looked quite bulky and required a rather big cutout hole in the side rib of the fuselage in the outer seat rib.
I finally found a builder who had used deutsch connectors. These are really nice and are fully weather proof.

The nice thing is that I can mount them on the side of the seat rib using a piece of aluminium angle and be done with it.

The type of connector is DTM deutsch connectors. I bought them at Mouser Electronics. They are quite expensive but worth the price.

In the image above and below you see they can easily be stacked in the narrow space between the side of the fuselage and the inner wing rib.
I will install them slightly angled. the connector will insert from the front side and the wiring will penetrate more backwards in the middle of the seat rib.

These are the 2 angle brackets I made to stack the connectors on the passenger right side.
The bottom connector on the passenger side will take the NAV and landing/taxi light wiring, fuel sender wire.
The top connector will have 7 wires from the Dynon Autopilot wiring harnas.

On the pilot side there will be only one connector required.
The wiring here is for NAV, landing/taxi lights, fuel sender and stall warner.

On the front side of the F7105-A sub panel behind the instrument panel, I installed an additional terminal block.You can see the two AN3 bolts holes (one with temporary a castle nut on it ) on the left side of the sv-com box.

The is the view from the front.
On the left side I had my terminal block that has the wiring for the trim switch wires on the top, the AP/disconnect in the middle and the NAV lights wires on the bottom.
On the right side you see the smaller new terminal block which will be used for the Aerosun VX landing/taxi light wiring.

On the FWD fuselage rib, you can see another terminal block which is used to split Power wires from the EMS module.

Not sure yet if I will maintain this or solve it in another way as I'm not completly sure yet how many of these split power sources I will need for the sensors.

Pulled the plane-side wiring for the landing lights. As mentioned earlier, I'm installing DTM deutsch connectors at the wing root.

Drilled a small hole in the seat rib and installed a rubber grommet. This small hole is enough to accomodate all wires for the 2 connectors.
In the image below I pulled the 2 multiconductor wires for the NAV and Aerosun VX landing lights

Bringing it all together through the center conduit that runs between the center floot stiffeners on either side of the electrical aux fuel pump. From there it runs up on the sides of the F-601N-L and R stiffeners spitting out the wires at the top forwardside on the firewall. Don't forget to label each wire as you pull it. Wiring quickly turns into a circus (or the so called "spaghetti wiring").

Installed one of the Aerosun VX multiconductor wires on the new terminal block. The other will join the same terminals on the left side, the right side will run to the VPX power pins for powering of the Landing Light, Taxi Light and WigWag. The WigWag is actually not a signal wire but a full blown power wire and needs an appropriate 9Amp circuit breaker just like the Landing Light.

Same work pilot side.

This is how it looks on the inside underneath the seat covers.

Pop rivetted the brackets in place

In former life... (read as "many years ago"), I fabricated a custom made parking brake attach bracket for the firewall. I had already drilled and installed it. Now I started figuring out how to route the CT-cable  to operate the parking brake and found that I would have to fabricate some additional angle construction to hold the cable in place with an adel clamp above the parking brake valve.
As I went through my stuff I stumbled upon a box I had bought a very long time ago. It contained a parking brake installation kit with holding adapter and an arm mounted to it which can hold the adel clamp.

So drilled out my old custom made bracket and looked for a suitable place at more or less the same location to install this new bracket. I will close the holes in the firewall from the old one using some "rivets to nowhere" and seal them off with some additional 3M firewall barrier.

In this session I just drilled the adapter to the firewall and installed the nutplates on the inside of the bracket that will hold the parking brake valve in place.
As the mounting bracket is in a different location, I will also need to remake or adjust the aluminum brake lines that run from the firewall penetration point for the brakes to the parking brake valve.

In previous session I had some time left to make a small aluminum adapter  for the suntail light.
I taped this new adapter to the rear of the rudder bottom and made some markings for cutting out some epoxy. This hole will allow the Aeroled suntail cable to protrude inside the rudder fairing.

I cut the hole, drilled two #30 holes and rivetted the adapter on the rudder fairing.

Additionaly, I marked the position on the vertical stabilisor  rear spar where the multiconductor wire for the light will pass through.

Drilled the hole and deburred. The wire will pass though here and I will put some RTV around it to keep it in place.

I installed the wiring on the cockpit side on my busbar for nav lights and tested the electrical connection. The light works perfectly both in steady NAV light modus as in strobe mode as in NAV + strobe mode. This was very satisfying.

to celebrate the success, I opened a 10 year old Orval beer. For the connaisseurs of Belgium beers, you will know that Orval beer is hard to get and a 10 year old one is a treat.
This one has been in the cellar for a very long time and preserved for special occasions. Having the lights come on in the tail light gives me a lot of confidence that the remaining light work will also a walk in the parc from here.

With the suntail tested and working, I thought it was a good idea to continue the wiring of the wing tip lights. My plan is to bring the plane out, attach the wings and have everything lighted up.

Installed the molex connectors for the Aeroson Pulsor NSP lights first. This will allow for easy removal of the wingtip or replacement of the NAV light if ever needed.

Then ran the multiconductor wires for navigation lights and taxi/landing lights through the conduit. The multiconductor wire is shielded and the GND wire is connected all the way through across the shield.
You don't want the GND wire attached to the outer rib locally as this may increase the risk of ground loops that will cause electromagnetic interference on the radio's.

I had to do some research and get help from fellow builders as I'm not a big hero in electrical work. The best way to do this is to connect the GND wire on the shield and have the shield on the cockpit side connect to the GND block. To achieve the connection of the GND wire to the shield, steinair sells solder sleeve. These our heat shrinkable plastic tubes with low temperature solder inside which can melt the solder inside by heating with a heatgun. Some glue at front and end of the solder sleeve ensure a thight fit of the sleeve
In the image below, you can see the solder sleeve installed on the wire (just below the block heat shrink).
To install such a sleeve, you expose a part of the shield by cutting back the insulation. put the heat shrink over the wire with the solder ring over the expose shield. The blue glue goes on the remaining insulation side. Then you slide the black gnd wire underneath the solder sleeve at the same position as the shield and apply the heat from the gun. Heat evenly so that the solder melts equally.The wire is attached from the back which forms a more solid connection once some additional heat shrink is place over the assembly. The image below shows direction of the black GND wire. It will be folded back with the other wires and attach to the connector. 

The only local grounding I have it for the lightning protection of the light case to the frame. That's the little tab you see on the image below near the front and top of the wing. 

Close up image of the solder sleeve

Both wires done. I kept a service loop for both wired. The individual wire added on top of the 2 multiconductor wires is the 20AWG sync-cable for the landing lights.
The sync cable for the landing lights does not run back to the panel area but is a straight connection between the two deutsch connectors in the wing roots. I believe the sync cable is used to synchronise the wig wag function of the Aerosun VX taxi/lights.

Pins are crimped and connectors installed. This one is ready for attaching the wingtip and testing the lights. The white connector is a standard 5 wire molex connector where only 4 positions are used. The black one is a more robust connector and also has molex style crimped pins. Both were delivered with the lights.

Repeated the same on the other wing.

Today was one of those days that makes airplane building fun. 
It was a long day but it was definitly worth it.
(Keep reading till the end, there's a nice video of the lights at the end of the article )

As all my electrical connections are made for the aircraft lights, I decided that I wanted to see it all in action with the wings on and the tips attached. I also needed to re-test my com radio and this is better done with the plane outside than in the workshop. Now with all the tips and fairings attached, this will give a more finished view of the airplane overall and leads to some good photo-memory-moments.

Slipping the wings on took a while and went more difficult than I remember from the last time but in the end we managed to slide the temporary bolts in place. The tips went on and the electrical connectors attached. With the RV standing on it's own legs, this is truly a wonderfull sight. As you can see, this was in front of my garage with the public street in front of it. No need to say I got a lot of very strange and surprised faces as people walked by.

wide angle view from the back.

Shot this video testing the rudder, elevator and trim movement

And another image from the front.

One of the reasons I also wanted to have the wings back on was to check the installation of my Deutsch Connectors in the wingroot and check how all of this would sit in relation to the aileron pushrods. I'm still also not decided on how the pitot and AOA tube will run there. The connectors are good. The space is very thight in there but the way I placed is a succes.

Wing tip lenses in place. Now it's time for the sun to go under and admire the lights.

Finally sunset... the wait was actually the longest part. Ready for some action.

Matthias shot this video as I tested the switches. His reaction after 15seconds when the strobes come on says enough. They are very very bright.

The lights you see in the video in sequence are : nav and position lights, strobes added, taxi lights, landing lights, wig wag mode and wig wag with strobes on.
When all is on, it's a lot worse than a flickering christmas tree. See and be seen won't be a problem in this one.

A very rewarding day that renews motivation for the rest to come.

My friend Gordon from Wollongong sent me a couple of tips and images of how he organised the wiring in the wing tips of his RV7.
I liked the idea and more or less copied his work.

First of all, I made a grounding angle with 2 tabs that will connect with a pulled rivet on the outer wing rib. This will not serve as local grounding, but will be used for lightning protection.

The real GND is routed back on the shielding to the firewall GND block to minimize radio interference. The case grounding that serves as lightning protection is grounded on this tab and is local.
The aluminum used is maybe a bit too thick for the application and the test slip of some fast on connectors leaves a couple of scratches. However, it also means the connection will be well and thight.

Next I made 2 support brackets from aluminum angle to support the conduit line at the outer rib. 2  AN5158R8 screws (MS35206-245) with washer and nuts will hold the angle to the rib and one AN3 hole in the other flange will be the base for an adel clamp holding the conduit.

Drilled the holes in the outer wing rib.

Attached the hardware and clamped the conduit. Looks good.

Did the same on the other wing.

A couple of weeks have gone by. I had a hip surgery on 6th of December and walking on crutches since. As I'm starting to get a little more mobile, I was thinking of things that I could do on the plane with same extra pair of helping hands. One of those things was wiring the fuel senders.This has been on my mind for a while, thinking of the stupidity I had to fasten the tanks without attaching an electrical signal wire to the Stewart Warner fuel senders. These are of resistive type and only required one wire running back to to cockpit. The GND wire is locally grounded to the structure.

I had the tanks screwed and bolted on but the fuel sender is located in the back of the second bay. There is no way to access that than to remove the tank agin.

I thought this would be an easy task. Just remove some screws and bolts and off they go. Well, that turned out to be a different story. With all the screws and bolts removed, the tank didn't move 1/64 of an inch. The dimples being in the countersunk holes all the way along the spar and sides make that the take remains in a thight position. I had to slide thin pieces of aluminum strip underneath the edges to push them up and then gently tapping along the rear edge with a long woodblock and rubber mallet. Still not a lot was moving. Until with some extra taps I could get some movement on the middle of the wing as the forward skin can about 1/32 of an inch forward of the other outer forward skin. I then used a long screwdriver (padded) and was able to pull the tank forward and it gently came loose.

long story to say: don't worry, even if some screw would fail on this, there is no way the tank is coming of your wing. I hope this was the last time they had to come off as it turned out to be a full day task just for one.

I then tested the resistance reading with the tank in both positions. I had done this before when I closed the tanks so no need to break the tank sealant and move the arm. turning the tank upside down will move the arm down and allow me to make the fulle or empty reading. The max resistence on the tank-emptyside was 248 ohms, and I had 42 ohms on the full positions.
The expected range of these is to be between 33 and 240 ohms so I'm definitly on the good side here. I'm not 100% sure at this time but I believe these values get calibrated in the Dynon EMS system.

Connected the single wire and pulled it through and already existing tooling hole in the spar with a bushing

The next day, I did the same job on the other tank. Readings here varied between 35.1 ohms full and 244.3 ohm empty

There is only one connector for the signal wire which is on the screw in the middle of the sender. The GND is wired to the structure on the inside of the tank within the fuel sender mechanism.

Having some more fun with the landing light wiring.

The Aerosun VX is landing/taxi light combo is produced by Aeroleds and is wired using 5 wires.
One 3 conductor shielded wire with 18AWG, the shielding operates as GND. 1 single 20 AWG wire which is a direct connection between the two lights for syncing the lights.

The shields of the multiconductor are merged and connected at the terminal side with an extra 18 AWG wire that routes directly to the GND firewall block.
The other side has the same setup where the GND then connects to the light. The lights are in my case not locally grounded to the frame to avoid radio interference. The shield serves as protection for the radiomagnetic interference.

In order to connect the end wires to the shield, I used solder sleeves which I purchased at Steinair.

These are very handy little tools which contain a heat shrinkable fabric, some low temperature melting solder inside and a glue on both sides.
The dark blue side goes on the main wire and holds both auxiliary wire and main multiconductor.
You strip away the insulation and leave some of the shielding exposed. Then you insert the crimped wire and make sure the insulations border of both match up.

The next step is to use a heat gun and evenly heat up the solder sleeve. It will start shrinking rapidly but takes some time before the solder inside actually melts and joins the wires.
It's quite important to evenly heat the solder all around so that it melts more or less at the some moment.

Finally colver the joint up with heat shrink and support the returning wire with a strip.
I overdid mine a bit by first adding a heatshrink for support over the solder joint, then returned the wire and put another wide heatshring over both the return wire and the multiconductor as for extra strength.

Same procedure on the wire for the other wing. The two GND wires run independently to the GND block.

In a previous article, I described the process of installing my Aerosun VX taxi/landing lights.
The legs on my landing lights broke and I received a new pair from Aerosun.

Overall they provide great service  and waranty ! No complaints about that.

I do have my doubts on the system how these lights are made and designed. The plastic legs are very weak spots and I doubt this will withstand vibration before they will crack and break again.

To make sure the wholes where straight before reinstalling the new set, I closed the existing holes with west system epoxy, sanded it smooth and restarted the installation process as described in the installation manual.

(update 01/02/25 : they DID break again... just by moving the wingtips with a lot of care to another spot. I plan on not returning them but fixing them in play with a blob of epoxy over the leg once it's in position. I won't be able to adjust the landing light but that's the price I have to pay. I'll tweak them once the plane is done and then glue the leg with epoxy and fixate the whole damned thing)

Took the template out and aligned it with the already cut hole in order to redrill the 2 screw holes in the bottom. THe template allows you to eyeball the space between light and edge of the tip but looking through the rectangular cut outs.

Once drilled I reinstalled the light with the screws and springs. As you can see there is a gap under and above the legs so the legs don't touch the wingtip and are floating on the 2 screws and the outer leg that gets epoxied on the outer edge of the wing tip.

Both lights done and duck taped the inner side to the tip for stability while appying the epoxy on the outer leg. The manual  describes quite well how to do this. Just make sure you don't put too much so that you can still remove the light. There is a small rubber band inside the outer holding tab which allows to remove and reinstall the light. Putting some masking tape over the rubber on the outside. that way, the epoxu slurry can't creep into the rubber and light arm.

Better picture of the epoxy on the outer edge of the wingtip. As I'm already working on electrical connections, I also installed the connectors. The connectors are delivered with the lights and have molex style pins.

Time to let this cure and see how the lights keep up now.

Trying to find more small tasks to accomplish on the electrical system. Next up is the stall warner sirene. This is a small printboard that converts the signal coming from the stall warner vane in the wing into a audible signal. It took me a while to fine the schema and the plans of the stall warner again as this was something I touched last time when making the wings several years ago. 
Fortunatly I could quickly find the hardware and found a suitable spot for it on the left side of the 2nd sub panel behind the instrument panel. There is some hardware in the kit but I will probably need longer spacers and screws for it.  In the image below, the 2 holes are drilled and the printboard module screwed on to the subpanel

Then installed the wiring. One wire comes from the stall warner hardware in the wing. It passes through the deutsch connector in the wingroot and travels  though the conduit in the center fuselage up to the sub panel. The other 2 wires are GND and PWR.  The PWR is a power pin J8-1 with a 2 amp circuit breaker on the VPX that's "always on" (not switched).

I installed the sound signal wire as well and connected id to a aux input to pin 17 on the Dynon SV-Intercom-2. However, the alarm was so loud that I couldn't keep my headset on.

There is no switch or potentiometer on the printboard so the volume can't be adjusted. I did some research on the forums and found that you can install a resistor inline with the sound signal cable and this reduces the volume. Another option is a potentiometer that will increase or decrease the resistance  depending on the setting. I didn't like the idea of an additional board just for a potentiometer. If the volume is good, there is no need to change it later so I decided for the resistor solution.
I ended up with  the need of a 20K ohm resistor. As I didn't have such a resistor at hand, I placed 2 x 10K ohm resistors in series which has the same outcome.

The sound is still loud and overwhelms the radio audio but that's probably what you want when stalling.

As the values were good I started soldering the resistors. I mechanically connected them and then applied solder. Still one of my least favorite things to do when dealing with the electrical system.

Solder applied and also the 2 wires soldered on each end. This is the way you want to solder resistors inline with a wire. This method makes the connection stronger and reduces the possibility of stress and breaking due to vibration. Some heat shrink will be placed over this connection that creates a stronger joint compared to soldering everyting straight and in line.

the double wire and the resistors make it thick. You need a larger size heat shrink but this will not bind very well to a single wire. So I first took two ends of solder sleeve of a smaller diameter and placed that over the postion in front and behind the resistors. That already thickens the wire a bit.

Next place a longer end of larger sleeve over the entire assembly and applied heat. Reinstalled the wire to the Intercom and tested.  Everything works as expected. I also have AOA warning via the dynon pitot tube and Dynon Skyview HDX system. So the stall warner is kind of like a secundary protection.

The closer I get to finishing the instrument panel, the more I worry about how to apply labels or lettering to the switches.
I have been searching for a long time but now found a great solution which I purchased and ran some test with.

I will have a black or dark grey panel so the letters will have to be in white. Not easy to print... I first tested with some decals that you push through using a pencil. After some tests I gave up on that idea. The decals are hard to find in custom fonts and applying them is a mess. Also spacing letter per letter will nog make a very nice end result.

I then came across a company called Ghost White Toner. They provide laserjet toners that can print white ink. All you need to do is replace your black toner cartridge by this white cartridge and all you print in black will now be white. The company also sells special blue decal paper on which you can print with a laser. I made some test labels and printed a test page.

You cut out the labels with a sharp knife and then make the decal wet with a spounge soaked in some water. As you wetten the decal the blue paper releases underneath the actual decal and you can slide it from underneath. As long as it's wet, you can still gently apply pressure to reposition. Once dry, it stick well to the surface. The only disadvantage to this is that it will release again when it comes in contact with water again. 
My plan is to paint the panel, then scuff the panel to get is ready for a matt transparent coat. The decals will be applied to the scuffed panel. Very happy with how this turned out.

I will apply some more sizes of text and have it test coated with a final later of transparent lack.

This is the decal applied on the painted and scuffed plate of aluminum. As it's applied now, the readability is very good. It looks more shiny where the decal is but once the coat will be applied the entire panel will look the same. 

Finally, to finish the day, I updated the software on the Dynon HDX. Doing firmware upgrades is always a stressy moment as I know as an IT guy how much can go wrong during firmware upgrades but this time also it went smooth.

Waiting for the engine, I'm looking for addiontal tasks to be completed. The lack of a more detailed manual or track after the finishing kit is completed makes planning remaining tasks more difficult. As I'm working on electrical parts, I decided to tackle the Dynon autopilot servo installation. I remembered I had purchased the install kit with mount bracket for both the roll and pitch servo's. The roll servo bracket was installed when I assembled the aileron pushrodes and installed the hinge. The bracket on the pitch servo still had to be done and I had to dig deep in the dust to find the bag with the pitch servo hardware.
After reading through the manual delivered with the kit, I started with the elevator bellcrank (F-635). The dynon servo pushes a pushrod that moves this bellcrank back and forward. To allow for this connection, an additional hole has to be drilled in the elevator bellcrank. an AN3 bolt will hold the servo pushrod connection.

To have a better idea of how this is working, I temporarily installed the dynon servo on the bracket and installed the pushrod.
I wanted to get a better idea of distances and power required to move the servo arm. The manual stresses multiple times on controlling the over center position and I wanted to visualize this with the actual hardware. The length of the pushrod and distance fom the elevator bellcrank seem to result in the servo arm being slightly forward in the elevator bellcrank neutral position. The angle between the pushrod and the servo arm needs to be close to 90° in this neutral position to avoid over center locking in either forward or backward movements.

Rear view of the pushrod to servo arm assembly.

To determine the location of the elevator servo kit attach bracket. I needed to place the elevator bellcrank in the neutral position. This is achieved when the bellcrank is perpendicular to the F-729B bellcrank rib and angle.I placed a square on the aluminum angle on the bellcrank rib and verified that the new drilled hole was centered.

With the servo on the bracket and the pushrod attached, I moved the servo bracket back and forward until I got the desired spacing with the pushrod arm bearing screwed in at least half way in the pushord on both sides. 

Clamped, removed the servo and drilled the holes. I added 3 extra holes on the bottom side for extra strength.

Primed the bracket, dimpled the bottom skin holes and then used the squeezer to install the AN470AD4 rivets. The AN426AD3 rivets in the bottom skin were shot with the gun.

I already made the attachment angles for the deutsch connectors so now was a good time to do the wiring of the nav and landing light wiring on the male side of the connectors. These have male or pin connections.  The part coming from the wing is the female connector and has female sockets

In an earlier article, I described how you use the shield of the multiconductor wire as GND wire behind the instrument panel on the cockpit side.
As I am disconnecting the wire at the wing root, I also have to pass the shield signal through the connector. So the same procedure of using soldersleeve and adding a gnd wire is applied here at the connector side to allow passing GND through one of the pins (and through the shield) of the 2 connecting wires.

In the image below, the nav multiconductor shielded wire and landing light shielded wire are prepared and covered with heat shrink. I installed all pins in the connector and temporarily installed the connector to check. I will probably still attach and adel clamp to keep the rear of the wires in the bend close to the outer fuselage. The space between the wing and fuselage is really narrow there and the wire won't probably run nowhere, but I don't like the idea of loose wires or chafing wires as subject to vibration.

Forward view with the pins inserted. There is another plastic insertable lock cover that keeps the pins in place

Same work completed on the passenger side. On this side there will be an additional connector on top of this one for the Dynon autopilot wiring harnass.

One pin less on this one, the other one also carries the stall warner signal.

Next I prepared the wires on the wing side. The idea here is the same but on the female connector and with female pins. Just need to keep your head around making sure you match up the right colors in the right positions. It's always good to keep a connector schema in your documentation that descibes pin numbers and functions.

This is the female connector with the plastic protection cover over the pins already inserted.

On the rear side, you can install small pins in the outer plastic to cover in order to seal out moisture from the pin positions that are unused..

bul

as a final task today, I pulled the 20 AWG wire for syncing the landinglights through the fuselage. The wire connects both landing lights, splits through the connectors and runs via the F704 bulkhead to the other side of the fuselage.

Soon I will be testing the landing lights and nav lights. I though this would be a good moment to install the wingtip lenses as well.

Vans provides you with a single transparent lens which you will have to cut in half. Since you probably already cut your canopy in half, this should not be scary anymore. The material left on the lens will be liberal so you don't have to be very precise on making this initial cut in half. I just pulled a string over the lens and marked the line with a pen.

I used the same cutting disc as used for the canopy cutting and some minutes later, the lens is split and ready for fitting on the wingtip.

As you can see, there is plenty of material left to work with so the initial cut is not critical.
The next step is finding the ideal fit for the lens. This is more difficult than it seems because the 3D shape of the lens can be move and positioned in a lot of positions that all seemed pretty ok but slightly change the form. I decided with the most logical way, which was measuring an equal spacing between the bottom of the wingtip line and the bottom of the lens. Tha way at least you know it's not tilted. I marked the line on the lens for further cutting. I did the initial cut quite liberal as I didn't want to run short of material once it slides in the inset. After cutting, used the belt sander to grind away more material.

Wen all the cutting was complete, rounded the corners and sanded the edges. Quite satisfied with the result.

Wings come in pairs so up to the other tip.

Did the same procedure on this side and fit the lens in place.

I did some more tweaking of both (read as: being anal again) and then attached the lens with some duct tape.

This was a good moment to drill the holes for the screw that will hold the lens in place. The manual only uses 1 nutplate on each side in the inner corner. 

I didn't like that idea and wanted some additional screws so drilled two additional holes on each side in the middle.

side view

Then reamed the holes for #30. will be further drilled to #19 for some stainless 6R6 screws and tinnerman washers.

6 

Continued installing fasteners for attachment of the wing tip lenses. Drilled the nutplate ear holes and countersunk the rivet holes for countersunk rivets.

deburred and countersunk the lenses for #6 screws.

close up image of the countersink.

Next installed the nutplates with pulled rivets. I didn't like the idea of using the rivet gun on epoxy to set some solid rivets. I will use some epoxy to close up the holes in the pulled rivets. After painting this will all be smooth.

lens installed with cleco's in the nutplates, I did a test install with the tinnerman washers and a #6 screw in the corner.

Repeated the work on the other tip.

With the bracket installed, I could now install the servo motor to the bracket.

Update : install the motion limiting bracket before you install the motor on the bracket. you are not able to slide the bracket in once the servo is on the bracket (ask me how I know)

I torqued the bolts and checked the location of the holes in the heads of the bolts so that they are in good location for safty wire locking. If a hole doesn't line up well after torqueing, you may try to switch bolt locations. I had to retry a couple of times and came up with this wiring result. The holes are very close the the flanges of the bracket and this makes installing this safety wire more difficult.

Installed the pins and servo wires in the DSub connector.

Installed the connector in it's housing

Applied some torque lacquer and connected the DSub connectors

Next in the electrical installation is the installation of the Dynon roll servo. The gold colored anodized angle bracket supplied with the roll servo kit was already installed but I had to take all AN3 bolts out because the aileron bellcrank has to be drilled for installation of a nutplate that will hold the servo pushrod.
Also took some time to determine the correct length to cut the servo wiring so that it would not interfere with the aileron bellcrank and still have sufficient length on the wing root side. 

Crimped the DSub pins and installed in the connector. This contains 2 pair of data cables and a servo power and GND line. The Servo power and GND line connect directly to the electrical system and are NOT connected to the servo network. The servo's draw too much power to install on the regular Dynon network data bus. The manual states explicitly that you may damage the system without warranty if you connect the servo's power to the network hubs. My servo power runs straight from 2 VPX power pins and black GND goes straight to the GND bus on the firewall. I isntalled an extra switch on the panel that disconnects power to the roll and pitch servo's with a simple switch to OFF.  Using the VPX logic to switch of power pins is similar to mechanically installing a switch between the lines. With the VPX way of doing things, there is no load on the switch.

The space through the inspection hole in the wing skin makes it difficult to install the motor. I took the support bracket out and installed the rear bolt on the workbench. I drilled a small hole in the bracket and used it to secure the safety wire of the bolt. View from the side:

Safety wire view from the back.

Then placed the servo in it's location on the servo attach bracket. Routed the wiring and installed some adelclamps in the critical places where you need to keep the wiring away and secured from the aileron hinge bracket movement. I drilled 2 holes in the rib for AN515-8R8 screws and reused one of the aileron attach nutplates. Installed next size (length) bolt on this because of the extra gauge of the adel clamp ears. Secured the connectors on the main spar with some strips. 

Same thing view from the rear spar.

Front view of the servo with the pushrod temporarily installed and the bolts safety wired. On the aileron servo, the servo arm is nicely in it's 90° top center position with the aileron bellcrank in it's neutral position. (use the jig supplied with the wing kit to place the aileron bellcrank in it's neutral position).

With the servo installed, I wanted to install the motion limiting bracket on the servo arm. The motion limiting bracket has multiple predrilled hole locations that allow installing it at different angles.

The whole idea hear is to ensure that the servo arm cannot pull the pushrod so far that it would lock up and block the movement of the pushrod. This would be a disastrous event if it would happen in flight as it would lock up the elevator control. The pushrod and the servo arm should be installed so that there is a 90° angle formed between the servo arm and the servo pushrod. This would allow full motion up and down (forward and back) on the elevator bellcrank.  When installing the pushrod make sure this alignment is made and verify the arm in the extreme elevator locations full up and full down. Range of motion should never exceed 60 degrees from neutral throughout the control system's range of travel.
The additional protection to this is the motion limiting bracket supplied with the servo motor.

I updated the previous servo install article as I found out at this point that the motion backet will not be able to be installed with the servo already on the bracket. There simply isn't enough room to slide the bracket underneath the servo arm. I found this out the hard way and had to remove the safety wiring I had done before.

Installed the bracket and screwd the lock screws in place. Then reinstalled, torqued the motor and made a new safety wire connection. Lot's of extra rework for just a simple bracket. So on yours, don't forget to do this first.

To finalize the work on the servo, I installed the wiring. Used Ziptie Mounting Bases to fasten the connectors with zipties. I glued them with different glue to the bottom skin as I don't trust the foam and glue that comes with these. I used a different glue after removing the foam from these mounting bases.

I run the servo wiring through F-729A bellcrank rib. A grommet protects the wires. On the other side the wire is secured with multiple zip tie mount bases.

The power and GND wire continue forward through the fuselage to VPX and GND block. The 4 skyview network data wires end here and are within a female DSub connector to the skyview network hub which is installed on the base of the F-728A bellcrank channel. I also ran the 4 data wires coming from the roll servo in the wing to this hub.

Small project today, installed the male Deutsch TE-connectors. One connector is used for the lights and tank sender, the other one is for the Dynon AP servo electrical connection.

This is the female side on the passenger side. I stacked 2 the connectors on an aluminum angle bracket.

Another small task done today, installed the parking brake cable in the B-nut, bent the end and installed a cotter pin.

In the long wait time for the engine to arrive and the electrical work coming to an end, I'm looking for more electrics things that I can already do in anticipation of the engine arrival.
I did already install the master and starter solenoids and one of the remaining things I found that I could already start working on is the starter switch.

I have classic slick magneto's with impulse coupling.  An interesting article on magneto's can be found in the kitplane magazine in this link: click here
It talks about the importance of correct wiring of the starter switch in case of impulse coupling magneto's.

I purchased the ACS Model A-510-2K which includes a starter crank switch position. This is how it looks like.
The starter switch get's power from the VPX and ground out to the ground block. One wire goes to the S terminal on the starter solenoid to engage power to the start solenoid and engage the engine starter while in the crank position.  The way this works is that a low power is sent to the starter solenoid which closes the contact and provides starting power over the big posts/terminals to allow battery power to feed the starter enginge. That's what the S terminal does.

The starter switch comes with this manual and wiring diagram. For now, I'm just going to focus on the starter ignition wiring. The starter switch will also connect to the P-leads of the magneto's to ground them out when in the off position or when in one of the R or L positions. There is an important remark in the kitplanes article above when using impulse coupling. 
In normal operation mode, both magneto's fire at 20-25° before top dead center of the cylinger head. This makes starting the engine more difficult. Therefor, the Left magneto is an impulse coupling magneto. What this does is that in low starting speeds and in the starter position of the switch, the Left magneto fires at 0 degrees top dead center. In cranking position, the switch is only firing on the Left magneto and the Right magneto is off (grounded out) This is crucial and needs to be tested upfront as this could be disastrous for your engine and lead to kickback on the engine if both magneto's would be on and firing at different degrees from top dead center.

Here is a shot from the back of my ignition switch. You can see the different prints on the electronic board for the different connections. S obviously goes to the starter solenoid S terminal, GND connects to the ground block on the firewall and the power tab "BAT" connects to VPX starter contactor coil power circuit J10-1. Don't forget the Diode on the starter solenoid which you should have installed when installing the starter solenoid. You can find this info as well on VPX installation manual page 28.

ACS has put out a service bulletin SB92-01 for inspection and lubrication of ignition switches.Ignition switches manufactured after 1989 have red lacker over the screws. If your switch was operated once without a starter solenoide diode installed, you still need to do the service bulletin and have already been lubricated. If you have the red paint and didn't operate without diode and the diode is installed, there is nothing to do. They don't need to be reinspected until at 2000 hours of operation which surely is a long time away from now.

Was also cleaning up a bit under the seat covers and found some lost items... It proofs once more how important it is to keep track of things while working. Found a cleco underneath the seat covers. Keeping things clean is a good practice.

Next I did some tie wrapping of the connectors of the AP Dynon pitcho servo.

Short work session today. Decided to install the broken line disconnect resistor in between the AP disconnect button and GND.

The Dynon manual indicates this has to be a 5K ohm resistor which is placed between the switched side of the button and the GND line.
Dynon HDX software can detect in this way if the button is stuck and will check this on boot up of the system and give an on screen waning.

The manual states that it's an optional installation and that you may install a 4.7 - 5.3k ohm resistor across the AP Disengage/CWS.

More information can be found in Dynon install page 10-13.

I Installed the resistor between the black GND wire from the G407 pilot stick and the Disco AP button switch line on the G407 stick with butt splices under seat cover of the pilot.

When installed, you set this up in the Dynon setup screens : set SETUP MENU > AUTOPILOT SETUP > DISENGAGE BUTTON > ENABLE BROKEN LINE DETECT to “YES”.

The GND wire is cut in middle and spliced so that one wire runs to all other switches on G407, the split off GND wire is

Verified first with a multimeter how many ohms resistor I had. 5.1Kohm...

To solder a resistor inline with a wire, you need to solder it in a special way so that the stresses on the wire do not cause the connection to break. To to this, you need to solder it like shown in the image below. First the resistor is more or less mechancally twisted around the wire and then soldered. The wire is soldered to the opposite end of the resistor to minimize vibration stress.

This is how it looks after soldering, just needs some heat shrink now to keep it all thight.

Finalising the broken line detect. The resistor is now covered with heatshrink and the G407 AP servo disconnect line is spliced and using the resistor connector to the spliced GND wire.

All these wires will need to be secured as they are positioned underneath the pilot stick. Not sure yet how I will to this. Will zip tie them in a bundle and maybe either using zip mount bases or a small adel clamp on the seat rib.

Next I connected the wing wiring for the AP roll servo to the fuselage connector. I'm using deutsch connectors. The the top one in this image is passing the signals and power for the AP servo. Fortunatly my wing cradle is just narrow enough to allow clicking in the connector without having to take the wing out.

I connected an additional SPST switch that connects to the VPX. Switching this switch to OFF will disable the two power circuits in the VPX that power the autopilot servo's. This acts then as a AP Servo master disconnect switch. Not just the G407 stick AP disconnect function but also a real "take away the power" switch in case something goes seriously south. I couldn't drill the hole yet on the panel but it will be located next to the master trim disconnect switch (that's below the black block from the trig transponder head you see in the image below)

Then I fired up the system the first time with the AP servo's connected., No smoke... 

Went into the skyview network detect settings and skyview could find both servo's. Both need a firmware upgrade so that's what I did next.

Firmware upgrades are always tensed moments but it went through without problems.

The overview now shows both servo's visible and up to date in the network devices list.

The Andair electrical auxiliary fuel pump is very easy to wire. It just takes a power wire and a ground wire. I installed molex pins on these and installed the connector. The fuel pump is switched on with a SPST switch from the panel and VPX logic on the power circuit is doing the magic. Nothing fancy and plain simple.

Then ran 2 cables through the center conduits up the firewall and ran the power wire to the VPX and the other one straight to the GND block. Unfortunatly I ran out of fast-on connectors so I have to wait for the next order to test this out.

With the time I had left, I tackled the starter annunciator wiring. This is a 2 AWG  wire that runs from the starter solenoid 2nd post "I" terminal to the VPX dedicated pin J2-11 for this.
There needs to be a 1K ohm 1watt resistor inline soldered close to the I terminal of the starter solenoid. The resistor is inline and needs to be soldered in the way below to allow for stress relief. There is an image of this in the vpx manual as well on page 29. You mechanically roll the leg of the resistor around the wire and then solder the two together.  Soldering is not my favorite thing to do but it worked out well.

Finally I cleaned the soldering when dry with some isopropyl alcohol to clean of residu of the resin to prevent corrosion.

then applied to small strips of heat shrink to increase the gauge of the wire and installed a longer and large piece that could cover the resistor and when heated shrinks well onto the other heat shrink.

In the image below, the heat shrink is on and a ring terminal installed and fastened on the "I" terminal which is the post on the right of the black starter solenoid box.

Next I looked up some speeds and set them up in the airspeed limitations screen in the Dynon HDX efis. I might want to revisit these but this is the numbers I found until now on other POH handbooks from other RV7 planes.

Then it was time to test the starter engage functionality. I had to change the engine screen to include the VPX status and the starter engage indicator led.

Cranked the switch and sow the Starter contactor coming ON (red)

And switching Off again when in the normal Both or Off position. Seems to work fine.

There is also a starter stuck message but this can only be tested when the engine is actually running. The Dynon EMS communicates the RPM over the data bus to the VPX over the data line.
The starter annunciator 'warning' message will only come on when it is actually is stuck on and the VPX sees more than 500 rpm, (cranking and rpm > 500).

In that case, the starter power J10-1 pin switches off automatically above 500 RPM on the engine to protect the starter engine.

The resistor I used for the starter annunciator wire I used in last session was bought from an electronics store as a 1K ohm resistor but I wasn't exactly sure about the 1 watt value. I'm not an electronic geek and I have no idea how to tell a resistor supports 1 watt. I also couldn't find a way to measure or determine that with a volt meter so this 1 watt thing kept running through my head. When I looked into the VPX install kit, I found out that they actually supply 2 resistors and some diodes in the install kit of the VPX, one of them being the starter annunciator resistor.

So decided to do some rework on that, cut off the one I did yesterday and redid the soldering with the resistor that was in the VPX install kit. AT least I have some piece of mind that this is then the correct piece of hardware. All I lost was a resistor and a ring terminal so no big deal. Just some additional time.

Soldered it in place .

2nd leg installed ready for soldering

Soldered and ready for isopropyl alcohol cleaning.

And installed the heatstrink tubing over it and crimped the ring terminal. 1 hour worth the extra piece of mind.

Closing the top fuselage skin comes closer and closer. I was thinking of closing the top fuselage skin prior to fitting the Sam James cowling but realized that there are still a lot of wiring tasks to be done afterwards. Routing wires after the top is closed will be very difficult so I might stick with a clecoed top fuselage skin until all of the wiring is really done. I'm still missing some wires going forward like the pressure sensors, temp sensors, p-lead wires. I can only do those later on so have to continue with what I can do now.

This article is a summary of 3 days of work rerouting wiring and installing clamps and strips.

First I decided to cleanup a bit of the wiring in the most forward side of the cockpit nearest the firewall. On the pilot side I have my Dynon EMS module and all the wiring going forward. I installed 3 adel clamps on the sub rib in order to guide the bundle.

Next I drilled and installed the second bus bar which splits some wires from the EMS towards the sensors and trim motors. One is a ground connection (EMS pin 17) on the right in the picture below, the other one is a +5V power lead (EMS pin 18). I jumpered the tabs so multiple splits are available now for the same EMS pin.

Also reorganised the wiring on the 2 bus bars for landing lights and nav lights. some strips are routing the main wire bundle downwards. I put some RTV over a screw that was near the busses in order to avoid wear if ever there would be any chafing. (one of the screw holding the COM radio).

This shot from above shows the main wire bundle going from underneath the ground block forward to the first subpanel and moving all the way to the left to the panel area. I also installed some adel clamps on the bottom of the subpanel.

Made a modification on the center rib because the analog instruments were in the way of the original angle. Some time back I cut of part of the bottom flange and replaced it by a stiff angle on the opposite side. Now final rivetted it to the rib structure. (bottom angle in the image)

Some more reorganisation of wiring behind the panel on the passenger side.

Top down view.

Also the first bays just behind the firewall start looking more clean and organized. Still adding clamps here and there.

The area behind the switches and skyview.

And the area behind the skyview modules and analog instruments in the center of the panel. 

The main exercise here is to make sure the wires are organised in bundles and that they are not visible from within the seat. 

A short session to complete some more wiring. Installed the adel clamp in the wing root area. This will secure the wire bundle between the wing and the fuselage side from chafing. Also put a blob of RTV on the bottom which secure the wires on the bottom fuselage skin.

And of course,... more wire organisation. I spent so many hours in this now. It's time to bring this to and end.

Worked on the installation of the pressure senders on the transducer block.
To start, I had to install the AN fittings in one side of the transducer block. There is one 45° fitting for the oil pressure sender and a 90° fitting for the fuel sender. In the top I will measure MAP pressure and installed an AN816 fitting. These fittings have NPT threads so they need thread sealant on the threads. Installation of NPT threads is done by turning the fitting to finger thight and adding half to 3/4 turn to make it snug. Don't overdo it, the only thing you do is adding stress to the part it's screwed into. The NPT thread is conical so the deeper you go, the more pressure. It kind of acts as tapping set that deforms the hardware as you go deeper and deeper. The receiving part can also break or have deformed threads. That would mean replacing the part if you'd ever have to unscrew it.

I kind of overdid the seal application. there's too much on it but it won't hurt either. Sealant sets by lack of oxygen so it hardens inside the tapped hole but stays kind of "liquid" when it's still exposed to air. I'll clean a bit off the exposed part here when the inner part is cured.

Then installed the plugs on the other side.

Looking inside, the fitting is set nicely. Make sure it doesn't block part of the opening. (another side effect of screwing in too hard and too deep)

Then got out the 2 pressure senders from the EMS Dynon kit and screwed them into the transducer block with thread sealant applied. When fastening these, use a wrench on the hex part of the sender. Don't turn the body.

Oil pressure sender installed.

Next installed fuel pressure sender and routed the wires through the firewall penetration point. the wires are supported by 2 adel clamps on the engine mount

On the inside, use splices to hook up the sender wires to the wires going to the EMS bus bar (pin 17 and 18 shared with all senders and trim motors)

Here is a shot of the crimps before I covered them with heat shrink tube. The other 2 behind the splice already have the heat shrink installed.

As electrical work behind the panel comes closer to an end, it's also time to paint the instrument panel. I decided on black mat color. I will use labels that are printed on decals using a white laser toner I bought from Ghost White Toner. I will first have the panel painted black. Then scuff it with 1000 grit, degrease and then apply the labels. 
These labels are cut out and then laid in water. The water seperates the background from the decal. As long as it's wet, it can be moved. Once dry it sticks to the surface it's applied to. 
The only problem with it is that it gets loose again when it's made wet again. I will have a coat of transparent mat paint on it so I don't have to worry about that. I tested this with a while ago and it looks really good when finished.

In order to do the painting, the instrument panel had to be totally decoupled from the wiring and all instruments removed. I first did some testing how the panel would move forward now that the wiring is more tight and bundled. Once the top fuselage is on. It is easier to change things if the panel can tilt forward. Some people even installed hinges on the bottom so that it pivots on the hinge. 

Final look at the panel before painting with the top fuselage skin clecoed partly.

One thing I still needed to do was finding a good place for the alternate air knob. You probably will never need it but if you do, you have to be able to reach it as soon as possible.

I saw good idea from another builder (Matt RV7) who installed it on the side of the throttle quadrant. It's out of the way in normal use and is still easily and fast reachable.
His article can be found : here.

The bracket is just a piece of aluminum angle rivetted to the bottom flange of the instrument panel. The knob is a A-740 rachet style black control knob. 

When the alternate door will be opened as shown below, there is no obstruction on the throttle quadrant.

Drilled the angle to the bottom flange and countersunk the holes in the angle.

Also pulled a new wire from the EMS module to the EMS warning light led. (yellow/green)

The back of the panel. I just had drilled an additional switch hole where the clamp is for the AP master disconnect switch.

Drilled 2 additional holes for leds above the Dynon skyview. One for the EMS warning led, another one for the Alternator Low voltage warning.

Another wire that still needs to be installed to the EMS is the oil temperature pressure sender. Dynon supplies this sensor in the EMS sensor kit. In the bag is also a copper washer that is installed between the sensor and the engine case. It's important to note that the washer has 2 sides. One side is a solid copper smooth side which is installed against the sensor (the side visible in this image). The back side looks rougher and has a machined side to it. That side had to be against the engine case.

The oil temperature sender on a Superior IO360 is installed right next to the oil filter. It's the red cap immediatly to the left of the white oil filter.

I removed the plastic protective cover and this is how the oil temperature pressure hole looks like. Make sure the sensors threads match the ones in the engine case.

I applied some nickel based loctite anti seize on the threads first.

Then installed the sensor in the hole. A couple of things are important here. The sensor manual explicitly mentions that the copper washer should be nicely centered on the sensor body. If not, oil leaks may be the results and we definitly don't want that. Also pay attention to the orientation of the washer. Smooth side on top,rough side (seam) on engine case.

You tighen this pressure by hand until it's hand tight. Then you verify the setting in your engine manual how to torque or fasten this.

In my case, appendix C "table of limits" of the superior install manual mentions this:

Turn the sensor to an angle of 135° from the finger tight starting point.

I made a mark on the sensor and the engine case at finger tight (see top marks) and then marked the 135° location where the sensor should end up.

The next image has the sensor fastened on 135°. Look very carefully that the washer remains nicely in the center of the sensor and look at the hex points on the sensor in relation to the copper seal gasket. As you see in my example the washer is nicely centered.

Next I ran the EMS sensor wire for temperature measuring (pin 7 white/brown) to the sensor. The sensor itself is grounded by the engine case.
Guided the wire over the engine mount bar and bring it together with the other sensor wiring.

As I had some time left, I also connected the Dynon MAP sensor wiring to the firewall unit. Then manual shows how this weather proof connector should be crimped. My pin it next to it.

Then ran the 3 wires back through the firewall. There is one common 5V power wire shared with the other sensors through the EMS bus bar and one common ground wire.
The actual sensor sense wire is pin 26 on the EMS sensor (green/red)

the EMS bus bar is shown below. It's actually used as a distribution block splitting of pin 17 (ground) and pin 18 +5V from the EMS module.
The sensor all share this connection as well as the roll and elevator trim motors.

Small task today. I have been thinking about this for a very long time and never took a conclusion. The static line runs above the F704 bulkheads into the fuselage top sides. I thought long time of the best way to bring the static line up and towards the analog instruments in the center of the instrument panel. The transponder is on the left so I also need a T section somewhere near the left pilot side. My final decision is to route it as shown below. I added an angle piece on the F-721A-L forward canopy deck and drilled a hole into it on the vertical side to attach a T section from my safeair kit. It serves the function of splitting the line, but also has the function of keeping distance between the static line and the forward canopy deck.  The top line will move to the center of the panel via the forward fuselage ribs F-7107-L and F-7108A supported by adel clamps.

Painted it and attached it to the canopy deck with 2 LP4-3 pop rivets. The T piece is then bolted on.

looks nice and solid. The forward opening will be used to guide the static air to the transponder TRIG TY22 head module.

I also drilled the hole for the adel clamp of the electrical wiring connection in the passenger side wing root.

A family member who is a professional painter has painted my instrument panel in black. 
At first glance, it was a bit too brilliant and glossy to my opinion but he assured me that after buffing it with 1000grit sponge, this brilliance will dissappear and the final matt transparent lack layer will make it matt.

Before doing the actual labeling with the system which is made by a company called "GhostWhite Toner".

I will elaborate further on this system when taking picture of the actual application process. Basically it's a decal solution where you print with a white laser printer toner on an ultra thin decal layer which releases with when soaked in water.

In order to test the label positioning, size and fonts I printed the labels on regular paper with black ink and cut out all of them before laying them on the actual location.

This is what it will look like.

You can notice the brilliance on the image above.
On the 2 side panels I already buffed the surface a bit and you can clearly see the glossyness fading away.

That's it for now. I'm quite satisfied with the result. Next step on this will be buffing the surface, degreasing it and applying the actual lettering.

If you look carefully on the picture below and the one below that, you will notic that my old test plate is visble in the image. (where it says "parking brake" top right). This gives you a good idea of how the final product will look like with the white lettering and a matt lack finish. The decal is hardly visible once the lack is applied. Not as perfect as printed directly on the panel but this will be more than good enough for me.

I made this funny passenger warning statement. Found it somewhere from another builder and liked the idea of stating that amateur build is actually better.

The arrow style around the flaps and lighting may be challenging as it's long pieces but I think it will work.
The alt air bracket also has a small label on it.

Just a quick update showing my painted panel temporary held in place in the cockpit. I'm currently working on the cowling, the top skin is clecoed and the plane is hanging up by the tail. So the real installation will have to wait a bit. But I couldn't resist having a look how it will be. It looks very good, I'm pleased with the result.

My step daughters husband is a professional painter and painted this first black. then I applied lettering using GhostWhiter decals with white laser printing. Applied all the labels and then he sprayed a couple of layers of matt lack on it. 

My panel got painted by my stepdaughter her husband in a professional paint booth. 
Very glad how well its finished with the matt look.
I took of the top skin and installed the panel, hopefully for the last time.
Then started reinstalling all the components and cleaning up the wiring behind the panel.
Finally being able to use the final hardware and torque it to spec feels good. This shouldn't come apart again.

Took some shots with the power back on. The side panels still need to stay loose as I don't have the correct length hardware and it probably still needs to be removed when rivetting the top skin which is one of the very last tasks on the plane.

Wide view. The right side bracket is not yet installed as it's being repaired because of some lettering being diffused.

Finalising the static line routing behind the instrument panel. I dediced to use an elbow safeair static kit piece hanging from a panel rib.  This elbow connects with a #6 screw so I needed a way to attach that without interfering with the static line itself. I decided to make a small bracket that will be rivetted to the the panel rib and positions the elbow right where it is in straight line with the HSI indicator.
Part ready for priming looks like:

The static line runs from behind towards the front under the longeron and canopy decks. It passes F704 and then arrives behind the panel at F-721A-L FWD canopy deck. On this FWD canopy deck I had attacked a small stock angle that holds a T-connector from the safeair kit. My only problem so far had been connecting the head of the Trig transponder plumbing to the harde nylon tube of the static air kit. Seems the solution was super simple. By using a bit of soap, I could slide the flexible rubber hose of the transponder tubing over the nylon tube and once dried, it sticks there like you will never be able to remove it again. I used two extra clamps at the transponder head and the connection to secure the connection. The rubber has an overlap over the nylong tube of about 1 inch.
It's visible in the image below as the black hose running forward from the T connector. There is actually a which nylon tube inserted in the T piece but the rubber is pulled all over it up to the connection.

The image below shows the short section connecting the static input from the HSI toward the altimeter port below. In the front with the orange clip is the pitot static line.
Behind it is a T section that screws into the HSI and leads a short section of static tube downwards to an elbow piece screwed into the altimeter static port.

As seen from the top, you see here the elbow that fits under the panel rib and has a very short section of static to connect into the static port of the HSI. The earlier made clip is not installed here yet. The two unrivetted holes in the image is where the bracket sill attach.

The static line runs from the T piece on the DWF canopy deck up and inwards via an adel clamp mounted on the bottom of the F-7107-L FWD fuselage rib and connects directly into the elbow mounted on the bracket at F-7108-A FWD fuselage rib.

Seen from the passenger side behind the F-7108-A rib, you can now see the bracket rivetted on the bottom flange and the elbow connector screwed on the bracket and the line installed in place.

Shot upwards from below.

As I had the top skin clecoed on, this was a good moment to take another picture of the panel installation. The right side sub panel is still missing.

 I had some small items to take care off on the electrical system.

First, I had to install the sensor reading cabling on the Dynon Amps shunt for the AMMeter.

The AMMeter shunt connects 2 wires from the EMS220 module pin 24 and 25 from the D37 connector to the Dynon shunt.
It uses these to sense the amperage flowing through the shunt.

Depending on the position this has different meanings.In my case, the shunt is positioned between the alternator B-lead and the contactors on the positive side of the battery. This means according to the Dynon manual I'm in situation B. Position B–Ammeter indicates only the positive currents flowing from the alternator to both the battery and aircraft loads. (0A-60A). In other words it indicates the amperage flowing from the Alternator.

 I was still missing the 2 fusible links in the drawing as I couldn't get my hand onto 26 AWG wire. With my last purchase from spruce I ordered a foot of multistrand conductor wire which had 26 AWG wire inside. After stripping the wire, I cut some pieces of 1.5 inch and put some DSub pins on.

 On the shunt terminal side, I crimed a very short piece of 22 AWG on a 1/4" ring terminal with femal DSub pins onthe other side.

 I will put heat shrink over these so that the connection is tight, creating a fusible link as mentioned in the manual.

As the alternator belt is not yet installed and the engine not run yet, this was a theoretical excersise that can only be tested when the engine is running. Yes I could put a power source on the alternator side to test but I'm not going through that hassle. In the next image the wiring is connected with transparent heat shrink over.



final bundling of wires and attaching them with adel clamps will be done once all wires have been installed but I do plan to run them of the lower engine mount bar.

Another small task done was the connection of the voltage meter pins to the SV-EMS-220.

Pins 1 and/or Pin 2 of the EMS D37 connector can be used to monitor the voltage in your electrical system (or any other DC voltage source) from 10-30V DC.
The manual says connect either of the pins to a point in your electrical system that you wish to monitor. However in the table of pin assignment for injected lycoming engines, the table says for pin 2
: "Yellow or Unwired  ->  No connection", and for pin 1 "Red -> Battery voltage (voltmeter input)".

So I ran the red Pin 1 22 AWG wire from the D37 pin 1 to the main entry power stud of the VPX. I assume the entry of the VPX is where I'll get the most accurate reading for the voltage indication.

After I switched on the avionics, I saw 12.4V appearing on my display which seems to  indicate the wiring is working. The normal voltage is over 13V but I assume at this point that this is when the alternator is running.

 Next I ran the Tach sensor wiring from the firewall to the EMS sensor. I had to decide on a good point to splice the wire from the sensor to the wiring going to the pin 32 of the D37 Dynon EMS connector.
This pin is the Standard RPM Input Left (10+ volts).
I had ordered the "UMA TACHOMETER PICKUP FOR SLICK MAG 6 LEAD" T1A9_1 (Part# 10-02432)  from Aircraft Spruce. This is a sensor that screws into a port of the magneto and does magnetic pickup for Slick or Bendix Magnetos.

I have ran a wire from the VPX J8-6 with "always-on" condition from vpx to the pos wire of the sensor and spliced them behind the sub panel.
Then ground wire of the sensor runs to the ground forest of tabs on the firewall. The signal wire is connected to pin 32 on the EMS. You only attach the L tach signal wire in case of a single engine airplane.

In the image below, the tach wires are spliced and visible as the pink splices in the center of the image.

V

 The sensor wire runs up the F-7103 sub panel under  the F7107-L FWD fuselage rib and joins the rest of the sensor wiring along the F7101-L rib.

 I kept a small service loop in the middle.

 On the firewall forward side, the sensor will run along the engine mount towards the right magneto.

I couldn't connect the sensor yet as I couldn't disconnect the port from the magneto. It's very tight in there to put a wrench on. I'll probably do this when the engine comes off for the test run at PMM service center.

I'm in the last preparation steps in order to place the top fuselage skin on for good.
Accessibility under the panel is very difficult once it's on so I spend the last week reorganising wiring, putting on a zillion tyraps and making sure there is a blob of RTV where wires could be chafing against some structure.

In the process of reorganising, I merges 2 connectors to 1 single molex. I had separate connectors for elevator and roll trim but in the end the wires connect to the same place so I might as well have made it easier with a single connector.

All this work is thinking about 1 thing : Can I still get behind the panel easily if I would have to tilt it over. It showed that a some of the cabling has to be disconnected before the panel can tilt far enough forward.
I tried to reorganise wiring accordingly so that I have to disconnect the minimum possible in order for the instrument panel to be unscrewed and tilted over.

I made a longer static line hose as wel which will tilt forward far enough. 

I will have to disconnect some connector and the static lines of the analog instruments to get it tilted as far as below. That's the price you pay for minimising the excess long service loops in wiring.

I also placed the connectors on the Dynon skyview boxes and on the connectors on the VPX.

Finally I connected the alternator low voltage warning light to the led behind the panel.

Another step closer to starting rivetting the top fuselage skin.

My delivery from Steinair came in so I received my missing led indicator light for EMS warnings and also installed the Alternator low voltage warning light.

I wired the connection from the voltage regulator tabs towards one pole of the led (it grounds when active). This is the white wire.
The red wire is a 12V+ wire coming from the VPX and is shared with the other led lights and connected with butt splices.
I hate soldering, especially on the small tabs on delicate led lights. Surely not my best soldering but it will do the job.

 Covered the soldered legs with heat shrink. In the image below you also see how I split off the 12V+ red wire multiple times to be shared among all leds.

Some time later I tested the illumination of the low voltage warning. It's a very bright yellow led and it worked as soon as the battery got some load on it.

Then I installed the red led from Steinair for the EMS warning signal. The yellow/green wire comes from the Dynon EMS box and activates when a critical event is detected by the EMS.

 All wired up, isolated with heatshrink and organised with tyraps.

Neat and clean.

Then used the test function on the Dynon Skyview setup menu to activate the EMS warning led.

Next started looking into the fuel pump to firewall fuel line connection. I have been postponing for a long time the final installation of this for as long as I was messing with pulling wires through the conduits.
The plans indicate that you should place some foam under the fuel line as support and to avoid chafing against the the cockpit floor.
I'm planning on not using loose pieces of foam but rather try the expansion foams they use in house construction as this will encapsulate the line bottom and top. 

I wasn't happy yet on the spacing between the fuel line and the corner and enlarged the bulge in the corner a little more to get the cover out of the way of the fuel line.
I also marked the location of the doghouse so that I knew how far I could grind away without seeing the gap once the doghouse is on.

 On the bottom side, the fuel line stays nicely between cover and floor. No issues here.

 Here is the corner enlarged after grinding.

 Another issue I found is that the conduit lines of electrical wiring will pass left and right side between the brackets of the fuel pump. They just fit underneath and are sandwiched between the side of the cover and the brackets that protect the nutplates of the fuel pump in the center. However, I was not happy with the nutplate location near the fuel line exit point. In the image below (mid right) you can see that I removed a nutplate of the doghouse in the front and added a new one in the middle. I flattened the holes of the nutplate ears so that they won't interfere with the conduit that passes just underneath.

I'm always worried about screws in nutplates perforating the conduit line and creating some short circuits in the wiring. I read about builder who had that issue. In a first attempt I cut these foam block and glued them over the nutplates. I removed them again later on as they kept coming loose.

Still in the process of trying to finalize the electrical work and being able to close the top fuselage skin, I broke my head and tried to figure out if I really hadn't forgotten some needed wiring.

The only thing I could come up with was the desire of having a taxi camera available. A taildragger has the nose up in the air and it's often quite difficult to see what's going on in front of you. 
The common technique is to zig zag over the taxiway. Other than looking quite funny, it's also not the safest way to avoid hitting into something in front of you.

I found a couple of builders who had installed a small camera under the wing and started searching for a similar product which I could use and install on my plane.
After some searching for "rear car cam" on amazon, I found this product which looked small enough and good to use.
The amazon ASIN number is B0CX1RQXP7, The manufacturer is Jansite and the model number P069.
I doubt it will exist for long as these things change number and version every couple of months. But you get the idea what to search for.

The nice thing about this camera is that it's low cost and that you can adjust the angle and tilt of the camera up to 45° which should be sufficient to move it up high enough to get a good forward view from underneath the wing.

The attachment method is very convenient with just a single hole which I will drill in to an underwing access plate and a single nut holding it in place.
The camera has a long wire which has ground and power, which you connected to one of the VP-X power pins and black to to forest of GND tabs on the firewall.
The camera signal (the yellow wire) is what goes to your Dynon adaoter video input.

The camera can be used with PAL, NTSC, AHD and has a small inline switchbox to switch modes but just pressing a button. The resolution is 1080px.

It had night vision (for those flying night vfr) and has a 170° wide angle.

Here is the camera.

I pulled the wires and then had to cut the very long camera wire at the point where it passes the side of the fuselage. I crimped some Deutsch connector pins on them so that I could make it part of my wing root plugs for easy disconnection of the wing wiring. Important is that you keep the connector part of video signal and shield as short as possible. The longer this interuption of the shield is, the more chance you will get video interference by other nearby signals.
I had no idea if it would work or not and just opportunistically cut the wire.

Once the connectors were attached, I brought the big TV out and connected the yellow video signal plug into the TV. ( just like it would in the Dynon video adapter ).

Some clicks on the button in the wire and I got this image. Pretty neat and rather sharp !

Here is how I will install the camera. I have mounted the camera on the most inboard inspection bay cover on the passenger side.

As you can see, it's very small for minimal interference of the airflow.

I didn't take a picture of the view it will give as my wing is not on the plane, but estimating it's position and looking forward, it looks like it will give a nice wide angle view with the passenger side gear leg and wheel fully visible.

 Just as a memory for future use or reference back, here is a shot of the EMS220 connector wiring. it shows all the wires I have connected and used before the cover goes on.

turned it around.

I believe I am at the point where I feel confident that all electrical wiring is done and that I can close the top fuselage skin.

That is a big moment that I have been postponing for very long. I have always been scared having forgotten some wiring and having the nightmare scenario of pulling new connections once the cover is on.

By now you should have been a couple of time on your back underneath the sub panel structure and I can assure you, it's not fun.
At this point the top is still open, you have plenty of light and a good overview. Once the top fuselage is on, things become more complicated if you need to install additional nutplates or add additional wires.

I can't count the amount of hours that have gone in organising wires and making sure wire runs are safe. At most places the bundles are supported by adel clamps, in some occasions I have used rtv to ensure some individual wires won't touch the structure.

As all is in final place now, I thought it was a good idea to document and provide an overview of my sub panel wiring layout before the lid goes on.

Here is a general top view of the forward fuselage sub panels.

Most of he magic happens right behind the instrument panel.
The images below will show each compartment in more detail. In general, I have 2 wire bundles running from the F704 center bulkhead. They more forward underneath the cover in the central floor through conduit tubes and move up left and right of the firewall recess. The right one has the main bundle and exits below the GND block on the firewall. The left one exits in the left forward bay and mainly carries all the light wires and the pitot tube. You can see the pitot tube in the image below as the bended tube passing through the rib and then through the sub panel into the analog HSI.

Let's go through the different bays one by one. Here is an image of the left forward bay on the pilot side. There is a safeair firewall passthrough here. On the subpanel, I have mounted the Dynon SV-EMS-220 engine monitoring module. Almost all sensor wires (except for CHT and EGT toward the right) run through the adel clamps and through the firewall passthrough. The 2 white wires that run a bit higher and separated from the sensor bundle are the magneto P-leads.
You can also spot the push-pull cable running from the side of the instrument panel forward towards the parking brake.

 Here is an image taken in the other direction facing the engine monitoring module. The skyview network cable runs underneath the panel to a network hub on the other side of the panel. The two connectors have the wires mainly running forward. You can see some brown cables from the bottom connector moving to the other side of the fuselage towards the right side firewall penetration point. It made more sense having the EGT and CHT cables coming out on the correct side rather than routing it through the forest behind the engine. There is a main wire bundle running on the bottom of the sub panel from right to left. You see this bundle passing underneath the sub panel on the bottom left side of this image (supported by adel clamps all the way through. The adel on the right bundles the intercom wires for microphone and headset with some service loops towards the side of the panel.

The art in doing al the wiring is to hide all the wires from the pilot and passengers view.

 Picture taken in the same bay outside in. I have a service loop on the sensor wires on the central adel clamp on the fuselage panel rib.

 a close up view on the Dynon ems and routing of the wires towards the main wiring bundle.

 Firewall passthrough sealed with 3M fire barrier 2000.

 Let 's move on to the next bay on the left side of the firewall recess. You can see the push pull knob cable for the parking brake continuing it's way underneath the rib and making 270 degree loop  to end on top of the parking brake lever. The pitot line (white tube top left) exits the left side conduit and continues through the middle rib through a bushing with some RTV.
In this compartment, I have 3 terminal strips (the black blocks in the image). These strips are very usefull if a wire has to be split or distribute signal or power to multiple other wires instead of using butt splices. 

 
The one on the left of the image on the subpanel (having most of the connections) is documented as "Bus Bar 1"

Bus Bar 1 has wiring for leading 12v power to the Aeroled NAV lights and strobes and Aeroleds suntail, has a connecting point for the strobe sync wires, has a terminal for the AP disconnect switch to stick, and the remaining 4 terminals are for the trim switches connections towards the Dynon SV-AP-Panel.
All wires come and proceed into the main wiring bundle on the bottom of the panel.

The terminal block on the right side is the Bus-Bar-2-LL.
This one distributes the power lines towards Aeroled landing light and taxi lights and has a connecting point for the wig-wag signal. 

The 3rd block is mounted on the fuselage rib. It serves as a distribution point for the auxiliary 5V signal (pin 18 on the SV-EMS-220) and grounds (pin 17 on the SV-EMS-220)
These power and ground points are the main source of power for all firewall forward pressure sensors and also has power to the elevator and roll trim reference voltage (blue) and ground (orange) wires.

The top row has some hardware jumpers left and right to distribute over multiple adjacent terminals.

Wires arrive through the left side conduit through an adel clamp on the bottom of the fuselage rib. the wires for trim (multiconductor wires) go down. The light wires stay along the rib and move to the terminal strips from the top.

 On the top of this image, you can see the wires for strobes and nav lights coming down through the left, the other 2 wires from landing light move to the other terminal on the right.
The wires have a split of for the shield ground underneath the heatshrink (that's the small loops you see on the wire.
I covered one of the screws from the radio on the other side with RTV to protect wires from chafing.

 The next bay is the right center bay passenger side. On the back of the sub panel, there are screws from the VPX installation on the other side. The pitot tube runs forward throught he sub panel. The main wire bundel continues from towards the conduit on the right side of the firewall recess and a lot of the wires end up on the GND block on the firewall. (the so called "forest of tabs")

There are many wires in the main bundel. To make things easier for maintenance, make sure you label all wires at a certain length from the connector. That way you always know where to to look for a label.

There are many techniques for making these labels. I printed all labels with a laser printer and covered them under transpanrent heat shrink. This works very well.

 On one side I label the destination on the left side of the wire followed by a dash followed by the right side of the destination. I have labels on both sides of each wire.
In the example above, the wire is near to the GND tab and runs towards the Aeroleds Suntail shield.

 This one goes from Ground Tab to the COGuardian test/reset switch. On 22 gauge wire and up, this works very well. Smaller than 22 AWG becomes unreadable. Fortunatly there are only very few wires smaller then 22.

Moving on to the right side bay near the firewall. Here we find the second firewall penetration point. On this side, the main electrical wires are passing through with some other wiring leading into the external voltage regulator on the engine side of the firewall. They move out of the main wirebundle and continue their way to the firewall attached by an adel clamp which is mounter on an aluminum angle I attached on the firewall rib. The wire bundle in loop next to in (bottom left of picture) are the speaker and microphone intercom wires for the passenger headset.

On the sub panel, I made a hole with bushing which passes through the main VPX power cable coming from the active side of the master solenoid.

Here is a shot of the little extra angle I mounted on the rib. It moves the adel clamp a bit lower and facilitates the routing of the wire bundle.

 Same shot from above. On the right side you can also see the push pull cable run of the heat vent.

Moving backward to the passenger side bay behind the instrument panel.
I have mounted my Dynon Backup battery on the right side of the sub panel. Next to it is the passthrough of the main VPX power lug cable.

On the instrument panel, you can see the box of the CO guardian on the bottom of the picture. Below that, is the USB charger and Dynon USB data port.

 Some power wired of the VPX move underneath the sub panel to the main bundle, others move to the left side of the panel joining the power wires from the left side power connectors of the VPX. 

 Her is a better shot of the VPX Pro wiring. The wire bundle moves to the left side and is supported by some adel clamps over the angles that hold the throttle quadrant in the middle.

The analog instruments for altimeter and HSI receive static air from a tube coming from the left side of the cockpit (pilot side). The plumbing is straightforward. Some safeair T and elbow connectors connect and distribute the static air. The tube leading into the orange colored connector is the pitot tube.

Shot from the bottom up, here you can see the little elbow connection attached to a small custom bracket that routes the static tube to the left. This is also the disconnecting point when removing the instrument or moving the panel forward for maintenance.
Not the most convenient, but it's the best I could come up with.

Some time ago, I had to send back my Experimental AeroLEDs AeroSun VX landing lights because some of the mounting legs on the housing broke off.
These legs are very, very vulnerable and simply cannot handle much stress.

At first, I thought I had received a defective product, perhaps with a problem in the housing. AeroLEDs sent me a new set, and I reinstalled them.

Yes, I did follow the installation manual closely. And no, there was no excessive force applied to the screws.
The second time, I was even more careful. I reinforced the drilled holes with fiberglass and redrilled them to make absolutely sure there would be no stress whatsoever on the mounting legs.

The mounting ears contain a small brass nut encapsulated in a thin plastic leg. A screw with a spring goes from the outside into the brass nut. The idea is that you can adjust the tension on the screw, allowing you to tilt the landing light up or down.

The theory is very nice, but in practice it simply doesn't work. The material used for these legs is just too weak to hold up.

Only one month after installation, one of the legs broke off again — simply because I gently moved the wingtip to another location. And after a couple of months, none of the legs were free of cracks.

If these things break so easily while the aircraft is sitting on the ground, you can imagine what is going to happen with all the vibration they are subjected to in the air.

So I decided to give up on the mounting legs and the adjustability altogether. I am now using epoxy/flox to permanently fix the landing lights in place.

It's a real shame that I have had to do this with a product that costs US$997!

I can only say that I am seriously disappointed. I would never buy these again.

I am pleased with AeroLEDs' other products, but in my opinion, this mounting system is simply not fit for purpose and should be redesigned before these lights are sold to other builders.
In my personall opinion, they should just remove this product from their product catalog.

Enough of the wining, I blocked the Aeroleds VX experimental landing light in place with some wood sticks and duct tape.

I do hope I got the angle right, because there is no way to adjust them again once the epoxy has cured.

 Scuffed the housing and surrounding epoxy and made sure that the line of the landing light is parallel to the edge of the landing light tip.
Put a wood stick covered in packing tape with wax on it between the cooling fins and the edge to ensure the epoxy would not spread around the cooling fins.

 Mixed up a big batch of west system epoxy with cotton flox and glued the light in place.

It looks awfull but won't move anywhere anymore. I could easily remove the wood sticks once the epoxy got to about half way curing.

 The next day I did the same thing on the other wingtip landing light and sanded away the excess epoxy. It looks good from the outside.