Friday, February 26, 2021

Hooking up

It's easy to build something, but when they need to be repaired, that's another. I've been a bit obsessive about figuring out how to make wires easily disconnectable, I thought I had the problem licked when I discovered dsub connectors, but then I field (hangar?) tested it by sitting in the cockpit and trying to removed them, and it was a mess.

Luckily, a RV pilot on VAF tipped me off about the Molex Microfit 3.0 connectors, the same one Dynon uses on the backup battery connector. The good people at Mouser sell these, and pre-crimped wire leads, too. Perfect for trim relays, among other things. Gives me practice using a multimeter for a continuity check, too.



Unfortunately, they were still too big for the Oznium LED alert lights. Scratching my head, I went back to my model airplane roots and dug up these 2 wire power connectors that are good up to 3A, more than enough for the warning LEDs, and they fit through the screw on nuts perfectly. 


I also slightly rearranged the order of the warning lights to match the switches on the panel. Note the original LEDs that I love on the bottom row that turned out to be too bright, and the ones we;re using temporarily mounted across the top. Of course, since the new lights have a smaller opening... I could have filled the bigger holes with mud and redrilled them, but there are a couple other mods I want to make to the panel (tell you about them later), so I'll make another, final (yeah right), panel.