Electrical bus organization / side panels

[jaredyates]

Here's an interesting case where the crew reset popped circuit breakers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Canada_Flight_797

That mishap took many lives, including that of folk singer Stan Rogers, mutually enjoyed by both marcusofcotton and me (as I learned this summer at Oshkosh).

[Zzz]

Thanks Jared and Battson.

Back to the reason I started this thread: I'm more concerned at this point with the physical structure of organizing and placing this stuff in the airframe, more so than the electrical design. It appears one opton is to mount the VP behind the panel somewhere, but I have wondered if a side interior panel is a better choice, depending on what other items I have hanging off the back of the instrument panel. Seeing photos of how people have routed wire bundles and fastened components to the interior of the fuselage really helps at my current state of the build.

Thanks!

[Battson]

Wires: I basically had three major loom types, each seperated from the rest:

1: Com wires - in a space far, far away [from power wires / cables and esp. P-leads]
2. Power wires, all the avionics stuff
3. Noisy power cables, alternator / battery / P-lead etc.

I put in some cross bars to hang the wires from, in looms, and just used cable ties to hold things in place. That's what they're for after all.
It's not a work of art, but it keeps things separated and secure.

If I had a VP panel like yours, I would want access to the back and front of the VP unit. Side panels would be hard to access unless you put a big hatch in the boot cowl - weight and ugly. Perhaps with the exception of the wing root - but that's a lot of extra wire and lots of extra resistance. Not ideal.
I don't have any bright ideas except in the RH side of the panel?


Jarad - it was the excitation which was tripping, so-called crowbar CB. Great to be able to reset in flight though, saves flying home on battery power. I see no need to be worried about CBs in aircraft, they are in all the modern certified aircraft after all e.g. SR22, and in all modern homes!
IMHO they are superior to a bit of metal which explodes when you overload it with current.

[bestbearhawk1231]

Z, make sure that you don't mount it in a place where it will be kicked or have snow/water dripping into it or near it. Are you planning on going with glass panel? If you go for one of the larger screens you might be able to mount it on a tray behind your screen so you will have a big hole to work with for maintenance. You can mount the box anywhere since the breakers are reset on your EFIS screen but the closer you are to your battery and avionics the better. If you are planning on a center stack for your radios, you might have room to integrate a tray and mount the box with the other radio trays. Make sure to read the install instructions with all of the avionics and pay attention to minimum clearances and recommended tray dimensions/ thicknesses.

[Zzz]

Joe, I'm going pretty simple glass, mostly for the benefits of all solid state AHRS and EFIS. Probably G3X or G3X Touch.

I'm thinking it would work well to have some sort of quick-detach of the VP unit itself hung from an undermount. My panel will be simple, without a lot of stuff other than the EFIS, possibly a remote COMM unit like the Garmin GTR-20, and a second radio in a center stack.

I stumbled onto a gold mine of mounting photos on the VP website. It certainly looks like the kind of thing i could orient under the panel as if it were an avionics tray.

[aerolite]

Here's how I mounted the VPX-Pro. Reach up under panel and undo one AN3 bolt and it hinges down. If you want to remove the unit then just slide hinge pin out.
Sorry for the sideways pics, don't know why that happens.

[Zzz]

Very cool, aerolite! Thanks.

[Zzz]

I removed the smartphone orientation flag and rotated it.

[bestbearhawk1231]

Z, I like the idea of using piano hinge for one side and a bolt to hold the other, nice and simple. If you mount it too far away from the panel like some of the VP pics, you might want to consider running a patch cable to an easily accessible location such as the glove box for maintenance reasons. For those who use avionics other than the big "G" you might want to do the same. Most Garmin use an SD card on the front for software upgrades. I played around with the G3x touch at osh last summer, it is a pretty sweet unit. I would go with the remote mount com and audio panel they offer, it would really clean up the panel. I am planning on using my handheld for my #2 radio wired to ship power with a real antenna.