As you can see, I can simply stand beside the airplane at the door and change the fuses. Once I'm done, I move it to the closed position and its held in place with a winged cam-lock:
As previously mentioned , the system I'm using will use fuse blocks as the
main electrical buses. I wanted to have good access to the fuses and not
have to crawl under the panel and stand on my head to get to them.
Therefore, I made a provision to have it on the passenger side panel
near their leg. It hinges out for easy access but tucks out of the
way when not needed. Here it is in the open position:
As you can see, I can simply stand beside the airplane at the door and change
the fuses. Once I'm done, I move it to the closed position and its held in
place with a winged cam-lock:
Here is my electrical bus system in a nutshell (see picture below):
1. I will have a Main Bus, fed by the master solenoid (controlled by the master switch). This Main Bus will power most things (strobes, landing and taxi lights, Nav lights, etc.).
2. An Always-on Bus, directly wired to the battery, will feed things like the keep-alive circuits in the radios and EFIS, as well as items I want powered up when the Master is off (dome lights, cigarette lighter/power socket, etc.).
3. The Essential (or emergency) Bus which I call the "E-Bus" is set up to power all of the flight critical devices (EFIS, Radio, Intercom, Transponder, etc.). During normal operations the E-bus is powered from the main bus through a diode. In the event of an in-flight alternator failure or a failure of the master switch or master solenoid, I can simple turn off the Main bus master and flip the E-switch on to get power through a back-door of sorts to my E-bus. The diode prevents a back-flow from the E-bus to the Main bus. This E-bus will then run strictly off the battery and according to my calculations I will have enough battery power to comfortably complete the flight .
Here is the electrical bus system:
Each fuse location is numbered and will be identified in the operator's manual
as to device and fuse size. You can read much more detail about the
system in the Aeroelectric
Connection. I have used the crimped fast-on terminals wherever
possible. This includes on all switches, some instruments, and on the
fuse blocks shown above. There is an excellent article on fast-ons
here -
http://www.aeroelectric.com/articles/faston3.pdf
Now we will do some wiring behind the panel. I have done as much wiring as possible while the instrument panel was on the workbench. One thing that I think is important is that you clearly label the wires. I label them at both ends for easy identification later on.
Lets start with the Dynon D100 EFIS.
Here are some of the tools that I will be using to wire the Dynon:
Some wire strippers, "D" Sub Pin crimpers, Wire labels that I made on
my computer using the smallest font I could find, some clear heat shrink
and the "D" Sub Pin connector. The crimpers are available from
B&C electric. Most modern
electrical components use these Sub "D" connectors so the crimpers are a
wise investment.
I started by determining the wire size needed. According to the Dynon installation manual, I can use 22 AWG for everything, as the instrument only draws about 1.5 Amps (12V)at its peak. I'll power it from the "E" bus and use a 3 amp fuse.
All of my wire is Tefzel coated wire that meets Mil specs (Mil - W-227559/16).
I'm using Black wire for the Negative (-) wires, and Red for the
Positive (+) wires. Here is how I am labeling my wires:
The label is wrapped around the wire and the heat shrink is slipped over
the wire and label. A hot air gun is used to shrink the heat shrink
down. Here is the label after the heat shrink has been heated:
Here is the Master Power + and Master Ground - wires for the Dynon D100 EFIS
after labeling:
These were the labels at the end that connects to the EFIS unit. At
the other end, where they attach to the fuse block or ground tab, they will
be labeled EFIS + or EFIS -.