MIP interfaced and OK

[jackpilot]

Just finished today the last connections to the Sys card and installed it on the back shelf of the stand.
Now have to move it  in the shell. Easier said than done.
Jack

[Trevor Hale]

Ohhhhh Super Sexxy.  Looks great Jack.  I am very impressed.  Looks like you have done that before.  Awesome.

[phil744]

now thats some damn fine wiring Mr Jack

[XOrionFE]

Looks great Jack!

Scott

[Maurice]

You make me sick Jack  When I look at the mess I made behind the MIP, I wish I had taken more time at the beginning but then again, I have been flying much longer than you have, so there is some justice after all.

Maurice

[Trevor Hale]

Ohhh that was a good shot LOL.  You go Mau..  "Look out Jack... Mau has his dukes up"

[tennyson]

Jack,
I'm in the process of wiring up my MIP as well.
I'm trying to make it pretty like yours (and thanx for the pics you sent), but alas I don't think it will look as good as yours, mate.

I never realised there were so many IBL panels to attach to the FDS IBL dist board....wow!

I just bought my power supply for the MIP last week, haven't taken it out of the box yet, but it's an 850 watt Thermaltake modular baby, so I won't have all of those nasty extra cables dangling everywhere.

Anyway, thanks for the inspiration, Jack, keep up the good work!



Frank

[jackpilot]

Actually I would make some changes if I had to do it again
(Mau was right) do not twist wires together
If you use the FDS Sys (highly recommended) attach each  8+1 bundle with tie wraps every 8 or 10 inches. Then you will tie wrap them all together to make a nice cable.

Respect color codes ( see manual)

Do not bother identifying wires, as long as you respect the 8 actives on the same  ground per end plug , the soft will identify each in and each out later.

Allow an extra foot vs what you need  (cut to proper length later only just before soldering the end plugs (supplied with 10" of wires)

Once you have wired a 8+1 bunch test it for connectivty ( Ohm tester for switches, 3V for annunciators quick test) Just in case of a faulty solder.

Just my 2¢ here, wiring the MIP is not complicated, just be consistent.
Jack

You also can use a crimping tool to crimp directly to the plugs (expensive)

[Maurice]

One more thing to consider.   When something breaks, and it will, it hurts a lot more if you have spent an eternity making things very tidy like Jack did. It looks fantastic but from my experience, I started by trying to dress up and tie everything together with a zillion tie wraps only to have to undo things many times to fix, add or replace something.

So now, the back of my mip looks like a mess and I stopped caring about the looks anymore. I think jack did it right though and it looks like he may not have as many problems as I had because of poor connections with the horrible Molex connectors I used. Word of wisdom...avoid Molex connectors like the plague. I knew that before I started but I used them anyway because of a stroke of stupidity 

Maurice

[tennyson]

That's great advise and just in the nick of time.

I kinda considered making my looms just that bit longer, so that probably wouldn't have beeen an issue.

What I have already found useful was buying a dymo and labeling the ends of the cable. I saw this done in my old military days and it saves a lot of headaches later.
I'm trying to stick to colour codes (I bought gazillions of metres of coloured cable) but I'm glad you said about the twisting cause that was one thing I was seriously considering.

And thanx for the warning about molex, thankfully, I've avoided that, too.

The one booboo that I did do (and I'm a little embarrassed to admit it) was, I made a 5volt tester pack to check my IBL panels.
I hooked each of them up and they all worked. I then got a little overenthusiastic and started checking the annunciator bulbs (thinking that they were 5volt too).

I think I've burned out about a dozen units, each at about $7.00, until I realized something was wrong!!!!
I am still to rectify them by installing new led's into each one, so I'm not happy with myself over that.

Thanx for all of the good tips, tho, guys, I appreciate it.



Frank

[blueskydriver]

It does look nice, but a lot of twisted wires there... That is why I used blue network cable that has 8 strands; network cable cuts down on single strands. In addition to what Frank just mentioned, you only have to label the blue cable and then write a list down as to where and what each color goes too.

I do have some white individual cables that are over 30 years old in use back behind the MIP...YEP! I recycled old aircraft wiring from the B727 cockpit because they already had numbering on them, and the fact that they stood up to 30 years, they can stand up for 30 more... Besides, I like the ghost from all those old flights that wire carried for all those years onboard; if only the wire could talk?

BSD

[jackpilot]

BSD: If you use the FDS cards you need 9 strands , 8 actives and one common ground per plug.
Tagging is nice but not really necessary as the soft identifies each connection with a number that relates to the actual numbers for each plug at the card.

Does not harm to do it anyway.

Frank, for all your testing a PSU is better than any battery pack or adapter.
Check: 
http://www.cockpitbuilders.com/community/index.php?topic=2155.msg16699#msg16699

[blueskydriver]

Jack you're right, the FDS SYS cards does use 9, but you can link the ground from input to input via jumpers, and the outputs have jumpers already included on the annunicators.

In the rare cases where all 8 of the lines from Sys Card were needed, I just borrowed from a line that did not use 8 of the network cable. Now, I wired mine according the FDS chart/spreadsheet and not in the logical order of using every line for each block connector.

Also, you could get a higher strand count network cable; here is link I just searched:

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/273145163/multi_strand_cable_with_good_price.html?s=p

BSD