MAP Light / Beacon Light Installation (Wiring Runs Planned)

I chose to install a MAP light behind the crew's shoulders to aid in night operations. This will not be hot wired, but on the main bus. 

I chose a Red/White map light 754RW-14V - mostly becauase it was available and in stock! 

I started by making up a mounting plate from the part of the subpanel which was cut out for the Main Bus fuse block. This was already painted in cockpit color, so it worked out well. It will be mounted using some 4-40 nutplates and screws. The final fore/aft mounting location will be done once the seats are in place, so i can make sure the light is aimed properly.  

A 4-40 nutplate made into a tiny drill jig.

Drill template made up for drilling the roll bar brace at a later date.

The nylon washer allows the unit to rotate left and right.

I used some d-sub lins initially, but decided on a MOLEX connector later.

I worked out a good routing for the wires - down the roll bar brace, then through the back bulkhead. It then runs down the side of the access hole into the tailcone, and forward along the tunnel to the right hand panel. 

The MAP light wires run down the side of the aft access panel frame, then into the centre tunnel.

I annoyingly ran the wire over the top of the rudder cable, so had to remove it and run under the rudder cable.

Side Project

While i was running the MAP light cables, it got me thinking about how i would run the cables to where they needed to go. I needed some 'highways' for everything to run. So i worked this out and mounted some randomly sized ADEL clamps in strategic locations. These are just held with commercial nuts for now, and will be sized properly later. They are marked with an orange cable tie so i know the installation is not permanent. 

ADEL clamps added to the screws holding the avionics mounting bars. These will be used to run wires forward to the forrest of tabs. 

A little bracket made up to hold some ADEL clamps on the sides of the vertical wiring channel 

These little medical clamps (haemostats?) are awesome for installing ADEL clamps

Back to the Map Light

I added a MOLEX to the end of the MAP light. These are not great connectors, but for something like this which is not very important from a systems perspective, and may need to be replaced later, the cheap MOLEX clones work fine. 

I used some 3M VHB cable tie mounting bases to secure the wires. 

The MAP light is wired to a cool little cheap progressive switch PN 100DP6T1B1M1QEH made by E-Switch - this allows either a ground for the white light, a ground for the red light, or a gound for both. The light is provided with 12V, then the grounds return to the switch. This combines them as required to achieve White/Red/Both, then sends the ground to the GAD27 - to allow the light to be dimmed. 

 

Screen shot of the 3D panel model

Of course, had to test it out! 

Wiring up the Beacon Light

I also ran the wires i needed to the beacon light and this got me started with wiring of the switches. The wire for the beacon light is shielded, with the shield going to ground at the switch end, and being left floating at the beacon end. This is to help contain any possible RF which might be emitted by the flashing light. 

Here you can see the shield (the oval shape with the triangle), with the shield being wired to ground.

This shows a floating shield (no triangle). 

This is what these symbols look like in the real world:

The shield is wired to a length of green using a solder shield.

The other end (bottom wire) gets the shield trimmed off flush, then covered in heatshrink.

I ran the wire to the switches, and used a dowel to try and keep the harnesses neat and tidy.

And of course, i had to test it!