---------------------------------------------------------- AeroElectric-List Digest Archive --- Total Messages Posted Thu 09/04/14: 5 ---------------------------------------------------------- Today's Message Index: ---------------------- 1. 05:09 AM - Hai (newastrums) 2. 08:44 AM - Re: Shield wiring (Robert L. Nuckolls, III) 3. 02:03 PM - Re: Shield wiring (MLWynn@aol.com) 4. 04:02 PM - Re: Shield wiring (Robert L. Nuckolls, III) 5. 04:50 PM - Re: Shield wiring (Justin Jones) ________________________________ Message 1 _____________________________________ Time: 05:09:15 AM PST US Subject: AeroElectric-List: Hai From: "newastrums" Hai Friends By Jayanthi Read this topic online here: http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=429960#429960 ________________________________ Message 2 _____________________________________ Time: 08:44:57 AM PST US From: "Robert L. Nuckolls, III" Subject: Re: AeroElectric-List: Shield wiring At 08:52 AM 9/2/2014, you wrote: Lets try that again. For unknown reasons, my computer occasionally sends mail prematurely. Mine too . . . but I think it's because my tongue is covering my eyeteeth and I can't see what I'm typing . .. Anyway, I got the ELT mounted, phone line in. The difficult part was fishing the three wire conductor from one end of the aircraft to the other. I have the ELT power, ground and GPS feed set up in this cable. It currently ends in the right gear tower. I have a fused power feed from a fuse block and a ground wire from my avionics ground bus. Unfortunately, I miscalculated the length and am about two feet short on the three conductor getting to the back of the GPS. I have a single shielded wire which I planned to bring down from the GPS, terminating all together at the gear tower. If I connect (solder) both shields and the ELT ground lead together and ground all of that to the avionics ground bus, will that do the trick? I did not ground the shield at the ELT end nor would I ground the shield at the GPS end. Normally, a shielded wire carrying DATA is grounded at both ends . . . and the shield is part of the signal path. I am disappointed in ACK's installation instructions. For as long as they've been in the business I would have hoped the quality of their design and accompanying instructions would have matured. I'm adrift for crafting a rationale for doing any particular thing with the shields . . . it would be USEFUL to have some means by which signal integrity to the ELT could be verified. The manual speaks to tying an LED onto the ELT data transmit line to see if it 'flashes' in response to 1 second updates from the panel GPS. But the significance of that flash is not known. Does it NOT flash if there is some degradation of signal quality . . . checksum bad, framing bad???? Given that so much FAITH is being placed on this piece of equipment to guide searchers to your remains, it would really be nice if their design included some means for demonstrating integrity as opposed to guessing. As I said . . . their instructions suck . . . The GPS is a Garmin GTN 650. Steinair, who wired my panel, has four feeds coming from a single feed (pin 8). They suggested that I tap into this for the GPS feed. Two of the feeds go into Grand Rapids PFD and MFD. It would be a lot easier to tap into the circuit where they enter those units than into the GPS where there is already a four into one joint. I can't see that it makes any electrical different which end of the wire I join into. Am I missing anything here? Talk to Steinair about this. I'm not privy to the rationale for offering all these 'pigtails'. It's a mystery to me but they would be the one to explain their intentions. By the way, I did talk to ACK about the recommended power source for the E04. If you have a 'commericial' version (E04C) then power needs to come from a battery bus. If the plain vanilla version for little-guys, the power should come from a switched bus. Another little 'gotcha' in their instructions. Sorry I can't be more help . . . Bob . . . ________________________________ Message 3 _____________________________________ Time: 02:03:24 PM PST US From: MLWynn@aol.com Subject: Re: AeroElectric-List: Shield wiring I will wire it up as it looks simplest. I have the grounding and switched power set up. Once I connect the single, I will give it a test and report back. Thanks, Michael Wynn In a message dated 9/4/2014 8:46:17 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, nuckolls.bob@aeroelectric.com writes: --> AeroElectric-List message posted by: "Robert L. Nuckolls, III" At 08:52 AM 9/2/2014, you wrote: Lets try that again. For unknown reasons, my computer occasionally sends mail prematurely. Mine too . . . but I think it's because my tongue is covering my eyeteeth and I can't see what I'm typing . .. Anyway, I got the ELT mounted, phone line in. The difficult part was fishing the three wire conductor from one end of the aircraft to the other. I have the ELT power, ground and GPS feed set up in this cable. It currently ends in the right gear tower. I have a fused power feed from a fuse block and a ground wire from my avionics ground bus. Unfortunately, I miscalculated the length and am about two feet short on the three conductor getting to the back of the GPS. I have a single shielded wire which I planned to bring down from the GPS, terminating all together at the gear tower. If I connect (solder) both shields and the ELT ground lead together and ground all of that to the avionics ground bus, will that do the trick? I did not ground the shield at the ELT end nor would I ground the shield at the GPS end. Normally, a shielded wire carrying DATA is grounded at both ends . . . and the shield is part of the signal path. I am disappointed in ACK's installation instructions. For as long as they've been in the business I would have hoped the quality of their design and accompanying instructions would have matured. I'm adrift for crafting a rationale for doing any particular thing with the shields . . . it would be USEFUL to have some means by which signal integrity to the ELT could be verified. The manual speaks to tying an LED onto the ELT data transmit line to see if it 'flashes' in response to 1 second updates from the panel GPS. But the significance of that flash is not known. Does it NOT flash if there is some degradation of signal quality . . . checksum bad, framing bad???? Given that so much FAITH is being placed on this piece of equipment to guide searchers to your remains, it would really be nice if their design included some means for demonstrating integrity as opposed to guessing. As I said . . . their instructions suck . . . The GPS is a Garmin GTN 650. Steinair, who wired my panel, has four feeds coming from a single feed (pin 8). They suggested that I tap into this for the GPS feed. Two of the feeds go into Grand Rapids PFD and MFD. It would be a lot easier to tap into the circuit where they enter those units than into the GPS where there is already a four into one joint. I can't see that it makes any electrical different which end of the wire I join into. Am I missing anything here? Talk to Steinair about this. I'm not privy to the rationale for offering all these 'pigtails'. It's a mystery to me but they would be the one to explain their intentions. By the way, I did talk to ACK about the recommended power source for the E04. If you have a 'commericial' version (E04C) then power needs to come from a battery bus. If the plain vanilla version for little-guys, the power should come from a switched bus. Another little 'gotcha' in their instructions. Sorry I can't be more help . . . Bob . . . ________________________________ Message 4 _____________________________________ Time: 04:02:11 PM PST US From: "Robert L. Nuckolls, III" Subject: Re: AeroElectric-List: Shield wiring At 04:01 PM 9/4/2014, you wrote: >I will wire it up as it looks simplest. I have the grounding and >switched power set up. Once I connect the single, I will give it a >test and report back. > >Thanks, > >Michael Wynn The 64-dollar question is how do you test it? Without a receiver fitted with a feature that resolves and displays the GPS location data being transmitted by the ELT, how do you know that the communications channel GPS->ELT is good? I suppose avionics shops have that capability these days. Does anyone on the List have knowledge of this? I wonder if Steinair hot-checks their pre-wired panels. Bob . . . > >In a message dated 9/4/2014 8:46:17 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, >nuckolls.bob@aeroelectric.com writes: > > >At 08:52 AM 9/2/2014, you wrote: >Lets try that again. For unknown reasons, my computer occasionally >sends mail prematurely. > > Mine too . . . but I think it's because my tongue > is covering my eyeteeth and I can't see what I'm > typing . .. > > >Anyway, I got the ELT mounted, phone line in. The difficult part was >fishing the three wire conductor from one end of the aircraft to the >other. I have the ELT power, ground and GPS feed set up in this >cable. It currently ends in the right gear tower. I have a fused >power feed from a fuse block and a ground wire from my avionics ground bus. > > >Unfortunately, I miscalculated the length and am about two feet short >on the three conductor getting to the back of the GPS. I have a >single shielded wire which I planned to bring down from the GPS, >terminating all together at the gear tower. > >If I connect (solder) both shields and the ELT ground lead together >and ground all of that to the avionics ground bus, will that do the >trick? I did not ground the shield at the ELT end nor would I ground >the shield at the GPS end. > > Normally, a shielded wire carrying DATA is grounded > at both ends . . . and the shield is part of the signal > path. I am disappointed in ACK's installation instructions. > For as long as they've been in the business I would have > hoped the quality of their design and accompanying > instructions would have matured. > > I'm adrift for crafting a rationale for doing any > particular thing with the shields . . . it would > be USEFUL to have some means by which signal > integrity to the ELT could be verified. The manual > speaks to tying an LED onto the ELT data transmit > line to see if it 'flashes' in response to 1 second > updates from the panel GPS. But the significance of > that flash is not known. Does it NOT flash if there > is some degradation of signal quality . . . checksum > bad, framing bad???? > > Given that so much FAITH is being placed on this > piece of equipment to guide searchers to your remains, > it would really be nice if their design included > some means for demonstrating integrity as opposed > to guessing. > > As I said . . . their instructions suck . . . > >The GPS is a Garmin GTN 650. Steinair, who wired my panel, has four >feeds coming from a single feed (pin 8). They suggested that I tap >into this for the GPS feed. Two of the feeds go into Grand Rapids >PFD and MFD. It would be a lot easier to tap into the circuit where >they enter those units than into the GPS where there is already a >four into one joint. I can't see that it makes any electrical >different which end of the wire I join into. Am I missing anything here? > > Talk to Steinair about this. I'm not privy to the rationale > for offering all these 'pigtails'. It's a mystery to me > but they would be the one to explain their intentions. > > By the way, I did talk to ACK about the recommended power > source for the E04. If you have a 'commericial' version > (E04C) then power needs to come from a battery bus. If > the plain vanilla version for little-guys, the power > should come from a switched bus. Another little > 'gotcha' in their instructions. > > Sorry I can't be more help . . Bob . . . ________________________________ Message 5 _____________________________________ Time: 04:50:20 PM PST US Subject: Re: AeroElectric-List: Shield wiring From: Justin Jones www.406Test.com You pay a sign up fee and a beacon fee. The cost is $30 each. You log into the website and schedule a test the of beacon. You have 48 hour s to test it. The beacon must be registered. You must test it with a clear view of the southern sky. You will receive an SMS text message confirming your test. I'm unsure if it will give you a set of coordinates telling you where your b eacon is or if it just says test successful. You may be able to find out on t he website. The specific question on weather or not the connectivity between your elt an d GPS is working or not will probably need to be answered by an avionics sho p with expensive test equipment. However you may get exact coordinates from t he test website above. If you do, and they match within a few yards, it may b e safe to assume the connection is working. Side note: I had to put my garmin 430w into a programming mode to tell it wh at devices are connected to the rs232 and serial ports. There is a website t elling you how to enter this programming mode. It was simple. Just hold down a button or combination of buttons during power application. Hope this helps Justin On Sep 4, 2014, at 15:01, "Robert L. Nuckolls, III" wrote: > At 04:01 PM 9/4/2014, you wrote: >> I will wire it up as it looks simplest. I have the grounding and switche d power set up. Once I connect the single, I will give it a test and report back. >> >> Thanks, >> >> Michael Wynn > > The 64-dollar question is how do you test it? > Without a receiver fitted with a feature that > resolves and displays the GPS location data being > transmitted by the ELT, how do you know that > the communications channel GPS->ELT is good? > > I suppose avionics shops have that capability > these days. Does anyone on the List have > knowledge of this? > > I wonder if Steinair hot-checks their pre-wired > panels. > > Bob . . . > >> >> In a message dated 9/4/2014 8:46:17 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, nuckolls. bob@aeroelectric.com writes: lls.bob@aeroelectric.com> >> >> At 08:52 AM 9/2/2014, you wrote: >> Lets try that again. For unknown reasons, my computer occasionally >> sends mail prematurely. >> >> Mine too . . . but I think it's because my tongue >> is covering my eyeteeth and I can't see what I'm >> typing . .. >> >> >> Anyway, I got the ELT mounted, phone line in. The difficult part was >> fishing the three wire conductor from one end of the aircraft to the >> other. I have the ELT power, ground and GPS feed set up in this >> cable. It currently ends in the right gear tower. I have a fused >> power feed from a fuse block and a ground wire from my avionics ground bu s. >> >> >> Unfortunately, I miscalculated the length and am about two feet short >> on the three conductor getting to the back of the GPS. I have a >> single shielded wire which I planned to bring down from the GPS, >> terminating all together at the gear tower. >> >> If I connect (solder) both shields and the ELT ground lead together >> and ground all of that to the avionics ground bus, will that do the >> trick? I did not ground the shield at the ELT end nor would I ground >> the shield at the GPS end. >> >> Normally, a shielded wire carrying DATA is grounded >> at both ends . . . and the shield is part of the signal >> path. I am disappointed in ACK's installation instructions. >> For as long as they've been in the business I would have >> hoped the quality of their design and accompanying >> instructions would have matured. >> >> I'm adrift for crafting a rationale for doing any >> particular thing with the shields . . . it would >> be USEFUL to have some means by which signal >> integrity to the ELT could be verified. The manual >> speaks to tying an LED onto the ELT data transmit >> line to see if it 'flashes' in response to 1 second >> updates from the panel GPS. But the significance of >> that flash is not known. Does it NOT flash if there >> is some degradation of signal quality . . . checksum >> bad, framing bad???? >> >> Given that so much FAITH is being placed on this >> piece of equipment to guide searchers to your remains, >> it would really be nice if their design included >> some means for demonstrating integrity as opposed >> to guessing. >> >> As I said . . . their instructions suck . . . >> >> The GPS is a Garmin GTN 650. Steinair, who wired my panel, has four >> feeds coming from a single feed (pin 8). They suggested that I tap >> into this for the GPS feed. Two of the feeds go into Grand Rapids >> PFD and MFD. It would be a lot easier to tap into the circuit where >> they enter those units than into the GPS where there is already a >> four into one joint. I can't see that it makes any electrical >> different which end of the wire I join into. Am I missing anything here? >> >> Talk to Steinair about this. I'm not privy to the rationale >> for offering all these 'pigtails'. It's a mystery to me >> but they would be the one to explain their intentions. >> >> By the way, I did talk to ACK about the recommended power >> source for the E04. If you have a 'commericial' version >> (E04C) then power needs to come from a battery bus. If >> the plain vanilla version for little-guys, the power >> should come from a switched bus. Another little >> 'gotcha' in their instructions. >> >> Sorry I can't be more help . . > > Bob . . . > > > ========================== ========= ========================== ========= ========================== ========= ========================== ========= > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Matronics Email List Services ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post A New Message aeroelectric-list@matronics.com UN/SUBSCRIBE http://www.matronics.com/subscription List FAQ http://www.matronics.com/FAQ/AeroElectric-List.htm Web Forum Interface To Lists http://forums.matronics.com Matronics List Wiki http://wiki.matronics.com Full Archive Search Engine http://www.matronics.com/search 7-Day List Browse http://www.matronics.com/browse/aeroelectric-list Browse Digests http://www.matronics.com/digest/aeroelectric-list Browse Other Lists http://www.matronics.com/browse Live Online Chat! http://www.matronics.com/chat Archive Downloading http://www.matronics.com/archives Photo Share http://www.matronics.com/photoshare Other Email Lists http://www.matronics.com/emaillists Contributions http://www.matronics.com/contribution ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- These Email List Services are sponsored solely by Matronics and through the generous Contributions of its members.