I’m not overly happy with the somewhat remote locations of my main and endurance busses on the TriParagon.  I didn’t know what I didn’t know starting out so many years ago, and now with the nose enclosed, nose hatch installed, canard installed, etc. I can see that finding a fuse that has popped, admittedly rare as that is once the systems are dialed in, will at a minimum require a mirror, and perhaps even a flash light.  So I did a good amount of assessment on that issue, with 3D printed footprints of the busses to assess more optimum locations, and an assessment of wire flow, accessibility, etc.

After that exercise, I finally got out to the shop, where I spent nearly 4 hours finalizing all the wiring on all but one post of the circuit breakers, and on all of the Big 3 switches in the lower right side of the panel.

Now, see the green tape on the circuit breaker below the row of Big 3 switches? That was the 2nd to the last final wire I was installing onto the circuit breakers.  I couldn’t get the best angle with my Phillips screwdriver, so I used a larger flat tip.  Well, giving it a firm push down as I installed the screw —as I’ve done with all the other circuit breakers— the tab gave way and the bottom of the CB cracked with a couple of pieces of plastic falling onto the floor of the bird.

Yep, 5A circuit breaker CB000 is no muy bueno.  Este es muerto (excuse my hack Spanish: it’s no good and it’s dead).

Back to my busses for a minute… I texted Marco for pics of his busses.  In our discussion, he pointed out the “Lit when blown” ATC fuses to help with ID’ing a blown fuse in the nether-regions of the nose.  I had already decided on those and had them on a list of items to buy from Steinair… and now I just added another item: the 5A CB.  With that added, I finalized my order and pulled the trigger late this evening.

Lastly, see those blue 3D printed caps on the unused switch top tabs on the middle switch?  I drew those up in just a few minutes in CAD, guessed on all the dimensions and thought I’d have to do another version or 3 to dial them in, but they fit nice and snug the first try.  I have another batch printing and will cover all the unused tabs on my big switches, to minimize any hand impalements while working behind the panel, any errant wires or inadvertent grounding, and simply to better assess circuits on those switches.

Back at it tomorrow.