Today was much wetter and chillier than forecasted, and I also got a late start… Moreover, I dug up another couple tasks that I want to get done with the Tri-Paragon on the bench vs in the bird.

First off is the majority of the wiring on Relay #21 (RL021) which controls power to EITHER the StarLink Mini Antenna OR the cabin heat system (heated seats and oil heat system).

This required adding an extension to the ground wire on the pre-manufactured StarLink antenna power cord.  I also added the red power feed from the Main Bus (top of pic) that also powers the control circuit of the relay as well via a 22 AWG jumper wire.

The only wires missing to make this ensemble complete are currently in the bird: the 14 AWG power wire to the heat system and the 22 AWG wire to the other side of the control circuit that goes to the STARLINK ON/OFF panel switch.

Normally Closed is the heat system, whereas upon relay activation the power feed then transfers to the StarLink antenna on the Normally Open position and cuts power to the heat system.  Again, this is to mete out my amp usage to avoid overtaxing my battery and 40 amp alternator.

Also note the gray wire also attached to NO to report the StarLink’s powered state to the panel indicator light.

I then spent a good little bit verifying and finalizing the power leads required on the Video Camera MUX that allows taking 4 (currently, max is 8) video camera leads and outputting them into the GRT HXr EFIS —which normally only allows one video camera input.  Note that the D-Sub connector for these wires is a solder-cup style, so more soldering!

There are power and ground wires for both the MUX unit itself, but also for all the individual cameras as well.  These leads are all 12V power, but I do have one 5V camera that will require a 12v-5v “buck buster” type module to convert the power.  This was what I was consulting on with Eric Page, and he was going to make his own version of a converter but has a family member with health issues that he must attend to, so he recommended the best off-the-shelf solution to me.  I’ve ordered that unit and it should be here within the next few days.

The instrument panel in our aircraft is of course all about providing us with information, and in that vein both yesterday and today I did a final assessment on my top of panel indicator lights.  I’ve got a minor mod going on to increase capacity on my information reporting.  I’ll detail that as well once I get into it, but that also included soldering some wires to set up my final schema on those.

Pressing forward!