Overhead Panel Wiring

Wiring the overhead took A LOT more work then I thought it was going to. It just took a lot of time to solder and wire the panel then what I had anticipated. But after testing the panel and seeing what it's going to look like and how its going to work. It was worth it.

First I test tested the switches and their lights. Notice in the bottom left of the picture I have a resistor in line with the switches. The resistor drops the voltage from 12 volts to the 2 volts that the lights need.

Here is the resistor and lighted switches I'm using.

After planning the locations for everything and then drilling holes in my already painted upper panel (nervous) I started soldering on wires. The "third hand" doohickey pictured here was essential in getting this done.

A close up shot of the soldering....not bad for someone with no experience.

Here is the resistor I spoke about earlier. Next I slide a piece of shrink tube over the connection securing everything.

The final product! A day and a half of work! The spaghetti mess of wires makes perfect sense to me!

The pretty finished side. The two round switches turn on the front reading lights. The center knob turns on and dims the interior lighting. And the four square looking switches are for the wing lights (position, nav, strobe, landing).