Switch Wiring and Ignition Fan

Ignition Fan
The Lightspeed Ignition boxes need forced air into them for cooling. This isn't a super critical item so I found a small 12 volt fan on Amazon for a couple bucks. Then made a manifold from aluminum sheet and tubing. After gluing it in place with JB Weld the two are now inseparable. For an added measure I wired this fan to the VPX and it will display a warning if the fan quits operating, otherwise I would never know it quit working.

Instrument Panel Switches
Started cutting the holes for the switches. Lots and Lots of wires will wind up in this area.

Wiring up the switches. A little safety note. You should have an individual ground for every switch because you do not want one ground coming loose and disabling all of your important switches. After testing out the switches in the plane, in the dark, I noticed they were REALLY bright. So I added a dimmer. This will probably be set to a certain brightness and then forgotten so I installed it behind the instrument panel. But its still accessible while flying if need be.

Not the best shot of the switches installed.....maybe there will be something better later on....sorry.

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).