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Jims RV-8
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Date: 4-4-2020
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Number of Hours: 4.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Additional Lights in front Cockpit
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Been thinking that since the LED lights on the rheo are less bright, I could make up the difference in brightness by adding more lights. I started with the front cockpit, left side where the lights had already gone dark (ugh) and ripped them out. In part, I would say it was partially my fault as the installation was not ideal. I ran the continuous lights around bends and thru bulkhead holes instead of just laying them on top of flat metal. Lesson learned. With the new found wisdom, I am attaching wiring in between the lights so that there are no bends and bulkheads that the light will have to navigate. Those areas will be bridged by the wires. I just have to wire up the lights, now.
The electrical education continued today while wiring the lights. I make a habit of testing the newly wired lights (or anything) before installing it in the plane. Sometimes, when testing the LEDs, the light would come on bright and other times not at all?? I checked the power source (good), then checked the voltage at the end of the supply wires - good...wait, it was decreasing as in a countdown - why is it decreasing? It took me a while to figure out that the contact point on the alligator clips were just stripped, folded over and then clamped in place with no solder. So sometimes the wire made contact and sometimes it really didn't. It was frustrating and puzzling for the electrical novice to again have to troubleshoot the bench electronics – especially when I had been using them and had accepted them as “good”. Like, I said, the education continues. I rewired the clamps to good wire and secured the connection with solder. Not that this had to be done today but I just wanted to get past the electrical stable. I have been happy with the electrical stability installed in the airplane, but the bench stuff has been frustrating.
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double row of lights on left underside
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