Today was spent finishing up some of the electrical items. I hooked up the items on the hot battery bus; G496, aft baggage area light, rear power outlet and the F804 eyeball lights. I had planned a front power outlet but that will be easy to install later. I then turned my attention to the alternate bus feed, this requires a separate wire to be attached to the E-Bus. I did this by drilling a small hole and installing a grommet. I attached the wire with a ring terminal on a tab I had previously attached to the bus bar. It was a little difficult as the wires to each CB were already installed but I managed to install it without having to remove any of the CB wires.
The switching for the alternate feed has to go through a relay, so I spent the last bit of time in the shop trying to determine how the relay gets wired up. A diode has to be installed because the way it is wired the switch gives a ground connection to the relay coil, the power feed that eventually goes to the E-Bus also power the (+) side of the coil, without the diode the power line would connect to ground, which is not good. I think I have it all figured out, now I have to solder the diode to some wire.
In photo 3 below the bottom terminals are for the coil (-) left and (+) right. The yellow wire comes from the panel switch which when closed connects to ground. Off the picture the green wire and the hot wire from the battery bus are both connected to the terminal which has the white wire in the photo. When the coil closes the bottom of the top two terminals will get power and this is where the feed line will be connected. So you see the wire from the battery bus provide power for the coil as well as the power to the bus. The diode prevents the power from going the opposite direction when the ground connection is made, it acts like a barrier. It is important to install this diode correctly!
Alternat feed wire attached
Feed wire low on bulkhead to avoid interference with the wire loops above.
