Quote from Ron Rollo on January 14, 2023, 11:48 am

Hey guys,

About six weeks ago Shane and I were getting ready to start wiring up our sims and it hit me, we really need wiring diagrams to cover everything outside of the Jet45 Modules to insure we are on the same page with everything.

A lot of the items we planned on building into our sims were fairly easy to figure out, but there are a handful of areas that require some thought and it would be really easy for several guys to arrive at the same outcome while taking different paths.  This is a perfect recipe for disaster when it comes to helping one another out with trouble shooting.

To address this issue, I have drawn up 30 wiring diagrams that cover nearly all of the wiring elements that Shane and I have planned outside of the Jet45 AAS and Systems software.  This way we are all but guaranteed that our sims will be as close to identical as possible and trouble shooting potential issues will be a breeze.

Look at these wiring diagrams as "par for the course".  You don't have to include everything and you can certainly add to them if you like.  For me personally, I can't think of anything else I would like to add to them after several years of thinking about what should and needs to be included in order to achieve the level of simulation several of us have in mind.

You can find the latest version of the Jet45AAS  System Modules with the wiring diagrams  HERE

If you have not done so yet, take a few minutes to look over some of the wiring diagrams.  You will find that some of them are fairly easy to follow and only really serve as a "power flow" map to that particular piece of hardware.  And other wiring diagrams are a little more complex, like the overhead lights and Pack Air.

In all cases where things can be considered a little more complex, I bench tested the wiring to insure there were no issues.  I actually found a couple things that I initially thought should work fine, but only discovered that it needed tweaking during the bench testing.

A good example is the Left overhead light bench test.  But before we can cover this in detail, you first have to be aware of how the overhead lights work in the real Lear45.  (Refer to real world manuals)  If you are not aware, it is a little more complex than what you might think.  The other thing that you have to be aware of is I have simplified the way our sims will receive power compared to the real Lear45, so if you are following along in the manuals, you might see discrepancies, but for simulation purposes, these wiring diagrams will work fine.

 

LEFT OVERHEAD LIGHT OPERATION:

The Left and Right overhead lights receive power from the R NON ESS BUS.  The Left overhead light is also connected to the R HOT BUS.  The Right overhead light only receives power from the R NON ESS BUS, therefor, it is not necessary to talk about it's function in detail.  This photo shows the Left overhead light in a cold and dark state, no power in the plane and the cockpit light switch in the cabin door is off as well as the pot switch in the cockpit.

 

Here the cockpit light switch at the cabin door is turned ON.  This simulates the Left overhead light receiving power from the R HOT BUS, (not the R NON ESS BUS).  Why are we using R HOT BUS and R NON ESS BUS rather then the Left bus power?  I don't know without digging deeper but this is how the real Lear45 is wired up!

If you are wondering, the switch at the cabin door is so that the the crew can flip a switch at the door so that there is immediate light in the cockpit to keep from bumping into things trying to get into the cockpit.  We can simulate this by adding a switch just outside of the cockpit on the rear wall.

 

Here we have to imagine sitting in the cockpit with the switch at the cabin door ON and now power has been applied to the R NON ESS BUS.  Take note of the state of the toggles.  Because the Left overhead POT is not turned ON, suddenly you are sitting in the dark again.  This is actually important because the whole reason behind this hardware logic is to keep someone from flipping the cabin switch ON in flight and blinding the pilots!

With a quick turn of the Left overhead light, you are no longer sitting in the dark.  In other words, now with power applied to the aircraft, only the pilots have control of what lights are turned on in the cockpit.  You can't see it in this photo, but the pot has been turned up to light up the WEMAC again.

 

Last but not least, this photo shows the switch at the cabin door turned OFF.  This also simulates the cabin door being closed.  If you take a look at the wiring diagram, you will also find a pin switch that detects if the cabin door is closed.  This switch breaks the connection and automatically overrides the position of the switch at the cabin door.

This works great if you have turned all power off to the aircraft and still have the Left overhead light on in the cockpit.  If you exit the plane and forget to turn that switch off in the cabin, closing the door takes care of it for you and your batteries don't drain.  If you now or ever plan to build a short cabin section for your sim, this is something that you will want to include in your sim.

 

One other thing that you will want to do is upgrade you bulbs.  If you have acquired real WEMAC lights, most likely they came with 28v bulbs which you have to change out to 12v bulbs.  While you are at it, go ahead and switch to an LED version.  Depending on which WEMAC lights you have, you need to be aware of how tall your replacement LED bulbs are.  Also make sure you look for warm white.  The light in the photos above are with the new LED bulb you see here.

And that's it on how to turn a overhead light bulb on!

I don't plan on giving a play by play on all the wiring diagrams but this one was interesting to me and it also helps illustrate the power of a wiring diagram.

 

In other Avionics Bay related news, I have designed and built up a couple service modules.  They will be mounted on the Avionics bay bulkhead.  The first one is for the Display Unit cooling fans and Avionics Bay lights.

Each Display Unit gets it's own fan where before, we only had a left fan and a right fan.  Two fans worked fine but four fans will work great!  It's not a matter of trying to keep something cool, although the fans and placement of them helps to keep the air moving.  What it is really about is the sound of the fans.

Maciej gets credit for this idea and that is if we add variable pots to each DU fan, we can fine tune the fans to achieve perfect "avionics noise".  Once they are set, you never touch them again.  This replaces the idea of buying two or more different types of fans.

The second half of this first Service module is for the Avionics Bay lights.  I will have what I call bay lights that will be cool white to help work on things and Flood lights that will be red that I can leave on while in simulation.  The pots of course allow you to adjust how bright you want or need the lights.  This service module will be one of the first things I add in the Avionics Bay so that I can see what I am doing!

 

The Environmental Cooling Service Module serves more of a wiring hub for the L&R blowers, relays and variable pots.  Not at all needed, but I also added L&R Blower Master switches.  These switches and the Pack Air and Hi Flow pots will all be left ON, set and left alone.

Why do we need pots for the blowers you might ask?  The Pack Air pot will be set at 6v and the HI FLOW pot will be set at 9v.  This will help simulate the sound of the HI FLOW switch being selected and also provide additional airflow from the left and right blowers.  For more details on how to wire up the Environmental Cooling system, see the wiring diagrams.

 

More updates on the Avionics Bay and the wiring soon!