This afternoon I began testing the electrical
system . I charged the battery overnight
and today it showed 13.4 Volts on the multimeter. First I removed the upper cowl so I could
hook up the battery ground cable. I also removed the upper fuselage skin. I turned
on the master switch and the Dynon screen lit up and the fuel pump began to
hammer. I pulled the fuel pump fuse to
shut off the fuel pump.
I then I pushed the trim switch on the instrument
panel. Nothing happened with the
trim. I went to the rear of the airplane
and looked at the trim motor connection.
I did the upgrade several months ago so the connection is a Molex
mini-pin block. I am not sure the pins
are making connection in the block. I
removed the block from the servo tray and pulled it apart. Looking inside it appears the block housing is
pushing the pins back so they are not making contact.
Because I am not happy with the way the pins
were crimped and because it appears the connection is not working I decided to
remove the Molex block and replace it. I
can order a new block and pins from Van’s, but first I want to see if the trim
servo is working at all. I cut the wires
and stripped the ends. Using test leads
and a 12 Volt battery I checked to be certain the servo motor is
functioning. It is. I stripped all of the wire ends and connected
them together with test leads. I
repeated the early exercise. I turned on
the master switch and then attempted to activate the trim. No Joy!
By turning the switches on the panel on and
off I discovered some things that don’t seem to be quite right. Of course the wings are not hooked up so
there is no way of knowing if the lights are working. I will need to have my grandsons help me
install the wings so I can test the lights.
I did notice that when I turn on the NAV/STROBE switch the cockpit light
and the autopilot indicator light on the instrument panel both illuminate. They do not illuminate when I turn on only
the NAV switch. That makes sense to me because
you would most likely use the strobes at night and the cockpit light would be
on at that time. I am concerned that the
autopilot indicator comes on with the NAV/STROBE switch. It does not illuminate with the autopilot switch. I thought it would. The SkyView seems to be
functioning. The spar pin indicator is
green. To check it out I moved one of
the spar pins and the red warning light next to the starter illuminated and at
the same time the spar indicator on the SkyView turned red. I pushed the nose
of the airplane out the hangar door and it picked up the GPS signal. Things seem to be working on the SKkyView,
but no trim (the vertical trim indicator on the SkyView screen is grayed) and
an autopilot light that seems to illuminate with the wrong switch. I pulled the radio forward so I can see the
wiring underneath. I attempted to call Van’s Support but their lines
were busy. I sent them an email
identifying the problem. I will wait for
their answer. This is most frustrating. I didn’t get started on the potentiometer adjustments. I have a thought that maybe the trim problem
could be the trim potentiometer is out of adjustment. No, it couldn’t be that simple. We’ll see what Support has to offer.
