I want to pass on to you some electric system hints and tips that helped during the construction of my airplane.  I think you'll also find them useful as you build yours.

Electronics that require soldering multiple pin terminals

I did as much of this work on the bench as I could manage.  It was a lot easier to do the precise work in a comfortable position instead of lying over the center spar.

I found it best to solder all the wires into the pins before I put any heatshrink on.  When I tried heatshrinking as I went, the soldering iron kept burning the old heatshrink as I soldered the next pin.

I found a small parts holder tool like this one from Harbor Freight was a huge help.  It was hard to hold both the d-sub connector and the wire at the same time as I soldered.

I soldered the d-subs by heating each pin and putting a little solder in it.  Only after they all had solder in them did I start connecting the wires.  I stripped the end of the wire, then touched the iron to the pin and pushed the wire into the solder.  I removed the iron, let the solder cool, and gave a light tug to ensure the wire was set.

Label everything

I used masking tape to initially label both ends of every wire of all of my electric system components.  I then removed the tape when I soldered the end or crimped it onto a terminal.  All those white wires look exactly the same when the bundle is run and you can’t see both ends.  See how I would have done permanent labeling for more discussion.

DON’T USE A TRICKLE CHARGER!  These may damage your electronics.  You are better off using a power supply, or an extra battery.  I didn’t have a spare battery lying around, so to check a lot of my stuff, I pulled my truck up to the front of the airplane and hooked up the battery without even removing it from the truck.

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