A Day Of Working With The Wiring Connectors

There are quite a few connectors that need to be taken apart to either have wires added or removed … some wires are added as part the normal process of installing the wiring, others for additional options such as the AP & Knobs panels, and a few necessary for DOG Aviation modifications. Did not take a photo of every change, but mostly took photos of the connectors that required extra attention. The following is a synopsis of the work session.


The WH-00046 Fuselage connector: This connector needed to have the wires from the trim motor cable installed. A few months back the two white trim motor wires were tested with a battery and marked to denote which of the two white wires moved the trim tab UP when a positive voltage was applied to the wire … that wire was subsequently marked “Tab Up”. The “Tab UP” wire is placed in the Fuselage connector at pin 31. The remaining white wire in the trim motor’s cable is placed into pin 32. That leaves three wires in the trim motor cable that are color coded … the white/green wire goes to pin 4, the white/blue wire goes to pin 22 and the white/orange wire goes to pin 25.

The white trim motor wire held between my thumb and index finger was  previously determined to be the “Tab UP” wire and connects to pin 31of the Fuselage connector … the remaining white trim motor wire goes to pin 32. This is one place where it behooves the builder to check and recheck again to make sure you get this right.


Return from the future: The above information was based on the manual page 31B-04 rev 0. It appears to me there is an error on that page regarding the placement of the “Tab UP” wire into pin 31 on the Fuselage connector … can’t speak for a regular instillation without the AP Panel (but guessing it is wrong for that too), but when installing the AP Panel module on a non-flying RV-12, I believe the “Tab Up” wire needs to be placed in position 32 on the Fuselage connector. Read about my analysis in this post:


http://www.dogaviation.com/2016/03/wiring-discrepancy-identified-in-trim.html


If all this turns out to be incorrect, I will return from the future and edit this post accordingly … but I truly don’t think that will be necessary.

Before closing up the Fuselage connector, two wiring modification need to be made. Because the DOG Aviation RV-12 is adding a panel mounted switch for the electric fuel pump, the fuel pump’s power wire needs to be intercepted … this involves removing the fuel pump’s power wire from pin 29 on the Fuselage connector and replacing it with a short piece of wire that will connect to the panel mounted fuel pump switch … the removed wire will connect to the load side of the fuel pump switch and will supply power to the fuel pump whenever the fuel pump switch is on. The second modification is the addition of the wire from the canopy latch micro switch which was added to the DOG Aviation RV-12. The wire from the canopy micro switch needs to be installed onto pin 8 of the Fuselage connector.


The WH-00046 Options connector: There is one wire here that needs intercepting due to a modification. The Otto switches being used on the DOG Aviation RV-12 for the fuel pump and left landing light are from the same family of switches Van’s uses in the Switch module and also have internal LED lights. Because the level of brightness is controlled from the Dynon SkyView (or a potentiometer depending on the version of the electrical system) feel LED lights in the two switches to also be dimmable as well. Seemingly the easiest way to accomplish this is to intercept the cockpit “light-“ lead on pin 18 of the Options connector. A new wire will run from pin 18 to pick up the cathode of both switch’s LEDs then continue on to the roll bar’s cockpit light as usual.

Crimping a pin on a wire that will be inserted into pin 18 on the Options connector to intercept the Light- lead so the brightness of the LED’s in the two panel switches for the fuel pump and landing light can be controlled.


The WH-00031 wire harness connector: Builders not installing the AP & Knobs panels will not need to fuss with this connector. Because the DOG Aviation RV-12 will have the optional AP & Knobs panels, it will be necessary to perform a little surgery on the connector. The connector (one with the white label) that plugs into the back of the AV-50001 Switch & Fuse module receives the most attention if adding the AP & Knobs Panels. This is because the AP Panel becomes the controller for the RV-12’s trim motor and this necessitates removal of the wires in the WH-00031 harness associated with trim motor’s power and up/down wires from the panel mounted switch in the AV-5001 module. These wires are to be pulled out of the connector, pins covered with heat shrink and then tied back.

My finger is pointing to the connector on the WH-00031 harness that plugs into the back of the AV-50001 module. The three wires needing removal from this connector are pins 15,18,19.


When removing the wires from the connector, I used the spare wire with a connector on the end of it trick to push the old wires out from under the heat shrink. This allows the new wires to follow the same path under the heat shrink. Worked like a champ.

Holding the three wires that were removed. These now need to be covered in heat shrink and tied back. Looking closely, one can see the spare wires with female connectors that were used to push the old wires out from under the white heat shrink. These will be used to aid in inserting the replacement wires under the tight heat shrink.


The pins on the removed wires were individually covered with heat shrink and the wires were folded back and placed in another piece of heat shrink tubing.

The three wires individually covered with heat shrink, folded back and about to be inserted into another piece of heat shrink. These three wires will be replaced with wires from the AP wiring harness.


The three replacement wires from the AP & Knobs panel wire harness were installed next. Decided to do this while the harnesses was still on the bench. This may create a little hassle while routing the wires, but should be a lot less bending over the instrument panel in the long run … hopefully. The two harness were mated on the bench and the three wires from the AP & Knobs panel harness were connect directly to the WH-00031 wire harness connector. In addition, a piece of heat shrink tubing was placed over the three wires where they will be lying on the Garmin radio’s frame. The red wire is trim motor power and connects to pin 15, the brown wire is “pitch trim switch –“ and connects to pin 18, the remaining white/yellow wire is “pitch trim switch +“  and connects to pin 19.

Above the wire tie, one can see the three wires from the AP & Knobs wiring harness that replace the previously removed wires. The red wire is trim motor power and connects to pin 15, the brown wire is “pitch trim switch –“ and connects to pin 18, the remaining white/yellow wire is “pitch trim switch +“  and connects to pin 19.


Yet another modification … after receiving verification from Van’s that the unfused “Extra” circuit can indeed support up to 5 amps, an additional wire was added to pin 14 on the WH-00031 connector to bring this circuit out for supplying power for the left landing light.

One can see the added modification of the red “Extra” power wire on the far right connected to pin 14 on the connector. This will bring the “Extra” power circuit out to power the left landing light’s steady on through a panel mounted switch. Note: This circuit will need to be fused because the “Extra” circuit has no internal fusing inside the AV-50001 module.


The WH-00020 wire harness EMS connector on the EMS-220: I opened up this connector unnecessarily thinking I would need to add a wire to complete the circuit for the canopy latch micro switch. During construction of the DOG Aviation RV-12 Van’s came out with a canopy latch warning system by adding a canopy latch micro switch. Per the instillation instructions for the retrofit, in order to make the SkyView see the micro switch, it requires running a wire to the EMS-220. After opening the connector, up I realized my wiring harness was new enough that this wire was already in place …. should have looked to see if the pins were in the connector first. For older RV-12’s installing the canopy latch micro switch, in addition to the wire from the micro switch to pin 8 of the fuselage connector, a wire also needs to be run from pin 12 on the EMS connector (WH-00020 harness) to pin 27 on the EFIS connector at the AV-50000A Control module.