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A special shielded cable was ordered for hooking the WX-500 to the HSI which won't arrive for a couple days, so most of my day was actually spent on other projects. However, I did spend some time changing the annunciator switches over to what will be needed for the new installation.
With the old stack with a KLN-90B and KX-165, a switch was used to select the source for the HSI - either GPS or NAV (VOR). In the new install this is handled internally by the 530, so this functionality is unnecessary. However, for the sake of convenience and pilot familiarity, the switch will be connected to the 530 to switch between its internal VOR receiver and GPS navigation.
You can see a picture of the switches here:
The switch consists of three main sections: the rear connector, the switch, and the lighted face. The construction of these switches is such that each part is interchangable with the others, so if you want to change a momentary switch into a latch-down switch you simply replace the switch section. The pinout on the back and the lighting configuration is identical. Also, to make the same switch do something different is as simple as changing where the wires are plugged into the back of it. Each switch has two sides, one normally-open (NO) and one normally closed (NC). When the switch is depressed, the NO side closes and the NC side opens. There are four lights in the face which are constantly powered via two pins (top and bottom), though the ground is only connected when the light should be lit. This allows electronic controls to simply "sink" the line and doesn't require power to be run to each light. Inside the face, behind the lettering, are four sections, each with a light in it. The sections can be divided using baffles so that each only lights the desired section(s). The lettering is molded into a black plastic so that even in direct sunlight, the annunciator is dark unless lit.
Overall, they are quite impressive little devices that I wish more airplanes used.
This picture shows where the switches are mounted, and the connectors they plug in to.
Well, that's all for today... stay tuned.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12