Installing Taillight
LET THERE BE LIGHT!
In the first week of the new year I am jumping between a few different projects, and today I installed the tail light, and the rudder is officially complete.
I’ve done soldering at Arudino level before, but this is the first time I use crimper to connect wires. I wanted to make sure I absolutely do everything in the right way, so this is a bit of learning process for me.
Tools
For wire connection, after some research, I decided to crimp rather than soldering. I choose this way because it’s the standard practice in automotive and aviation. And I really like the consistency from using crimpers.
Here are the tools involved.
- Automatic wire stripper
- Wire crimper
- Heat shrink crimp connector
- Extra heat shrink
I spent some time and spare wires to learn how to use wire stripper and crimpers, then moved onto the real thing.
Connecting the wires
The light I am using is Aveo Minimax Ariel. It comes with 4 wires: black, red, blue, yellow.
However the 4 core wire Sling has is: white, green, orange, blue.
I am not sure if there is a standard color code mapping, and I couldn’t find any. So decided to match them in this way:
| Light wire | Sling wire | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Black | White | Return |
| Blue | Blue | Sync |
| Yellow | Orange | Strobe |
| Red | Green | Position |
Things that could have gone better
I installed the rudder tip and the wire that came with Sling before I installed the light. It was not esay to work the wires when half of it is already in the rudder. I had to be really careful to not pull it out.
If I had to do it again, I would have waited to install rudder tip until the light is installed. It would have provided more space to work with.
I also drilled the hole to feed wire on rudder tip too small. When I measured the hole I only make it slightly bigger than the wire that came with Sling. I forgot that the wire would become thicker, and it no longer fit the hole. So I had to drill another hole right next to the original wire feeder hole, and connect the two holes together to provide more space. Again, if I connected the wires before installing rudder tip this would have been unnecessary.