I'm happy to report this project is complete. I'm upgrading it to a level 8 effort, it's not as plug and play as I had hoped. So let me summarize as brief as I can:
First: I looked up the part WAT told me about and ordered it online later realizing I had the wrong flasher. It's essentially the same but it was not the solid state one so you heard relay clicking every time lights were turned on/off which was annoying and hopefully something I wouldn't hear in flight, however, I realized I had the wrong one and overnighted, Saturday delivery the correct one which arrived yesterday.
Yesterday morning I needed to stop and figure out the 3 position switch CubCrafters uses in the FX-3 and stop just guessing with wires on various terminals etc. Days of that proved futile. So I used my voltmeter (thank you YouTube university) to do continuity checks and figure out in each switch position which terminals were open. Someone at CubCrafters was smart and used the jumper cable going top right to middle left (from back) to solve a problem and now it was time to forget everything suggested and wire it up per what I saw on YouTube on this SSFPOS flasher and in the Wheelen instructions. I informed WAT that their guidance on wiring was incorrect, they finally realized that and engineering is working on revising their documentation. I shared the solution with them yesterday from what I discovered.
The wiring is simple, yeah, once you figure it out. So here is what I ended up with:
Blue goes to one side of the landing light molex via inline fuse with 5A fuse.
Yellow goes to the other side of the 2 pin molex (the molex is your left/right leading edge lights)
Black is ground
The incoming power supply (
white line) from the left wing root "landing" breaker goes directly to the
red line into the flasher which will power the lights. It does NOT go into the 3 position switch as before.
The
orange wire needs a low voltage (1A) or better power source which tells the flasher to flash so that goes to the bottom left terminal. I brought in a separate power supply from my taxi light breaker, positive side, to the middle right position of the switch (from rear). I also tried a y-splitter from the incoming power line to both the flasher red and the middle right back of switch and that worked as well. I just didn't want to send 10A down the orange wire which is smaller gauge and the Wheelen documentation indicates 1A. There is a probably a better power source for this, something closer to 1A or 2A but I went with what was easiest for me to connect to from the GDU panel opening.
The
white wire is used to tell the flasher to power the lights but not flash. That goes to the bottom right of the switch.
The
white with violet stripe wire is used for programming the flasher pattern. While the flasher is flashing touch this wire to any 12V power source and it will change the pattern among the half dozen or so patterns. I capped that off to ensure it doesn't contact anything but is available should I decide to change my flasher pattern to something different later, or if it needs to be reset for some reason.
What a relief, it worked, right up until the EXT breaker popped when in ON mode (both lights on, max amps pulled, around 8A for two lights). The EXT breaker is 7-1/2A. I have no idea what the EXT breaker is for so I shined my batman light up and got a call from
@Tsquared and put him to work to figure that out as he's deciphered the breakers in the past. Would be nice if CubCrafters had a cheat sheet in the AMM on what all breakers do for us non kit builders. How the hell are we to know what EXT does? I had a hunch it was for "external lights" so I had another 10A push pull breaker luckily since FedEx "lost" (severely delayed) my original shipment from CubCrafters that I ordered a second shipment and of course the day after I did that the original shipment arrived, giving me two 10A breakers.
I decided to replace the 7-1/2 A breaker with 10A and that was not that easy hence bumping this to level 8 effort. I removed all of the nuts securing the breakers on that row and that helped push the bus bar etc. aft so I could remove and replace the breaker.
Another test and that worked! Pete answered my text, on Saturday (thank you Pete) and informed me the EXT breaker is the line that powers the left wing root breakers. I suggested to him that the EXT breaker needs to match the largest breaker on the left wing root, i.e. I changed "landing" to 10A therefore EXT needs to meet or exceed. He advised caution to verify the wire gauge from EXT to left wing root is sufficient, best I could tell from wire diagrams is that it is is 20 awg and that should be sufficient in my non electrical engineer opinion, but I need to review what's being powered, etc. It would not be hard to run a new line if needed but I don't think it's needed.
I did another ground test of 15 minutes on steady (ON) with the landing lights and no issue. I typically fly in wig-wag, even at night, and that would be 4A (rounded up) vs. 8A so 99% of the time the EXT breaker issue and load on the left wing root is not an issue. At night on final is when I switch to landing light ON. Now if I'm staying in the pattern, at night, I doubt I'd be changing out of ON and back to ON each time, etc. So yeah, you need to test worst case which is landing lights ON and wire for that. I think I'm good, will review and assess and if needed run a heavier gauge wire.
I did a short test flight in the pattern and I'm getting noise over COM1 when the lights come on when in wig-wag, static with ON. I did not shorten any of the wires so I need to now finalize my wiring by shortening to the minimal needed and also pay careful attention to the routing of the two landing light inline fuse wires as they are the ones I think causing the issue. I'm 99% there but this final issue is yet to be resolved.
In the end the parts required are:
- 2 x Parmetheus G3 landing lights
- 2 x 10A push pull breakers (got from CubCrafters, not sure how to source them otherwise)
- 1 x SSFPOS Wheelen solid state flasher. I ordered two online from two different vendors, I'll have a backup at least or can sell it to someone in need of one. Here is the other vendor I bought from which I suggest using, better online ordering system. Roberts & Son
- A good crimp tool, my crimps sucked so I went to Lowes to buy the best crimper I could find and they only had one but the Klein was so much better. Also got the nice Klein wire stripper
It was painful, it's not over, and hopefully will pay off and not be a problem going forward. Would I do it again? NO! Leave well enough alone. I was approaching end of RMA with Aircraft Spruce and wasn't going to let $600 in lights not be used so I persevered. However, the day may come you can't source the 10+ year old lower power LED lights and you have to upgrade your lights, wiring, flasher, etc. CubCrafters home brew flasher is a 2A limit I believe. CubCrafters is working on a retrofit kit and hopefully will be more plug and play when available and they will also have a better look at the wiring and if it's sufficient or not.