It's been too cold to work in the garage and it has been a long time since I reviewed my electrical and avionics design. With the AC hoses going in, I'm losing some conduit space so thought it would be a good time to revisit the wire runs and confirm where everything is going to go. Spent a lot of time over the past couple weeks updating diagrams and visualizing the data and power wiring. Made some decisions on:
- IBBS power distribution - hooking directly to the critical components more in line with Garmin and IBBS manual
- Battery Bus - figured out circuit protection and finalized circuits. Moved the hot buss and E-bus relay to the back to avoid long run of high current, on-switched hot wire per Bob Knuckles. It's a fire issue in a crash.
- Fuses - moving most of the avionics items to fuses to save space, weight and money. Only airframe items (flaps, lights, etc) and AP and trim will be on CBs.
- Final decision on GTN750 vs. GTN650 and a GNX. I will the G3X as backup GPS - even though it is not IFR approved it should be sufficient in an emergency. Will mount a remote GTX behind the panel. Trying to still figure out if I will fit a GMA on the panel or mount remote.

Developed wiring layout for the major behind panel harness for power and data - it's a lot of wires!

Found someone on VAF selling a GTN tray, backplate and connectors for a good price and bought it. Ordered a GMA tray from Stein, but I may end up not needing it. Also ordered their acrylic G3X component templates - those should help me finalize locations and even wire everything before ordering components.

Started CAD drawing of panel cut-outs. It is going to be difficult to fit the GTN, GMA and GMC in the center stack without modifications to the cross support bar and center rib. I do want to extend the panel all the way to the bottom of the cross support though, and maybe extend it down in the corners to house the vents. I'm going to have the panel cut for me, so might as well make the geometry what I want.

Also did a little research on the courtesy lights - I want some LED strips in the footwells and want them on a slight timer. Can do a simple circuit with a capacitor that achieves what I want. Open door - lights slowly come up. Close door - lights slowly go out. Like a couple of seconds. It'll be a nice touch.

1/26: was able to get the panel actually drawn up properly in CAD.helped me identify some spacing issues and make some adjustments. Very happy with it.