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The old radios had way fewer pinout issues
I was swapping out a comm unit in a Cessna 172 last week and had to fight with a 37-pin D-sub that somebody had wired backwards twenty years ago. Back in the late 90s when I started, we were still dealing with those big Collins panels that used screw terminals and you could trace every wire by hand in about five minutes. Now everything is crammed into these tiny connectors with ribbon cables and half the pins don't even get used. Has anybody else noticed how much harder it is to troubleshoot new installs versus the old stuff?
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nancyn694d ago
Read a whole article on how modern avionics are basically disposable by design (which is kinda sad).
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phoenixw114d ago
Modern wiring is actually a blessing in disguise once you get past the learning curve (I know, unpopular opinion). Those old screw terminals were great until you had corrosion issues or a wire slipped out mid-flight, which happened way more often than people remember. Having a good pinout diagram handy and a multimeter makes troubleshooting these tight connectors way faster than tracing a rats nest of loose wires.
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oscarc124d ago
Three out of five of my last electrical gremlins turned out to be nothing more than a loose connector that just needed a firm push. @phoenixw11 is probably right about the screw terminals though, I had one vibrate loose mid-flight on a Cessna 172 and the oil pressure gauge went dead right over the Smoky Mountains. But yeah, now I get to buy a $400 wiring harness kit instead of spending ten cents on a new screw, progress is awesome.
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