Installing the VP-50 control box

With an electrical system design (mostly) completed, and with the wires to the back of the airplane (mostly) run, allowing me to button up the top skins, I'm getting down to brass tacks on the electrical system.

Last night at the hangar, I mounted the Vertical Power VP-50 control unit.



It's mounted on two pieces of .063 angle that tie the ribs together. You'll note, too, that doing it this way also allows me to add more Adel clamps for wires heading to the panel from the conduit that runs up the firewall. The more Adel clamps, the better.

You'll also note, as an aside, that I didn't prime the subpanel components. Why not? Somewhere along the line, I read someone's Web site that they'd wished they'd painted the subpanel white so it would be easier to see up under there. So I figured I'd keep it mostly unpainted and allow the light to reflect to see better later on. Whether this ends up serving any purpose, I don't know.



As you can see, I have a nice "approach" to the VP-50. This is the shot of the connection for the cord that connects to the control unit in the panel.

I still have more research to do on the full electrical system design. For example, I was reading last night that Lightspeed wants me to wire directly to the battery, whereas it's possible to wire via Vertical Power and have a backup available to switch to a different circuit should I lose the VP. I'm thinking that's the way to go.

I have an order coming from B&C (by the way, why does it take B&C just two days to get my UPS shipment to me and it takes Van's almost a full week?) which will have the wires and connections I need to wire the VP-50 to the battery.

In any event, I'm hoping the blog will be a good source of information for people considering the VP-50. Just use the Vertical Power category.