Master Buss Bar?

What are people using for master buss bars in homebuilts? It will have a
comm unit, transponder, and encoder plus a few instrumets. Day VFR only. I
have a 15amp alternator.

Any suggestions?

Charlie.

"ccwillwerth" wrote in message
...
What are people using for master buss bars in homebuilts? It will have a
comm unit, transponder, and encoder plus a few instrumets. Day VFR only.
I have a 15amp alternator.

Any suggestions?

Charlie.

You'll get many opinions, but one inexpensive and functional approach is to
go to your local auto parts emporium and get a blade type fuse holder to
use. Mount the fuse block behind the panel. Hook the big, hot wire to the
"in" side of the fuse block, and feed individual circuits through properly
sized fuses on the fuse holder.

KB

ccwillwerth wrote:
What are people using for master buss bars in homebuilts? It will have a
comm unit, transponder, and encoder plus a few instrumets. Day VFR only. I
have a 15amp alternator.


I don't remember exact details, but we used a thick copper strip to
which the CB switches attached directly.

ccwillwerth wrote:
What are people using for master buss bars in homebuilts? It will have a
comm unit, transponder, and encoder plus a few instrumets. Day VFR only. I
have a 15amp alternator.

Any suggestions?

Charlie.
Hi, Charlie! Get some 1/4" or 3/8" copper tube at your local hardware
store. Flatten it with a hammer, and drill a series of holes in it for
1" #6 or #8 screws. Mount the screws through the holes, using internal
tooth lockwashers under the screw and under the nut. Voila! Busbar! Now
here's something else you can do. Mount two busbars in parallel with a
terminal strip in between. Make the top bus the (+) bus and the bottom
one the (-) bus. From the (+) bus and the terminal strip in the center
between the two busses, run a twisted pair to your circuit breaker.
Then run a twisted pair from the terminal strip and the (-) bus to the
load. All of the load current from the CB to the load will be flowing
in opposite directions in the pair, giving excellent EMI cancellation.
This is especially important in plastic and wood airplanes to minimize
radio interference. Remember: every load requires two conducters, one
to take the electrons (holes) from the source to the load, and one to
return them back to the source! Another thing to do is mount a 14V LED
immediately above each CB, wired across the CB. That way, if the CB
opens, the LED above it will be on, except in an intermittent load,
such as the flap actuator. There, if the CB is open, the LED will glow
when the flap is actuated. Paul

You may want to check your local boat supply company like
www.cabelas.com/

May I suggest you visit this site: http://www.aeroelectric.com/

Dig around there and you will find out just about everything you need to
know about aircraft electrical systems.

You might also visit the "AeroElectric-List at http://forums.matronics.com

All of the people there are quite helpful...



"ccwillwerth" wrote in message
...
What are people using for master buss bars in homebuilts? It will have a
comm unit, transponder, and encoder plus a few instrumets. Day VFR only.
I
have a 15amp alternator.

Any suggestions?

Charlie.

For a very light load like this, may I suggest that you look at the Radio
Shack 274-656 through 274-670 with the 274-650 jumper strip. All this talk
of heavy brass strips and such for a few amps of current is using a howitzer
on a housefly.

There are Mouser and Digikey equivalents if your local Shack has been
castrated.

Jim



"ccwillwerth" wrote in message
...
What are people using for master buss bars in homebuilts? It will have a
comm unit, transponder, and encoder plus a few instrumets. Day VFR only.
I
have a 15amp alternator.

Any suggestions?

Charlie.

ccwillwerth wrote:
What are people using for master buss bars in homebuilts? It will have a
comm unit, transponder, and encoder plus a few instrumets. Day VFR only. I
have a 15amp alternator.

Any suggestions?

Charlie.


Aircraft Spruce has a kit that you can just cut off what
you need. I used that and then powered it thru the Battery (Master)
Relay with a 30a breaker in the line.

karel wrote:
"RST Engineering" schreef in bericht
.. .

For a very light load like this, may I suggest that you look at the Radio
Shack 274-656 through 274-670 with the 274-650 jumper strip. All this
talk of heavy brass strips and such for a few amps of current is using a
howitzer on a housefly.


Again I tend to agree with Master Jim.
Though I went & bought a full length of heavy brass strip for my camper,
the best part is still out somewhere,
any homebuilder near Flanders is welcome to take part of it!
But it was bought for currents up to a 100 Amps, no comparison.



Check you local hobby store and see if the sell brass. I have used
brass strips from the "brass centers." I think 3/8" wide by 1/16" thick
would cover just about anything you want to power. I went with 1/8"
thick simply because it's easier to drill.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

Brass has substantially less conductivity than copper. Aluminum has
less conductivity than copper, but has twice the conductivity per pound.