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ELT cable

Allan Stern

Well Known Member
I was wondering if the telephone cable Van's supplies with the empennage kit is the correct one for the ACK ELT unit. Or do you have to swap it out for the one supplied with the ACK unit. This happened with my 12 and the ELT.

Thanks

140570 tail almost done
RV 8a flying
RV 12 flying
Dues paid
 
I was wondering if the telephone cable Van's supplies with the empennage kit is the correct one for the ACK ELT unit. Or do you have to swap it out for the one supplied with the ACK unit.

Allan - I built a RV-12 with an ACK ELT so this may not apply to your situation .... but the experience I had with the Van's supplied cable is it was the wrong type and did not work correctly with the ELT's remote panel when first installed. To fix the issue I needed to cut off the modular connector from one end (did this at the panel end because there is more room to play around) and install a new modular connector on the end of the wire only flipped 180 degrees ... then all was well.

Not all modular phone wires are the same ... some flip the modular connectors at each end and some don't depending on the application. In my case, Van's may have received an incorrect batch because I have not heard of this being a wide spread issue for everyone ... so I would first go with the wire Van's supplies and if you don't get the correct indications on the remote panel when you are testing the ELT per the trouble shooting guide in the ACK manual, then replace the modular connector on only one end of the wire making sure you flip the modular connector 180 degrees from the way the original one was attached.

Happy building,
 
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I'm reasonably sure that the ACK kit from Van's works correctly with the supplied cable. I asked Steinair about ELT options and they recommended sticking with the Van's supplied unit since the ones they sell require different cabling.
 
I purchased an ARTEX from Stein and while not a drop in replacement it?s pretty simple. Stein will provide a two wire ?harness? to run from the ELT to the panel mounted switch. The GPS data uses the existing Vans wiring. You need a ground so I just cut the connectors off the phone cord, combined all four wires and had my ground from the ELT to my ground block.

Did the antenna connection work as easily?
 
Be careful you don't actually fly with your ELT, lest you violate its packing label ;)

IMG_20160109_160015.jpg
 
I also purchased the Artex 345 ELT from Stein. However, I yanked out the phone cord and now realized that I need a ground. Should I run a separate ground wire to the ground block, or could I ground the ELT to the frame at the tail?
 
I had the same question on what that cable was for. I looked at the Vans store and they sell a ACK E-04 + install kit specifically for the RV-14. According to previous posts this looks like the path of least resistance to me.
 
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