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Autopilot and Molex Mini Connectors - Update

JDA_BTR

Well Known Member
I installed molex mini connectors per the plans. The one on the elevator trim servo got replaced with d-sub pins after first test flight. The one on the aft deck under the horizontal stabilizer lasted 135 hours and may have gone forever. But after bringing the plane home and having weird autopilot responses in some conditions I did some troubleshooting.

The problem is/was the other molex mini in this setup. As you can see from the first pic the painter didn't care for it enough, or despite his best effort it took a hit. Either way it inserted correctly and the pins were mated, but the signals were intermittent and the trim system/autopilot control of same were hopeless. No amount of fiddling made it right. Diagnostics were achieved by not seeing the position move when the trim was moved up/down. I don't know if the autopilot feedback is tied in with position feedback but it seems likely based on what I saw. Autopilot was faultless with manual trim instead of auto.

The second pic is mid-assembly with d-sub pins, one for each wire. Each was put in a sleeve of shrink tube, then the whole was shrink tubed along a good length. I used silicon tape to wrap a length of it where it passed through the old micro mini snap hole. Third pic is the final solution.

Works well now. Lots of folks have abandoned the micro mini connectors early. I think if you make the connector to factory specs and dont disconnect/reconnect often (and don't paint it) it can work well. Mine are gone now aft. My control sticks still have them, and are working well there.
 

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