Bonus Post - Mimic Panel wiring

Aren't you guys lucky? Two posts in one day! Wassup with dat?

Well it's too hot today to work in the shed or have a siesta so I started tinkering. One of the projects you've seen me mention before is the Mimic Panel. Anyone familiar with larger boats will know what these are.

This is mine.

She-Kon Mimic Panel

The panel will show us at a glance what's on and what's not. It included most DC accessories and the main AC accessories. The LED's came from Blue Sea and are made for their electrical panels. The panel itself was my design and cut for me by FrontPanel Express.

There are 27 lights and one switch on the panel. This makes for a very messy backside!

Birds Nest! :-)

Looking around the Interwebs and fleaBay I didn't see too many options for joining very small wires together. The LED lights are 26 AWG wires which are tiny. I was able to find some wire leads designed for RC boats & cars etc. for wiring batteries. These are 20 AWG wire and tinned!

RC Battery connectors from fleaBay!

The next task was to figure out how to join the wires. Soldering of course. There are no crimp connectors this small (that I could find). My preference for these small wires is Silver Solder and heat shrink tubing.

Birds nest to Dreadlocks!

Camera wasn't cooperating so I didn't get any pics of the soldered joins. I'm a better solderer than I am a welder! *wink* Anyhow, it makes some order of the chaos that was the birdsnest.

Each connection will route to a euro style barrier strip. When I get my label printer working I'll label each connector.

The ground buss will be a bit different style but you get the idea. All of this will (hopefully) get tucked up inside an overhead console I have planned.

Took a total of about 3-1/2 hours. A couple of hiccups but nothing major. My hands actually feel pretty good after all that. Maybe things like this are good therapy for carpal tunnel. Dunno.

Well so much for one of my lil' winter projects.  *sigh*

Standby....