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Ray Allen trim servo/control: actual wiring schematic neede

 
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 21, 2019 10:21 am    Post subject: Ray Allen trim servo/control: actual wiring schematic neede Reply with quote

On 7/16/2019 12:00 PM, Charlie England wrote:

Quote:
Anyone out there with an actual schematic of the Ray Allen relay decks, switches, stick switches, etc? Their on-line 'diagrams' are typical consumer-facing 'white boxes' for each component, showing nothing of how the contacts in the device are tied to the various colored wires. I can spend a day or two puzzling out how the internals are connected, but I'd love to avoid the waste of time.


The guys at RA were less than worthless, telling me that it would be 'dangerous' to show the consumer (the people actually installing their stuff) what was going on inside each box on their diagrams. Gotta say, if there were an alternative, I'd just replace the stuff so I wouldn't have to deal with them.


Problem: previous owner(s) have panel mounted rockers & indicators for pitch/roll, and a stick grip with the 4 separate buttons for pitch/roll. The rockers work. The stick buttons will make the relays click, but don't control the trim motors.


As I said, I can puzzle it out, but I'd like to *start* with schematics of the devices, instead of having to create them.


Thanks,


Charlie

Well, I found my 'issue', so I thought I'd detail it here for posterity.

Here's the 1st sentence from the Ray Allen website description of their RS2 rocker switch:
This switch is designed for use with Ray Allen trim systems. It has a very positive snap action in two directions and returns to a center off position. (underline added by me)

Note that this is NOT correct. What they *don't mention* in the description is that the housing actually contains a pair of switches, and when the switch is in what they deceptively call the 'center off' position, it actually shorts the pair of wires that would normally feed the trim motor. The legitimate reason is to stop motor 'coasting', but failure to document that they did this, in both the description and in their wiring diagrams, leaves one open to wasting a half day or more just sorting out what's happening.

One of RA's drawings shows a pair of diodes in series with the RS2 switch wires, but no explanation of why they're there. They're there to keep the switch from powering *both* relays in the RA relay block, if a 2nd control is installed, as with stick-mounted pushbuttons or hat-switch. That's what was happening with my installation. The builder failed to install the diodes, and when a stick trim button was pressed, the relay block would click but the servo wouldn't move. Both relays inside the relay block were activating (undetectable by 'ear'), which meant that the motor saw no voltage differential.

I did have a couple of very pointed discussions with the RA folks. The 1st (before I found my problem) was to request devices' internal schematics, and the response was that it would be 'dangerous' (for RA, obviously) to give end-users 'too much information'. My 2nd, after discovering the RS2 switch issue, was with a different person, who did apologize and said that they had plans to update the website and their docs. When I asked the 2nd guy to tell me, tech-to-tech (I've had a couple of prior lives as an electronics tech), what 'center off' meant, I got what can be described as a 'pregnant pause'.

Hey Bob, I know the AEC book is primarily about power distribution, but maybe you should beat us over the head at the beginning and end of every chapter, reminding us to *document* our work. The builder of my a/c had a printed copy of AEC in the boxes of paperwork, and did have a few hand-drawn variations on some of the Z-figures, but apparently failed to document anything beyond power feeds.

Charlie

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