v1.0, May 2020 | 1 |

Flyleds ACM Strobe Controller Board Installation

Advanced Flight Systems/Dynon supplies their Advanced Control Module or

ACM as a component of their aircraft instrument panel wiring range.

Along with many other features, the ACM provides power ports to drive:

Landing lights

Taxi lights (ACM-ECB version)

Position (nav) lights

Strobe lights.

This guide shows you how to install a Flyleds lighting kit using the new

ACM controller board.

Aircraft Rear connector Most of the fuselage wiring for your plane originates from the Aircraft Rear connector. The Flyleds ACM control

board is placed in between the Aircraft Rear connector and the wiring harness out to the fuselage. This allows us to

reconfigure the Strobe Sync wires to work with the Flyleds position and strobe light kits.

The control board passes through all other connections unaltered, including the Pitot Heat, ELT, and the EFIS digital

switch inputs. The landing light circuits are also passed through unaltered, so the ACM’s airspeed-based automatic

wigwag function continues to operate as expected.

Indicator lights are provided for the Landing lights, Pitot Heat power, and Position and Strobe light circuits.

Installation The Flyleds ACM Control board simply plugs into the Aircraft Rear DB25 connector on the ACM.

The wiring in the Aircraft Rear harness remains unchanged and plugs into the relocated blue DB25 connector marked

Aircraft Rear on the Flyleds ACM Controller Board.

Two mounting feet have been provided to use in the

bottom corners of the controller board. They have

adhesive pads that are optional to use.

Two 4-40 thumbscrews are used to secure the Flyleds

controller board to the ACM’s DB25 connector.

Being made from nylon they are not designed for

repeated use! They must only be finger tight.

We recommend these are installed only after your

entire wiring installation has been proven.

Two ½” long #4-40 screws will also substitute here.

Flyleds Ground The green terminal block includes a ground connection.

Use a suitable length of 20 or 18 AWG wire and terminate the other end with a ring terminal.

Connect this end to a suitable ground point nearby, for example under one of the ACM mounting screws to the

sub-panel, or at the same screw as the ACM’s ground point. It carries an average current under 5 amps.

This ground connection is essential for the operation of the Flyleds position and strobe lights system.

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System Overview The diagram shows how power is routed through the Flyleds controller board. Note that almost all of the circuits

from the Aircraft Rear connector are connected straight through the Flyleds board.

Refer to 57850 Aircraft Rear Harness diagrams in the ACM Installation Manual for further details on these circuits.

When the ACM energises the Position/Nav light circuit, +12 volt power is sent to the wingtip position lights via the

red wires. The Flyleds CPU also energises the tail light at 10% power.

When the ACM energises the Strobe circuit, +12 volt power is sent to the wingtip strobe LEDs and tail light via the

yellow wires.

The STROBE- connection of the strobe LEDs must return to the controller board using the green Strobe Sync wires.

The ACM internally connects pins 8, 10 and 12 so as to connect the strobe sync wires together, which suits strobe

lights supplied by Van’s Aircraft, however the Flyleds controller board reconfigures these pins on the harness side.

The CPU switches the negative leads of the strobe LEDs to ground with the transistors shown to turn on the left,

right and tail strobe LEDs and make them flash in turn.

Flyleds Flood lights The Flyleds ACM Controller also incorporates an

optional Flood function that will light up the strobe

LEDs at reduced power to illuminate the area around

the wingtips and tail for better situational awareness.

This function should be used in addition to regular

taxi lights.

On the electronic fuse ECB version of the ACM a single

10 amp power circuit is provided for taxi lights on Pins

2 and 10 of the Aircraft Front Connector.

Using a 12” length of 20AWG wire, splice into one of the Taxi light output wires (pins 2 and 10) from the Aircraft

Front harness and connect the other end to the Flyleds FLOOD input, as shown by the red line in the diagram.

Note that the Strobes have priority over the Flood light function. If the taxi lights are turned on at the same time

as the strobes, the strobe LEDs will continue to flash.

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AFS 57850 Aircraft Rear wiring harness detail Follow the wiring diagram as shown to connect the Flyleds Position and Strobe lights to the Aircraft Rear Harness

connector. Note that the green plugs are wired in a mirror image of each other at the left and right wings.

We recommend using 2 and 3 wire shielded cable for neatness and convenience, however individual wires may

also be used. You can use your choice of 22 to 18 AWG wire. The difference in apparent brightness is minimal!

The Position light circuit may use the cable shield as the earth return, as per the example shown with the left

wing, or they may be grounded locally at the wing as shown at the right wing. Choose only one method!

The cable shields (if used) can be connected together and terminated on pin 6 of the Aircraft Rear connector.

The Strobe circuits must have both Strobe+ and Strobe- connected back to the controller board as shown.

The ACM rear harness connector provides two 5 amp capable pins for each of the landing light circuits.

o If you are installing The Works lights or Combo lights a single 18 AWG wire may be used for the run to the

landing lights. At the ACM end trim out 4 or 5 strands to allow the wire to fit into the crimp pin.

o If you are installing the Seven Stars lights 16 or preferably 14 AWG wire should be used out to the wings.

Splice two 6” long 20 AWG wires to the larger wire at the ACM end and terminate them into the two pins

provided for each of the landing light circuits.

In all cases we recommend earthing Flyleds landing lights locally at the wings.

Not shown in the diagram above are two extra 18 or 20 AWG wires for the taxi light circuits to each wing.

The Flyleds Kit version tail light must only have both of its wires

connected back to the controller as shown above.

If shielded cable is used, insulate and do not connect the shield

to anything at the tail light end. Do not ground the tail light.

Do not connect the tail light directly to 12 volts, even for testing.

If you are using a Van’s tail light or a Flyleds Stand Alone tail light,

wire it as shown at right. Yellow is Strobe+, Red is Position+.

The light may be grounded locally or via the cable shield if used.

Note that the green sync wire on the Van’s light is not used.

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RV-14 WH-00011 Wing Harness Integration kit (SKU 19110)

Parts list: o 20 or 18AWG wire 2x 6 feet

o Molex 4 way plug 2

o Molex 4 way socket 2

o Molex 2 way plug 1

o Molex 2 way socket 1

o Molex male pins 10+2

o Molex female pins 10+2

Most RV-14 builders choose to install Van’s WH-00011 wiring harness in each wing

along with the WH-00057 Aft Fuselage Harness.

Advanced Flight Systems supply Airframe Harness 57852 that connects into the Aircraft Rear socket on the ACM,

and then extends out to each wing root connector, C400J and the aft baggage bulkhead connector, C410J.

No changes are required to be made to the AFS harness.

Wing tip wiring Van’s wing wiring harness WH-00011 includes a Molex connector C401J

out at the wingtip in readiness for position (nav) and strobe lights.

(See plans page 19-02 for details.)

Van’s previously supplied a five pin version of this connector but as of

mid-2019 the harness has a four pin version instead. If your connector

has five pin locations the fifth position should be empty.

1a: If you were supplied with matching plugs (C401P) continue to use these in the following steps.

1b: If you have five pin connectors for C401J on the wing harness and no matching plugs, either use a Molex pin

removal tool to withdraw the four wires from the connector, or snip the wires and re-terminate them using the

female pins supplied in the Flyleds parts bag.

Re-insert these wires into the four place connector shell supplied with the Flyleds RV-14 loom kit, moving pin 1 to

pin 1, pin 2 to pin 2, etc, following the colour code shown in the diagram above left.

2: Make two wiring looms as shown below to enable the connection of the Flyleds position and strobe boards to the

C401J connector.

Halve, halve and halve again the two 6’ lengths of wire supplied to make eight pieces approximately 18”/45cm long.

18 or 20AWG wire may be used. The colors shown below are for clarity in matching the wing wiring only.

The Molex connectors are marked C401P in Van’s diagrams. Male pins should be used.

The green screw terminal plugs were supplied as part of your Flyleds wingtip lighting kit. They have a small cage that

pulls upwards to grip the wire. The screws should be undone fully (ie anti-clockwise as expected) first. The wire can

then be inserted, and the screw tightened clockwise as expected to grip the wire.

Mark the looms LHS and RHS as appropriate.

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RV-14 Wing wiring harness connections

The diagram above shows part of Van’s wiring harness WH-00011, located in each wing.

* Wire L417 ( red , 14AWG) is used for the +12 volt supply to our Combo or Seven Stars landing lights mounted in

the leading edge light bays.

Note that the power input terminals on the Flyleds Combo light will only accept 18AWG wire. Reduce the wire size

with a short length of wire as required. The Flyleds Seven Stars light terminals will happily accept 14AWG wire.

* Wire L419 (white, 22AWG) from C400P pin 3 may be used to power one Flyleds spotlight as a taxi light.

You will need to run the taxi light wires from the Aircraft Front connector on the ACM (see page 2) through the

fuselage to pin 3 on C400J at the wing root to support this.

* Wire L418 (yellow, 14AWG) from C400P pin 2 is the ground return wire. The grounds from the spotlight(s) as well

as wire L422 ( black , 18AWG) from the wingtip position light connector C401J should be all connected to wire L418

by a suitable method of your choice such as a solder joint, butt splice or terminal block.

This common ground connection must be isolated from the wing so that all of the return currents flow back

through yellow wire L418 to the wing root connector.

Doing this means that any magnetic fields created by the various power wires is cancelled by the opposite magnetic

field made by the ground return wire, minimising the chance of interference to a wing mounted magnetometer.

Note that in early versions of Van’s plans, wire L422 is shown as being grounded to a nearby wing rib with a ring

terminal. Remove this local ground connection and join wire L422 with wire L418 as shown in the diagram above.

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RV-14 WH-00057 Tail Harness light wiring At the rudder, shielded 3 wire cable L1082 is provided for a tail light as part of the Aft Fuselage wiring harness WH-

00057 (see RV-14 plans page 10-25).

Cable L1082 should be pre-terminated from the factory with female Molex pins. If your cable has male pins attached

instead, proceed and make appropriate adjustments at step 3 to suit.

Flyleds Kit version tail light 1. Insert the white/blue and white wires into the two position Molex socket as shown.

2. The white/orange and the green (or possibly black!) earth wire is not required. Insulate

these and tie them out of the way to the cable jacket.

3. Crimp male pins onto the Flyleds tail light wires. Insert the wires into the Molex plug

observing the polarities shown below. (No harm will be done to the tail light if the wires are

reversed, it just won’t work!)

4. Connect the black earth wire L729 to a suitable point on the vertical stabiliser if not already done.

Flyleds Stand Alone or Van’s tail light If you are installing the Flyleds Stand Alone tail light, it simply needs 12 volt power from the

position and strobe circuits to operate.

1. Connect the white

wire to the STRB input of the tail light.

2. Connect the white/orange wire to the POSN

input of the tail light.

3. Fold back and insulate the white/blue wire from cable L1082.

4. Connect the short green (or possibly black!) earth wire TP881 to the GND terminal on the strobe.

5. Connect the black earth wire L729 to a suitable point on the vertical stabiliser if not already done.