Kinda miss the old days of hand wiring harnesses

I was digging through some old boxes in my garage last week and found a harness I built back in 2013 for a King Air. Man, that thing was a work of art. Every single wire tie was evenly spaced, the breakouts had perfect 90 degree angles, and I remember using a heat gun to shrink the boots just right. Now it feels like everything is plug-and-play modules. Last month I had to troubleshoot a Garmin G1000 issue and I couldn't even see half the connections because they were buried behind a panel. Don't get me wrong, the new tech is solid, but I feel like we lost some of the craftsmanship. Does anyone else feel like the troubleshooting part got harder even though the gear got better?

4 comments

4 Comments

miles_grant3527d ago

Troubleshooting those buried systems is a nightmare. Spent three hours last week tracing a bad ground in a glass cockpit that would have taken twenty minutes on an older panel. The new gear is nice until something breaks, then you're just guessing half the time.

shane_ross27d ago

Three hours for a ground trace sounds about right for glass. Makes you wonder what happened to actual circuit troubleshooting.

the_anthony27d ago

Hear hear. Miss the days of pulling out a multimeter and just following the wire.

jordan65327d ago

I see where you're coming from but "guessing half the time" is a stretch. With good wiring diagrams and a methodical approach, glass panels are just as traceable, you just need to know the digital architecture first.