Mauleguy
MEMBER
Long title I know. I have a problem that I can not figure out. I only have 8 hours on the airplane now and the first 5 were without any issues in regards to the alternator and battery. Here is what has happened in the last 3 hours.
I was gone for a month and did not fly the airplane for around 8 weeks. This is a hand prop Lycoming 0-320, I am just using the battery to run GPS, com, transponder and a few EI gauges. The EarthX ETX104 is a light weight back up battery at 1.4 pounds that I was told would work for this application.
The problem started in the 5th flight hour after I returned from Alaska and the aircraft had sat. I was flying along and it trip the 2 amp breaker, this is the one that is related to the overvoltage crowbar protection. I tried to reset it with in flight but is would not. I landed and looked everything over and start the aircraft again and the charging system seemed to be working again so I took off. In about the same amount of time it took to trip the 2 am breaker it did it again so I went back and landed and called it a day. I hooked the battery up to an approved charger (the one EarthX recommends) and charged it overnight. I went a flew it the next day and it seemed to be working fine and then I heard a pop in my helmet/headset and looked at the EI volt meter and it had a red overvoltage light blink and it showed 8.5 volts and I thought this is weird. I turned the master off flew back to the field and landed. Once on the ground I checked to see if it was charging and nothing. No breaker popped so I figured the voltage regulator failed after talking to B&C tech support. I ordered a new voltage regulator and looked all my wiring over and can not find any problem. I installed the new regulator and went flying today thinking I have fixed the problem. I would say at about the same amount of time into the flight the voltage regulator shut down (low voltage light came on) and I noticed it had stopped charging. I did not have a circuit breaker pop so I turned off my alternator field switch and flew around for another 1/2 hour then I turned the switch back on and it showed I was charging normal again. I decided to turn the switch back off until I figure it out so I don't blow up another regulator. I did turn down the voltage regulator from 14.4 to 13.8 based on a discussion I had with B&C tech support when I installed the second voltage regulator.
Here is what I am thinking to try next, take the EarthX battery out and try a PC-680 battery instead.
Is anyone else running this set-up (little EarthX battery) with the over voltage protection that B&C sells with the 8mp alternator kit.
Thanks, Greg
I was gone for a month and did not fly the airplane for around 8 weeks. This is a hand prop Lycoming 0-320, I am just using the battery to run GPS, com, transponder and a few EI gauges. The EarthX ETX104 is a light weight back up battery at 1.4 pounds that I was told would work for this application.
The problem started in the 5th flight hour after I returned from Alaska and the aircraft had sat. I was flying along and it trip the 2 amp breaker, this is the one that is related to the overvoltage crowbar protection. I tried to reset it with in flight but is would not. I landed and looked everything over and start the aircraft again and the charging system seemed to be working again so I took off. In about the same amount of time it took to trip the 2 am breaker it did it again so I went back and landed and called it a day. I hooked the battery up to an approved charger (the one EarthX recommends) and charged it overnight. I went a flew it the next day and it seemed to be working fine and then I heard a pop in my helmet/headset and looked at the EI volt meter and it had a red overvoltage light blink and it showed 8.5 volts and I thought this is weird. I turned the master off flew back to the field and landed. Once on the ground I checked to see if it was charging and nothing. No breaker popped so I figured the voltage regulator failed after talking to B&C tech support. I ordered a new voltage regulator and looked all my wiring over and can not find any problem. I installed the new regulator and went flying today thinking I have fixed the problem. I would say at about the same amount of time into the flight the voltage regulator shut down (low voltage light came on) and I noticed it had stopped charging. I did not have a circuit breaker pop so I turned off my alternator field switch and flew around for another 1/2 hour then I turned the switch back on and it showed I was charging normal again. I decided to turn the switch back off until I figure it out so I don't blow up another regulator. I did turn down the voltage regulator from 14.4 to 13.8 based on a discussion I had with B&C tech support when I installed the second voltage regulator.
Here is what I am thinking to try next, take the EarthX battery out and try a PC-680 battery instead.
Is anyone else running this set-up (little EarthX battery) with the over voltage protection that B&C sells with the 8mp alternator kit.
Thanks, Greg