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Voltage Regulator needed


Vic

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 7/27/2022 at 2:56 PM, Vic said:

I replaced my suspected bad VRR with this part.  So far so good, nothing caught fire.  In fact, looking at it I'd guess it's made in the same factory as the Ducati:

 

vrr.jpg

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WARNING:  I put first VRR linked in this thread in my airplane, and flew it for the first time today.  On climb out the alternator light came on strongly, all my engine gauges went dead, and the breaker connected to my iFly GPS popped.  I made a landing and taxied back to the hangar.

After some investigation, I found the VRR was super hot, pretty much too hot to touch after less than ten minute of run time. Three of my UMA engine gauges were completely dead, and whenever I activated the iFly the breaker would trip.  I had replacement gauges (it pays to be a packrat!), and swapping the failed gauges out fixed that issue.  The GPS issue could not be solved in the hangar.

Getting the iFly home, I found the unit wouldn’t recognize when it’s on the charger or take a charge…basically the charging circuit is toast, or maybe an internal fuse is blown.  In any event, it needs service and may be destroyed.

I would caution strongly against installing or using this VRR.

EDIT:  I reviewed the GoPro video of the failure.  The voltage on my voltmeter swung up super high, probably over 15V.  Then the alternator light comes on, all my engine gauges quite, and the breaker for the iFly pops and it shuts down (too late, it's damaged).

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Here's the failure, captured in glorious 4k with cockpit audio:
 

 

Notice As the airplane is climbing, the voltage (upper right small gauge climbs steadily.  I noticed it at about 1:22 in the video, and literally two seconds later the alternator light came on and all four engine gauges quit.  At the same time the GPS breaker popped and the iFly went into backup battery mode.  I made a decent downwind landing on the cross runway.  As I mentioned, this was the first flight with the new voltage regulator.  For reference, here's a close up with the voltage gauge face:

  voltage.thumb.jpg.bb64a58fad5b9ca08b36af431ff74200.jpg

Do if you go buy the position of the needle in the video and that picture, I'd say the voltage hit ~16v when the failures started...well past the 15v red line.  I put the old regulator back in, and everything has been fine since (except my iFly still won't charge).

Lesson:  Don't be the first guy to try a new part, no matter how suitable it appears.  I knew this lesson, but apparently forgot it along the way somewhere.  This time it will cost me.

 

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54 minutes ago, Madhatter said:

B&C makes a high quality,  much better voltage regulator for the 912. More expensive but you get what you pay for in aviation. It takes some people a long time to figure that out.

Agreed.  Got the B&C about 6 months ago and it is definitely a well built unit.  Better voltages at low power settings (taxiing) and holds the battery charge voltage a little higher than the Ducatti, leading to better battery state of charge.

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13 hours ago, Warmi said:

Was Garmin EFIS being powered off of its own battery ? Seemed to be completely unaffected …

If you mean my iPad, it was on the 12v "lighter" charger, it was not harmed.  It just runs off its battery and trickle-charges off the 12v.  If the issue had killed my iPad Pro I'd be far more pissed right now.

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2 hours ago, Madhatter said:

There are a lot of SOME PEOPLE in aviation. I even had one guy proud of himself that he was able to get the combustion heater working in his Beechcraft Baron by bypassing the safety lockouts. He was really cheap, probably barbecued by now.

The worst ones are the "It was working just FINE before!"

This is the classic cheapskate move to try to make someone else to take the blame and foot the bill.

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23 hours ago, Madhatter said:

There are a lot of SOME PEOPLE in aviation. I even had one guy proud of himself that he was able to get the combustion heater working in his Beechcraft Baron by bypassing the safety lockouts. He was really cheap, probably barbecued by now.

Haha.  Yeah, that's maybe not the best idea.  I just wanted a voltage regulator that would do the job...if it's cheaper then good, but I'm not afraid to spend money when I need to.  I'm a very functional guy...I just want stuff that works, it costs what it costs.  Saving money is secondary, but always a nice bonus.

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