S3flyer Posted June 5, 2011 Report Share Posted June 5, 2011 My Dynon upgrade took way longer than expected and I killed my battery, Varta ytx9-bs. I do not have a trickle charger. First, can I just take this to my local auto or bike shop and get it charged? Next what trickle charger should I buy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Lee Posted June 5, 2011 Report Share Posted June 5, 2011 Hi Dave, You do not want a trickle charger. You do want a float charger. No more than 3 amps and 2 amps is okay. You can find these at most places that have chargers. Attach the negative to the exhaust pipe and the positive to the wire coming out the bottom of the cowl with the rubber sleeve over it. Pull back the rubber sleeve to expose the bare wire. That goes directly to the battery positive terminal. These batteries do not like to be fully discharged and you can permanently kill them. Try and charge yours back up as soon as you can. If the first time works great if it doesn't try at least 3-4 times. Anyone doing a Dynon update should have their laptop plugged in and a charger on the battery. If your laptop dies in mid download you may be pulling the Dynon out and sending it back. Give this battery a full overnight charge before doing the download again. This is one of those times better safe than sorry rings true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S3flyer Posted June 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2011 Definitely, not my smartest move. Had the laptop plugged in and figured it would take no more 15 minutes so who needs a float charger? First D100, went flawless. Move to the master and it upgraded like a champ but the copilot Dynon went to the yellow screen of death during the upgrade. Hmm. Since I have the Dynon AP, you are supposed to upgrade the master twice (to get it to the servo). Followed the process and the upgrade hung for quite awhile then timed out. Now the master Dynon had the yellow screen of death. Ouch. Upgrades were successful, so I let them time-out over night. Went this afternoon and upgraded on the second try after figuring out the AP was powered off the same fuse as the 2nd Dynon. Figured I better check the battery. Tried to start with no joy. What about the Optimate 4 (http://www.tecmate.com/optimate4_detail.php)? Or Battery Tender Junior 12v (http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tender-021-0123-Junior-Charger/dp/B000CITK8S) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Lee Posted June 6, 2011 Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 Hi Dave, I don't know anything about these chargers and I don't think you need anything special. Go to Pep Boys, Auto Zone, O'Riley's or Walmart. They have 2-3 amp float chargers. Myself and others have been using these for 4 years and no issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredG Posted June 6, 2011 Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 I've been using Battery Tender float chargers (I use the waterproof model, it charges at just under one amp) on my CT and never have a problem. I've used the "Junior" model, too. It works well. fg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runtoeat Posted June 6, 2011 Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 Look at the CTEK 3300 battery charger. This was recommended to me by the shop where I bought a new Odyssey battery for my CTSW. The CTEK charger works for all batteries and is especially suited to maintain the Odyssey battery that is used in our CT's. It maintains the battery at a higher voltage than the standard automotive maintenance charger. I connect the charger after each flight and just forget about it until the next flight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevez2436 Posted June 7, 2011 Report Share Posted June 7, 2011 When I bought my CTLS last year in Sebring, FL they had me take home a Mean Well Battery Charger. The model number is ESC-120-13.5. It has worked flawlessly for me over the past year. You can order it from Lockwood Aviation or probably over the Internet. Hope that helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S3flyer Posted June 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2011 Went with the Battery Tender Plus, charged the battery overnight and the engine turned over easily! Could've bought locally but saved $30 by purchasing from Amazon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opticsguy Posted June 12, 2011 Report Share Posted June 12, 2011 I have an Optimate 4 and it's great. Waterproof, too. It has brought back some other batteries I was ready to write off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT4ME Posted June 12, 2011 Report Share Posted June 12, 2011 Question to those of you using maintenance chargers... Do you use the "dangling wire and a ground (exhaust?)", or the battery posts directly?... Just picked up a "junior" Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Lee Posted June 13, 2011 Report Share Posted June 13, 2011 Use the exhaust for a ground which is grounded to the frame and then to the negative terminal on the battery and the "dangling wire" which connects directly to the positive battery terminal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Meade Posted June 13, 2011 Report Share Posted June 13, 2011 On mine, both the leads are connected directly to the battery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acresflyer Posted August 3, 2011 Report Share Posted August 3, 2011 A friend of mine called me with information on a good deal on Odyssey batteries and chargers. The place is "Big Time Battery"(815-467-7679) and have PC-310 batteries for $138.99 with free shipping and the chargers for it for $66.50 also with free shipping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runtoeat Posted August 3, 2011 Report Share Posted August 3, 2011 I have been using the exhaust for ground for my charger but the other day I went to my hangar and noticed that my charger was going alternately from fully charged "green" to charging "yellow". I suspected that the clamps might not be contacting the positive wire or the exhast pipe and wiggled both. The charger went "green" which tells me that the charger senses a fully charged battery and is in maintenance mode. I came back later and found that the charger was again alternating between "green" and "yellow". I again moved the clamps and the charger went "green". Going back to the hangar the next day showed the charger at "yellow". I moved the ground from the exhaust to a bolt on the engine mount and this has so far has given me a steady maintenance charge ("green"). Even after insuring that it has a scraped off area on the exhaust pipe for good contact, it appears to me that the exhaust pipe may not be a reliable ground source? For an effective connection of a charger, perhaps both a ground cable and a positive cable should be provided for attaching chargers as Jim indicates he has. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airhound Posted October 8, 2012 Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 I didnt see another blog to ask, but my question generally deals with engine maintenance.. Other than the build it yourself model, which Carb Sync tool do you recommend, and same question for Differential Compression Checker?? Thanks! Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Lee Posted October 8, 2012 Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 As far as the electronic models go the Carbmate, but the liquid filled gauges will be better in the long run and will allow you to diagnose with them which and electronic instrument can't do. Not to mention you'll save about $100. Have you read "An Anatomy of a Carb Sync" here in our blogs or on the Rotax forum? Compression tester: http://www.cps-parts.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=1295 Carbmate: http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/eppages/ts111kitcarbmate.php?clickkey=4596 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airhound Posted October 8, 2012 Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 Is there a cheat sheet of kinds of things one can use the liquid filled carb syn tool to check? The cps add for the compression tester says fill to 80psi, so readings would have to be 80 and below, does that sound about right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Lee Posted October 8, 2012 Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 Hi Doug, No, 80 psi is just a common standard in the aircraft engine industry. Rotax used to be just 87 psi. Now you can use anything from 80 - 87 psi. I have the identical tester and I'm old school and use 87. Test result will always be lower than the test pressure. Nothing is that air tight. You should always have a leak down that's why you use this test. Think of it as checking to quality of the valve seats and piston rings. The bigger the psi spread the worse something is. Could be bad rings, could be a bad valve. Normally you will hear a little gurgling in the oil tank. You should not hear it out of the exhaust or air intake. Normal psi loss for a Rotax 912 series engine is 2-4 psi. There is no cheat sheet, but if you call me I'll tell you how to diagnose with a set of gauges that the electronic ones can't do. It's fairly simple. Maybe one day I'll make a short video to show what certain reading differential between gauges mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.