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danny_galaga

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Everything posted by danny_galaga

  1. danny_galaga
    Yes, I don't think it's actually needed. Unlike 3 phase car alternators, where from my very shaky memory, the warning light goes through the exciter diodes, which gets the rotor windings going until the alternator outputs energy. If the warning light blew in that case, your car alternator might not start charging. But the joys and wonders of electrical engineering - quite often there's enough residential magnetism in the rotor to get everything going regardless. Usually after a big rev. Anyway, that doesn't help the op 😄
  2. danny_galaga
    Can you disconnect the capacitor? I don't think the capacitor should affect it, but you are thinking it and that would be the easiest way to know for sure. In any case, it would boil down to something going on with the regulator since it normally wouldn't do this.
  3. danny_galaga
    In all seriousness though, this is a good outcome. I flew out of Heck Field when test flying a demo plane. Cane fields all around. Pretty safe for emergencies, but obviously it's not going to be tidy.
  4. danny_galaga
    A couple of questions: Why were emergency crews 'stunned'? Was a lizard person flying it? Why are casa investigating?
  5. danny_galaga
    I wonder if the tacho wire is running along the aerial coaxial cable or something and it's picking up energy? Seems more like the radio is fine, and the tacho needs investigating 🤔
  6. danny_galaga
    Is yours working alright at the moment though? I was only going to replace mine because I thought it was dying. Even my mechanic was happy about the improvement when I replaced the starter battery.
  7. danny_galaga
    No thanks 😄
  8. danny_galaga
    Well, central anyway. I grew up in Darwin and I don't think I ever saw a scorpion. A BILLION cockroaches though. I don't miss those 😄
  9. danny_galaga
    Well, my MGL seems to have come good! The only thing that has changed is that the starter battery was going downhill fast, so after the last flight (where it only just started, even after charging it for 30 minutes) I put a new one in. Could it be my radio is a bit sensitive to the extra, and constant current draw of my dicky battery? Thoughts Kyle? In any case, should I ever have to replace the radio, Trig is getting such a good rap I would be silly not to go in that direction. I'm thinking if I mount it under the seat, I could make the aerial coaxial cable about 1.5 metres shorter, which can't hurt 🙂
  10. danny_galaga
    Trig TY91 is about $2800 in Australia. From memory, my MGL was about $1200 USD
  11. danny_galaga
    If you are using a currently available model of radio, what is it, and are you happy with it? I have an MGL. It seems to have gone downhill fast. I have time off next two weeks so I can have a really good at the wiring, aerial etc. but the radio started off well, and the plane only has about 6 hours total flight time, so I feel it probably is the radio. When I told an avionics guy what brand, he asked how much I paid. When I told him it was free, he said that's about the right price 😄. My guy helping with the test flying and another guy at the hangar didn't think much of MGL either. The other guy actually threw his away 😲 They are very happy with Trig TY91, so that's on my radar. My only concern there is it's one of those 'head unit and base unit ' jobbies, which will make installation in my case a bit of a bother, depending on whether I can just join them.into one unit or not...
  12. danny_galaga
    A full 30 minutes 😲 Here's a post of mine on a different forum. 2004. Notice the link in the first post? https://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,20073.0.html#msg161529
  13. danny_galaga
    Many of us have asked this. Not going to happen. You've got 15 minutes and then all your mistakes are locked in forever 😄
  14. danny_galaga
    Well I haven't added an earth to mine. I guess it could be earthing through that foil covered fibreglass heat shield I guess 😊
  15. danny_galaga
    Yeah, I figure since the Carmo is made for aircraft it's fully above ground electrically. The Ducati one obviously is for motorbikes which use the frame for negative ground.
  16. danny_galaga
    My installation benefitted from being a clean install. Plenty of air movement around the device, but the air that's there isn't going to be very cool. That's the kit position and I didn't want to waste time doing something different. Anyway, my hope was that even it's a bit warm there, it's supposed to run cooler than the original anyway. So far the longest flight has been roughly 80 minutes
  17. danny_galaga
    You do have to be wary. Plugging in a new one into something that caused the old one to fail is an expensive diagnosis 😄
  18. danny_galaga
    You only need a ball park figure to get an idea if it's working or not. Battery at rest voltage is about 12.4V. If you see more than that when the engine is running, it's charging. It should if course be significantly more. We used to see so much variation when I was an auto electrician we drew a line at about 13.2v . Between that and about 14.4v is fine. I don't know that you'll easily test it off the plane. A dedicated workshop might have a suitable AC output to hook it up to. For you, your best source is the running engine 🙂
  19. danny_galaga
    If you do underwoods test, you'll know your charging system is working. If it's working, that is how you test your regulator 🙂
  20. danny_galaga
    Just for sh*ts and giggles, I'm going to temporarily install the capacitor on my set up. I have an MGL radio, which is not highly regarded around the hangar, and since it seems to be getting worse without anything else seemingly changing, I suspect it's a bit dodgy. But it can't hurt to put that capacitor in the circuit and see if the radio improves. Ill report back on the results. Could be a week or two.
  21. danny_galaga
    The battery is already doing that. If not, the capacitor would be internal otherwise your whole system is relying on the installer dong that correctly- for instance if people are leaving them off because the Carmo doesn't need it, then B & C would be getting a bad rap. I feel either they are playing it safe by recommending you use one (if it's not needed it won't make any difference) or else maybe their design makes the same amount of noise as the Ducati 🤷‍♂️
  22. danny_galaga
    I used to be an auto electrician 😉
  23. danny_galaga
    Right you are. I think we talked about this before. My point is I don't think there is a need for a switch mode system, particularly since we've had this type of 'alternator' from before there was such a thing. With these low current alternators, the output amperage isn't that great. 22 amps total output for instance compared to about 5 to 10 amps for a rotor field. Totally doable with the same hardware, whether that was relays or now with transistors
  24. danny_galaga
    I can't remember if I bought my Carmo from the Aussie distributor or not. I guess I did. Maybe different manager now? I didn't have any dramas, but that was several years ago Incidentally, my Carmo runs at a solid 14.3V
  25. danny_galaga
    Except maybe at the very lowest rpm, the alternator will be putting out more than 14V. Not sure of exact figures but I would guess easily over 20V if no load. I think on a 3 phase car alternator it's over 50V. In the olden days (say 40 or so years ago) the regulator consisted of a relay. Below a certain voltage it was closed and above a certain voltage it would open. In this way it would vary it's rate of vibration, depending on the load, which had the effect of varying the voltage. Of course now it's done with a transistor. Same principle though.
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