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I think I screwed up. I'll start there. Any Electrical geniuses around to help me out?

In an effort to get my Earth X charging better I sourced a couple of Lithium Specific Regulators. I bought one that was 20Amp and designed for permanent magnet systems up to20 Amp. Score Right? Unfortunately, it was full wave, not half wave. That does make a difference apparently. So that regulator is like fried ($160)

Shortly after take off my RPM went to zero, and my Charge never really went above 14.4V, which was a minor improvement. Then it started decreasing. To top it off I had a top Magnetron that was acting up in flight, which appears to have sorted itself out for now.

Not satisfied with the new product I put the stock Aerovee VR back on, and went to do a circuit around the airport. No RPM, no charge. So I swapped the AC Leads to make sure RPM was on the correct AC pin. Same results. While doing a run up my Earth X went I to BMS safe mode and turned off.

So now I have a dead battery, an unknown status for my Aerovee VR, and an unknown status for my Alternator, and or I wrecked the RPM input on my RDAC XF.

I'm going to check the Stator for Continuity tonight. It's my understanding the should be zero ohms between AC outputs and no Continuity to ground. Also it should put out about 30VAC? at 3000rpm?

Any other advice appreciated.

So I have NO Continuity on the AC Leads. They also have NO Continuity to Ground. I suspect the solder let go. Or I melted the stator

Chris,

Sounds like the exact mistake I made about a year ago. Got the nice B&C full wave regulator built for the Rotax 9xx engines. Quickly let the smoke out of my stator (at idle!). Mine is a Revmaster so the alternator is a bit different, I'm not sure how Aerovee does their stator.

I'm using the EarthX ETX680c on two planes. One of which has a 60amp alternator. It's common to see 50+ charging amps at idle but in this plane that works. It will try to do the same thing on the Aerovee, for a second or two. I've found, that on both planes, the key is to let the battery charge at idle/low-idle until the current goes down and voltage comes up. Usually takes about 4 minutes which is a non issue as the oil is still warming up and I'm going through checklists.

BRS wrote:Chris,

Sounds like the exact mistake I made about a year ago. Got the nice B&C full wave regulator built for the Rotax 9xx engines. Quickly let the smoke out of my stator (at idle!). Mine is a Revmaster so the alternator is a bit different, I'm not sure how Aerovee does their stator.

I'm using the EarthX ETX680c on two planes. One of which has a 60amp alternator. It's common to see 50+ charging amps at idle but in this plane that works. It will try to do the same thing on the Aerovee, for a second or two. I've found, that on both planes, the key is to let the battery charge at idle/low-idle until the current goes down and voltage comes up. Usually takes about 4 minutes which is a non issue as the oil is still warming up and I'm going through checklists.

I'll take a picture of mine once it's out. I ordered a new stator, and a new Sonex regulator. I'll have a back up regulator, and if the stator only broke a lead wire I'll have a back up stator. At $320 a pop, they aren't cheap. This is my lesson learned for thinking I could do it better than the factory.

In hindsight my factory regulator with the Earth X was probably fine. I always landed with 12.2-12.3 which the folks at Earth X says is 90% charge....

I have the orange epoxy?? coated stator. The casing around the stator is completely cracks and small chunks have been ground into dust inside the rotor. I cant see exactly where it failed as the entire stator is covered in the orange casing.

Based on the Sonex Store site the new stator seems to omit the plastic casing and has the copper insulated wire visible.

If it is of interest, at the bottom of this page is my mechanical master switch. A little lighter than the solenoid and it draws no current.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2009&start=20

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