Dynon Skyview practice on the ground

[Jimbo54]

New RV-12 owner here. I'd like to explore and practice using the Skyview while NOT flying nor running the engine. Concern: Running down the Odyssey battery.

Van's response: Should be okay for 15-20 minutes.
Dynon's response: Suggest hooking up to charger.
Odyssey's response: Don't use a charger; use a DC power supply with an adjustable voltage regulator - 0-10 amps, 14.4-14.8 voltage. OR - more simple: have a secondary battery you can hook up in parallel, or use instead of Odyssey battery.

Disclaimer: I am in over my head and don't want to make expensive mistake. Having posted a thread about charging Odyssey in this forum, the consensus was that Odyssey batteries like to be left alone; definitely don't use a trickle charger, and a significant number of responses advised not using any charger - complex or otherwise. However, Odyssey sells a charger specifically designed for maintenance.

Have any of you come up with an inexpensive and non-complicated procedure that would allow me to simply sit in the plane, turn the master switch on, and "play" with the Skyview for 15-20 minutes without jeopardizing the start-up of the engine and avionics at a later time?

Thanks in advance. Jim

[Mich48041]

There are at least two ways to electrically damage expensive avionics:
Connect too high of voltage.
Reverse battery voltage. Easy to do if using jumper cables.
All three of the responses that you received are viable.
Of the three, Odyssey's advice is best, although more expensive.
The warning against using a trickle charger are for long term continuous use.
It will not hurt the battery to connect a charger for a half hour.

[odens_14]

It sounds like the plane is flying, so I would use van's recommendation. Play with the buttons for 15-20 min, start up and go flying for 30 min or so would get the battery topped off I would think. repeat as necessary.

Anecdotally, I have used a normal battery charger when I needed to run electronics for longer. I used it both during the build and when I upload the sectional charts to my EFIS (takes about 30-45 min). My original Odyssey lasted about 5 years in the airplane and still starts my mower now almost 10 years since new.

[Piper J3]

OK, so you want to do maintenance charge on the Odyssey battery and also run Skyview while "parked".

Kill two birds with one stone - buy OBC-6A Odyssey battery charger, connect it up, and play with Skyview for as long as want.

Second option is to not power the main buss on the airplane at all and instead run the Skywiew on its internal backup battery. Press and hold left button until Skyview powers on. Next time you fly the internal backup battery will recharge - might take several flights.

[magiccarpet]

I would like to see a PC application of the Dynon 1000 EFIS simulator similar to what Garmin offers for some of their GPS devices. just saying

[Larco]

For playing with the EFIS once in a while I use a charger that has an AGM mode at 8 amps as back up to the Odyssey battery. Works for me and I never trickle charge the battery as it always seems to be up to par.

[randylervold]

As long as the charger you have is a ?smart? charger you?ll be fine, connect it up and enjoy getting to know the SkyView. The battery will buffer any demand imbalance. Leave the charger on for a day or so afterwards in case it?s a low output trickle type and the battery end up partially discharged after your session.

[DaleB]

Originally Posted by Jimbo54

Have any of you come up with an inexpensive and non-complicated procedure that would allow me to simply sit in the plane, turn the master switch on, and "play" with the Skyview for 15-20 minutes without jeopardizing the start-up of the engine and avionics at a later time?

Sure, Pull the fuel pump fuse, turn on what you need (not the lights or ignition), do what you want for 15-30 minutes, when you're done throw a charger on it if you're worried about the battery capacity. My battery is 7 years old and still does fine.

[ctennis]

When I was testing my Dynon system pre-first-startup, I simply disconnected the lead from the starter relay on the battery side, and hooked up my +12V power to it (and ground to the airframe). This put 12V on the main bus as though the master was energized, but since it was not, the relay was still closed between the main bus and the battery. Thus you can have a lab power supplying 12V to the bus, and no connection to the battery.

I found it was quite valuable and spent more than one 10-15 minute session familiarizing myself, putting in initial settings, etc.

[Latech15]

I have a power supply from radio shack with a cigarette lighter plug in that I use to power the main bus. I don?t think they are available anymore but I got mine on eBay.