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  #21  
Old 09-05-2019, 12:35 AM
BobTurner BobTurner is offline
 
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Location: Livermore, CA
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Did you follow the suggestion to look for a parasitic load? Undo one battery connection, and put an ammeter in series. You?re looking for a drain of 100 ma or less - your inductance device probably can?t go that low.
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  #22  
Old 09-05-2019, 05:02 AM
Mich48041 Mich48041 is offline
 
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Location: Riley TWP MI
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So the battery voltage has been dropping 0.1 volts per day for two days.
Is that with the battery connected to the aircraft electrical system?
Or is at least one battery terminal disconnected?
The battery still has 90 percent of its energy at 12.7 volts. There is something
wrong with the battery if the voltage continues to drop without its leads being connected.
But if the battery voltage remains at 12.7 with cables disconnected, I would not be concerned.
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  #23  
Old 09-05-2019, 06:57 AM
bobnoffs bobnoffs is offline
 
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Location: n. wi
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this shouldn't be so difficult. pull the battery and see if it drains. if it does you need a new battery. if it doesn't then you have a parasite load in the system with the master off. at this point that's all i know but guys with more elect. knowledge could say if this drain could be confirmed as easily as connecting an ohm meter to the battery cables of your plane with the masters off.
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n. wi.
dakota hawk/jab 3300 built and flying. sold 6/18.getting serious about the 12. in the hangar now as of 10/15/19
RV-12 kit as of 9/13
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  #24  
Old 09-05-2019, 09:43 AM
NinerBikes NinerBikes is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2018
Location: Granada Hills
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mich48041 View Post
So the battery voltage has been dropping 0.1 volts per day for two days.
Is that with the battery connected to the aircraft electrical system?
Or is at least one battery terminal disconnected?
The battery still has 90 percent of its energy at 12.7 volts. There is something
wrong with the battery if the voltage continues to drop without its leads being connected.
But if the battery voltage remains at 12.7 with cables disconnected, I would not be concerned.
Completely disconnected and removed, sitting in the garage at home on the work bench after being charged up Saturday afternoon. Will wait on a reading today.

AGM batteries generally sit at about 12.81 to 12.87 fully charged, depending on ambient air temperatures, after the surface charge from a fresh recharge bleeds off.

Does the emergency transponder stay charging despite power off on these RV-12s? Or the Dynon Skyview backup battery?

Last edited by NinerBikes : 09-05-2019 at 09:48 AM.
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  #25  
Old 09-05-2019, 09:44 AM
NinerBikes NinerBikes is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2018
Location: Granada Hills
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BobTurner View Post
Did you follow the suggestion to look for a parasitic load? Undo one battery connection, and put an ammeter in series. You?re looking for a drain of 100 ma or less - your inductance device probably can?t go that low.
Waiting for my friend to put the battery back in the RV-12 before we can do that.
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  #26  
Old 09-05-2019, 09:45 AM
NinerBikes NinerBikes is offline
 
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Location: Granada Hills
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bobnoffs View Post
this shouldn't be so difficult. pull the battery and see if it drains. if it does you need a new battery. if it doesn't then you have a parasite load in the system with the master off. at this point that's all i know but guys with more elect. knowledge could say if this drain could be confirmed as easily as connecting an ohm meter to the battery cables of your plane with the masters off.
I have an RC watt meter, which I use with my portable ham radios, that can go in line, that can certainly go that low.
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  #27  
Old 09-06-2019, 11:53 PM
NinerBikes NinerBikes is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2018
Location: Granada Hills
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12.61V on Friday morning, sitting in the shop, completely disconnected from the plane.

Don't think the battery made it more that 3 months, flying 1x per week. Back to Aircraft Spruce.
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  #28  
Old 10-01-2019, 07:13 PM
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sglynn sglynn is offline
 
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Location: Anacortes, WA
Posts: 823
Default Odyssey battery below 12 volts

This same thing happened to my Odyssey PC680 this week after only 7 months in service. Odyssey company technical support was very helpful and said they would send me a new one. They said it sounds like a bad cell. Symptom was that it dropped to 11.5 volts over night and after a 30 minute flight with alternator voltage showed 14.5 volts it didn?t charge and still showed only 11.9 volts. With just the Dynon screen on I watched the voltage drop from 11.9 to 10.7 in about a minute. I don?t have a charger for AGM battery but I also don?t have any reason to think there is drain. I don?t know of an event that caused the low voltage to show up. I have just finished phase 1 testing and completed a couple long cross countries which is unusual but how would that cause the voltage loss? I have a pig tail cable running from battery thru firewall to cockpit so that I can jump start it from the cockpit and that works using another battery.

If anyone knows any reasons or ways to make a bad cell please share. Thanks.
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  #29  
Old 10-30-2019, 03:00 PM
lon@carolon.net lon@carolon.net is offline
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Santa Monica, California
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My battery suddenly stopped charging, and my mechanic has done everything suggested in this RV-12 Forum and elsewhere for this malady, including replacing the rectifier/regulator, grounding the regulator with a wire (in addition to cleaning the contact the regulator housing makes with the firewall), testing the stator, checking and reattaching the wires leading to and from the regulator. None of those things fixed the problem. I'm still getting amp readings between -4 amps and -10 amps (depending on which equipment is turned on), even when taxiing at 2500 and higher rpms. The battery voltage also drops, and is now down at the low end of 11 volts.

I'm beginning to suspect my system has a parasitic drain in it somewhere.

Finally, my question:

I have pigtail wires attached to the battery (about 6 inches long) so I can charge the battery through the oil inspection door without having to remove the cowl. The charger attaches to the wires via a plastic PowerPole connector that, when not in use, is protected by a cap. The cap is tight, so I've jiggled it and the wires a fair amount every time I use the pigtail wires. (I use them whenever I turn on the Dynon displays while the engine is off, for example to update databases and learn new-to-me Dynon features.)

Is it possible that the pigtail wires themselves are a parasitic draw on the battery, as a result of damage I did while jiggling the cap?
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  #30  
Old 10-30-2019, 03:18 PM
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Piper J3 Piper J3 is offline
 
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Location: Hinckley, Ohio
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I wasn't aware that Anderson Powerpole offered a protective cover. This presents no problem.

I made an Anderson Powerpole pigtail for my battery and connect an Odyssey OBC-6A charger 24/7 when airplane is in the hanger. The Odyssey charger is not a trickle or float charger - it charges only when required - otherwise it sits idle. Main reason I use it is that it has a de-sulfate cycle each time it's powered up. I've been doing this for three years and battery is hunky-dory.

How old is your battery?
What battery charger are you using?

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Jim Stricker
EAA #499867
PPL/ASEL 1970 - Sport Pilot since 2007
80 hrs Flying Aeronca Chief 11AC N86203
1130 hrs Flying 46 Piper J-3 Cub N6841H
Bought Flying RV-12 #120058 Oct 2015 with 48TT - Hobbs now 622

LSRM-A Certificate 2016 for RV-12 N633CM
Special Thanks... EJ Trucks - USN Crew Chief A-4 Skyhawk
MJ Stricker (Father & CFI) - USAAF 1st Lt. Captain B-17H

Last edited by Piper J3 : 10-30-2019 at 03:21 PM.
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