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  #11  
Old 05-17-2013, 01:00 PM
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Mike S Mike S is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brantel View Post
It is off...nothing can flow without the master. The G3X does not have keep alive inputs.
Then, why do you keep the battery on charge all the time??
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Mike Starkey
VAF 909

Rv-10, N210LM.

Flying as of 12/4/2010

Phase 1 done, 2/4/2011

Sold after 240+ wonderful hours of flight.

"Flying the airplane is more important than radioing your plight to a person on the ground incapable of understanding or doing anything about it."
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  #12  
Old 05-17-2013, 01:20 PM
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Brantel Brantel is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike S View Post
Then, why do you keep the battery on charge all the time??
Because that is the recommendation of the manufacturer for long life...However I did get in this habit back when I had a Dynon legacy based system which did have keep alive inputs...

Maybe this is what killed it but if so, I don't get why all of the literature from the maker says it is ok and recommends the practice. I would have never done it if they had not recommended it.

When the new one gets here I will do the opposite and see what happens...
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Brantel (Brian Chesteen),
Check out my RV-10 builder's BLOG
RV-10, #41942, N?????, Project Sold
---------------------------------------------------------------------
RV-7/TU, #72823, N159SB
Lyc. O-360 carbed, HARTZELL BA CS Prop, Dual P-MAGs, Dual Garmin G3X Touch
Track N159SB (KK4LIF)
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Last edited by Brantel : 05-17-2013 at 01:23 PM.
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  #13  
Old 05-17-2013, 01:32 PM
flyer174 flyer174 is offline
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Mosheim Tn
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Talking

Being the good neighbor that I am ill let ya fly mine and start getting used to a constant speed prop if your going to be around this weekend.......
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  #14  
Old 05-17-2013, 01:36 PM
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Brantel Brantel is offline
 
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Originally Posted by flyer174 View Post
Being the good neighbor that I am ill let ya fly mine and start getting used to a constant speed prop if your going to be around this weekend.......
Now how can you beat that???

I am out of pocket tomorrow due to a "Bush Employee Golf Tournament" that I must participate in...(notice I did not say "play in", I am not sure you could call what I do on the golf course "playing")

Too bad I don't have the prop yet or I would just go ahead and make the swap while waiting on the new battery.
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Brantel (Brian Chesteen),
Check out my RV-10 builder's BLOG
RV-10, #41942, N?????, Project Sold
---------------------------------------------------------------------
RV-7/TU, #72823, N159SB
Lyc. O-360 carbed, HARTZELL BA CS Prop, Dual P-MAGs, Dual Garmin G3X Touch
Track N159SB (KK4LIF)
Like EAA Chapter 1494 on Facebook
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  #15  
Old 05-17-2013, 01:55 PM
Sid Lambert Sid Lambert is offline
 
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Brian, for what it's worth and it's very anecdotal...

Last fall my PC680 started slow after maybe 3 weeks of no flying. I put a charger on it after that flight and it worked fine through the winter. Come March it acted the same way. No charger would do anything to it though.

It was about 4 years old and had never needed a charge. It was replaced... Life is too short for dead batteries.
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  #16  
Old 05-17-2013, 03:02 PM
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Brantel Brantel is offline
 
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I have been watching the EAA webinar related to battery care and feeding as suggested above.

Many many times this guy talks about how good it is to keep your battery on a proper trickle charger. My charger is made for my battery and I have tested it during trickle mode and it falls right on the recommended trickle charge voltage.

All this real world aversion to the recommendations of the folks that are suppose to be the experts leaves me feeling unsettled about this issue. Like Sid said, life is too short for batteries that don't work when you need em!
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Brantel (Brian Chesteen),
Check out my RV-10 builder's BLOG
RV-10, #41942, N?????, Project Sold
---------------------------------------------------------------------
RV-7/TU, #72823, N159SB
Lyc. O-360 carbed, HARTZELL BA CS Prop, Dual P-MAGs, Dual Garmin G3X Touch
Track N159SB (KK4LIF)
Like EAA Chapter 1494 on Facebook
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  #17  
Old 05-17-2013, 03:08 PM
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Gregmarlow Gregmarlow is offline
 
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Default I've got one you can use

If you can get up to KVJI, Abingdon VA, I've got one that's still got some life you can use. I just pulled it before my motorcycle crash and its on my bench in my hangar.
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RV-9A Flying - sold
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  #18  
Old 05-17-2013, 03:39 PM
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Sam Buchanan Sam Buchanan is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brantel View Post
I have been watching the EAA webinar related to battery care and feeding as suggested above.

Many many times this guy talks about how good it is to keep your battery on a proper trickle charger. My charger is made for my battery and I have tested it during trickle mode and it falls right on the recommended trickle charge voltage.

All this real world aversion to the recommendations of the folks that are suppose to be the experts leaves me feeling unsettled about this issue. Like Sid said, life is too short for batteries that don't work when you need em!
Brian,

My PC680 has been in service for seven years and never had a trickle charger on it. Well...there was the one time a few years ago when I left the master on for ten days.....the battery recovered after charging overnight. I fly on average every week and have never had reason to think the battery is going down between flights.

One characteristic of these batteries is their ability to hold a charge. I wonder what the rationale is for constant use of a trickle charger if there are no keep-alive demands.
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  #19  
Old 05-17-2013, 03:42 PM
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Mike S Mike S is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brantel View Post
All this real world aversion to the recommendations of the folks that are suppose to be the experts leaves me feeling unsettled about this issue.
My aversion to keeping a battery on long term charge comes from 50 years of real world experience with batteries in cars, motorcycles, boats, and planes. Not to mention R/C stuff.

While it is impossible to both charge occasionally as needed a battery, and also continuously charge the same battery, and thus determine positively which works best, I have tried each with batteries of the same type/usage/manufacture etc. And in my experience, the batteries that have been on long term continuous charge do not last as long.

I have only my opinion as to why, no training or engineering degree etc. but I am suspecting that the batteries just slowly cook themselves to death if left on charge too long------even the "trickle" chargers. I used to keep a trickle charger on the battery in my standby generator so it would always be ready to start if the power went out------and every winter when I checked the generator prior to the weather turning bad, the battery was gone. Good thing I had a warranty on them. Finally after 3 or 4 years of this, the guy at the NAPA store told me to stop with the 24/7 trickle charges, and only give it an overnight trickle charge every month or so. The last battery I treated this way lasted 4 years until I sold the house.

YMMV as they say..........
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Mike Starkey
VAF 909

Rv-10, N210LM.

Flying as of 12/4/2010

Phase 1 done, 2/4/2011

Sold after 240+ wonderful hours of flight.

"Flying the airplane is more important than radioing your plight to a person on the ground incapable of understanding or doing anything about it."
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  #20  
Old 05-17-2013, 03:55 PM
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Brantel Brantel is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sam Buchanan View Post
I wonder what the rationale is for constant use of a trickle charger if there are no keep-alive demands.
The webinar mentions:

Sulfidation is minimized when constantly trickle charged.
Self discharge (while 3x slower on AGM) rates go up with temperature and trickle charge is suppose to prevent that
High charge currents after start if the battery is not fully charged prior to start can lead to premature failure

The Odyssey folks have some data as well in this document (pages 11-18):
http://www.odysseybattery.com/docume...1_0411_000.pdf


All of this stuff and the user manuals for the charger and battery are what had me convinced to constantly trickle charge.

After two premature failures, I am going to switch to the real world method and see what happens.
__________________
Brantel (Brian Chesteen),
Check out my RV-10 builder's BLOG
RV-10, #41942, N?????, Project Sold
---------------------------------------------------------------------
RV-7/TU, #72823, N159SB
Lyc. O-360 carbed, HARTZELL BA CS Prop, Dual P-MAGs, Dual Garmin G3X Touch
Track N159SB (KK4LIF)
Like EAA Chapter 1494 on Facebook

Last edited by Brantel : 05-17-2013 at 03:57 PM.
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