Vertical Power and EFII question

[330Jock]

Chad,
While you're here I have a question for you. I'm building a 7A that will be all glass, EFFI fuel injection and electronic ignition. What unit is still available to me for my build, that's in production and supported for my electrical system?

[cjensen]

Mods, feel free to move this part to a new thread......OK, done. MJS

Bill,

We have a few customers using the VP-X with the EFII system, but Vertical Power has never tested the two units together.

What is your setup? All we need to determine is if a Sport or a Pro would be better suited.

[sbalmos]

Likewise Chad I'm interested in which way to go. I think I might end up being really close to Bill's setup. My setup's going to be the full EFII injection/ignition system - possibly dual ECUs, don't know yet. EFII obviously has the all-electric fuel pump, etc. Dual AFS glass, GNS480, etc. Power's from a single main battery, with a primary alt and a vacuum-pad mounted secondary alt for backup. The AFS screens will have their own backup battery.

I think at one point another guy in the Vertical Power booth at OSH was recommending the Pro. But I'm still kind of scratching my head exactly why, aside from "redundancy".

[cjensen]

We always recommend those with electrically dependent airplanes use the Pro for the dual bank feature (and two power supplies, two processors) in the Pro. It also has 32 circuits vs 24 in the Sport, and in the more complex set ups, more circuits is always better than less.

If you intend use 28v power, the Pro is the only choice.

[rcpaisley]

Generally, our customers who use the VPX system, use our Bus Manager to provide the protected Essential Bus for the engine electronics and the VPX for the rest of the aircraft systems. The Bus Manager can provide the dual battery management and feed the VPX off its Main Bus output. This is the simplest way to get all the functions required.

Additional backup batteries are not required for any glass panels or GPS systems. Simply use the Essential Bus power from the Bus Manager as the backup power source for all these devices.

Robert Paisley

[lrgabriel]

I think you should make the VP-X Pro vs. Sport decision based on the number of circuits you need, and leave the redundancy issue up to a different method.

Even with a perfectly functioning VP-X and EFII system, it's possible to have an electrically-induced engine failure (short version: the current limit setting was inadvertently changed for the EFII's circuit on the VP-X, which caused an engine failure after takeoff).

True redundancy--especially for a flight-critical component like EFII--really needs to involve separate physical components, manufacturers, and methods if possible.

The Bus Manager solution is a good idea if your total electrical load is in the 30A range. Another possibility is a simple backup circuit to power an essential bus--basically, a battery, circuit breaker, and switch that bypasses everything else to keep the motor running for 30 minutes.

My solution is a VP-X Sport on one bus and conventional circuit breakers on another--with everything as separated as it can get.

[MCA]

I recommend connecting the VP-X to the battery contactor (as shown in the VP-X install manual) and install the EFII separately as shown in its respective manual.

[lrgabriel]

Originally Posted by MCA

I recommend connecting the VP-X to the battery contactor (as shown in the VP-X install manual) and install the EFII separately as shown in its respective manual.

Hi Marc -

The EFII install manual (rev 1.2) simply states that the system requires 3-4 circuit breakers. By itself, the EFII kit doesn't include any master switching circuitry.

In order to install the EFII system separately from a VP-X, you need a second bus--provided either by a Bus Manager or conventional means (source, battery, contactor, circuit breakers, and switches).