What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

EarthX Battery Faults: Seen any?

UPDATE: Earthx contacted me this morning and will be replacing my battery under warranty. They said it likely that my battery is experiencing a cell imbalance, but decided that the safer route would be to replace the battery under warranty. The BMS is my battery is an earlier design; the logic in the newer design evaluates the cells using a more tolerant algorithm. So that's good news and I wish to commend Earthx for standing by their product. (I also decided to buy one of their chargers that automatically balances the cells.) I received a tracking number later in the day, so I'll swap out the battery and send the old one back for testing. I've asked for them to let me know what they find. Side note: they were pleased that I had hooked up the BMS to a warning light (actually the EFIS in my case,) noting that many people do not.

I echo your sentiments as they have already shipped me a replacement for my battery with similar reason.
 
Quick update: received the replacement battery on Wednesday, installed it today, did a test flight, transited over Chesapeake Bay to tempt fate, everything back to normal (although had to dodge some pop-up storms in the SFRA - love FIS-B. Big thumbs up to EarthX for standing by their product.
 
I was trying to find the correct place to put this and it would seem this would be right however this has as much to do with customer support.
I have been using an Earth X etx 900 for over 2 years now on my rocket. I gotta say I was a bit nervous about the whole lithium battery thing from the start. The rocket would eat up a pc 680 at 1 per year. I replaced it with the earth x battery and found it would spin the engine like it had no spark plugs in the cylinders ( very impressive for such a light battery). I have had zero issues with the battery until Flying on the 4th for a parade flyover. It still spun the engine at start just as it had since the day it was new. I did have a 5 second flashing warning light that had my attention. It continued through the flight. Battery volts indicated normal, charging system normal, amp draw normal.
I spoke with Cathy at earth X about the issue on the 5th and she explained it was most likely a slight cell imbalance and the battery should be replaced.
She said don?t you just hate it when your warranty runs out just before your product craps out. In the next breath she said I will have a new one on your doorstep tomorrow. I told her I wouldn?t need it that soon but she insisted no problem.
I am somewhat biased as this is a local company but how many businesses give this type support. I can?t say enough good things about the support and to date I am extremely happy with the battery.
BTW this is the 6th and I am looking across the room at my new battery😘
Thanks Cathy and sorry if it should be Kathy😜
Ryan
 
The blinking light has been an ongoing issue for me. Kathy has sent me two new replacement batteries and I continue to have a blinking light. I have two batteries installed and it?s always the same battery side. Not sure what is going on, but it keeps repeating itself. I have noticed that if I turn on all my lights and draw down some power that the light will go out. The volts have always read a normal 14.2 and 14.0.
 
Ryan and all:

Note that the duration of flashing (times off/on) mean different things depending on the voltages fed to the battery. I've been running an ETX900 for 40 hours now, and in the recently HOT weather I've gotten the fault light for 2 seconds on 2 seconds off, which means the battery temperature is greater than 150 degrees F. After leveling off at 11500 feet and things cooled off, it was happy again. I'm going to add an enclosure and a blast tube from the high pressure side of my plenum to bathe the battery in ambient temperature air, which should solve this annoyance. The happier the battery is, the more reliable the whole system will be. I also have added a radiation shield between the firewall mounted battery/box and the exhaust pipes. I also carry a copy of the table from the EarthX literature with the meanings of all the light cautions/warnings. That way I'm not guessing in flight.
 
Last edited:
Thanks Larry,

I wasn't aware of the 2 sec heat warning that you described. I will add a blast tube and see if that doesn't help my cause.
 
Hi All,

I purchased a EarthX ETX36C at OSH in 2014, before they had the improved aircraft models. I upgraded that to a ETX680C in March 2017.

That battery failed June 14, 2018 after 110 hours. I completed a flight and two days later when ready to return home, the fault light was solid on. A call to EarthX confirmed that there was a problem with the BMS circuit but the battery was safe to use. I flew home with no problem (thank goodness as it was IFR for the first 30 minutes) and the voltage and amps were normal.

EarthX sent a replacement the next day and did not want the defective battery returned. I have no idea what caused the problem. All indications were normal during the flight out. The plane was parked outside for two days and there was very heavy rainfall during that time, but the battery did not get wet.

I left the defective battery on the workbench and a couple days later the fault light went out but the battery voltage was 13.3, fully charged. I went ahead and charged it anyway and all appeared normal. When I returned from a trip several days later, the fault light was on again. So I am assuming the battery is defective and will recycle it.

The new battery is working fine and I'm really glad I upgraded to the newer battery with the fault indication circuit.

Jim Butcher
 
I had a flashing warning light and spent time troubleshooting the charging system. After sending an email to EarthX, they suggested that I might be having a heat issue instead. I completely missed the temperature warning at the bottom of the warning light chart in the manual.

I added a blast tube and placed the carb temp thermocouple on the firewall about 1/4" above the battery and centered left to right. After four test flights I have not had a reoccurrence of the warning light flashing.

The temperatures recorded were fairly consistent. During taxi and run up the temperature starts at ambient and increases to around 93F. During climb the temperature will rise to 121F and then began to decrease and stabilize at 97F. After flying 2.3 hours and landing, during taxi the temp rose to 131F.

Those specific numbers came from the longest climb. That data is:

OAT at startup was 71F
Climb began at 100' and was sustained until 11,500'MSL
Climb airspeed was 120KIAS
Temp peaked at 3,250 feet and then began to decrease.
RV-7 O-360 C/S one Mag one P-mag

The blast tube has some affect on the temperature reading as air certainly washes over the thermocouple. I could install one that had adhesive backing direct to the battery case. That would give a more accurate indication of battery temperature. The carb temp probe was a quick solution.

The battery box is installed in the standard RV-7 location, the box comes from EarthX. The battery is their 680 version.

Hope this data helps.
 
fwiw,
the warning light is very important in my opinion. i am wiring my panel now and i am putting in a momentary push button to test certain warning lights in my panel. the earth xbattery light is one of them. there is no other way to lnow if you are looking at an inop. warning light.
 
Testing the warning light

fwiw,
the warning light is very important in my opinion. i am wiring my panel now and i am putting in a momentary push button to test certain warning lights in my panel. the earth xbattery light is one of them. there is no other way to lnow if you are looking at an inop. warning light.

Actually the EarthX installation manual pages 19 and 22 describe how to test a panel-mounted warning light/LED. Since the battery?s black warning light lead constitutes the ground side of the light circuit, just disconnect that battery lead/light ground lead connection (blade style), then connect the light ground lead to a local ground point. This opens the circuit, and the panel light should immediately illuminate. It?s easy: I do this with every annual condition inspection.
 
Ryan and all:

Note that the duration of flashing (times off/on) mean different things depending on the voltages fed to the battery. I've been running an ETX900 for 40 hours now, and in the recently HOT weather I've gotten the fault light for 2 seconds on 2 seconds off, which means the battery temperature is greater than 150 degrees F. After leveling off at 11500 feet and things cooled off, it was happy again. I'm going to add an enclosure and a blast tube from the high pressure side of my plenum to bathe the battery in ambient temperature air, which should solve this annoyance. The happier the battery is, the more reliable the whole system will be. I also have added a radiation shield between the firewall mounted battery/box and the exhaust pipes. SNIP.

Firewall mounted batteries have a lot of problems, EarthX or any other brand.

Will going to the pain of battery enclosures, blast tubes, etc. be better than just moving the battery aft of the firewall? If this is an RV-10, most builds require a battery (or two) in the normal aft of the baggage compartment spot for W&B anyway.

Carl
 
Back
Top