I seem to have an intermittent fault with my PlanePower alternator, and am not too sure how to approach the problem of diagnosis - tho treatment might simply be to replace it - but it only has about 20 hours on it.
Everything was fine for the first 14 hours. Then last weekend just prior to take off, power checks complete, turned on the pitot heat and the 5A field circuit breaker popped. THe CB would not reset, so we taxied back to park and closed down. Thought we would see what happened on a restart and everything was fine. Flew, landed, closed down.
Next flight everything was fine until the power check when the CB popped with one of the mags being turned back on. THis time I left the engine running, turned the master switch off, reset the CB, then master switch back on - battery then bat plus field - all was fine, repeated the power checks and no problems.
Since then I have also had the CB pop when lowering the flaps, tho not consistently. Two nights ago the CB popped in flight when there had been no alterations to the load ie we had not operated any switches. Usual reset routine and all was well for the remaining 30 minutes of the flight.
I have inspected the wiring and there are no obvious problems with chafing or loose connections. The engine earth strap seems fine. Electrical system monitoring is via a Dynon flightdek 180. Charging amps and volts seems fine, we haven't clearly seen any spikes in either except after starting when the amps are high as I guess would be expected. The charging circuit is protected by a current limiter and there have been no problems here.
So - is the inbuilt regulator dying or is it a dodgy circuit breaker - those seem to be the choices but I'm anxious to know if I might be missing something else? If I replace the CB and all seems well for an hour or two can I really relax?
Thanks
Chris
Everything was fine for the first 14 hours. Then last weekend just prior to take off, power checks complete, turned on the pitot heat and the 5A field circuit breaker popped. THe CB would not reset, so we taxied back to park and closed down. Thought we would see what happened on a restart and everything was fine. Flew, landed, closed down.
Next flight everything was fine until the power check when the CB popped with one of the mags being turned back on. THis time I left the engine running, turned the master switch off, reset the CB, then master switch back on - battery then bat plus field - all was fine, repeated the power checks and no problems.
Since then I have also had the CB pop when lowering the flaps, tho not consistently. Two nights ago the CB popped in flight when there had been no alterations to the load ie we had not operated any switches. Usual reset routine and all was well for the remaining 30 minutes of the flight.
I have inspected the wiring and there are no obvious problems with chafing or loose connections. The engine earth strap seems fine. Electrical system monitoring is via a Dynon flightdek 180. Charging amps and volts seems fine, we haven't clearly seen any spikes in either except after starting when the amps are high as I guess would be expected. The charging circuit is protected by a current limiter and there have been no problems here.
So - is the inbuilt regulator dying or is it a dodgy circuit breaker - those seem to be the choices but I'm anxious to know if I might be missing something else? If I replace the CB and all seems well for an hour or two can I really relax?
Thanks
Chris