walter

walter

Well Known Member
Let me preface this thread with the following comments. I do not work for
emagair. I do not know anybody, personnaly, at emagair. That said

Last weekend after a re-fueling and hot start at KCNO the engine was running
a bit rough. Not too bad but the occasional sputter or spitting or coughing.
That's the best I can describe it. Sort of like a true magneto that needs
adjustment.

I taxied to the runup area and started my pre-flight check list. Brought the
rpms to 1800 and placed both p-mags onto their own internal power. Shut
down the left p-mag and the engine died, flipped it back on to full power and
it continued to run. Did this several times. Noticed that the rpm's indicated
zero. My tach lead comes from the right p-mag. I also tried this with the
left p-mag on aircraft power, same result. I cancelled the trip.

Taxied back to the hanger and Dan C. helped me run some diagnostics. All the
wiring checked out and the switch checked out too.

Since I had to send the p-mags back to emagair for an upgrade (I have an
early model) I decided to pull both. I overnighted them to emagair on Monday.
I called Brad and discussed what had happened. He was very concerned and
wanted to gather as much information as possible from me. I can tell you that
I was very relieved by the conversation we had.

I had indicated to him which p-mag was the right one both on the phone
and in a letter in the box.

On Wednesday he called me to say that the suspect p-mag checked out fine.
The other p-mag had a magnet that had moved and was out of alignment
slightly. I know nothing about the internals of the p-mag and I can't say
what caused that. They fixed the problem with the magnet and overnighted
the p-mags back to me at their expense. I received the p-mags on Friday.

Saturday I installed the p-mags and ground ran the plane. It ran great.
Since it was near 100 degrees outside and I was already wet and tired I
decided to fly early the next day.

I suspect that I improperly labelled the p-mags, even though I thought I was
being very thorough not to confuse left and right, I probably did.

Today's flight was spotless. Both p-mags are running great. Actually they
run better now than before thanks to the upgrade. Smooth like butta.

Thanks to Brad and company I am back flying.

I don't know what caused the issue. Brad indicated that the magnet
misalignment should not have caused it to stop running.

Just thought I would pass along this information. I'm happy to have the
p-mags installed. I think they will, in the long run, require less maintenance
than the LASAR system I had previously installed and certainly less
maintenance than standard mags. But only time will tell. They are
experimental after all.
 
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Valuable comments

Walter there are many builders who are waiting for in-service feedback on the PMags and I am sure they will appreciate your ongoing candid comments. I certainly did. I'm now looking forward to the next instalment (so to speak).

As you well know there have been some early problems with the PMags but for one reason or another the parties concerned have not generally shown a willingness to elaborate in a public forum. That makes your comments all the more valuable.

Perhaps others out there with Pmags in service might also like to relate their experiences....either good or bad. There must be quite a few flying now.
 
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I appreciate your comments, and you are right, the more we know about
"in use" statistics the more "we know".

Overall, I'm very pleased with my choice. I will continue to provide information
as it becomes available.

Also, since posting, I've received several emails and pm's regarding my
installation and operation. I will and have responded to all of them so far
and will continue to do so.

But, if you folks with issues will post them here, there will be many that read
your posts that have more insight than just I. Please try to be informative
and supportive of emagair. They have brought a new product to the
experimental world. It's our chance to make it better. Your insight and
experience will make it a better product. I'm sure the guys at emagair want
to know about each and every issue we might have.

Just politely state the facts and in due time we will have a product that is
"good to go" on our little feathered friends.

For me, it's "good to go" now. But the future awaits.
 
P-Mags

I am 20 hours into two P-Mags and all is well. I can idle smoothly at 580 RPM which is as slow as it will go with the throttle pulled all the way out. Absolutely no complaints and like Walter the service from Brad (P-Mag Man) has been exemplary. I sent mine in for an upgrade too. It was right before I mounted them and they came back upgraded with two new drive gears on them. I had sent them in without the drive gears. This is an excellent company with which to deal.
 
Fixed?

I
HTML: 
 don't know what caused the issue. Brad indicated that the magnet
misalignment should not have caused it to stop running.

Not to throw stones here but if one is not SURE what caused the problem whos to say that it will not happen again at a less opportune time.

Got to make sure.....
 
walter said:
I taxied to the runup area and started my pre-flight check list. Brought the rpms to 1800 and placed both p-mags onto their own internal power. Shut down the left p-mag and the engine died, flipped it back on to full power and it continued to run. Did this several times. Noticed that the rpm's indicated zero. My tach lead comes from the right p-mag. I also tried this with the left p-mag on aircraft power, same result. I cancelled the trip.
Click to expand...

Walter, I'd like to revisit your description of the problem because something doesn't seem to make sense.

You say that you ran the engine run up to where both P-mags were producing their own power (you had "placed both on their own internal power" which means that you shut off the buss power supply to them... right?).
And in that condition, the engine runs fine. That means that AT LEAST ONE of the P-mags MUST be producing power in order for the engine to run.

Yet, when you shut down EITHER of the P-mags, the engine died both times.
That doesn't make sense to me because at least one good mag had to be working to keep the engine running.

Unless I misunderstand what you described, it sounds to me like it might be a wiring issue on how the P-mags were wired to the system.
 
Perhaps my writing is not clear enough. Shutting down the left p-mag
caused the engine to stop running. The left p-mag continued to produce
it's own power, the right is the one that failed. Here's what I wrote.

"Shut down the left p-mag and the engine died, flipped it back on to full power and it continued to run"
 
Ok, I got it; the left one operated normally in all modes, but the right one was just plain dead.

But Brad couldn't say for sure what caused the failure because it "should" have kept running even with the misaligned magnet.

Well, I guess that's why we run two (of whatever kind of ignitions we use).
 
One of the things I like about EMag Air and one of the main reasons I wrote them a check for two PMags is they don't hide from problems like Walter's.

Many companies in this market ask customers not to talk about "issues" like this. I would rather hear about the problem and what the company did to correct it than not hear anything at all about the product.

Just my $.02
 
Pmag failure

I can't say if this is the cause of your PMAG, but it would have been a good test to wait for it to cool down and try again.

Most electronic devices are rated to 85 degrees ambient operation, with an internal temperature of 115-125 degrees (depending on spec).

It's entirely possible that the under cowl temperatures affected the electronics on the PMAG. Sometimes this is permanent damage, but many times electronic devices can recover once cooled down.

You may want to ask Brad if they have done temperature extreme testing of the E/PMAGS. Also, has anyone out there ever measured the under-cowl temperature near the magnetos in a heat-soak situation?

Vern Little-- more questions than answers.
 
It's been my experience that electronics die of primarily two things; heat and
vibration. I'm sure that if they are gunning for the certified world, they will
have to undergo appropriate testing. Not sure if they have done this at this
time. Blast tubes may be an answer if heat is causing this issue.

BTW. You can now connect the p-mags up to a laptop and shift the fixed
timing curve if you have the latest firmware revision. Very cool. The
software for doing this is located on their site, called EICAD. It can be found
at the bottom of this page:

http://emagair.com/113.htm

The wiring schematic is provided when the software is started.
 
Satisfied with Emags

Hi Everyone,

I have the Emag/Pmag set up. E on left P on right. They have worked flawlessly except for one minor issue. The Pmag on a mag check would drop 150 rpm. The Emag held solid. Everything was checked and discussed with Brad. Several possible fixes were tried but the drop was still there.

LSS, I found that if I lean slightly on the run up the drop is only about 75 rpm.

I highly recommend this ignition system. Brad is great to work with and has no problems discussing issues openly. Overall I think most have had good luck with the Emag/Pmags.

70 hours now!!
 
EMag,Pmag, Plug Gap?

Hi Guys:
New to the list. My name is Al Grajek, Lexington, Ky.
I just received my Emags(1 Emag, and 1 Pmag). What are you guys setting your plug gaps to for these? I bought a set of fine wire plugs, and I know Brad says .030-.035, so I am wondering where to start.
Thanks
Al Grajek
RV-8
in Paint
 
algrajek said:
Hi Guys:
New to the list. My name is Al Grajek, Lexington, Ky.
I just received my Emags(1 Emag, and 1 Pmag). What are you guys setting your plug gaps to for these? I bought a set of fine wire plugs, and I know Brad says .030-.035, so I am wondering where to start.
Thanks
Al Grajek
RV-8
in Paint
Click to expand...

I used my cheapie Autozone gap gauge to set them greater than .030, but smaller than whatever the next step up was. I'm using auto plugs. Works fine.

The spark is so strong on these that the gap is probably less important than it would be with magnetos.

I ran about 60 hours on massive-electrode aircraft plugs, but couldn't find any way to gap them appropriately, so I left them at the nominal gap for magnetos (I don't recall exactly, but maybe .018?). I didn't have any problems with this.

After talking to all the plug vendors at OSH last year, I decided that it was going to be hard, even with fine wire plugs, to open the gap enough, so I switched to auto plugs and haven't looked back. My sense was that the airplane ran a little smoother on the autoplugs, but it's hard to be definitive. I'm still running a Bendix mag on the left side, and the engine is definitely smoother on the P-mag than on the magneto, with either type of plug.

James Freeman
 
Can anyone tell me if they fixed the accessory gear hardness issue? I remember hearing that some of them failed.

Seriously considering E/P-mag pair if experience is positive out in the fleet.
 
P Mag Security

Has anyone had any issues with P or E Mags' securing clamps (mag to engine) loosening, breaking or anything else?

I've got 2 P Mags on my AEIO390.......to be delivered 5 July.

Any other issues with either the E or P Mags, that hasn't already been posted?

Appreciate any info, good or bad.

Thanks!
Roy
Jax, Fl

RV8
Wiring
 
rv8180 said:
Has anyone had any issues with P or E Mags' securing clamps (mag to engine) loosening, breaking or anything else?

I've got 2 P Mags on my AEIO390.......to be delivered 5 July.

Any other issues with either the E or P Mags, that hasn't already been posted?

Appreciate any info, good or bad.

Thanks!
Roy
Jax, Fl

RV8
Wiring
Click to expand...

Talk to Brad directly at Emag because they had a run of reject clamps. You may be in the situation I was in with my Pmags going directly to Mattituck to be installed by them, and they also got the bad clamps with them.
When I got my engine, I just contacted Brad and he sent out a set of new clamps. If your clamps look chromed, then you need to replace them.

I'll add to everyone else's comments that Brad and the Emag company are great to work with.
 
Gary Bricker

I don't know how much power is put out by the P mags but if someone starts to have plugs electrode failure you might check into single or double platinum plugs. Talk to the P mag folks about this. In the automotive world the reason for platinum plugs is the high amount of power coming from the new ignition systems. If you don't have this high power there is no need for platinum.
 
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