It seems like 750 hours is an usually long time for a red cube to live. Mine went 400 hours and I thought that was doing pretty well.
T So the failures that are happening seem to be electrical. Dan's autopsy of the cube several years ago, show its simplicity, but also the very tiny wires that seem susceptible. \
Tom
Terry, there doesnt seem to be any correlation between install locations and failures. Weve seen them mounted just about everywhere you can think of, some make more sense than others. We've been dealing with the cubes since 2010 and Ive never heard of the shutter wheel breaking, stopping, or otherwise not being able to rotate past the shutter wheel. (This doesnt include foreign objects obstructing the inlet port, only free-flowing fuel wheel failures). So the failures that are happening seem to be electrical. Dan's autopsy of the cube several years ago, show its simplicity, but also the very tiny wires that seem susceptible.
I think the success rate might depend on the service loop of the harness, and making sure there is no strain on the wires near the cube body. That appears to be the vulerable point.
Tom
Starting to look like the main failure is of the market to behave as designed.
Customer pushback on the abysmal failure rate in these devices should incentivize the makers to give us a more robust design. If there was a more reliable alternative in place, we could vote with our wallets.
Then again, the likes of MicroSoft have been getting away with shoddy goods for decades, using the deficiencies to sell upgrades called "versions." Why should the flow sensor industry not ride the same train
I also believe it is not the wheel or it's bearings. It uses an electric light generator and an opto-electric sensor. So several chips to fail (heat is likely worse than vibration here) as well as a plastic window that can become too opaque for various reasons.
Larry
Can i mount the red cube floating on the fuel lines?
So, like the red cube is supported by the in and out fuel lines, or is this problematic?
DanH took one apart (see pics in this link), but he was commenting on the possibility of a failure blocking fuel flow, not necessarily looking for the failure modes we are seeing.Ideally, we’d be able to see a tear down and failure analysis of a few of these (Not that I’m volunteering). This thread seems to be full of guesses. Has anyone actually torn apart and looked at their failed cube?
It seems ridiculous to me that a device like this would be considered a consumable just because it has a single moving part. Nothing else [EDIT: besides my starter solenoid, hahaha] in my airplane is this fragile.
My Floscan 201 has been working issue free over 3,500 flying hours.I have a Floscan 201 that's been giving me issues and I'm currently troubleshooting it with the company. That one says to install it in a 45 degree upslope for bubbles. The picture provided previously here for the Red Cube shows it flat horizontally. What is your experience installing it as I'm most likely going to end up buying a red cube to replace the Floscan if I can't get it working this week?
Nice install bracket.Another data point: My FT-60 Red Cube has 1397 Hobbs hours on it so far. No problems. (And I hope this post doesn't jinx me!).
Installation pic:
Yes, I think my FloScan issue was the fact that the previous owner had it connected to 24v and it worked for a while, which is impressive enough. I ended up installing a Red Cube because I was able to drive to Fort worth and pick it up at Aircraft Spruce the same day and I wanted to install it the next day.My Floscan 201 has been working issue free over 3,500 flying hours.
Interestingly, those last two sentences underlined above have been added since EI Document No. 1030032 Rev F, dated 7/24/2013, was released, the one that was available when my RV-8 was built. Rev I seems to be the latest version.The inlet port, outlet port and flow direction are marked on the top of the Red Cube FT-60. This transducer must be suspended between flexable hoses on the inlet and exiting ports. The hoses must be supported within 6 inches of the transducer.
The above was taken from the FT-60 Fuel Flow Transducer Data Sheet 1030032 Rev. I. I wonder if the failure rate is connected to the number of hard mounted installations. Mine was installed as per the instructions and so far, in 7 yrs and 750 hrs, still works accurately.