Hi Larry,
You can contact any of the MGL guys either locally (check the U.S. MGL website for contact details for your neck of the woods -
www.MGLAvionics.com).
The forum is not run or owned by MGL, it is an independent effort that has been started by one of our supporters. It's a great source for quick help or to bounce of a few questions as you reach many users all at once.
You are also welcome to address a question directly to me (contact details on
www.MGLAvionics.co.za - the website in South Africa) or directly to the guy that designes the singles (which happens to be my nephew - it's a bit of a "family" affair). Allow a few days for an answer - in particular if you are sending a long e-mail. As you can imagine, my inbox is a bit hectic at times and I do fall behind often. If you don't get an answer, please send the mail again. Sometimes I don't get e-mails (perhaps some spam filter along the way has your number) or sometimes I just simply forget or miss it.
We prefer questions to be asked on public forums - at least those that concern issues that may be of interest to others as well.
Regarding your question around the p-lead pickup. Magnetometers do not have points. Normally there is not too much of an issue picking up a signal from a p-lead, Our instruments are designed for this and do not load the signal in any significant way.
The pickup can sometimes be a bit tricky - the signal can have voltage levels up to a few hundered volts and can be very noisy - lots of signal bounce. Even worse, this can change as your spark plug gap wears. In many cases it is a good idea to wire in a series resistor to the rev counter. In our case values of 10K to 30K seem good. Sometimes one has to experiment a bit to get it just right. The series resistor lowers the signal at the rev counter and also lowers the signal of the unwanted parts which can lead to the reading being unstable.
For those ingintion systems that have points (i.e. the old fashioned contact breaker), you would pick up a signal directly at the breaker. Compared to the load of the coil (and inductive effects) the rev counter is effectively all but invisible and thus has no affect on the ignition system whatsoever.
Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics
How do you contact MGL ? I had a question about my RV-1 digital tachometer and the users forum would not accept my application. I sent a PM to the moderator and got no response. FYI, some magneto literature warns against P-lead tachometer connections, citing accelerated point wear. I assume this would apply to glass cockpits as well. Anybody got input on this issue ?
