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912 voltage?

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lgold(at)quantum-associat
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Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 8:13 am Post subject: 912 voltage?

I am a sport pilot and don’t fly at night, but went up in my experimental Zenith Rotax 912 powered ship last evening. With all the extra night time stuff on (strobe, landing light (55watt), & cabin lights) the voltage went down to 11.9 at 3500-rpm and 12.3V at my 4900-rpm cruse. Is this normal or do I have voltage regulation issues? Without the extra load my voltage runs about 12.9-13.0 V and my battery is holding 12.8V when I fly during the day. I don’t have an alternator and just use the Rotax coils for power.   

Thanks for your advice.  

Les  

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lucien

Joined: 03 Jun 2007
Posts: 721
Location: santa fe, NM

Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 9:41 am Post subject: Re: 912 voltage?

 	  lgold(at)quantum-associat wrote: 	
		  I am a sport pilot and don’t fly at night, but went up in my experimental Zenith Rotax 912 powered ship last evening. With all the extra night time stuff on (strobe, landing light (55watt), & cabin lights) the voltage went down to 11.9 at 3500-rpm and 12.3V at my 4900-rpm cruse. Is this normal or do I have voltage regulation issues? Without the extra load my voltage runs about 12.9-13.0 V and my battery is holding 12.8V when I fly during the day. I don’t have an alternator and just use the Rotax coils for power.   

Thanks for your advice.  

Les  

	




Yep, sounds normal to me. The 912 alternator is capable of only about 250W output and probably does less than that on a continuous basis. I get about the same readings when I have my whelen strobes and landing light going. The lighting coil alternator is only able to keep up with my panel/radio and my strobes and that's about it. Once I turn on more stuff it falls behind and starts getting into the battery (i.e. drops below 12V and into the 11's).



Keep in mind also that the stock Ducati voltage regulator that comes with the 912 is a piece of junk, it can't take continuous high duty-cycle operation for long periods of time - at continuous loads like that it'll eventually literally burn out. I.e. put your hand on it after a flight with all your electrics on it and it'll be smoking hot.



I'm working on a computer fan installation to put over mine, supposedly extra cooling will help keep it from smoking it's little garbagy, 170 buck self to death....



LS

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_________________
LS
Titan II SS

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