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Initial experience with dual Odyssey PC680s powering RV-

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Mauledriver(at)nc.rr.com
Guest

Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2011 7:12 pm Post subject: Initial experience with dual Odyssey PC680s powering RV-

Well Bob, I think you've just about nailed my somewhat non-standard but 

somewhat common new airplane situation pretty well....



On 9/6/2011 9:42 PM, Robert L. Nuckolls, III wrote:

 	  Quote: 	
		   

 <nuckolls.bob(at)aeroelectric.com>



   The only 'fly' in this alphabet soup of chargers

   assumes that you're really going to need to do

   significant charging to your battery(ies). If

   one's alternator(s) is working properly, the

   ship's battery should never be subjected to

   serious discharge. Getting the engine started

   shouldn't take more than 5% or so of the battery's

   capacity.

so, for the past 3 years of finishing up my RV10, I've had 2  batteries 
	


in there with very occassional but sometimes lenthy use supplemented 

with a whole lot of trickle charging using a Battery Tender 2 amp 

charger.  A form of slow death... which I kind of  realized when it came 

time to fly.  I swapped out both batteries with a new and almost new 

battery.  However, they never saw an alternator.

 	  Quote: 	
		  

   When you park the airplane, the battery should be

   toped off and require no maintenance if you plan

   to fly again in less than 90 days or so.

Well, first we did some short ground runs of the engine along with a lot 
	


of lengthy panel runs.  Using the little 2 amp (1.2 amp?)  Battery 

Tender to top these 2 new batteries off.  Again slow death administered 

for a relatively short time

 	  Quote: 	
		  

   Long term storage can be supported by the smallest

   of Battery-Minder style products. NOW . . . if

   you routinely discharge your battery as a source

   of portable power like for trolling motors, then

   any AGM rated smart charger will do the job. Just

   check it after being plugged in for a day or so

   and see that the float voltage is not over 13.5

   volts. It can be as low as 12.8 at room temperatures.

Well, the AGM rated Schumacher would have probably saved me... but I 
	


just bought one 2 days ago....

 	  Quote: 	
		  

   The point is that uncontrolled 'trickle charging'

   of an RG battery will kill it. I'm surprised that

   Odyssey even mentions the term as a useful

   operating description.

Kill batteries?   yes I did.
	




But now I have the charger needed to avoid it, and more important, I'm 

flying more and testing/configuring panel stuff less.



Where I am now is that I have 3 batteries of varying degrees of health.  

Two of them look like they will start the engine better than number 3, 

so number 3 goes to the graveyard.  I'll continue to use these 2 thru my 

abusive Phase 1 work, and continue to top them off with the Schumacher 

AGM-capable charger as needed.  When I get to Phase 2, a fresh battery 

will be added in the Starter position, and my best number 2 will work 

the panel. From there I can start a regular 

new>batt1>batt2>dumprecyclebin rotation.

Given the LS /non-LS Skytech/B&C starter issues, I'm looking forward to 

seeing how 'snappy' my fresh battery will be.... maybe a different 

starter will improve things even more.



.. but more important, now I have some quantifying tools to track 

conditions and analyze performance.  I intend to log each battery's 

condition periodically so I can see what the hell is going on.  Right 

now I have stickies all over my batteries with date, time, condition, 

and tester results.  If you don't get some numbers and write them down, 

you aren't really doing anything.

 	  Quote: 	
		  



   Bob . . .

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nuckolls.bob(at)aeroelect
Guest

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 2:14 am Post subject: Initial experience with dual Odyssey PC680s powering RV-

At 08:49 PM 9/7/2011, you wrote:

 	  Quote: 	
		  That's exactly what I was trying to say.  From what I'm beginning to 

understand, it's bad for the batteries.  I'm not using any kind of 

power supply other than the 2 batteries hooked to a 'trickle' 

charger.  Bad stuff.


	


    Yeah . . . while the little charger/maintainer will eventually

    top-off the battery it's connected to, using that battery to

    'run things' puts what we call a deep cycle on it. You can

    buy batteries optimized for deep-cycle service like trolling

    motors, mobility carts, etc. But the Odyssey is not well disposed

    to living this kind of life.



    Even in our cars, the battery is taxed only a few seconds each

    start-run cycle to get an engine started whereupon it's quickly

    recharged. All batteries are good for hundreds to thousands

    of such cycles where each discharge event uses a few percent

    off the top.



    But taking a battery down below 75% or so is a deep cycle

    that has an effect on service life. If you've been using

    the batteries like this for some time, it would account for

    their relatively soggy condition.



    When your choice of batteries comes with a premium price,

    it seems practical to consider some sort of ac mains driven

    ground power device for extended ground ops.



    Bob . . .

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pwmac(at)sisna.com
Guest

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 5:55 am Post subject: Initial experience with dual Odyssey PC680s powering RV-

Bill,

If one puts a dead/low batt in the bunch then the Shumaker 1 or 1.5a 

maintainer will always will go into fault mode. Separate the batts 

and put a little load on them all and then charge the low one with a 

2amp charger (not a maintainer) then start over with the maintainer 

and all the batts in parallel.

For your newer 2/10a charger then it probably wont charge a low batt. 

In that case charge 2 batts in parallel and that should overcome the 

smart circuit in the newer chargers. My vintage chargers have no 

smarts and will attempt to charge a dead battery. Not good for the charger.

Some times a low batt has to be charged at the 10a setting, but you 

still have to overcome the smart circuit in the later model chargers. 

Use the 2a setting before trying the 10a.

I have a large fleet of vehicles and shure enough  it comes with lots 

of batt experience.

Bottom line is one of your batts is quite discharged.

PaulW

==============

At 07:49 PM 9/7/2011, Bill Watson wrote:

 	  Quote: 	
		  That's exactly what I was trying to say.  From what I'm beginning to 

understand, it's bad for the batteries.  I'm not using any kind of 

power supply other than the 2 batteries hooked to a 'trickle' 

charger.  Bad stuff.

I'm still into a lot of panel configuration work and I'm still 

depending on the flight batteries for that work.  Now that I'm 

flying, it's probably not so damaging.

I thought that hooking up the 10 amp Schumacher charger to my 2 

batteries during this work might be a viable solution.  But it 

appears that the Schumacher has enough 'smarts' to see that there 

are 2 batteries involved and it goes into error mode for some reason.

Bill "now that the weather has cleared, we're going back to flying" Watson

On 9/7/2011 8:35 PM, Timothy Farrell wrote:

>Bill,

>

>This particular comment got my attention:

>

>"That combined with the fact that almost every flight is

>       followed by much battery draining panel work followed by charging."

>I recall recently reading that draining the power of the Odyssey 

>batteries by doing service items such as long database upgrades and 

>gear swings is particularly bad for them.  I don't know how much 

>panel work you got into, but it is possible that there was some 

>damage caused this way by not using an APU.

>-Tim

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