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Touring Motor Gliders Association (TMGA)

Charge Fail Light On


algee1_73@yahoo.com

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For those who haver not yet had a Charge Fail light come on with the engine running, this may help:

There had been no changes to anything that I'm aware of prior to the light coming on.  Though I'm an LSRM, some things are out of out of my knowledge area or comfort zone.  Dealing with electronics is one of those in general so I went to the A&P I use in such instances.  He's also a Rotax Major Maintenance provider.

To go right to the solution, it was not possible to find anything wrong.  The batteries were being charged, the indication on my Dynon D-10 Enigine Monitoring System wes showing charge, and the light would not go out.  Lakewood Aviation in Florida was contacted, and said they've seen this at times.  Their recommendation was to remove the LED used for the Charge Fail light and install an incandescent bulb.  In their telling, sometimes a slight decrease in charge will cause an LED to illuminate.

This was done and it did not solve the problem.  The other possibility mentioned was the voltage regulator which, even though it showed an adequate output when metered, might be low enough to set off the LED.

A new voltage regulator was put in, and that took care of it.

What's interesting is that Lockwood said the Rotax manual specified that an LED not be used for the Charge Fail indication, and that an incandescent bulb be used.  Assumedly for the exact reason I was getting the indication.  Granted the voltage regulator needed changing.  But if Rotax specifies incandescent, then there's no reason for me to go back to an LED.

I'm sure Jim Lee will have some guidance on this, which I look forward to hearing.

Cheers,

Alan Gurevich, Phoenix #24

 

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I could not find a requirement in the engine installation manual (2012 version) to use an incandescent lamp in the charge fail circuit, nor does the manual exclude using an LED. A table (Fig. 11) lists a 3W/12v lamp, which could be an incandescent lamp, but could also be an LED lamp with a 47 ohm resistor in parallel. Next time I'm at the hangar, I'll check for a resistor on the lamp. But, since we all have the LED, and no one has had it fail to work properly, I'm inclined to think we don't have a potential problem.

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I would've felt the same way, and can only refer to what Lockwood told my A&P.  I'm sure Jim Lee will have something to say about it and, as the manufacturer's rep., what he says matters.

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I have a 912 ULS in my Bristell light sport. My Garmin G2X low-voltage red light has come on twice in four years.The engine monitoring system showed no charge at the same time. The solution was to remove And replace the six wire plug from the bottom of the voltage regulator.  Joe the service manager at Lockwood and my importer both guided me to this solution. I will be dismantling the plug to tighten up the Female ends For a more permanent fix.  Steve Chase N67PV former lambada owner In South Carolina.

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  • 5 weeks later...

To summarize as I understand it:

The charge fail light showed a charging problem with Alan's Phoenix.  Changing to a different type of bulb did not solve the problem.  The problem was the voltage regulator.  When the voltage regulator was changed, the problem was fixed.  The wires to the voltage regulator were not changed.  Therefore the charge fail light and the regulator wiring worked as it was supposed to and the regulator did not.

We have had troubles with 2 or 3 voltage regulators.  So far as I know every charging problem in the Phoenix has been the regulator.  I have personally flown a customer's Phoenix which had a charging system failure and it turned out to be the regulator.  The charge fail light was on and it worked like it should.

I don't have any additional information about what type of charge fail bulb should be used.  

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