I'll chime in too I guess.

Am on my second set of two PC 680s.  My system sounds like a clone of Fred's.  It has two separate busses, 70 amp alt on one side normally operating at about 36 amps and 20 amp B&C on the other bus and it usually draws about 7 amps during cruise flight.  X-tie occurs at startup, in any bus failure and can be manually selected.  Main difference is mine is controlled automatically by Vertical Power VP 200.

The first set of batteries grew tired due to terrible abuse over several years in build shops,  they were recharged most of the time with older chargers and were drained and recharged so many times, estimating the number would be impossible. 

I replaced both a bit over a year ago and now use a battery minder that is compatible to the extent that both manuals (battery and charger) reference the other brand and indicate the settings to be used.

Early in my flight testing program I had plaguing electrical issues that would frequently kick the electrical to the E bus and often times would even fail that.  I can't say that necessarily put extra stress on the batteries, but I don't imagine it was particularly good for any part of the system. 

I was doing a lot of charging last year during the time we were trying to identify and solve the problem.  That was prior to acquisition of the minder but the batteries were never drained or particularly stressed I don't think.

Now the electrical busses are properly balanced so the electrical performs correctly and the batteries seem to be very happy.  I still put the minder on after I run electrical on the ground or leave it for a period of time.  The batteries take up little space on the fire wall and since real estate under the cowl is precious, that's good.  They are relatively light weight so there is very little down side to these.  I'm all electric so I should develop a replacement program, but the darn things are so bulletproof I don't know what the cycle should be.  Maybe one every two years?  Anyone have advice about that?

The old Odyssey batteries I took out last year are still around.  I tried to charge one of them and it never reached the charged stage in 24 hours.  I've got it on the recondition cycle as of last night and it will be interesting to see if it recovers.

John Barrett



Sent from my iPad


On Jun 23, 2013, at 4:41 AM, WAYNE F MARSHALL <paradoxmaybe@me.com> wrote:

>
> I love my Odyssey batteries installed in my Legacy. Going strong for 5 years now. Even if I don't fly for a month because of weather, maintenance or travel, when I return and crank it is like they are brand new!
> Wayne Marshall
> N54KM
>
>
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