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On Wed, 2005-01-19 at 14:01, Russell Duffy wrote:
The load tester will give a general idea of the health of the battery
perhaps, but then you'd have to do some other tests to find out how
long your engine can run on a healthy battery. Then you have to try
to adjust that time for a "semi, and "not so" healthy battery. What
you end up with is an estimate. Wouldn't it be better to be able to
do the test directly, and know how long it will really last? I sure
wish it would be hours as you suggest, but I'm figuring I'd better be
on the ground somewhere in about 20 minutes.
Nawh! The PC680 is a 16AH battery. It'll supply 16A for an hour, or 1A
for 16 hours. If you want to know how long the engine will keep running
when the electron pusher dies, disconnect the electron pusher and put
and ammeter inline with the battery. Then just do a runup to flight
RPMs.
Even if you did the system test today, you'd still have to try to adjust
the number in 3 months, because the battery will decay. All the load
tester does is check to see if the battery is within manufacturers spec.
Quick and easy, and at only $13.99, cheap.
If I get the low voltage light, the procedure would be to pull back on
the RPM so the EWP, fuel pump, coils and injectors will have an easier
time of it. I could probably drive the current draw much lower than 20A,
but using that number would give you 45 mins on a 'fresh' PC680 to find
a spot. 20 minutes is a good conservative number, since you can never be
certain that the battery is still healthy since the last test 8*)
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