First pirep, they are good I run two with Bills EI commander. starts way hot or cold, one or two blades.
Bill does the spark plug comment carry for Iridiums?
Steve, every plug manufacture is different. Since you have our EIC installed, keep an eye on the plug graphs. Once they consistently stay low, then replace your plugs.
We sent a set of eight BR8ES plugs with 130 hours on them of a PhD ME gear head college professor who performed a number of tests on them. He found the metal parts looked new but the insulation was starting to fail. Thus lower than new graph displays on the EIC. I assume, but do not know, that Iridium plugs may use the same insulating material.
If you are going to replace the plugs every year, then I simply recommend using the cheaper BR8ES plugs.
Failure modes are different from a mag
...
I'm a great fan of EI ignitions but like any lessons learned if we were in the same situation I would try each mag/ignition in turn. If our experience helps anybody else then it was worth hi-lighting our experience.
Rob
Yes, the failure modes are different than traditional Mag, but hopefully fewer and further between. Only additional experience will tell for sure.
I expect Bill R to clarify that lost timing predates V40. If not, we should all be aware it can still happen
Is there a newer rev than V.40 ? How are we supposed to know and how is different ?
Larry,
V41 is the new version. "V41: 9/19/17 Current production (and service to units with board versions 17 and 18) will get firmware V41. V41 does not alter operating instructions in any way. It simply smooths internal transition between internal and external power states."
Your P-mags should have a sticker on the outside, listing the current firmware version. If not, you can read the firmware version with either our EIC or the Emag EICAD program. There is a third option and that is to call Emag with your serial numbers.
I have not discussed this version either Brad or Tom, so I don't know if there is something else going on with it. However, I'm 100% confident it is a reliability improvement.
For those new to the Emag line of products. Early on there were both E and P-mag's. They were the same except the E-mag did not have an internal generator and required ship's power to fire the plugs.
Early failure modes were caused by both hardware and software issues. While there are still the occasional hardware failures, they are few and far between and of different nature than the early series P-mags. Also, The E-mag ignition is no longer in production.
When the 114 P-mag (113 P-mags can be upgraded with a board change) Emag added cooling fins to the neck of the ignition and the P-mags now switch to internal power as soon as the internal generator can support the ignition. This transition starts at about 800 RPM.
Additional software changes continued to improve the reliability. Version 40 solved two major issues; the first was that with V40, the ignitions fire the plugs at 4 degrees after TDC when in starting mode (below 200 RPM) and the second is that the software changed when the TDC mark can be set. This eliminated the possibility of a lost timing mark in aircraft equipped with independent grounding switches for their P-mags. These upgrades continue in Version 41, mentioned above.
Prior to version 40, it was not uncommon for people with lightweight props to "clock" their P-mag ignitions so they did not fire at or slightly before TDC, causing kickbacks, and breaking starters. With V40 or higher, it is recommended to set the timing to TDC. <-- Corrected the last sentence.