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Voltage regulator relocated to inside cockpit

N

NinerBikes

Well Known Member
At what point in RV-12 builds and or serial numbers did Van's relocate the Voltage regulator to inside the passenger side of the cockpit?

I know 120836 is mounted inside the cockpit.

Yes, the Ducati voltage regulator still pooped out at around 215 hours, even in the newer location, away from the engine heat.
 
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I am possibly thinking of redundancy by installing one of these in parallel with the stock Ducati VR from a Ducati Dharma model motorcycle.

Running 2 of these, in parallel, would halve the current draw on each Voltage regulator, thereby extending the life of both Voltage regulators. I kind of feel if you run the battery down a bit, and the alternator shows a charging rate of 9 to 10 amps, that that level of current really overstresses the circuitry of the stock Voltage Regulator, causing an early death. Doubling the number or VR's in parallel, would halve the current draw from each VR.

Any EE's out there and their thought process on is this a good idea or flawed, and why?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Regulator-...nd=Areyourshop&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851
 
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Connecting voltage regulators in parallel is not a good idea. One of the regulators
will conduct most of the current due to small differences in regulator set points.
When mounting a rectifier/regulator, be sure to use heat conductive paste.
 
MMiller said:
The builder number is not particularly useful in identifying the age of the various sub-kits. It only tells you the age of the first kit ordered, typically the Empennage/Talecone Kit.

Revised plan pages for section 46 indicate the engineering for relocating the Ducati regulator happed in July of 2014.

Van’s finally resolved the issue in April 2018 with an alternate regulator.




How did you come to the conclusion the failure was heat related?
Click to expand...

I did not come to that conclusion, I just know that there's a tendency, through observation, to see that making 200 hrs on the VR when it starts to fail, occurs pretty regularly. Not always, but often enough. Does not seem to matter if mounted behind radiator or inside cockpit of plane. Some of them fail, whether heat related or not, they fail. Ask Van's why they relocated it in the cockpit in later versions, and what their logic was in doing so? Had a EE that does failure analysis un pot his failed Ducati, and his conclusion was shoddy soldering work, poor design, and cheap components. He's since installed a Silent Hektik and has close to 400 hours on his, no problems. He is also based at KWHP
 
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NinerBikes said:
I did not come to that conclusion, I just know that there's a tendency, through observation, to see that making 200 hrs on the VR when it starts to fail, occurs pretty regularly. Not always, but often enough.
Click to expand...

Not totally true. I have John Deere tractor VR mounted on shelf under cowl in original spot with nice aluminum heat-sink base seated with thermal paste. Almost 400 hours since the Ducati took a dump...
 
Piper J3 said:
Not totally true. I have John Deere tractor VR mounted on shelf under cowl in original spot with nice aluminum heat-sink base seated with thermal paste. Almost 400 hours since the Ducati took a dump...
Click to expand...
The original Ducati VR from Van's.
 
See Notification 16-11-03, for relocation to inside the cockpit from the firewall shelf. This is now out of date.

The VR has since been relocated back to the engine side of the firewall, upper port side. New location, new external cooling air, new model of regulator, new electrical connection, and new dedicated ground wire connected to the negative battery terminal.

My build number precedes these changes, but since I am a slow builder the aircraft will have the most recent change.

-Dave
 
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I know I will anger the thunder gods and end up with a VR failure to say this, but my first VR lasted almost 500 hours and the second one has almost that much time on it now in spite of Phoenix summers. I put temperature witness tape on my VR and ignition modules, and 170F seems to be the max temp seen. Kinda scary!
 
Thermal tape showing John Deere VR saw at least 175F. Could have been over 175F but not close enough to 200F to mark the tape. No problems.

I also ?taped? the ignition module and it runs considerably cooler?



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I had 185 hours on my Ducti regulator, it failed, I found the blade connectors loose and the blades were burned,when I replaced the VR I relocated it to cockpit and pinched the female connectors for a tighter fit, so far I'm over 100 hours on it, so far so good. I carry a spare just in case. Hopefully I'll go further before needing to replace it. I scanned it with a laser thermometer during my summer flts. It would be around 125 F after shut down, well below the max of 175 F....time will tell, I recommend checking to make sure blade connectors are tight.
 
Voltage Regulator

I installed a SH VR in the engine area. I moved it to the left of its original location so it would not be in the slipstream of the radiator. I have a blast tube on it that gets the air from the air duct that supplies air for the radiator. The temperature for the last several oil changes has been about 135 F. Here is a picture showing the thermal strip.

oqw.jpg
 
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Jim,

I noticed the green label on your ignition module. Isn?t that the older version without soft start? I thought the new ones have yellow labels, or have have I got that backwards?

Rich
 
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