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Wind driven electrics

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bob turner

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I am not wildly experienced with these things. The two Cubs I fly with the Ward Aero setup - both with Odyssey PC-680 batteries - need external charging after every single flight. My battery only Cubs need charging once a month or less, flying daily.

With the new J-4, I discovered something: The Odyssey will not recharge unless it is hit with about 40% of its capacity for at least the first hour. The previous owner was hooking it to a Ctek 0.8 amp trickle deal after every flight, and it was maintaining the Odyssey at about 11.8 volts - enough to run the radio and master solenoid for an hour, but not enough to start the engine. Half capacity is 12.18 volts.

The Odyssey manual makes a point of stating that some motorcycle alternators will not recharge the battery - presumably for the same 40% reason.

I hit it yesterday with six amps for 2 1/2 hours (watching input volts carefully). After charge it was sitting at 13.1 Volts. I need to check it today, but 12.8 or better is full charge, so today I can probably use the starter.

Moral of the story - modern batteries are different. The Ward Aero setup probably doesn't work with a recombinant technology battery. And chargers are critical - never hit them with over 15 Volts.

Next step is to bypass the master solenoid, and hope that with the field off that Ward generator will not destroy itself at 80 mph. What a lousy setup.
 

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