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Bench Power wiring

BH1166

Well Known Member
Bench Power Supply wiring

Friend RV’r loaned me his power supply, now to hook it up.

My plan is to input + on input side if master, - on the battery’s negative post. MY WEAKEST LINK skill is Electric/Electronic. Is this ok/correct ? I have a Piper type plug installed too. Is there a problem using it to power up the panel via the 13.8 max output power supply? Time to upgrade my EFIS, and I know I’ll struggle with the wiring, hence needing more than ship’s battery.
 

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Butch,

I suggest that just running a #12 “Shore Power” wire to whatever you are using to feed your avionics is just fine. No need to mess with the fat wires. Add a 20 amp breaker in line from the power supply.

You could use the Piper jump start plug.

And yes, a standard regulated power supply is exactly what you want. Never run the panel with a battery charger connected.

I also suggest that during upgrade process you address what I see as not great ways to mount, connect and run wires to your master and starter solenoids. The first step would be to move the starter solenoid to the engine side of the firewall.

Carl
 
Those floor mounted rudder pedals are prone to failure (see SB), I assume that is why it's circled?
 
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You could use the Piper jump start plug.

I also suggest that during upgrade process you address what I see as not great ways to mount, connect and run wires to your master and starter solenoids. The first step would be to move the starter solenoid to the engine side of the firewall.

Carl

Thanks Carl. To be clear, to use the Piper receptacle, I just use the “plug” in the same manner as i would if jumping/charging, BUT with the power supply supplying power? Im guessing this will put a charge on the battery whilst hooked up this way? Thats ok ?

Carl, Tony Bingelis built my RV6A in 1992, I agree it would be nice to have BOTH Master as well as battery to engine side. Guess not the way, way back then.

Walt, I hear what you’re saying. Working down there at nearly 70 no fun.
 
Any advice you get could be good or bad depending on the exact wiring of your aircraft, so take it with a grain of salt.

One simple and safe solution is to run on battery for a while, then power everything off and re-charge the battery. Don't drain the battery too much. Most of the time the things you are testing don't require that much power.

Some devices don't like to be on with some battery chargers, which is why if you are electrically challenged as you say, the safe way is to ensure that everything is off when charging the battery.

An old fashioned battery charger with an old fashioned lead-acid battery will work fine with 99% of all electronics on. If you have "smart" charger, it might make some electronics unhappy.
 
Piper Plug

I would check where/what the piper style plug actually runs. On the real Piper, that plug would not run the bus (ie it wasn't for shore power), it was only for providing jump starting power. The builder might have done the same on this airplane.

The prohibition on using a battery charger for running power is that many modern battery chargers or trickle chargers actually charge with a "pulse" cycle to break loose battery memory (all technical terms, I swear). This pulse can damage sensitive electronics. There are battery chargers however that don't do this, and could be used with your avionics, but beware. An old style battery charger is probably safe, and you can hum the tune along with it :D
 
I have an Odyssey charger/maintainer that I keep plugged in directly to the battery 24/7 through a molex pigtail that I access through my oil dipstick door. When I want to do avionics stuff, I un-plug it and plug in a 13.8 v regulated power supply to avoid the funky output that chargers with “de-sulfation mode” will usually output through part of their cycle. I guess I don’t want to run that stuff through my avionics.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NPT4TK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1

.
 

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In my OP, the circle under left rudder pedal is my Piper plug, inside view with Big white wire that attaches to master along with positive wire from battery. This set up will charge my battery. I’ve yet to try/need a jump . This is the plug, and it attaches to my older Odyssey charger . So if I used this plug with quality power supply, should I be OK ?
 

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Butch - the short answer is yes. I personally hate these things - and anything else associated with “jumping” a dead battery.

Carl
 
i use a bench power which i run thru the ''cigarette plug''. after looking at power supplies long and hard i figured that the only thing that could come from an adjustable voltage source is that i would fry something. i went with a fixed voltage.
 
Thanks Carl. I have little desire to jump a dead battery. 50a 13.8v max Tekpower Power supply.
 

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Thanks ……. Blade style fuse
 

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Depending on the cost of avionics you have in the panel, a cheap made in China power supply could end up being very expensive.
Unless you have a really good power supply, I suggest folks just run off the battery then charge it when you're done, no risk.
 
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I’ve used a remote power supply to power my panel when checking EFIS programming, EFIS practice and anytime I want to power things up for any purpose. This remote power supply is a 40 amp unit that I purchased through Amazon for about $45 and seems to provide a very stable power source.

I connect it to the back of a 70 amp main CB on the back of the panel. The positive jumper connects to the CB. The negative jumper to a grounding terminal block. Frankly, it’s easy to use and has provided stable power to the panel for several years. This setup doesn’t appear to feed any power back to the battery so I don’t worry about over charging the battery.
 
Just to cover all the possibilities, it's likely ok to use the battery charger as a power supply if you are running a Lithium based battery (LifePo4 falling into this category). Optimate advertises this on almost every one of their lithium chargers because they don't have a desulfate/pulse mode. Your specific charger may vary, but LifePo4 and most Li based batteries are CCCV charging with no desulfate mode to worry about. I wired up a separate plug for a benchtop mounted 20 amp power supply as well, but I have no concerns keeping the charger connected while running the panel.
 
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One simple and safe solution is to run on battery for a while, then power everything off and re-charge the battery. Don't drain the battery too much. Most of the time the things you are testing don't require that much power.

Best solution.

Several avionics manufacturers recommend using a battery for bench testing of installed avionics, through appropriate circuit protection.
 
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Power supply

The Dynon Skyview EFIS backup battery can only be charged via the display, which requires 5 amps and up to 4 hours to fully charge, while voltage must be held above 12.25 volts. That's going to require a battery with good capacity or a bench power supply. Max voltage to Dynon is 30 volts, so a 13.8 volt bench power supply that has been checked with a meter seems safe enough to me and is probably more stable than some aircraft charging systems.
 
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