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Monkworkz MZ-30L Review

bjdecker

Well Known Member
Ambassador
Good morning,

We're under the weather here in Central TX so I thought I should share my recent experience installing and flying with the Monkworkz MZ-30L.

First off, I have an electrically dependent airplane (RV-7, Dual Plasma III Ignitions) and I never cared for the "Wait-for-things-to-happen, throw-switches-and-hope." method for ensuring continuation of flight in the case of an alternator failure. Then there was the issue of having a primary and/or secondary battery of questionable charge. Also, while I love the weight savings and power output linearity of the Earthx ETX battery, I am leery of the BMS and its failure modes. This is a whole other rabbit-hole that I'd be happy to go down, but only over a beer at Osh-Kosh, or PJ. :)

On to the MZ-30L; Installation of the generator was simple, just remove the vacuum pad cover, install the o-ring and the generator, and tighten the four nuts and voila! I mounted the regulator/controller on the firewall in a convenient spot, connected the 3 phase generator output, the thermistor wire, the "+" and "Gnd" wires, along with an enable switch. Also connected the status and shunt +/- wiring to my Garmin G3X Touch EFIS (GEA 24), so I can see the status and health of the system.

I have the generator configured as a "backup" instead of "primary"; it will auto-enable when the buss volts drop to 14.2Vdc.

Pre-flight is pretty simple: Flip the [Stby Gen] switch to "Enable", then the usual Master - Alt Field - Engage Starter - Lights - Avionics switch sequence.

Ground test involves turning off the primary alternator (Alt Field) and watch the buss volts drop to 14.2Vdc, observe the "Standby Generator" message on the CAS, and note the Shunt 2 AMPs increase from 0 to ~16 or so (your value may be more or less) while the buss volts stabilize at 14.2Vdc. Enable the Alt field again on the primary alternator, and the Standby Generator message goes away and Shunt 2 AMPs drops to 0.

Operation in flight is almost a non-event; if the primary alternator decides to go T.U., the MZ-30L picks up the load and the flight continues. Turn off the primary Alt Field to eliminate the voltage running to the dead alternator. At 14.2Vdc there's still plenty of voltage to keep the battery charged up and running the aircraft systems.

I encountered a couple of issues that I attribute to my klutziness (broken wire, broken LED) that necessitated a replacement regulator/controller. Bill was responsive, gracious, thorough and a pleasure to work with.

The only "gripe" I have is the Molex "pico lock" (1.5mm pitch) connectors and 24ga wire for the thermistor and configuration strapping -- just be careful here...

All told, great product. 5-Stars.

Cheers!

B
 

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Great write up. Thanks for sharing your experience. I’m considering doing this for the same reasons you expressed. I have the SDS CPI2 and would like to have a back up to my back up battery.




Good morning,

We're under the weather here in Central TX so I thought I should share my recent experience installing and flying with the Monkworkz MZ-30L.

First off, I have an electrically dependent airplane (RV-7, Dual Plasma III Ignitions) and I never cared for the "Wait-for-things-to-happen, throw-switches-and-hope." method for ensuring continuation of flight in the case of an alternator failure. Then there was the issue of having a primary and/or secondary battery of questionable charge. Also, while I love the weight savings and power output linearity of the Earthx ETX battery, I am leery of the BMS and its failure modes. This is a whole other rabbit-hole that I'd be happy to go down, but only over a beer at Osh-Kosh, or PJ. :)

On to the MZ-30L; Installation of the generator was simple, just remove the vacuum pad cover, install the o-ring and the generator, and tighten the four nuts and voila! I mounted the regulator/controller on the firewall in a convenient spot, connected the 3 phase generator output, the thermistor wire, the "+" and "Gnd" wires, along with an enable switch. Also connected the status and shunt +/- wiring to my Garmin G3X Touch EFIS (GEA 24), so I can see the status and health of the system.

I have the generator configured as a "backup" instead of "primary"; it will auto-enable when the buss volts drop to 14.2Vdc.

Pre-flight is pretty simple: Flip the [Stby Gen] switch to "Enable", then the usual Master - Alt Field - Engage Starter - Lights - Avionics switch sequence.

Ground test involves turning off the primary alternator (Alt Field) and watch the buss volts drop to 14.2Vdc, observe the "Standby Generator" message on the CAS, and note the Shunt 2 AMPs increase from 0 to ~16 or so (your value may be more or less) while the buss volts stabilize at 14.2Vdc. Enable the Alt field again on the primary alternator, and the Standby Generator message goes away and Shunt 2 AMPs drops to 0.

Operation in flight is almost a non-event; if the primary alternator decides to go T.U., the MZ-30L picks up the load and the flight continues. Turn off the primary Alt Field to eliminate the voltage running to the dead alternator. At 14.2Vdc there's still plenty of voltage to keep the battery charged up and running the aircraft systems.

I encountered a couple of issues that I attribute to my klutziness (broken wire, broken LED) that necessitated a replacement regulator/controller. Bill was responsive, gracious, thorough and a pleasure to work with.

The only "gripe" I have is the Molex "pico lock" (1.5mm pitch) connectors and 24ga wire for the thermistor and configuration strapping -- just be careful here...

All told, great product. 5-Stars.

Cheers!

B
 
This review is so helpful. Thank you! It really validates my decision to purchase a Monkworkz MZ-30L and I look forward to using it as a standby generator.

So far, my only interactions with Monkworkz has been with Bill Judge and those have been excellent. He is very approachable and responsive.
 
Good morning,

All told, great product. 5-Stars. Ditto this!

Cheers!

B
All pretty much the same but had all my G3X discrete used so I used Bill's suggestion for a status LED indicator. The indicator comes on when the MZ30 is active as backup, and flashes to notify it is about to shut down. Otherwise, it does nothing. I belatedly added this and do not have an indicator LED test button. Maybe later

Nice write-up!
 
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