I recently purchased an RV-8 equipped with an MGL Xtreme EMS. A Red Cube fuel flow transducer was added shortly before I bought the aircraft, and since then I’ve been experiencing several EMS issues. In flight, the display will frequently show a large “X” overlay, the fuel tank indications are erratic, and both fuel and oil pressure remain at zero for roughly 30 seconds before suddenly jumping to around 60 psi.
These issues were not present prior to the installation of the Red Cube, so I inspected the wiring and now have a few questions mainly because I suspect a grounding/ground loop problem.
Currently, the RDAC is grounded to the firewall ground bus, and that bus has a relatively thin ground wire running to the Lycoming engine. There is also a thin black wire connected to the Oil Temperature housing on the RDAC that is grounded to the same point on the engine where the ground bus is attached. Could this be the source of the problem? My thought is that the oil temp sensor ground should be routed to the ground bus, and that the firewall ground bus itself should have a much larger (e.g., 10 AWG) dedicated ground strap to the engine.
Do you think this grounding arrangement could be causing interference or data instability in the MGL EMS, resulting in the symptoms I’m seeing since the Red Cube was added? The oil temperature housing was previously grounded to the engine before the Red Cube installation.
Thank you
These issues were not present prior to the installation of the Red Cube, so I inspected the wiring and now have a few questions mainly because I suspect a grounding/ground loop problem.
Currently, the RDAC is grounded to the firewall ground bus, and that bus has a relatively thin ground wire running to the Lycoming engine. There is also a thin black wire connected to the Oil Temperature housing on the RDAC that is grounded to the same point on the engine where the ground bus is attached. Could this be the source of the problem? My thought is that the oil temp sensor ground should be routed to the ground bus, and that the firewall ground bus itself should have a much larger (e.g., 10 AWG) dedicated ground strap to the engine.
Do you think this grounding arrangement could be causing interference or data instability in the MGL EMS, resulting in the symptoms I’m seeing since the Red Cube was added? The oil temperature housing was previously grounded to the engine before the Red Cube installation.
Thank you
