grubbat
Well Known Member
My io360 has a skytec starter and the cold morning air (40degf) was a bit too much for the EarthX. Normally it spins the starter almost fast enough to taxi. However on this morning, when starting the engine, at the compression stroke the EarthX overload prevention relay kicked in and wham, no power. Everything went dead. No juice for the avionics, no juice for the pmags, nothing. Propping it off was not an option due to the pmags not having any power. What to do? Push rv back into the cold hangar, find an extension cord and the battery charger, put a charger on the EarthX till the internal BMS overload protect relay re-engauges, then unhook everything, push back out of the hangar, and try to crank. Second time it cranks right up. The rest of the day everything was normal. All fast cranks. One week later, it repeats itself. So, either my starter is getting older and pulling more amps on start, loose connection somewhere, or EarthX is wearing out. While I like the EarthX cranking power and light weight, the thought of it tripping its internal relay somewhere other than home or worse, in mid air, is not pleasant.
Maybe I need to look at a possible second “standard” battery (pc680) setup that I use as a backup. Or maybe use the pc680 as primary and use the EarthX as the backup. Either way, this problem ain’t gonna fix itself. It’s just gonna get worse when cold weather comes. I guess a third option is heat the motor and oil up first. However, that uncontrollable EarthX internal BMS relay is starting to work on my nerves.
Maybe I need to look at a possible second “standard” battery (pc680) setup that I use as a backup. Or maybe use the pc680 as primary and use the EarthX as the backup. Either way, this problem ain’t gonna fix itself. It’s just gonna get worse when cold weather comes. I guess a third option is heat the motor and oil up first. However, that uncontrollable EarthX internal BMS relay is starting to work on my nerves.