Voltage Regulators with Higher Output (EarthX Battery)

[Bryan Cotton]

Aircraft electrical connections are no place for auto zone, especially the hi current alternator leads. Use faston stud type terminals and bolt together or use a stud type terminal strip. If bolting together cover with shrink tubing but do not shrink to allow for cooling of the joint.

Agreed. This is temporary to see if the John Deere regulator is working. I'm going to switch to a 10ga Deans connector for the stator. I hate spade terminals.

[bvolcko38]

I wouldn't use connectors fro Autozone. I got my spade connectors from B&C...AMP spade connectors and a good ratcheting crimper

[daleandee]

Saw a report here many years ago of someone who had a VR burn through the thin SS firewall, and with the fuel tank right behind that, I mounted mine on a slightly heavier piece of SS, hat shaped for about 1/2" clearance. It is big enough to hold a small relay and a filter capacitor. Best cooling of the VR will be with its fins oriented vertically.

David A.

I remember seeing a similar photo (maybe the one you're referring to) of a Jabiru 3300 regulator that caught fire and seriously burned the regulator and the firewall. This is the reason I use a dynamo relay with an OV protection circuit. The relay should be wired into one of the AC lines from the generator and not the 12 volt line to the battery. The reason being that if the relay is in the output line of the regulator when an overvoltage event occurs then you have no way to to shut off the power to the regulator itself. Putting the relay in one of the AC lines fixes this problem.

I agree with others about using high quality connectors and also with those saying to use a quality ratcheting crimper. I'm still using spade connectors but have seriously considered changing them over to a terminal stud strip.

Dale
3.0 Corvair/Tailwheel

[Bryan Cotton]

Follow up: We flew for 0.9 hours, with pretty much everything on except the secondary. We exceeded 14V pretty quickly, like a minute or two. By 5 or 6 minutes we had stabilized around 14.5-14.6V. So, it seems good.

I made this cooling tin:

side view VR cooling tin.png (578.87 KiB) Viewed 3229 times

inside view VR cooling tin.png (546.74 KiB) Viewed 3229 times

Here it is on the regulator. Air from the blast tube goes in the middle, then it has to flow out left and right past the fins to escape.

cooling tin on VR.png (533.33 KiB) Viewed 3229 times

I used a silicon 1/2" hose. I used a 1/2" aluminum tube flared at one end for both hose ends.

hose routing.png (779.06 KiB) Viewed 3229 times

So stealing a little air from the engine plenum to cool the VR.

[Skippydiesel]

Hi Brian,

My Son made me a Voltage Regulator cooling shroud, much like yours, except he used CAD & printed it out on a 3D printer - very nice.
My Regulator is on the cockpit side of the firewall & gets its cooling air from a T piece (also printed) in one of the cabin air inlets.
I have not flown with this yet but hope to finalise all mods and be flying within a week - 10 days
I would send photos but unfortunately have tried in the past, without success.