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Marvin mentions a great capability below in having an LED light up if an ATC
fuse trips.
Here's a link to another Waytek page that has these LEDs built in to the
fuse:
http://order.waytekwire.com/IMAGES/M37/catalog/219_072.PDF
-----Original Message-----
From: Rotary motors in aircraft [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net]On
Behalf Of Marvin Kaye
Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2007 8:18 AM
To: Rotary motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] visit with BIll Bradburry
I had the good fortune to visit Bill Bradburry and his project yesterday.
It
was a little nippy, but we survived the cold and Bill treated Don Gordon
(another Lancair 320 flier) and myself to a thorough inspection of his
Renesis
installation, one that was quite impressive. Compared to my Lancair 360,
the
space behind Bill's engine between the alternator and the firewall is
absolutely cavernous. He put the space to excellent use with his dual-pass
radiator installation, which had a nicely crafted fiberglass plenum and
input
duct. Everything on Bill's engine is readily accessible and his exhaust
system is really beefy and well built. We visited most of the systems,
discussed those things that he'd have done a little differently if he knew
then what he knows now, but in general it looked like his initial approaches
with just about everything were right on target.
We dealt with a couple little electrical problems he'd discovered, nothing
earth shaking, just simple wiring issues. It was rewarding to be able to
zero
in on the problems in short order and lay them to rest. We discussed others
of the systems and one thing came to mind, which we discussed a bit, I
thought
I'd share it here. Bill's ignition system, like most, includes a separate
circuit for the igniters controlled by a single fuse. Referring back to
experience from the Eagle 540 installation which has 8 LS1 coils, one per
spark plug, I observed that our coils were each treated to their own
circuit,
all fed by a free-standing fuse panel with 8 7.5-amp fuses, one per coil.
This means if any one coil were to fail and cause its fuse to blow we would
still have 7 coils in full operation allowing the engine to keep running
long
enough to land and solve the problem with the failed coil. Putting each
ignitor on its own 7.5 or 10 amp circuit would offer that same level of
redundancy, and would keep the remaining 3 plugs firing even if one coil
were
to fail and take out its associated fuse. Something you may want to
consider
for your rotary installation.
Speaking of fuses vs breakers... there have been great arguments in both
directions here and I'm not going to join in... this is a personal decision
we
each have to make and I know we will do so based on what we've learned and
are
comfortable with. As far as fuses go, though, there is a little bit of
circuitry that can be added to each fuse that will allow one to determine
which fuse has blown, should one do so, from the briefest of glances at the
fuse panel. It includes a single LED mounted alongside each fuse, the way
of
its installation causing the LED to illuminate when the fuse blows. I have
a
drawing of the circuit, it's very simple, requiring nothing more than an LED
and a single current-limiting resistor, attached to each fuse circuit. I'll
dig it out and send it along when I locate it. It actually came from a
Sport
Aviation article and may very well be online someplace already.
Well, that's about it for now. I just wanted to thank Bill publicly for his
hospitality and remind everyone to visit their fellow builders whenever they
can. It's always educational, great fun, and a way to put a faces to those
names you've been seeing on all these emails for so long. Enjoy!
<Marv>
--
Homepage: http://www.flyrotary.com/
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