r0ckst4r

So here is the voltmeter result. Sure enough, it gets about 24V at the socket. (engine off)

I just happened to have a scanned copy of my POH and I'll be damned, it's 28V at the cigar lighter. They even specifically warn you. I'm still going to test this out when I get to the hangar.

I was actually thinking about that myself as well as there are a few things on the plane the for some reason do convert the voltage to 12v. I'll give it a test when I head to the hangar again and report unless someone chimes in first with an answer.

I was looking at a USB charger for the "cigarette lighter" socket in the M20R. I know its a 28v system and commonly available usb adapters say they are 24v compatible. I'm just wondering the importance of those extra 4 volts. Am I over thinking this or am I setting myself up for an electrical fire?

Just to post the resolution of this for future searches I sent the unit out to @Jake@BevanAviation and as anticipated there was significant capacitor leak that damaged the board. The unit was able to be repaired and is now back in action functioning normally. Thanks again for all the help.

Thank you. I'm assuming the plane can still be hand flown with the unit out and the circuit breaker pulled. Does this hose need to be capped or plugged?

Does it just pull out with an Allen wrench like the other radios? Any special procedure?

PM sent. You will be getting that unit as soon as I can send it.

I would be headed there ASAP but Witchita is pretty far from me in coastal NC. Going to have to find someplace closer. That sounds like a absolute possibility since it seems to perform normally cold but fails after time.

Attitude indicator was the first suspect before the weird flickering lights. I can't imagine how a bad attitude indicator input to the autopilot would cause it to spaz out like that. I am fairly certain it is option one or option three.

1995 Mooney M20R I have a KFC-150 autopilot that is giving me issues. I'm 99% it's the unit itself but I want to see what you guys have done in the past for this. On a cross county flight I noticed the plane starting to steadily climb with altitude hold on. No matter what I did the plane would start to nose up a little when autopilot was engaged. This was an hour or two into an uneventful flight. On the way back it worked no problem. Next flight different issues. About 20-30 min in the autopilot would just disconnect and shut off. If I tried to hit the "test" button it would just blink and beep constantly until I filled the fuse. The next flight everything works normal again until about 10-20min in then it disconnects. Now things are all screwy. It go black without when the test button light like it should at startup. Then lights will flicker and beeps then blank again or maybe test lights up again. It might go off again or if I hit it nothing happens or it beeps and goes off. Seems like the computer is cooked. The Attitude indicator is spot on. No delays on power up and not slow at all during maneuvers. Trim switch works great, not sticking or anything like that and works perfectly. My question I suppose it have you guys replaced this in the past? Are there any "easy" upgrades for this or can it just be repaired/replaced? I don't know if I want to shell out 30 grand for a garmin autopilot and avionics. I like my setup and it works for me, really just want it fixed.

I think you guys are on to something. I went to the hangar today to do radio checks and everything works 100% now, almost making it worse and harder to pin down now that it is intermittant . Here are more details. 1995 Mooney M20R Ovation King KMA-24 Audio panel NAT AA80 Intervox Is it straightforward to pull the KMA-24 out to clean contacts? Do you know where the common grounds for these systems would be? Are there contacts under the cowl I should be looking at?

Was flying today when the COMs all of a sudden basically lost all volume. I could transmit fine and people could hear me but I could barely hear anything. I can still hear low volume staticky transmissions and even inter-cockpit communication was staticky and not clear. If I had to guess it seems like an amplifier in the radio receiver went bad. I transmit fine and I still receive but it's barely audible. I tried more than one headset. I tried the right and left seat headset jacks. I tried messing with the volume and squelch and everything I could think of to no avail. Anyone have this happen before? Anything else i can check? Is this something an A&P can look at or will it need an avionics shop?

I wonder why they specify ring terminals and not alligator clips? Are alligator clips somehow immune to this problem and can used to charge in a confined space without hydrogen gas buildup?

I recently ditched my last Gill battery and now have two 24V Concorde batteries. I bought a Y adapter to connect both batteries to my Battery Minder but I was thinking of a trying a semi-permanent option to replace constantly putting the alligator clips on and off. Is it possible to leave ring connectors on both batteries connected to the Y adapter (not connected to the battery minder) at all times even during flight? Or is it not safe to have that connection there? I ask because if I leave those connections there I can see if a plug can be fabricated to connect to the Y adapter which would be easily accessible to plug and unplug the minder without removing the battery panel everytime. Just a thought. If not possible I'll just have to suffer through removing the panel everytime.