ragedracer1977 Posted October 10, 2018 Report Share Posted October 10, 2018 Do you have a Stratus? Or anything USB powered in your aircraft? Do yourself a favor and make sure it's somewhere you can always reach it. I very nearly had an inflight fire in the cockpit this weekend. Over the Grand Canyon, no less. The USB cable I use to charge my Stratus decided to go up in smoke. Details are in the Cedar City thread. I don't know why, I don't know how. The cable was not abused, it's only ever been plugged into the Stratus. I'm believe I acquired the cable at a local convenience store, but I'm not sure where exactly it came from. I had thoughts in the past of mounting my Stratus on the hat shelf. Boy am I glad I didn't. I mounted it on top of the nose wheel well. If it had been back there, I'm not sure I would have smelled the smoke until it was too late. And even if I had, would there be anyway I could climb back there in flight and fix it.... Thankfully the Stratus seems to be OK. I've had it on the charger (out of the plane!!) for several hours. It's charging fine and no sign of ANY heat in the cable. I believe the issue was just a cheap, unregulated, Chinese cable. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carusoam Posted October 10, 2018 Report Share Posted October 10, 2018 Great pics, and details... Raged! Thanks for sharing... Best regards, -a- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaylw314 Posted October 10, 2018 Report Share Posted October 10, 2018 What's the max current on the Stratus? I know the Stratux can use almost 2A when you have dual receivers. Most USB cables are only rated at 1.5A, unless you get one of the cables rated for "fast charging" or some such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1964-M20E Posted October 10, 2018 Report Share Posted October 10, 2018 Glad things didn't go further south on you. When using Status and Stratux powered by a USB cable you need to make sure the USB cable is a heavy duty type with larger wires than a typical USB cable. Most of the cigarette lighter to USB converters are less than 2A. YOU usually need one that is rated for 2A or more to power the Stratus or Stratux raspberry pi processor. I do prefer a straight 12DC input to mobile devices like this instead of USB power connections. USB ports were designed to provide limited power to the device and circuits have been pushing those limits ever since. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steingar Posted October 10, 2018 Report Share Posted October 10, 2018 I use a USB cable to charge my iPad in flight. I will certainly keep a close eye on it. Thanks for the warning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yetti Posted October 10, 2018 Report Share Posted October 10, 2018 Why did a breaker or fuse not blow? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIm20c Posted October 10, 2018 Report Share Posted October 10, 2018 10 minutes ago, Yetti said: Why did a breaker or fuse not blow? I’m not sure how many usb chargers have an internal fuse. @ragedracer1977 I would drain the battery on the stratus, plug it into the charger, and power the unit up. You need to test it at max current draw vs multiple hours at a trickle charge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1964-M20E Posted October 10, 2018 Report Share Posted October 10, 2018 8 minutes ago, Yetti said: Why did a breaker or fuse not blow? I suspect that we are just heating the wires here not shorting them out. Little itty bitty wires with a couple of amps in them will create a lot of heat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragedracer1977 Posted October 10, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2018 2 hours ago, MIm20c said: I’m not sure how many usb chargers have an internal fuse. @ragedracer1977 I would drain the battery on the stratus, plug it into the charger, and power the unit up. You need to test it at max current draw vs multiple hours at a trickle charge. I did. I even put it out in the sun so the cooling fan would run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaylw314 Posted October 10, 2018 Report Share Posted October 10, 2018 3 hours ago, steingar said: I use a USB cable to charge my iPad in flight. I will certainly keep a close eye on it. Thanks for the warning. If you make sure your iPad is >90% charged before getting in the plane, you should be fine since the current draw will be much lower. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaylw314 Posted October 10, 2018 Report Share Posted October 10, 2018 2 hours ago, MIm20c said: I’m not sure how many usb chargers have an internal fuse. Most 12V cigarette plug chargers have an internal fuse. You generally access it by unscrewing the nose section, it's under the spring loaded contact. However, it's usually a 1A fuse, which is not enough to protect the tiny wires in the USB cable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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