#2 Comm CB pops when I transmit

[Stetson20]

I was trying to make a call to the UNICOM freq on my #2 comm, as I was talking to JAX approach on #1. Transmitted and the radio went dead. Didn't have time to troubleshoot, as it was MVFR and several airplanes in the pattern (KHEG). I only figured it out once I landed. Noticed the #2 COMM c/b was popped.

Anybody got any thoughts? This is a fairly recent panel upgrade. 

TIA

Stetson20

[N201MKTurbo]

2A seems kind of small for a com radio. It would be helpful if you showed what you have installed.

[dzeleski]

32 minutes ago, N201MKTurbo said:

2A seems kind of small for a com radio. It would be helpful if you showed what you have installed.

Agreed, both of my COM breakers are 10amp breakers. My NAV breakers are 2amp however.

[7.Mooney.Driver.0]

I was trying to make a call to the UNICOM freq on my #2 comm, as I was talking to JAX approach on #1. Transmitted and the radio went dead. Didn't have time to troubleshoot, as it was MVFR and several airplanes in the pattern (KHEG). I only figured it out once I landed. Noticed the #2 COMM c/b was popped.
Anybody got any thoughts? This is a fairly recent panel upgrade. 
TIA
Stetson20

Like other have said, 2 amps seem very low. What comm radio do you have?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Fly Boomer]

2 hours ago, dzeleski said:

Agreed, both of my COM breakers are 10amp breakers. My NAV breakers are 2amp however.

I think the confusion is caused by your picture.  The pic is a little blurry, but the breaker that appears to be marked "COM 2" appears to show "2" amps.

[EricJ]

I had a similar thing happen after a panel overhaul and the installer had put in the breaker sized for a 24V system instead of my airplane's 12V system.   As a result the breaker was half the size it needed to be.    

[Fly Boomer]

3 hours ago, EricJ said:

I had a similar thing happen after a panel overhaul and the installer had put in the breaker sized for a 24V system instead of my airplane's 12V system.   As a result the breaker was half the size it needed to be.    

FWIW the com breakers in my 28v airplane are each 10 amps.

[Stetson20]

Sorry for the lagged response, I was on a trip.

Here's my newly installed comm panel...

Com 2 is a GNC 255 (not sure if  255A or 255B)

 

[dzeleski]

1 hour ago, Stetson20 said:

Sorry for the lagged response, I was on a trip.

Here's my newly installed comm panel...

Com 2 is a GNC 255 (not sure if  255A or 255B)

 

The GNC 255A requires a 5amp breaker for 28volts and 10amp breaker for 14volts for the COM side.

[Stetson20]

11 hours ago, dzeleski said:

The GNC 255A requires a 5amp breaker for 28volts and 10amp breaker for 14volts for the COM side.

Thanks! The weird thing is that it worked fine in receive mode. It was only recently that I attempted to transmit on comm 2 and that popped the c/b

 

[N201MKTurbo]

21 minutes ago, Stetson20 said:

Thanks! The weird thing is that it worked fine in receive mode. It was only recently that I attempted to transmit on comm 2 and that popped the c/b

 

Not weird at all. Radios take very little current in receive mode. The transmitter is the real power user.

[Stetson20]

On 8/14/2023 at 9:25 AM, N201MKTurbo said:

Not weird at all. Radios take very little current in receive mode. The transmitter is the real power user.

Makes sense. Now I get to find out how difficult/expensive it is to swap out the circuit breaker.

[N201MKTurbo]

2 minutes ago, Stetson20 said:

Makes sense. Now I get to find out how difficult/expensive it is to swap out the circuit breaker.

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/pnpages/7277-5-10.php

$40 plus labor. Considering it is on the end it might be easy. I have found it is often easier to remove the panel nuts from all the breakers then remove the panel, redo the breakers and then reinstall all the breakers in the panel.

[dzeleski]

5 minutes ago, Stetson20 said:

Makes sense. Now I get to find out how difficult/expensive it is to swap out the circuit breaker.

Ideally $0. Contact the shop that did your panel work. They didnt do the job correctly and need to fix this. I would also ask them to check and make sure the rest of them are also correct.

[Fly Boomer]

11 minutes ago, Stetson20 said:

Makes sense. Now I get to find out how difficult/expensive it is to swap out the circuit breaker.

I would go back to the installer -- that's a screw-up they should fix.

[Fly Boomer]

7 minutes ago, N201MKTurbo said:

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/pnpages/7277-5-10.php

$40 plus labor. Considering it is on the end it might be easy. I have found it is often easier to remove the panel nuts from all the breakers then remove the panel, redo the breakers and then reinstall all the breakers in the panel.

When you do that, are all the breakers just dangling on their wires?  Seems like it might require more than 10 fingers.

[N201MKTurbo]

1 minute ago, Fly Boomer said:

When you do that, are all the breakers just dangling on their wires?  Seems like it might require more than 10 fingers.

Often one side of each row of breakers is on a bus bar. That makes them easy to put back in. Even if they are bussed with wires, it isn't that hard to put them back in. If you don't do that it can sometimes be very difficult to get a screwdriver on the screws.

[Stetson20]

On 8/16/2023 at 1:42 PM, dzeleski said:

Ideally $0. Contact the shop that did your panel work. They didnt do the job correctly and need to fix this. I would also ask them to check and make sure the rest of them are also correct.

I had it done in central Michigan. The shop quoted me six weeks for the panel install. Six MONTHS later, I finally got my airplane back. To be fair, there were "supply chain" issues as well as personnel issues throughout the time my plane was in the shop. I've since relocated to JAX area and it wouldn't be cost effective to fly the plane up there (and wait God-knows-how-long to get it) and back.