Battery Minder / Charging

[Jimhamilton]

Hello Mooney Community, it has been a long time since I posted here.  I have had my Mooney (M20K) for almost two years now and have been very busy using it for my commute from Colorado Springs to Salt Lake City.  I attended bible school in Colorado Springs during the week and my job is in SLC on the weekends.  My Mooney has been a work horse and is very reliable and as for the mission, the 231 has no problem getting up over the Colorado mountains and getting where I want to go fast (375 miles in as little as 2 hrs 30 min with wind as compared to 580 miles and nine hours driving my truck).  

 

Anyway, my question is about battery charging.  Right now I charge my Gill battery by accessing the battery in the aircraft, removing the leads and charging with a modern 12v charger at no more than 2amps.  The reason I bypass the external power receptacle is because of its built in logic.  The Mooney external power receptacle alway test for quality of the external power before connection is allowed.  The battery charger I have always tests for a correct connection before allowing charging to occur.  The two independent checks interfere with each other thus do NOT allowing charging to occur.

 

I would like to charge my battery from the external power receptacle.   If you are charging / minding your battery from the external power receptacle I would love to know how your are doing it and what equipment you are using. 

 

Thanks for your replies, Jim Hamilton

 

 

[DonMuncy]

As far as I know, in order to use the external receptacle, you must have sufficient power to energize the relay to complete the circuit. I am not aware of a charger that will both do that and maintain the battery. Instead, my hangar elf ran a pair of wires directly from the battery over to the other side, into the Oxygen filling door with a plug. Installed a matching plug on the battery minder. In the hangar, pull the plug out the O2 door and plug it up. During preflight, push the plug back into the O2 door. Works very well. 

[carusoam]

Glad you're back, Jim!

I bumped into this problem last week or so...this week battery #1 came out to be charged right next to the external plug.

I bought the Gill charger last year. Thinking I will save a battery. Never really had success with the external plug.

Now I have three batteries in the mix. I am thinking I can jump start the external plug with one battery, start the charger, then remove the extra battery.

Next step: buy the gell cell from the other guys...

Note - Gill is part of the Teledyne Contintal group, so is my engine and alternator...

-a-

[KSMooniac]

Don's method is the best way.  I don't have an external power plug or O2 door, but I plumbed a Battery MINDer harness from my battery through an existing hole in the aft bulkhead into my baggage compartment.  I can plug in and carefully close/lock my baggage door, but I'd rather have a smaller external access door like you K drivers have.

There are a lot of anecdotes over the last few years regarding the steep decline in quality of Gill batteries. If you have trouble with one, I'd recommend a change to Concorde AGM sealed batteries.

[Jimhamilton]

Thanks for the replies,  You know I thought this would be an easier fix.  It seems simple enough.  Connect a battery tender from the outside through the receptacle.  Not so fast right!  Don, thanks for the tip, Jim

[Cruiser]

Yep, +1 on what Scott said.

[TWinter]

Don's method is the best way.  I don't have an external power plug or O2 door, but I plumbed a Battery MINDer harness from my battery through an existing hole in the aft bulkhead into my baggage compartment.  I can plug in and carefully close/lock my baggage door, but I'd rather have a smaller external access door like you K drivers have.

There are a lot of anecdotes over the last few years regarding the steep decline in quality of Gill batteries. If you have trouble with one, I'd recommend a change to Concorde AGM sealed batteries.

Ditto here. Same technique

[Jimhamilton]

OK, easy enough, I just thought there might be some way to get through the external receptacle.  Thanks to all of you, Jim

[N601RX]

A small 3 amp fuse across the relay contacts should do the trick. You would probably have to disconnect one side of the coil also.

[Piloto]

Jim, I have the same external connector configuration with the little door on the tail cone access panel. I use a standard 2/10/50 amp battery charger to power the plane or to keep the battery charged. The trick is how to energize the relay and keep it energized. I set the charger to 10 amps first before plugging the cable. Make sure Master is off. Plug the cable and then wait about 30 seconds before setting the charger to 2 amps. Always unplug the cable before turning off the charger. If you turn off the charger with the cable plug in the energized relay will drain the battery down. When float charging verify the voltage is between 13 to 13.5 volts. 

 

José    

[bnicolette]

I just ran my lines from that came with the Battery Minder from the battery to the external power receptacle and taped them there.  Now all I have to do is swing open the little external pwr receptacle door and plug in the minder right there.  I store the cables when not in use in the external pwr receptacle area.  Works great.

 

Confusing I guess so see picture:

[larryb]

I have a molex plug epoxied to the hinge side of the power receptical. The molex is pretty thin, about 3/8" inch wide or so. I can open the battery access cover and plug in my charger.

[jetdriven]

As far as I know, in order to use the external receptacle, you must have sufficient power to energize the relay to complete the circuit. I am not aware of a charger that will both do that and maintain the battery. Instead, my hangar elf ran a pair of wires directly from the battery over to the other side, into the Oxygen filling door with a plug. Installed a matching plug on the battery minder. In the hangar, pull the plug out the O2 door and plug it up. During preflight, push the plug back into the O2 door. Works very well. 

That elf is not only smart, but pretty busy! 

[Jimhamilton]

Thanks everyone. This helps a lot.

[carusoam]

The relay gives a pretty audible indication when it opens and closes. This will help you when experimenting with various chargers...

If you don't hear it, it isn't closing...

Best regards,

-a-

[David Mazer]

I just ran my lines from that came with the Battery Minder from the battery to the external power receptacle and taped them there.  Now all I have to do is swing open the little external pwr receptacle door and plug in the minder right there.  I store the cables when not in use in the external pwr receptacle area.  Works great.

 

Confusing I guess so see picture:

This is exactly what I did.

[DaV8or]

Look at all you guys with your cute little access doors! No such luck on the vintage planes. Have thought about the problem and haven't gotten to it yet. I'd like to do something without drilling holes if possible. So far, just flying it once a week or so seems to do the trick.

[yvesg]

Look at all you guys with your cute little access doors! No such luck on the vintage planes. Have thought about the problem and haven't gotten to it yet. I'd like to do something without drilling holes if possible. So far, just flying it once a week or so seems to do the trick.

Where is your battery? Mine is on the pilot side where there is an access door and we were able to install a nice connector few years back. In the winter, I connect a solar panel through that door into that connector. The cable assembly is fused so it is protected. I'll try to take some pictures and post them.

Yves

[Awful_Charlie]

Previous owner of mine had Araphoe install the wiring for batteryminders, presented as a plug on the baggage area wall.  It's not ideal, as it means the baggage door has to be left open for the chargers to be connected, and in due course I'll get it moved to either the TKS or oxygen flap, but I'm in no rush yet as I don't have permanent mains in the hangar (I have a generator).

 

Using the external socket is possible, and I have a jump lead set made up which connects the small pin with the main +ve, plugging that in leaves it isolated, but as soon as I connect a normal battery charger to the jump lead, the relay clunks and charging starts.  However, turning the charger off *doesn't* unset the relay, so if there is any leakage through the charger then it will run the battery flay again.  The only way to isolate the external socket again with this set-up is to remove the plug from the aircraft.

 

I don't know what the current draw is on the relay either to keep it energised or to trip it in the first place, but I imagine that with the information it would be quite easy to put together a small circuit to do the job, although it will likely need a push-button to get is started.

 

Good luck

 

Ben

[DaV8or]

Where is your battery? Mine is on the pilot side where there is an access door and we were able to install a nice connector few years back. In the winter, I connect a solar panel through that door into that connector. The cable assembly is fused so it is protected. I'll try to take some pictures and post them.

Yves

 

On the F, it is located in the tail, behind the baggage compartment.

[carusoam]

My C had it up front near the battery. Installed early on in it's active life. I suspect they were available parts with documentation.

Should not be hard to duplicate.

Best regards,

-a-

[danb35]

Look at all you guys with your cute little access doors! No such luck on the vintage planes.

My '67 F has an access door for ground power; I have the battery minder wires zip-tied to the ground power plug so I can access them through that door.  Works great.  If memory serves (don't have the logs handy) it was added after the plane was purchased, but using a factory drawing.

[BigTex]

Don's Elf came across town and rigged mine up as well. I just open the battery door and plug it in.

[Wildhorsesracing]

Where is your battery? Mine is on the pilot side where there is an access door and we were able to install a nice connector few years back. In the winter, I connect a solar panel through that door into that connector. The cable assembly is fused so it is protected. I'll try to take some pictures and post them.

Yves

I did the same thing a while ago - posted the pics here:

http://mooneyspace.com/gallery/album/13732-going-solar/

 

FYI - I have since upgraded the connection to the battery to be a small plug that doesn't require the battery cover to be removed every time I make the connection.

[DaV8or]

My '67 F has an access door for ground power; I have the battery minder wires zip-tied to the ground power plug so I can access them through that door.  Works great.  If memory serves (don't have the logs handy) it was added after the plane was purchased, but using a factory drawing.

Yeah, it can be done I guess with a sign off from a local FSDO. In my case, I'm not sure it's worth it to just get a battery charger hooked up.