Hello, one of our club CTLS developed an odd condition this past week where the Amps indication on our Dynon D120 started gradually increasing until if finally maxed out at -21 amps. It doesn't stay there consistently and will bounce up and down from anywhere between -5 and -21. Sometimes it will hang around -17 or -20, then lower down to -8 or -12, but has periods where it will just peg at the max -21 indication for a good 10-20 seconds before becoming erratic again.
We observed this during a long flight this past weekend and it was very erratic even in cruise (4800rpm). The weekend before in the same plane, the amps indication was not that high, but would still bounce in the area of -5 to -10 or so, but never in the yellow/red area.
The voltage maintained a consistent 13.1 to 13.2v without ever dropping below 13.1. We tried some troubleshooting in flight as we were worried something might be burning up or having some sort of electrical short or issue, but everything kept working fine.
Turning off everything we could, or even turning ON everything we could (lights, display(s), intercom, etc) seemed to have no effect at all on the amps draw (ie: amps did not go down when everything was shut off, and it didn't immediately go up anymore when everything was turned on). So, it seems like the amps indication was giving false readings, or suffering from a lot of noise, but I'm not really sure what to check for problems.
I've read of issues related to voltage and the rectifier regulator or capacitor, but I'm not getting much info for high amps draw.
The plane is pretty basic with a Dynon D100 & D120, Garmen gpsmap 695, single radio, led lights, and transponder. I'm going to check out the plane tomorrow for any basic wiring/ground/corrosion type issues, but would love to hear if anyone has some recommendations of things to check out. Thanks!
Private Pilot, LSRM-A, Phoenix, AZ
