Voltage Regulator Failure

Thanks Guys

But what I am seeing in stable level flight is sporadic voltage movement, one second up a second later down, and everything in between 13.2 to 14.2 Is this normal?

never stable for more than two seconds. 
So my thought is the regulation does not know what to do and going faulty.

Thanks again

Ross

My Rotax/Ducati VR is OUT!!

Took about 2 hrs - in a vey inaccessible spot - thought with dedicated cooling and lots of attention to contact quality and grounding, it would be there for ever. Just shows - always plan for servicing replacement access.

Please advise if there are tests I can do on the VR, now that its out,  I would like to double check the installed findings.😈

Ross,

That does not sound normal.  I would start with a ground run checking various locations of the airframe electrical buss (battery, regulator output, master switch etc.) with a hand-held meter to see if the problem is real or just metering problem.  If it's real, check all associated connections before replacing the regulator.  

I'm with Jeff. This may be several things, but I'd check grounds and other connections before throwing any money at it.

Ross,

That’s a great observation but there isn’t enough background information to provided a good formal diagnosis.

This is one possibility, based on the stable/rhythmic voltage swings and the common regulator failure modes. 

At 14.2 volts the charging system is satisfied indicating there is still some reserve power available. The drop to 13.2 volts is much to large to be regulator “hysteresis” (the dead band between turn off and turn on)  At 13.2 volts the battery isn’t changing or discharging, it indicates the charging system is out of regulation and barely has enough power to keep up with the load demand.  My guess is you have an intermittent load operating at 1/2 Hz that overwhelms the system. The only thing that comes to mind in that frequency range are the strobes or strobing landing light(s)?

Your regulator may be operating half wave, not full wave. It has just enough power to handle normal loads. But when the strobes operate, the additional current draw is above the regulator’s reduced capacity and you see the voltage drop as they cycle. 

You would need to do a load test on the charging system to confirm this.