Battery test

[ggerhardt]

Installed SV6 and did the battery test today. Battery should be fully charged. About 10min (maybe less) after I started the test, the screen went blank - just shut off. Restarted it, tried again, same thing. Says the battery hasn't been tested in the setup page, and last shutdown was "normal." Does this mean my battery failed the test?

Geoff

 

[DrewSwenson]

Batt test runs the battery for 45 minutes---has a count down timer on the test page. When complete, it says the test has passed. Note that your batt after test will be somewhat discharged and will need to recharge on the next flight

 

[ggerhardt]

So, I entered the test page by powering down, then hitting the test battery button. From that test page, do I have to do anything? There was no countdown, it just said it was testing the battery.

Once it restarted, the battery wasn't drained. Am I missing a step? Is there something you have to do from that initial battery test page to initiate the test?

Thanks.

Geoff

 

[ggerhardt]

Ran the test again today after an hour long flight. Countdown started and the test ran fine. Not sure what was the problem last time. Battery indicated 11.6V at the start of the test this time - same as last time when the test didn't seem to run. Anyway, I have a good battery.

Geoff

 

[hoyden]

I did the battery test today. After a 1.5 hour flight the battery started at 11.7 volts and after 45 minutes was down to 10.07 volts. Test passed.

 

[Jeff_R]

I started a battery test yesterday, getting the count down clock, but I stopped the test about 5 minutes later. Today, I started the test again but did not get the count down clock. After 8 to 10 minutes the SV shut down. I repeated the test with the same results, and I tried the test on my second SV with the same results. Any idea why the count down clock failed to display?

 

[Dynon]

Jeff and Geoff - when you didn't see the countdown clock, what did you see under the Test Status line?

I think SkyView might have a thing against Jeff/Geoffs

 

[Dynon]

Also, Jeff with a J, after reboot, what color was the battery status icon next to the clock? And did you get any messages under the message button? What do you see under SETUP > LOCAL DISPLAY SETUP > BATTERY BACKUP STATUS?

 

[Nautique]

I have a similar situation. I upgraded to SV6. Started the battery test with 12.21 volts. Test ran for about 10 minutes down to 11.28 volts and then the system shut down. I rebooted and ran the test again for about 5 minutes. It shut down with 10.98 volts showing.
The message box still says battery test needed and the status is battery never tested.

 

[ggerhardt]

When the battery test wasn't working for me, I saw no count down timer. Just said that the test was running. After about 10min, it just shut down with about 11.something volts showing. I don't remember what as shown on the test status line. But, as I mentioned, after a 1hr flight, I tried it again and saw the countdown clock and the test ran successfully.

Geoff

 

[eric.reed]

For all those who are not seeing the countdown, I suspect it says, "BATTERY NEEDS TO BE FULLY CHARGED," on the test page. I know this should be true if you attempt a test immediately following an aborted or failed attempt at running the test. Perhaps this message could be written better, but it means the battery was not fully charged when the test was initiated.

In order to avoid false failures, the test requires a fully charged battery to start with. If the battery voltage is not above 12V while running on ship's power, the test does not run and the unit will shutdown or restart about five minutes later.

If anybody sees something other than this message when they do not see the countdown, we would like to know about that.

Hope this helps,
Eric

 

[DRunaas]

I also have the same problem. I charged both the batteries until the battery status said charged and voltage on #1 was 11.99 and #2 was 12.1 VDC. I ran the test and after five minutes both #1 and #2 shut down. I did notice that the battery on #1 would alternate between charge and standby about every second while I was charging. The following day I rechecked battery status and #1 was at 10.98 volts and in the standby mode, was not charging. Bus voltage was at 13.9 VDC.

 

[Dynon]

Don: What do you see now under SETUP MENU > LOCAL DISPLAY SETUP > BACKUP BATTERY STATUS? Also, do you get any messages under the message button on startup? And is there a battery icon at the top of the display next to the clock (and if so, which one?)

 

[mmarien]

I did notice that the battery on #1 would alternate between charge and standby about every second while I was charging.

My charger did the same thing. The more expensive chargers are made to pulse on and off for whatever reason. The Dynon backup battery needs 12.25 volts before it will charge. I believe it's made that way so it will only charge when the alternator is working. A normal aircraft battery won't supply that voltage even at full charge so the backup battery charges while the charger is charging and not when it's not.

I borrowed a real cheap battery charger and it supplied a steady 13+ volts despite whether the aircraft battery had a charge or not. No pulsing. Solved the problem. Next morning the backup battery was fully charged.

 

[DRunaas]

Thanks for the above information, I will check the information in the set up when I go to the airport today and get back to you.

I don't know about the charging though, the number one D700 is the only one doing it. the number two D700 indicated a solid state charge. Why the difference?

 

[DRunaas]

Don: What do you see now under SETUP MENU > LOCAL DISPLAY SETUP > BACKUP BATTERY STATUS? Also, do you get any messages under the message button on startup? And is there a battery icon at the top of the display next to the clock (and if so, which one?)

OK when I first started I had a message to test both batteries and there was a yellow battery by the clock on both d-700s. In the set up on #1 battery status was 11.74 volts and the charge status was standby. so I checked #2 and the battery status 12.11 volts and the charge status was charged. I ran the battery test on #2 and it passed the test. I powered down the system and brought it back up to verify #1 status now there is no clock or battery and the setup still has 11.74 volts and charge status is standby.

 

[Dynon]

So your 11.74V battery needs to be charged over 12V before the battery system considers the battery full enough to perform the test.

To get the battery fully charged, the master power input to SkyView itself needs to be >12.25V (this is so the backup battery is only charged when the alternator is running, eliminating the the possibility for SkyView to run down your aircraft battery when on the ground w/o the engine running).

The other wrinkle is that a backup battery that is >12V will fall below 12V pretty quickly. So, I'd suggest the following:

1) Get the charger (or go fly) on the battery, and, before you shut master, confirm that the status on the battery (in the setup menu) registers as CHARGED (that implies >12V).
2) While still staring at the setup menu at a charged battery, click your master power off, and immediately hit "TEST BAT".
3) That SHOULD allow the test to start. If it doesn't, that means that the battery has already fell below 12V in those few seconds. Let us know if that's what you're seeing.

 

[ttreat]

So is an update coming?

The message about the battery not fully charged is 2/3 down the screen and not readily visible.

1. Why is the need for a battery test a forced warning? A back up battery is not required so why is the test required?

2. Why is the battery test button even visible when the battery voltage is too low to start the test? Sometimes this very smart system acts very stupid.

Please take it off the warnings screen. Think about it. We all loaded 6.0 and played with the new features. Our warning list showed the test so we started it. Some owners missed the battery not charged message. Some like me gave up and just went flying with the annoying message at the clock.

 

[Jeff_R]

I have done some more testing, but the net result is that both my batteries (I have a dual SV) failed.

First, some confusion could be avoided if the SV would tell you that the test wasn't running _because_ the battery was not fully charged, and indicate what the minimum voltage had to be in order to run the test. Simply saying the battery has to be fully charged is different from saying "Battery test cannot be performed until battery is fully charged (at least 12.0 vdc)" doesn't tell you that the battery isn't charged and that the test isn't running.

Anyway, I use the Odyssey 680 as my main battery and keep it charged on the ground with their 6 A charger. I discovered that it would not develop enough voltage to allow the SV to charge the backup battery. (Note: I thought the required voltage into the SV to charge the backups was 12.25 volts, and I was seeing 12.7 volts on the bus, but the status of the backup was standby.) I connected a regular 20 A battery charger which could charge the main battery to over 14.7 vots, and it got the backup to charge to 12.04 volts, as read on the battery status screen. I assume that the backup is considered fully charged when it reaches 12 volts.

I ran the battery test on SV 1 but, as soon as the test started, the voltage displayed in the test screen dropped to about 10.5 volts immediately. The test failed after 37 minutes at somewhere around 9.3 volts.

I repeated the test on SV 2, again with a backup voltage that indicated 10.02 volts initially, with almost exactly the same results.

I have an older SV system and I remember Dynon had issues with some of the early batteries. One of my batteries, in fact, was replaced less than 2 years ago (I have been flying 11 months). But the failed battery back then wouldn't charge at all.

I am wondering if the backup batteries I have are weak, given that as soon as a load is applied they drop 1.5 volts, from 12 volts to 10.5 volts.

Observation: I have noted that if both SVs are turned on with backups that are not fully charged, SV 1 will charge continuously and SV 2 will alternate between charge and standby. If I turn SV 1 off, SV 2 will then show a continuous charge. The main battery voltage shows 14.7 volts with one unit turned on and 13.7 volts with both turned on. It seems that even with 13.7 volts, both backups should be in a continual charge mode, at least until reaching 12 volts. A friend who has dual SVs noted the same thing.

 

[mmarien]

Jeff R. Your charger probably doesn't have enough output to charge both batteries.

I run the battery test and went to charge the backup battery by charging the airplane battery. With 4A charge the SV backup battery switched between charging and standby. The other day 4A was sufficient to keep the status at a steady CHARGING. See Reply#13 above. I turned the charger up to 6A and the SV showed a steady charge.

Going back a bit I started the battery test a couple of days ago but had to leave for a couple of days so stopped it. When I went to test it again, it wouldn't start because the backup battery was below 12V. I put the charger on (4A) and it was charged within a few seconds. Go figure. I started the test and came back a few hours later. The battery tested OK so I'm good til next annual.