REFLECTOR: ENGINE OUT MYSTERY SOLVED

[Tom Martino]

I have the Lightspeed Engineering electronic ignition, Plasma II Plus.  Dual
units.

As far as I can tell, they are operating properly ... Simply unstable power
going to them through the Power Guard.

Tom


On 8/21/07 6:28 PM, "steve korney" <s_korney at hotmail.com> wrote:

> 
> Tom... Did you have one or two electronic ignitions, and what kind...?
> 
> 
> Best... Steve
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----Original Message Follows----
> From: Tom Martino <tmartino at troubleshooter.com>
> Reply-To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list <reflector at tvbf.org>
> To: Velocity List <reflector at tvbf.org>
> Subject: REFLECTOR: ENGINE OUT MYSTERY SOLVED
> Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 17:02:04 -0600
> 
> After close inspection ... I found the problem.
> 
> First the good news ... the engine on my Velocity is perfect!  It cranks and
> fires up with fuel and oil pressures where they should be.
> 
> The prop governor did not fail.
> 
> And the is minimal airframe damage.
> 
> So what went wrong?
> 
> The power source for the electronic ignition went bad.
> 
> I had a primary battery and secondary battery and used Wayne Lanza's "Power
> Guard" ... To quote his website ... "The Fail safe secondary power control".
> 
> Well, this fail safe module failed and caused power interruptions to my
> ignition modules.
> 
> As it turns out ... I would've been better off NOT to use a secondary power
> source and not to use Lanza's controller.  The chances of the alternator and
> battery going out at the same time are remote.  Even if the alternator
> failed ... The battery could keep the engine running for quite some time.
> And if you wanted a backup battery for extended power ... Simply put one in
> with a mechanical switch.
> 
> The thing that puzzles me is that the electronic ignition is critical ...
> And the very unit that was supposed to preserve my spark, ended up
> interrupting it.
> 
> I am in the process of having it diagnosed to find out where the unit
> failed.  But FAILED it did.
> 
> Gee ... I lost almost $200,000 on this ... Think I can get my $100 back on
> it?
> 
> Tom Martino
> 
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