Battery Location

[H. Ivan Haecker]

I'm at the stage where I need to start thinking about a location for my Patrol battery. I'll be using an Odyssey 680. After flying Mark G.'s Patrol a few times, it seems like a firewall location works well for the cg. However, I've never been a big fan of putting the battery, master relay and starter relay on the engine side of the firewall due to the heat in that area and less accessibility to the engine. I'm thinking the aft side of the firewall would be an improvement, but thought that I would see what ideas others might have. One advantage of the engine side of the firewall is one less penetration hole for the starter wire. Anyone have other pros and cons that I might consider?

Ivan Haecker #150

[Mark Goldberg]

On the inside of the boot cowl and under the front seat are also options. FYI - I really like the Lithium Iron Phosphate battery in my LSA. 4 lbs as opposed to 15 lbs for the Odessey. But a little more than double the price. But my original Odessey 680 on the engine side of the firewall has been a trouble free installation - so far. Mark

[dedgemon]

The most important issue is ease of maintenance. It doesn't get
any easier than the firewall.

Dont worry over the firewall heat, thousands of RV's use that location and it works great. Contactors usually last for years (I've never had one fail in 15 years). The 680's have a great service history on the firewall.

[N942VT]

No worries putting on the engine side of the firewall, I'd rather have it out there, has worked well for five years.

[kestrel]

I'm a little late on this thread, but... If you might ever want to use something like the EarthX LiFePo battery, they don't like engine compartment heat and would prefer to be on the cabin side of the firewall. Those batteries save a big chunk of weight over an Odyssey and the EarthX product finally includes built in cell balancing and protections that others lacked.

[Zzz]

I've been planning on using the EarthX (two of them) and was wondering about location. I thought interior firewall might work well but it will depend on the amount of available space left over after everything else. Anyone considered under the front seats laying on their sides? The batteries (ETX680 or ETX900) only measure 6.5" x 6.6" x 3.1", so they are pretty compact. This adds between 4 and 5 lbs for each battery at the pilot seat station.

My questions are: Any issue locating batteries under butts? Foot room for rear pax shouldn't be affected unless they have massive feet right? And with the 540 on the nose, is this a preferable location for balance? Even though it's only 10 lbs?

[Mark Goldberg]

On my 4 place I have an Odessey 680 under the right front seat. No problem putting battery(s) there. You do have a run of heavy wire forward to the starter, but other than that no problem. The weight of the Earth X batteries should not be a major factor. Mark

[whee]

If the CG works out I think under the seat is a good place for batteries.

I have provisions to install two PC680s on the engine side of my firewall.

[JimParker256]

I have provisions to install two PC680s on the engine side of my firewall.

Why two batteries? How will they be wired so they get recharged adequately, without over-charging either of them?

[whee]

Why two batteries? How will they be wired so they get recharged adequately, without over-charging either of them?

All electric IFR airplane. But I won't install the second battery unless I decide to get my rating and actually fly in IMC.

I'll probably mostly follow the single alternator dual battery diagram in the AeroElectric book. That seems to be what most of the RV guys are doing.

[JimParker256]

All electric IFR airplane. But I won't install the second battery unless I decide to get my rating and actually fly in IMC.

I'll probably mostly follow the single alternator dual battery diagram in the AeroElectric book. That seems to be what most of the RV guys are doing.

I figured something like that... I'm also planning an all electric airplane, but wondering if the "backup batteries" for the EFIS and EMS would be more of a true "fail-safe" solution than a second battery. (Truly "wondering" here...) Just thinking that in the event of a short somewhere, the backup directly on the device (a la Garmin G5's "piggyback" battery) might be a better answer. Still cogitating and meditating on it...

[whee]

That's a individual decision. I have no interest in built in backup batteries but for others they are a great solution.

[BAnton]

I'm flying an RV8 that I built with dual electronic ignition/dual batteries, as per Aeroelectric Connection, and have flown for 10 years, . It's worked great but adds some complication in design, components, etc. I'm just starting to draw up the schematics for the Bearhawk electrical system and am leaning towards dual alternators with one battery and trying to keep the whole thing simpler in the Bearhawk which I consider a back to basics airplane. I'm also looking at EMags for the ignition but every year I talk to them at Oshkosh about Emags for the 540 6 cylinder it's always going to be a couple of months and they'll be shipping them. I don't think they're done yet? The Emags produce their own power therefore eliminating the need for external battery power. If anyone has any knowledge about them, chime in.

[JimParker256]

There is an article about E-Mags (and others) in last month's AOPA Pilot. The guy writing the article chose the E-Mags for his experimental. When I talked to Superior at OSH, the guy generating the quote for me recommended them as well.

[BAnton]

Thanks Jim. I'll check out the AOPA article.

[rv8bldr]

I think the self generating ones are the PMags. They have been two months away from shipping the 6 cylinder ones for about 5 years. Lots of RV10 guys were waiting and have given up. I'm just now sending my 540 away for overhaul and will just use the Bendix mags for the foreseeable future.

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