B&C Voltage Regulator firewall mount

[Nev]

B&C recommend that their external voltage regulator is mounted in the aircraft cabin, on the aft side of the firewall. I've designed this mount to allow the regulator to be attached to the firewall, but also allow airflow behind the unit.

 

[U2fletch]

Very nice!
What is your preferred print material these days?

 

[Nev]

I've been printing a lot of stuff with ASA and ABS. Also just ordered hardened extruder gears and hot end so I can start playing with some of the more interesting filaments.....

 

[Mark Dickens]

Great idea...I have one of these regulators for my RV-14 (I'm using the new B and C Silver Flight on the Companion), and I think this would fit nicely...thanks!

 

[Nev]

Thanks Mark. I'm also very interested in your idea of the oil cooler intake - have been reading up on it in the Vans forum. Seems like a nice design.

 

[David Swartzendruber]

It would have been interesting if you had put a thermocouple on the regulator and gotten a baseline of what temperature it normally runs at and then see what difference there is with your new mount. Although the spacer allows air behind regulator, it also insulates it from the firewall so that the firewall cannot act as a heatsink for the regulator. How much difference that makes would depend on how the temperature of the firewall compares to the regulator temperature.

 

[Nev]

Thats a very interesting point ! I expect that the mount is probably overkill. The engine side of the firewall normally sits at about 35°c when inflight so it probably would help as a heat sink. It rises to around 60°c in the 15mins after shutdown.

 

[Nev]

It would have been interesting if you had put a thermocouple on the regulator and gotten a baseline of what temperature it normally runs at and then see what difference there is with your new mount. Although the spacer allows air behind regulator, it also insulates it from the firewall so that the firewall cannot act as a heatsink for the regulator. How much difference that makes would depend on how the temperature of the firewall compares to the regulator temperature.

I emailed B&C to ask their advice and received this response :

That's an excellent question — the answer would depend on the model of regulator that you have. The LR3-series & SB1B-series regulators do not really need special thermal management measures; while they will grow quite warm to the touch in normal operation, their temperatures are such that heatsinking is not essential.

The AVC1 & PMR1-series regualtors, however, do need firewall contact (and moving air) to manage the heat of normal operation; for those units, some form of heatsinking would be essential to ensure good service life.​

 

[Nev]

Just a note to this thread to say that I decided not to utilise the 3d printed mount in this case, as per B&C's response above.