RE: Eletronic engine syncronizer **SUPPORT **
Dont send a PM please... you can email me at billw@nc.rr.com. I do not make the remote display anymore... too few were being sold to justify.
Posted on: 1/23/2012 8:13 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10924285

RE: What IBEC to buy?
I agree... I'll do a linear version at $25 MSRP. I just boxed 500 tonight going to TBM... so I think they both work. I was skeptical of a linear version but you have convinced me to offer both. The linear is also going to drop at least 0.25V under heavy load so you can not use 4C Nicc/niMh with it or you will havea low voltage goingto CDI. Switchers become a pure on/off switch once batteries get low. You should not fly that low anyway... but you have proven to me that all of these advantages are not needed and I should come out with a lower cost unit which I will in about 60 days.
Posted on: 1/2/2012 10:02 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Gas Engines"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10888876

RE: What IBEC to buy?
You can use a linear regulator if you can live with the inefficiency of converting battery power to heat, supply enough peak current during CDI charging pulses (measured with a current probe on a scope - nota DVM), and can support 2.5+ amps continous as that is what some ignitions draw. Pretty much everything you said is correct except for the opto isolator. The noise is going to radiate through power and ground and from the wires... Not through the CPU and the signal wire... How does that common mode choke work on differential mode noise? Linear are much cheaper to build.... It would probably be a good idea for me to offer a linear version at a $25 or $29.99 msrp for the people who don't know or care about the difference. There is no noise from a well designed switcher...only poor designs have noise.
Posted on: 1/2/2012 9:22 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Gas Engines"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10888869

RE: Eletronic engine syncronizer **SUPPORT **
Guys, I want to appologize to every one who has emailed, PM'ed me, etc....and not gotten a timely response. Please do not use PMs and email me... I have had more going on than you can image, tons or corporate travel (I do more tech support sitting in an airport terminal somewhere than from my office), major family heath issues, dramatically increased business from other products, new house, etc, etc... today is my first day off from my day job since july. The twinsync is a night/weekend project for me (but got me into this business) and my day job has become much more demainding lately. Not to mention I have a lot of other products that are demanding more time too... So if I don't respond feel free to email me again and again... I only receive a few hundred emails a day so I do ocasionally miss one.... Merry Christmas to all and thanks for the compliments and the support/business....I am hoping that this thread will become self-supporting at somepoint. There are definitely customers out there that know every nuiance of the twinsync.... The most common problem is EMI/RFI from spark noise on gas engines.... that is really the only major gotcha with this product. Bill Wike
Posted on: 12/23/2011 8:07 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10873868

RE: What IBEC to buy?
Guys.... I kinda got caught up on MTKs and Speedyss comments without answering some good basic questions in this thread... see answers below: Q1) Why would an engine manufacture recomend not using an IBEF: ANS) ignitions require a voltage in a certain range and they have tremendious current draw for very short periods of time then no current draw. You can not measure this with a multi-meter. If you google CDI ignitions you will find that they charge a cap in pulses much like a spark. Once the cap gets up to voltage it can fire a single spark. To look at the current profile of an ignition you have to put a current sense resistor inline with the battery and then measure it on a digital scope at different RPM. What you will see is very high current pulses for very short periods of time. Regulators can not provide this. Therefore do not try running an ignition from a standard regulator. Secondly, ignitions generate tremendious amounts of noise... feeding that noise back in to the receiver could be really bad. This could put liabiility on the engine/ignition manufacture. Simple solution - seperate battery - no problems... SIDE BAR COMMENT) If race cars and car manufactures built the same car the same way every year then wouldnt the same car win everytime?... innovation is how you advance Q2) Why would radio manufactures recomend against usings IBEFs? ANS) They are already fighting noise problems and receiver sensitivity issues (especially in 2.4Ghz band)... why let some one plug a huge noise source (like an ignition) into the RX? Servos create enough noise to already cause them enough problems - why even go there with ignitions.... SIDE BAR COMMENT) A good IBEF will generate less noise than a standard servo.... They should quiten down their servos and/or move to 5Ghz (but that will cost them too much) Q3) Why not just have a second battery ANS) A good simple solution - I do on most of my planes - but I designed my own charger that can charge about 20 battery packs at one time and can plug them all in the night before I go flying...I am not a good enough pilot to worry about saving 5 ounces on a CF spinner versus an AL spinner. But I would buy an IBEF before spending >$100 on a CF spinner to save 4oz. Maybe what I should really do is design a battery charger that can charge 20 battery packs at the same time SIDE BAR COMMENT) Bring jumper cables to the field - so that I am not the only one that drained their car battery charging RC planes at the field
Posted on: 10/14/2011 9:52 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Gas Engines"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10766003

RE: What IBEC to buy?
Speedy, Yes I will honor the warranty on it... however if you are going to review it I can not be sure it is an unused/new unit... email me at billw@nc.rr.com and let me make sure you have a TRUELY NEW unit if you are going to publish test results....(and I may even drop some future looking prototypes on you depending on the timing and your test plan)....but results have to be published. Another problem in your test methodolgy is that ZDZ and Falcon will pass with flying colors. Older DAs and newer DAs seem to be very different and have different quircks - you need an old one and a new DA ignition. You need to add to that list the tougher ones.... Please add: Fuji, Zenoaha EI series, and DLE. Also you need to publish the receivers you test with... I think the most problematic ones are the Spectrum (700 I think), Futaba 148 and 149, and the JR 72mhz single conversion series (but they added some fancy ABC marketing name to it)... all great receivers but problematic in this application for different reasons that I will not disclose. I could go on and on - but lets focus on worst case test cases to seperate "the men from the boys". The beauty (or problem) with this hobby is we do not buy completely built airplanes with all of the components pretested to work together. Each airplane is unique where engine, ignition, RX, servos, etc., etc. may be different. If I were to find a problem in the best selling component in the market that caused a problem with my product - I can't call up the big guy and say "hey you are not doing xyz correctly"... they will say yes we are and if you the little guys stuff doesn't work right with our stuff it is your problem....so these types of products have to work right with everything out there ... Case in point - HiTec recently plublished a warning not to do this on their website (but without stating which product had the problem) on certain receivers (likely not my product) - but some product out there is failing and potentially hurting the reputation of my product because people are quick to say - Oh those things dont work because some one mad a bad one and people think they are all equal - when they are not.... So it is easy for Hitec to say IBEFs dont work because a few people tried to do it with products not properly designed for this application... I would welcome HiTec to respond to me as well... So expand your test suite or otherwise they are all going to look good and about the same - what good is that? If you want to seperate the men from the boys I will show you how... The tests you are proposing is not comprehensive and only hitting the easy to solve part (sweet spot) of the market and therefore not reassuring I would argue - and I call foul before you even start. A nobel jester though. Don't get me started on fishing........I am a commercial fisherman on the NC outter banks (another hobby) and it is peak season here now and I just tore up my main/offshore boat last weekend - broke the transom mount on one of the outboards pulling a shrimp net... back to what we can catch close to land now this fall with the other smaller boats now but not doing too bad....with the price of gas its probably not such a bad thing...
Posted on: 10/14/2011 8:48 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Gas Engines"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10765957

RE: What IBEC to buy?
100 units were supposed to come off the line today but one part shortage prevented it. Parts are arriving overnight at assembly line tomorrow morning so 100 units will ship to me monday. I have to fly to silicon valley sunday for several days and then to ATL (at least its not all over the world like it used to be) so probly 10-14 days to get next shipment in to distributor. (This is not my day job... big companies fly me arround to solve these kind of problems for them that IS my day job - so that takes priority). I realize at current production rates I am not keeping up with demand (probably not even 50% of demand) so I am going to bite the bullet and ramp production to a higher rate which is just more money up front....I keep some here for warranty and the guys I have dealt with since the beginning but I am not really in a postion to handle direct sales yet....I had rather go through distribution....but before buying something less - send me an email... if I can help you I will.... I only get about 200 emails a day so dont be offended if you dont get an immediate response...
Posted on: 10/13/2011 8:03 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Gas Engines"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10764292

RE: What IBEC to buy?
Bill Wike here with Wike RC Products. This thread got my attention since it is centered arround a very good selling product I have. I designed one of if not the original IBEFs and thought I should provide some important info on the thread about what I know about it and what you should look for and be cautious of... There are a lot of nice features available such as the following: ignition cut off, cutoff with tx signal loss, intentional miss with low battery, LED, adjustable voltage output (not all ignitions are equal), current output capacity (peak and continuous - I have seen ignitions draw from 400ma to 2.8A), short circuit protection, soft start, temperature range, wide voltage input range, but finally and most importantly EMI/RFI/sparf noise isolation. (which no one seems to talk about???) The biggest problem in powering an ignition from anything besides a dedicated battery and switch is emi/rfi/spark and ground noise getting into the receiver (or the computer chip controlling the IBEF - the key reason they dont turn on and off properly). Same thing with smoke pumps (or any electrically noisy load - like servos) is isolation. Isolation could be optical or filtered in the frequency range that will affect the electronics. I would never recomend using a BEC or regulator to power an ignition module from the RX/servo system. The reason is the battery ground is typically hard connected to the output ground on these type devices. A CDI ignition it has a huge spike on ground when the spark fires. Then more spikes as it charges the CDI system. I've looked at other similar devices as the IBEF and they all have a common ground which is a potential problem. Do a range test and compare results with a range test with a dedicated battery. The way I tested this theory was to take one of my worst receivers, engine, airplane combo and range tested devices against a dedicated battery. After many attempts I got the same range test results with the IBEF as I did with a dedicated battery (even with the IBEF wrapped arround a plug wire with the cap unplugged so that the spark was arcing). My range was controlled more by how close the receiver was to the engine rather than whether a dedicated battery or IBEF was being used. This setup would fail a range test if the receiver was closer than 10 to the ignition - regardless if was powered with an IBEF or a battery. I almost lost this plane a couple of times because a loose plug cap would cause control interference and once I killed the engine I had full control again. (nice tip next time you get "HIT" - it may not be another radio signal but rather your own airplane causing the interference). The other problem is these devices fail alot because of the high currents and voltage spikes the spark and ignition cause. Standard regulators and BECs are not designed to handle these spikes. I can run through version numbers and updates to the Wike RC Products IBEFs if you guys really want to hear it but I dont really want to educate my competition on some hard lessons to learn. Here are a couple of simple tests you can do to tell you if it is potentially safe to power your ignition with a device connected to your RX power system: #1) Range test it with engine running at various RPMs and compare the device to a dedicated battery (should be single digit percentage difference) #2) rub your feet accross the carpet on a dry day then touch the output wires of it with a nice static shock and see if it still works #3) measure the resistance from RX ground to output ground with a multimeter. (if it is less than about 0.25-0.5 ohms it is potentially trouble)... To prove my point do a range test with 8 high speed servos (noisy devices) plugged into your receiver versus a reange test with one standard servo plugged into your receiver.... the results might surprise you.... its just electronics and physics... very predictable stuff.... A simple fact in point (not a promotional comment): There are over 1000 Wike RC Products IBEFs flying today and not one interference event has ever been reported with about 20-30 warrantly claims/repairs. There have been some turn off and on issues reported but all resolved at this point as far as I am aware. Bill Wike Wike RC Products
Posted on: 10/13/2011 6:42 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Gas Engines"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10764151

RE: WRC Wike R/C Products IBEF Ignition Battery Eliminating Filter
The IBEF does not have an optical switch in it. It turns off power going to the ignition by disabling a switching regulator when the ignition is turn off. I called Hitec about the problem and the guy working on it will be back in the office Monday so I will try him again. They do not know what is happening but only this reported problem had an optical kill switch... I expect it is not my WRC optical kill switch. I am willing to bet that ignition noise is getting into the receiver and causing a cpu reset. Again I have never had this reported with any Wike RC Products devices and my products are specifically designed to prevent ignition noise from getting into the receiver. I am going to try to get them to clarify which brand of optical kill switch is causing the problem. CaptainJacobs - I can modify an IBEF to work with your five cyclinder if you want one. I need to make a couple of changes for that engine. Bill Wike Wike RC Products
Posted on: 6/21/2011 12:53 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Gas Engines"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10585381

RE: Eletronic engine syncronizer **SUPPORT **
Send me an email in the morning with your phone # and I will call you. billw@nc.rr.com. Bill
Posted on: 8/27/2010 11:00 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9964569

RE: Eletronic engine syncronizer **SUPPORT **
Brian, Email me (billw@nc.rr.com) and I will sell you one direct.
Posted on: 8/23/2010 3:19 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9954523

RE: Eletronic engine syncronizer **SUPPORT **
Sorry guys.... I have not been getting emails from RCUniverse. Use my real email address and no communication problems - its in the manual. I think I have my problem at RCU fixed now...
Posted on: 8/19/2010 3:53 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9945549

RE: Eletronic engine syncronizer **SUPPORT **
Guys, Sorry for the delay in answering questions...for some reason I was not getting emails when people posted here. Hopefully that is fixed now. Let me know what questions are still open?
Posted on: 6/9/2010 3:17 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9792219

RE: Eletronic engine syncronizer **SUPPORT **
There are no updates between 2.3 and 2.4... there was only a minor hardware change that only affected the four engine sync.
Posted on: 3/20/2010 8:41 AM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9597130

RE: Eletronic engine syncronizer **SUPPORT **
I sent out replacement to everyone I thought. It would have been sent regular first class mail so there is no tracking info. Send me your and I will send a replacement when I get it. email me at billw@nc.rr.com for ship to address if you do not have it.
Posted on: 3/18/2010 2:47 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9592839

RE: Eletronic engine syncronizer **SUPPORT **
Why don't you email or PM me your phone # and a good time to call when we can go through it together since you have multiple questions/issues. Bill
Posted on: 2/15/2010 7:36 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9507580

RE: Eletronic engine syncronizer **SUPPORT **
Stoat, Down load the manual and read it... you can use the already installed magnets (if there is only one pulse per rotation) but use the sensors with the twinsync. Do not try to use the ignition sensors for the twinsync.
Posted on: 2/12/2010 12:52 AM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9497429

RE: Eletronic engine syncronizer **SUPPORT **
Four engine sync unit has been shipping for about 2 years now... I only sell them direct and I sell them for the same price as two TwinSyncs now...so email me... one of these days I am going to get a B-17 and try one myself...meanwhile I depend on my C-130 customers to fly the quadsync... about 30-50 in the field being flown....
Posted on: 2/12/2010 12:46 AM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9497424

RE: Ignition power from receiver?
Guys, I thought about this thread some...and NOW - I got the message loud and clear ... so I just finished designing a new Optical Ignition Cut-off switch tonight. I am ordering boards overnight... Some guys just want optical kill and seperate batteries - to be sure there is no EMI/RFI interference - there is no issue with the IBEF but I understand the reasons to be skeptical and safe. The IBEF is outselling the optical switches but there are still a lot of optical switches being sold to people who just want an optical kill switch to be safe. I just got the numbers yesterday and was surprised how many were being sold...so I am going to offer both... the IBEF is a better solution but for the doubters and conservative folks I am going to offer an optical cut off as well. So, I have a new optical cut-off that will be shipping in about 4-6 weeks. Many advantages over the other ones on the market and the lowest cost on the market. I will have samples next week... anyone want to be a beta tester? (get product at half price if you promise to post and provide feedback).... I still think the IBEF is a better solution but I am here to give people what they want...so this product is on the fast track... less than 6 weeks until inventory at distributors with a $29.95 MSRP... Wike RC Products
Posted on: 2/11/2010 11:57 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Gas Engines"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9497344

RE: Ignition power from receiver?
This is in response to post #19 from NM2K...who questioned my credentials... I would love nothing more than to post my position, responsibilities and company/companies I work/worked for and my resume... but large public semiconductor companies do not like their "Principal Engineers" with large "revenue responsibility" being involved with things outside their day job...especially ones with majority world market share of things like 2.4Ghz radios and BPL. What I can tell you is I am a former ASIC design engineer and have been working for silicon valley semiconductor companies for about 20 years now. For 3 years I commuted from RDU to SJC monday-friday every day of the week. So that public semiconductor company must have thought I knew something about it if they flew me from Raleigh to SanJose every week to deal with the hottest problems arround the world. I think I may have more FF miles than Neil Armstrong. All to fly to some big company to solve very complex electonic problems. So when a big company like Motorola, AT&T, DishTV, Alcatel, Lucent, Dell, Cisco etc. hits a problem their engineers can't solve that is using my company's silicon I am they guy they send in. That is why I have been on a plane the last three weeks and just landed back in NC from San Jose, Ca at midnight last night... four years ago my design win quota was over $1B dollars worth of chips... That's a lot of chips at $10/ea... So no, I am not a technician... I am not knocking them in any way and respect what they do and have met some talented ones over the years. The product has been tested in more ways than you can imagine...
Posted on: 2/6/2010 7:34 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Gas Engines"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9482561

RE: Ignition power from receiver?
Hey guys.... There is enough speculation and comments going on in this thread that I though I should probably make a few comments and clarify a few things. I am the designer and manufacture of the WRC IBEF (product being discussed) and I am always open to discussions and ideas on how to improve our models. (like in the case of this it eliminates the cost and weight of a battery, switch, and maybe even an optical or electrical kill switch). The units were tested for RFI and EMI emmission under high current draw as well as for interfence with diffent engines and radios. I can tell you that the filter in the IBEF will provide >50db noise attentation at 30Mhz (if you are not an RF engineer 50db is a noise reduction of >>10,000 times). There is more RF noise coming from the sparkplug wire than the IBEF. Still I wanted to be sure so I did a final set of tests before releasing it. In these tests I used know problematic engines and ignitions. In another case I wrapped an IBEF arround a G45 unshielded sparkplug wire. In another case I pulled the plug wire loose from the plug where the spark was arcing to the spark plug. Then for each of these test I range tested with 72Mhz and 2.4Ghz radios with a seperate ignition battery and the IBEF. In no test case was the radio range reduced (i.e. due to interference). It is an easy test to see if any interference is coming from the IBEF. Simply do a range test and mark the spot. Then replace your ignition battery with an IBEF and repeat the range test. I expect that no one will ever see >5% difference in range and I have not seen any difference in all of my testing. The IBEF has three major features/sections in it. First it reduces the voltage going to the ignition to be within manufactures' guidlines. Secondly is has an isolated power switch that can turn power on and off to the ignition. Finally it has a set of RFI/EMI filters to prevent any ignition noise getting back to the receiver. When I have RX interference from engines in the past there was no wire/metal connection between the RX and the engine. It was simply the plug wire was radiating enough RFI energy to cause a problem... if this is your situtation then even an optical cutoff will still have a problem. With several hundred of these being flown and not a single interference event being reported I think you guys can relax. New technology always comes even though many of us may doubt if it can really do what it claims. I will be open and honest that with > 750 shipped now I have had 6 reports of slow ignition turn off when used with a Spektrum AR7000 receiver. I found the issue and now it has been corrected on future shipments and those 6 people are either receiving no cost repairs or replacements.
Posted on: 1/30/2010 3:03 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Gas Engines"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9461661

RE: Eletronic engine syncronizer **SUPPORT **
Murphey, You hit the nail on the head...this is definitely spark noise getting into the sensor wires. A local guy had the same problem. The G20ei and G26EI have more noise than any other engine I have seen - plus the ignition pulls about 2.8Amps rather than the industry average of about 600ma. My first recomendation would be to replace the ignitions (C&H for example). You are on the right track... screen wire around the ignition module too...I have wondered if bigger caps on the rails would help too. If you don't have any luck with shielding let me know and I will trade you for a unit to try with more caps on the rails.
Posted on: 12/27/2009 9:37 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9364881

RE: Eletronic engine syncronizer **SUPPORT **
Sven is all taken care of via email...just had to program idle, sync, and full throttle point...
Posted on: 12/27/2009 9:32 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9364872

RE: Eletronic engine syncronizer **SUPPORT **
sounds like it got set to two magnets at some point by accident.
Posted on: 12/13/2009 3:32 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9327547

RE: Eletronic engine syncronizer **SUPPORT **
Move rotary switch to position 6. press and hold both buttons while rotorary is in pos 6 and turn power on. RPM will then be read at half.
Posted on: 12/13/2009 10:31 AM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9326826

RE: Eletronic engine syncronizer **SUPPORT **
The minimum rpm the twinsync will display I think is either 1500 or 900. Take the plug out of the engine and try it again. I can mail you replacement diodes. They really only protect from spark noise with gas engines. If you are running on glow engines then they are not needed at all. Static or plugging something in backwards can damage them. The other possability is if they were installed backwards. I have seen a couple that this happened on but I beat up the assembly people and put a test in the test procedure to check for that so I doubt that is the case.
Posted on: 11/29/2009 8:01 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9290342

RE: Eletronic engine syncronizer **SUPPORT **
If the green LEDs are on a little all of the time then the protection diodes are blown. You can remove them with a pair of side cutters then it will be working again with a little less protection. There are two diodes. They are beside the rpm sensor connectors. They are the two devices made out of kind of clear/red glass with a black stripe on one end. You can remove them and then it should work.
Posted on: 11/29/2009 4:45 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9289848

RE: Eletronic engine syncronizer **SUPPORT **
No... PCB hardware change only. eliminated a wire mod on the quadsync. No impact to Twinsync
Posted on: 11/9/2009 4:41 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9241074

RE: Eletronic engine syncronizer **SUPPORT **
The way glow drivers work that operate off a high voltage (or how I would expect them to work) is that they pulse the glow plug on and off very rapidly. Similar to a switching regulator but a glow plug doesn't need a constant voltage like a piece of electronics. Regulators are more expensive than a simple pulsing circuit. This is similar to how a switching regulator works. It pulse charges a capacitor to the right voltage very fast. For example I am working on a turbine ECU. To drive the turbine glow plug I pulse it from the 3-cell lipo 1% of the time 10,000 times per second. I could change the glow drivers to operate on any voltage. Would probably make them $70-75 per pair rather than $50 per pair. The advantage of a switching regulator over a linear regulator is that they can be >90% efficient compared with about Vo/Vi % effiecency for a linear regulator. They can be noisy and older designs are slow. New ones are amazing. I attached a picture of a prototype regulator I am building. It is about 1.5" square and can put out 15Amps continous with no heatsink required. Also has a safety switch (fails-on).
Posted on: 11/7/2009 1:36 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9235543

RE: Eletronic engine syncronizer **SUPPORT **
Reply now to using Lion/Lipo for glow drivers.... Glow driver circuits are very simple. If you use a single cell NiMh or NiCd then it is a simple on off switch. If you want to use a higher voltage battery like a single cell lipo or 4 cell NiXX the you have to have a regulator to drop the voltage. The other option I have been thinking about is a high speed current limiter but that is too deep for a forum discussion. So here is the problem with a higher voltage battery at 4amps. A linear regulator is going to burn/convert the voltage drop x amps as heat. So 4 Amps from a 4.0V battery delivering 1.5V is a 2.5V drop at 4 AMPs. That is 2.5 x 4 which is 10 Watts. A TO-220 can only dissapate about 1.5W without sinking. A LM317 I think can only go up to 3A. Most are 1.5A. You should look at the LM338 which can go to 5A but at 5A with a 4.0V input and a 1.5V output you are going to have to convert 2.5V x 4A = 10Watts to heat. That is going to require a massive heat sink and fan. Even worse about 75% of your battery will be used to produce heat rather than light the glow plug. The right way to do it is with a high frequency switching regulator that can run at >80% efficency. Proabably too expensive for TwinSync glow drivers (i.e. ~$100 per pair rather than $50 per pair)...I am working with TBM to come out with so low cost high freq switching regulators but most guys don't understand the real value of switching versus linear regulators... this should prob be a seperate thread.
Posted on: 11/6/2009 11:02 PM by Author "yl5295" in the forum "Twin & Multi Engine RC Aircraft"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9234274