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Comms failure


petesmiffy

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Flying the ASR version. Starts up okay. Comms work, contact ATC no problem. Then on 50% of flights the radios fail either on arriving at the runway or just after takeoff. ATC window says, "No electric" All other electrical systems working normally. Suggestions, please.

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I don't think it has anything to do with the aircraft position, on or near the runway, I think it's a time thing. The radio will work for 4 or 5 minutes and then fail. I see that it runs on the 27-volt bus, which also powers the engine instruments, these never fail, well not yet, it seems that only the radio fails.

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No I do not see a message of no electric, but the lines in the ATC dialogue box are greyed out and no input is accepted. But I believe I am doing something wrong with the electric power. I don’t think it is a bug.

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I get the "no electric" message at the top of the ATC window and all options are greyed out.

If I load the default Cub with engine running and switch to the AN2 keeping the engine running and switching everything on the radio does not fail. If I go to Cold & Dark and then start up, the radio always works to start with but sometimes fails within a few minutes of the aircraft starting to move. On one occasion the radio failed as I connected to Plan G3 using WideClient, but then I tried it again, six times, and got no failure when connecting, but on 3 of the 6 trials the radio failed minutes later.  

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  • Developer

The radio dies when the battery voltage drops below 10V. Make sure you have the generator switch on - no red light in the generator indicator.

I have tested it intensively and it works like it should.

In case you forgot, if you switch the generator on, the radio will come on after a short while and will again fail within short time if you turn the generator off again.

Generator switch is the most left on the bottom pedestal. You can check battery voltage by switchting the generator off and press the orange Volt button to display volts not amperes.

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  • Aerosoft
2 hours ago, Debowing said:

No I do not see a message of no electric, but the lines in the ATC dialogue box are greyed out and no input is accepted. But I believe I am doing something wrong with the electric power. I don’t think it is a bug.

 

Are you sure the generator is on?

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Hi,  I have the same issue. I cannot see a sign within the ATC window but it is greyed. Also the ADF stops working. What I found is that if I switch off the generator it starts working (the warning light is on). Then when I switch the generator on again (warning light goes off) it stops working after a short time. This looks like the opposite to what metzgergva described.

 

Also when I press the orange Volt button the needle does not move. Seems to showing always the current. No matter of generator switch position.

 

Thanks,

 

Jiri

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metzgergva seems to have it right. Loaded up, started up and switched everything on, except the generator. Engine at low idle. Radio worked for about 5 minutes then failed. Volts had been steady on 9.9 all the time and still were 9.9. Switched the generator on, without increasing revs. Generator warning light still on but radio working again, still 9.9 volts. Increased revs until generator light out, 12 volts. Throttled back until light lit again, radio working still. Waited about 10 minutes, light still on, 9.9 volts, radio working. Started to taxi, got to runway and throttled back to idle, volts dropped to zero, radio failed. Increased revs to about 1100 and generator and radio came back online.

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So then it is a matter of maintaining engine revolutions to drive the generator powering the radio. I would have thought that the radio would back up to the battery voltage but this maybe a design peculiarity Of the aircraft.

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  • Developer
2 hours ago, Debowing said:

Yes the generator is on and yes I also do see the No electrics message too. 

 

You need to have the switch set to on AND enough RPM so that the red light goes of and on the AMP meter it should drop to negative value. Only then the generator is charging the battery and that is required so that the battery can provide enough voltage to the radio unit.

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So the problem, on the ground is solved - but I start up, keeping the volts about 10. Radio is fine. I take off, keeping the revs up and the volts above 10. The radio fails, ATC Window says No Electric. I switch the generator OFF and power is restored to the radio, but the radio is stuck on the departure frequency. I switch the Generator ON and the radio fails after a few seconds.

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  • Aerosoft

Well yeah if you switch the generator off you revert back to battery and that has enough volts. You just need to keep the generator providing power and it does not do so at idle. have you checked out the fantastic video here in the forum? Explains a lot on how to keep the systems working by having enough revs.

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I never let the revs drop - I was concentrating so hard on the volts that I wasn't following the compass.  I had 1800 rpm and 12 volts when the radio cut out. I have just done a complete reinstall and will let you know if that helped.

Apart from this, it is a fantastic aeroplane. Who needs radios anyway?

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Uninstalled, registry cleaned, rebooted, reinstalled, rebooted.

Start up, warm up, generator on, Comms on, radio working. Taxi out, keeping the generator light off. Radio still working.

Take off, set climb power, radio fails. Switch generator OFF radio restored.

After about 20 minutes, at cruise power, everything on the 27 volt bus fails, including the radio.

Switch generator ON - all systems restored, including the radio.

Five minutes later the radio fails, switch generator OFF and radio restored, but now it only takes a few minutes for 27 volt bus to fail.

Switch generator ON and all is restored, but now the radio fails within seconds. Switching OFF only gives radio power for about 5 seconds before the bus fails.

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Installed version 1.02 - Great improvement, I no longer have intermittent radio failure, now I have permanent radio failure.

This isn't sarcasm, it's a good thing, intermittent faults are much harder to trace than total ones.

It was behaving as if the avionics were switched off. But there is no avionics switch, and my default aircraft was the Piper Cub, which has no avionics system.

Solution use a default aircraft, such as the Mooney, which has an avionics system, make sure it's on and then load the An-2.

Just spent 40 minutes in the air with no problems.

Hopefully, this is the answer.

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  • Aerosoft

Does not explain what you saw before but indeed it gives a lot more information. I think we can force the avionics switch on, as not a lot of people use an aircraft like that as default it simply never occurred with anybody else. However, as this is a known issue for other aircraft I always have a key command assigned to the avionics switch. A bit easier then having to load an aircraft.

 

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