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Key West regulator

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Dana

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Apr 3, 2007
Messages
12,666
Location
CT, USA
Does anybody have contact information for Key West Controls? They don't seem to have a website, and the phone number on the instruction sheet is invalid.

I'm having a bit of a problem with the KW regulator on my UltraStar.

The plane has a Westach tach/EGT combo; the tach runs directly off the lighting coil on the Cuyuna and always worked fine. I just added a Key West regulator so I can have 12VDC power for my strobe and radio. The tach and regulator are wired in parallel to the lighting coil (unlike the Rotax, the Cuyuna has a single lighting coil). No battery. However, with the regulator connected, the tach reads low.

When I first installed the regulator, the read low, no more than about 2500 rpm indicated at full throttle (6500 rpm). However, when I switched on the strobe, it read much higher, around 4000 rpm. Figuring I needed a load on the regulator, I added a 50 ohm resistor to the output to draw a constant 1/4 amp. Now it indicates about 5000 rpm when the engine is actually doing 6500, regardless of whether the strobe is on or off. Finally, I disconnected the regulator, and the tach again reads correctly. When I measure the input voltage to the regulator, it shows very low, around 2VAC (with the regulator disconnected it's as it should be, 10-40V depending on rpm). I suspect the meter or something else weird, though, as even when it's showin 2VAC on the input it's putting out 14VDC.

Westach has suggested several things which didn't help, and I can't seem to get a hold of Key West.

Has anybody else seen this problem?

-Dana

We are born naked, wet, and hungry. Then things get worse.
 
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