Strobes effecting Ammeter?
How's this for a puzzle? I'm flying back with my buddy in his '99 7GCBC Citabria from Baja. We are in level cruise flight, turning about 2,400rpm. He has his strobes turned on, it's daylight but he's running them for safety. He mentions to me that he thinks it's strange that the ammeter sometimes shows a heavy charge when he flies with his strobes on so I peer over his shoulder and sure enough, it's charging half way into the positive side of the gauge. You can even hear a little hum over the headphones while it's doing it. Then all of a sudden the hum goes away and we look and the needle has clicked over to the discharge side. He said, "Oh, it does that sometimes. I thought that was normal". I said I thought it was pretty strange and asked if he minded if I cycled the master to re-set the over voltage relay. He agreed and I did, but it had no effect. So we just continued flying for a little bit and all of a sudden it clicked back, just slightly to the positive side, but not charging hard like before. Later in the flight it repeated the whole routine.
I don't know what's going on here but he flew the following weekend with the strobes off and he said the ammeter was steady on a light charge where it should be all the while. What could the strobes be doing to the charging system? Any ideas out there?!
How's this for a puzzle? I'm flying back with my buddy in his '99 7GCBC Citabria from Baja. We are in level cruise flight, turning about 2,400rpm. He has his strobes turned on, it's daylight but he's running them for safety. He mentions to me that he thinks it's strange that the ammeter sometimes shows a heavy charge when he flies with his strobes on so I peer over his shoulder and sure enough, it's charging half way into the positive side of the gauge. You can even hear a little hum over the headphones while it's doing it. Then all of a sudden the hum goes away and we look and the needle has clicked over to the discharge side. He said, "Oh, it does that sometimes. I thought that was normal". I said I thought it was pretty strange and asked if he minded if I cycled the master to re-set the over voltage relay. He agreed and I did, but it had no effect. So we just continued flying for a little bit and all of a sudden it clicked back, just slightly to the positive side, but not charging hard like before. Later in the flight it repeated the whole routine.
I don't know what's going on here but he flew the following weekend with the strobes off and he said the ammeter was steady on a light charge where it should be all the while. What could the strobes be doing to the charging system? Any ideas out there?!