Hi Tony,
Because of the high currents needed from the rear battery, one could
substitute the relay with a solenoid of high amperage. Since it might be
hard to find a non-expensive relay to do the same.
If the solenoid needs a small amount of power on the coil to keep it on,
then when you flip the switch, there would be no power from the battery,
going forward, and no small amount of power from the panel to the solenoid
(and no female-minded electrons running around :) ).
I am not positive they exist, but you might be able to find a solenoid that
will stay either on or off after the original signal to turn if off/on is
taken away. I know there are small relays like this, there are probably
solenoids this way too. If that is the case, then you could actuate the
solenoid and take the original power away, when turning it off...or on. In
the event of a crash, (unlike the previous solenoid, which is spring driven
in one direction) the force could slide the internal bar in this 'noid' to
the on position, so be careful to have the 'off' position on the side that
it would slide to, if a crash happened.
There is another option. Many/most? Fuel injected cars have a cut-off switch
in the event of an impact. This is so, because the high pressure pumps would
supply a lot of fuel to a fire, after the fuel lines were severed, which is
almost guaranteed to happen in a high impact crash and metal fuel lines.
This switch could be used to turn off pretty much whatever you like, and it
would happen right at the moment of impact. I am not sure of their current
rating right now, but they are pretty high, possibly even being capable of
cutting power off to the entire vehicle. Might be worth looking into, since
it kind of matches the application. They have a reset button on them, in
the event that you want to turn them back on, and would be very cheap at a
second-hand automotive recyclers (U-Pull-it, and such).
As far as killing off alternator power, are you talking about in the event
of a crash? If so, it would happen automatically if the engine were off, and
not turning. Since we are all skilled pilots :) ), one might be able to
assume that the engine was off, if we are going down. There are ways to
short out the windings from the alternator, to keep the current looping from
the output of the alternator, back into itself, which keep the voltage way
down (along with a chance for a spark), but I am not sure if the
complication is necessary or needed. Besides, it adds one more thing that
can fail, and in the bad way of cutting off the alternator.
Hit me with questions if you like, otherwise...I hope this helps a bit.
Greg Fuchs A050
--> <tonyrenshaw268@gmail.com>
Gidday,
I am electron averse. They take on personalities whenever I interact, and
most often I think they are female. Suffice to say, they do what they want
to, and change their minds! So, I'd like to kill them off from my aft
mounted battery. I am planning a kill switch in the passenger headrest area,
but was wondering running a single Rotax alternator if anyone has advice on
whether I could run a "relay" that would isolate the large battery voltage
with a small charge via a panel mounted switch? Rather than a big kill
switch like the great one Bob Borger is using from Flaming River
http://www.flamingriver.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=product/product_id=64/categ
ory_id=133/home_id=231/mode=prod/prd64.htm
is there another way of achieving this same goal? I suppose in the case of a
crash it would mean that you would have voltage still coming forward of the
relay to the switch, on the panel, but it would be small and could be choked
to be of low amperage? couldn't it? That way a short would kill a fuse and
not create a large spark as a source of ignition. Would it be possible then
to wire the relay such that when it was isolated, it would also turn off the
power forward of it to operate the relay too, so that there would be "NO"
power coming forward? I suppose then the switch would become useless at
turning power back on, so maybe a relay could be used in another way?
Is there any point in being able to isolate....kill off alternator voltage
?? I'm not sure if the Rotax alternator has an inbuilt function or whether
its voltage must be monitored by such a device if included, prior to the
battery. Is this the right idea for setting up the alternator circuit?
Reg
Tony Renshaw
P.S. I apologise if this is covered in the manual, however I am away from
the book for a few days with work, and am crunching away these ideas
remotely.
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