Jetfllyer,

I just had Andy Lowe repair my ECU because of damage caused by the very thing your asking about.........charging the ECU battery with it still connected. Apparently a problem arrises when you charge both the ECU and receiver at the same time, which is what I was doing. When I sent in the ECU for repair I attached a note telling him what I'd been doing and asked him to let my know if it caused the problem. Here's a cut and paste of the reply he sent me......hope it clears things up.

John


You ECU has been repaired and will be shipped out today.

Found an intermittent malfunctioning computer board in the ECU - possibly blown out by out-of-spec voltages? I replaced it with a new board, and tested and calibrated it, it's all working now.

You mention in your letter that you have been charging the battery with the ECU in-place. It should not cause a problem, except if you are charging the Rx battery at the same time, the version of the ECU hardware you have has a common ground between the ECU and the Rx. With a common ground, chargers can have unpredictable behavior. To avoid problems, we recommend you charge the ECU battery disconnected from the ECU.

To help with your situation, I have made up and sent you a 12" Sermos Extension, so you can unplug the battery and charge it the recommended way. Please do be careful to mark the wire harness so you know which end goes to the battery, so you do not accidentally "charge" the ECU instead of the battery (this is easy to do with the battery buried in the airplane).! Connecting the ECU to the charger is a sure-fire way to blow it out!