RE: JetJoe OWNERS thread
Hi.
Here is a quick and dirty guide.
First of all i assume that you have trained the Fadec with you tx throttle movement range,
that the glow plug has at least one turn of its filament brought out of the glow plug's body,
perpenticular to the other filament turns, that the gas and fuel feeds are connected correctly
and that the ECU battery pack is fully charged.
The starting process and some troubleshooting follows below:
1) Advance the throttle to max and then back again in order to give the start command to the fadec.
2) The Fadec should indicate "glow plug test" and during this period it is normal or not unusual if you like
to see the rpm meter fluctuating between ~65000 rpm and 0.
3) After hearing that metallic "click" sound indicating that the gas solenoid is energized then you should open the gas valve on the propane-butane bottle and start feeding gas to the turbine. The starter motor is engaged after the solenoid is activated and the turbine starts to spin.
Check that the solenoid is working and that it let the gas reach the turbine's combustion chamber. You should be able to hear the gas flowing from the exhaust of the turbine (that "SSssssss" sound).
Then comes the magic moment when a somewhat loud pop should be heard that indicates that the gas has iginited in the combustion chamber.
The temperature reading should be rising now. The Fadec need to record a temperature of over 100 C or a rapid temperature increase in order to be sure that gas ignition has commenced.
If you don't hear the "pop" sound and the temperature reading is a constant ambient temperature, recheck that you feed gas to the turbine at the proper rate, most of the time there is too much gas going in the turbine.
In order to give just the correct gas flow follow the below directions:
First make sure that the start gas valve is set to closed position so no gas is allowed to come out from the gas bottle.
Then remove the electric power completely in order to reset the fadec and repeat the starting cycle.
After you give the start command using the throttle stick and the turbine starts spinning and the "click" sound indicates that the gas solenoid is open, turn open the gas valve slowly, you might loose the first starting cycle but there are a couple more so don't be very anxious to start the turbine and choke it with gas. After you hear the pop sound open the valve just a bit more and mark that position of the gas valve so you know how much to open the valve next time.
The glow plug power should be set to 45 maximum!!! for the first few attempts just to be sure that the gas will ignite.
Beyond 45, the glow plug's element will melt. you should get consistent ignition with a good glow plug like the OS 4 stroke with a value of 40 max.
4) The Fadec probably has already started spinning the turbine shaft by applying power to the starter motor.
During the initial turbine shaft acceleration the rpm readings should get clear and consistent when the rpm get above ~2000 rpm.
It is not unusual to see the rpm readings fluctuate below say 2000 rpm.
For example: rpm indication = 1000rpm+noise, noise, 1500rpm+noise, noise, 2000rpm + little noise, 2500rpm clear and consistent after that.
The rpm noise is more evident during spool down than spooling up.
If you can't achieve clear and consistent rpm readings above say 2000rpm then twist hard the glow plug wires together, all the way from the fadec to the glow plug and route them as far as possible from the rpm sensor. Orientation of the glow plug's wiring is also a significant factor. The point where you connect the black wire (ground) of the glow plug on the turbine's body is very significant and it should be as near to the glow plug as possible making a clean and solid connection. Best is to connect the black wire directly to the glow plug's body using a washer.
Some caution here because the black glow plug wire is actually not ground but the + pole of the battery pack.
The turbine's body in reality is at positive potential and not at minus (ground) level.
I believe this is true for Fadec versions prior to version 5, after version 5 the polarities changed to normal i think but i am not sure.
You should not let any other cable than the black glow plug wire touch the turbine's body because this will cause a short cirquit.
As mentioned from other posts make sure that the starter motor has those three capacitors (noise filter) fitted and that it has enough power to start the turbine.
A quick test is to disconnect the electric motor from the fadec and connect it directly to the 6 cell pack.
The turbine should then turn at its maximum non fuel assisted rpm which should be equal or above 12000 rpm.
If your rpm don't exceed this, replace the starter motor.
Also make sure that the starter motor is centered to the turbine shaft axis.
Many JJ engines have their starter motors not correctly aligned with the turbine's shaft and this can lead to many many problems like sticking clutch, high egt temperatures during start up etc.
5) The starter motor might stop turning the motor but when the rpm fall to say 2000 rpm it will start turning the turbine's shaft again. That can happen because the temperature did not exceed 100C fast enough in the first cycle so the fadec will stop the starter
motor and proceed to try #2. This is normal. That can happen up to three times, after that the fadec will issue a fault and stop trying.
6) Now that the temperature is rising fast over 200C and the rpm get above say 8000 rpm or what is programmed in the Fadec's parameters, the pump will start feeding fuel to the turbine and the turbine will start accelerating.
7) The turbine might hesitate a couple times looking at the rpm readings and sit at some rpm ranges for a while but this is normal
and eventually it will reach the idle rpm and the fadec will show "running". Normally from gas ignition to reaching idle it takes ~30 seconds.
8) If everything looks good but the turbine doesn't start get the fadec manual and reset all the fadec parameters to the values
listed for the MW54 turbine (not the KJ66!) and try again.
Thats it, i hope i helped somewhat.
Chris