We’ve tested it at KITPLANES so we know it works. But now we can say that you, too, can purchase and get immediate delivery on TCW Technologies’ Integrated Back-up Battery System (IBBS). For $375 you get a nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) battery pack, battery charger and automatic back-up power switching hardware that is a simple fix, installation-wise, for either a new or retrofit instrument panel. The integrated system weighs just 2.5 pounds, putting it at less than half the weight of a similar-sized lead-acid battery, and can provide 4 amperes at 12 volts for just under an hour, according to Bob Newman, Jr., co-founder of TCW. Newman has been in on the design of some other TCW safety-oriented products including Safety-Trim, Intelligent Flap-Controller and Intelligent Power Stabilizer.
We asked Newman, why NiMH, when the even lighter and more energy-dense lithium-ion technology exists? “The aviation consumer marketplace is still quite wary of the lithium-ion batteries, because of issues that were widely publicized with laptop batteries,” he said. “From an engineer’s perspective, it is a good technology, with perhaps some weak points around its performance in cold-weather situations. We’d consider it, when the market is ready for it. Meanwhile, the NiMH technology is far better than the old lead-acid batteries, and we have proven it to be stable enough to be extremely safe for use behind the typical instrument panel or in a remote-mount situation.”
For more information, visit tcwtech.com.
