sfaust
Posts: 1804
Joined: 9/6/2002
From: Boston,
MA, USA
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Stars
I use the Alpha 4, which isn't anything new, but it does have the ability to show amount discharged. The Super Nova would be its equivalent, but with a higher amp charge rate, and only a single port. In essence, they do the same thing, but the Alpha can do 4 packs independently, whereas the SuperNova can only do 1 at a time.
Showing what gets put back in a pack isn't as useful, and can be misleading. Since there is a loss associated with the charging process, it can mislead you into thinking that you used less than you really did. The best way to check the capacity is to use what was left after your flying sessions. The SuperNova shows what was put back in, which will probably be 10% more than what was actually needed. The Alpha 4 only shows what was taken out (remaining capacity).
With that said, the mah put back in can be a good secondary reference point between capacity checking. If you feel you have used maybe 900mha of flying (ie, say 3 10 minutes flights), and it shows it put in 1700mah, you know something is amiss. With the Alpha, the only way I would know is that the charge took much longer than I was used to. Not as useful, but if you pay attention to it, thats also a good indication.
You will like the Super Nova. A nice charger. I have one also, and even though I rarely use it, I am hesitant to sell it because its just plain cool.
mgalvin,
Was the 28mah rate on the 33% with a single battery, or two? I should probably go back and check my notes to make sure my memory isn't failing. I seem to remember that my average was around 250mah to feed one receiver and half the servos, for about a 12 minute flight. I will go back and check just to make sure. I would test it next time I fly, but that could be spring seeing how I am buried in 12" of snow at the moment.
I don't fly IMAC, but prefer to freestyle. However, much of the flying I do is IMAC in spirit, with some 3D thrown in. Figure a flight consists of a bunch of IMAC maneuvers for turnarounds at the ends of the box, and in the middle I tend to do knife edge, knife edge snaps to knife edge, harriers, elevators, blenders, and other typical hot dog maneuvers. I don't torque roll, as I haven't practiced it much since it doesn't interest as much as the other maneuvers. I use the smoke quite a bit, which also feeds off the receiver battery, but to be honest, I believe when I last measured I was using the TME smoke pump which runs off a separate battery.
I think we may assume that since the servos are able to suck up to 2amps each when fully stalled, its easy to think the current draw will be very high during a flight. In reality, they may only draw close to an amp in extreme movements, and only for he split second of movement to get there. Once in position, they draw far less current. And with the speed at which they can move, they tend to get there quickly. On the other hand, I would also think that when the fingers always moving the sticks, there must be a lot of current moving around.
When spring rolls around, I think I will do a very methodical test, and do some very accurate measurements. At least it will tell me in my setup, exactly what the rate per minute is. I'll also try some flights with heavy 3D, and some smooth and more pattern like. I'd be curious.
I did have one unexpected test that was bestowed upon me last year. A test to see if all the wiring, servos, connectors, and receivers could withstand the almost complete dumping of a 1600mah Duralite pack in one 8 minute flight. I had a servo on the rudder go bad, and the other servo was fighting it. Both rudder servos were on the same receiver in a dual receiver seutp. I was shocked when I landed and saw the C-Volt meter reading in the 3.x range!
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Stephen
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Which Multimeter logging software to use - 
Which Multimeter logging software to use -