To Royal or to Mercury? That is the question.
06-21-2017, 01:50 PM
#1
To Royal or to Mercury? That is the question.
Hello RCU,
This is a jet battery backer thread. The question is less about the vendor (love PB) or whether to use a battery backer or not. It is specifically about the Royal vs Mercury. I own both and I have very specific likes and dislikes about each. I figured the Mercury has been out long enough to solicit real field based feedback on your experiences. I'm in the process of putting a bill of materials together for a new build and I need to decide on which to use on this model.
Some top of mind highlights for each.
Royal:
- SBUS - I actually use it and love it
- telemetry for both voltage and capacity for both rx batteries - huge plus
- flight assistant is more precise in terms of initially tuning the gyro - it's harder and more nerve-racking but you end up with discrete gain settings for each axis
Mercury:
- hands down smaller and lighter - love the formfactor
- limited telemetry compared to the Royal, but you get want you need, which is volts for each batt.
- flight assistant is more basic & practically takes a couple seconds to tune - issue is you end up with a good overall gyro setting rather than a great setting - that said, it's a higher quality/improved gyro, I think.
Anyway, I know what I like about each but I'm sincerely interested to know what you guys would use if you were to do it again.
Thanks in advance for your time and feedback.
sc
This is a jet battery backer thread. The question is less about the vendor (love PB) or whether to use a battery backer or not. It is specifically about the Royal vs Mercury. I own both and I have very specific likes and dislikes about each. I figured the Mercury has been out long enough to solicit real field based feedback on your experiences. I'm in the process of putting a bill of materials together for a new build and I need to decide on which to use on this model.
Some top of mind highlights for each.
Royal:
- SBUS - I actually use it and love it
- telemetry for both voltage and capacity for both rx batteries - huge plus
- flight assistant is more precise in terms of initially tuning the gyro - it's harder and more nerve-racking but you end up with discrete gain settings for each axis
Mercury:
- hands down smaller and lighter - love the formfactor
- limited telemetry compared to the Royal, but you get want you need, which is volts for each batt.
- flight assistant is more basic & practically takes a couple seconds to tune - issue is you end up with a good overall gyro setting rather than a great setting - that said, it's a higher quality/improved gyro, I think.
Anyway, I know what I like about each but I'm sincerely interested to know what you guys would use if you were to do it again.
Thanks in advance for your time and feedback.
sc
Last edited by skunkwurk; 06-21-2017 at 02:39 PM.
06-21-2017, 02:14 PM
#2
My Feedback: (360)
Not so far
Have never used any type of backer so far-and have been modeling for 30 + years.
My current setup is (2) A123 with (2) JR Chargeswitches, directly into the Rx. The only thing to remember is you must unplug one of the batteries from the Rx before charging, to break the common ground that exists between the two when they are both connected.
Powerbox has some cool features, but it is yet another link in the chain. Failure rates on the PB stuff are pretty low, but they do happen. Keep it simple....
Just my opinion-
Mike O.
My current setup is (2) A123 with (2) JR Chargeswitches, directly into the Rx. The only thing to remember is you must unplug one of the batteries from the Rx before charging, to break the common ground that exists between the two when they are both connected.
Powerbox has some cool features, but it is yet another link in the chain. Failure rates on the PB stuff are pretty low, but they do happen. Keep it simple....
Just my opinion-
Mike O.
06-21-2017, 03:31 PM
#5
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Gold Coast, Queensland, AUSTRALIA
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sc,
I also use both the Royale and the Mercury and my observations are very much the same as yours - both are great products and I think the decision for me will be based on two aspects to start:
- If space is not an issue, the Royale will be my choice (especially if I want the best-of-best).
- Secondly, how many channels output do I need - the Royale will give you 16+2 and the Mercury 15.
Half the fun is building up to the maiden the other half of the fun; is dependent on a successfully first half....LOL
Cheers,
Jan
I also use both the Royale and the Mercury and my observations are very much the same as yours - both are great products and I think the decision for me will be based on two aspects to start:
- If space is not an issue, the Royale will be my choice (especially if I want the best-of-best).
- Secondly, how many channels output do I need - the Royale will give you 16+2 and the Mercury 15.
Half the fun is building up to the maiden the other half of the fun; is dependent on a successfully first half....LOL
Cheers,
Jan
06-21-2017, 03:56 PM
#6
I am also a huge PB fan and have used pretty much all of their products, but have to say that the Mercury is one of their "not so good" ones. The setup assistant is horrible and very unflexible. I think it's made for newbies, but if you have used the Royal before, I'd not like to go back. Also the Royal has more outputs (16 channels / 24 ports) instead of 15 for the Mercury. Another advantage of the Royal is of course the S-Bus outputs, but these make sense only if you buy their "Power bus" distributors. You can also run 6V and HV servos at the same time with the Royal. If you are going to use the PB in a model that has vector thrust or a delta configuration, you will also prefer the Royal, because the built-in iGyro SRS has a few more functions than the iGyro 3e that is integrated in the Mercury.
Your statement about the gyro gains is incorrect, though. Even the Mercury supports different gains for each axis if you set them in the "Gyro settings" sub-menu.
To me it would come down to what model I am going to build. If it's not a very complex model without vector thrust and no delta wings, I would probably go with the Mercury again. But if size, weight and few few extra Dollars don't matter, I would always chose the Royal.
Thomas
Your statement about the gyro gains is incorrect, though. Even the Mercury supports different gains for each axis if you set them in the "Gyro settings" sub-menu.
To me it would come down to what model I am going to build. If it's not a very complex model without vector thrust and no delta wings, I would probably go with the Mercury again. But if size, weight and few few extra Dollars don't matter, I would always chose the Royal.
Thomas
06-22-2017, 03:54 PM
#9
I am also a huge PB fan and have used pretty much all of their products, but have to say that the Mercury is one of their "not so good" ones. The setup assistant is horrible and very unflexible. I think it's made for newbies, but if you have used the Royal before, I'd not like to go back. Also the Royal has more outputs (16 channels / 24 ports) instead of 15 for the Mercury. Another advantage of the Royal is of course the S-Bus outputs, but these make sense only if you buy their "Power bus" distributors. You can also run 6V and HV servos at the same time with the Royal. If you are going to use the PB in a model that has vector thrust or a delta configuration, you will also prefer the Royal, because the built-in iGyro SRS has a few more functions than the iGyro 3e that is integrated in the Mercury.
Your statement about the gyro gains is incorrect, though. Even the Mercury supports different gains for each axis if you set them in the "Gyro settings" sub-menu.
To me it would come down to what model I am going to build. If it's not a very complex model without vector thrust and no delta wings, I would probably go with the Mercury again. But if size, weight and few few extra Dollars don't matter, I would always chose the Royal.
Thomas
Your statement about the gyro gains is incorrect, though. Even the Mercury supports different gains for each axis if you set them in the "Gyro settings" sub-menu.
To me it would come down to what model I am going to build. If it's not a very complex model without vector thrust and no delta wings, I would probably go with the Mercury again. But if size, weight and few few extra Dollars don't matter, I would always chose the Royal.
Thomas
Thank you for your feedback, I agree with your points.
Just one point of clarification. What I meant regarding the gyro gain was referring to the use of flight assistant specifically. You are correct in that both the Royal and the Mercury can be setup with discrete gain settings for each axis. The difference is that the Royal allows you to tune each axis in one flight. The Mercury on the other hand, sets all the axis to the same gain setting. Basically you end up identifying which axis begins to oscillate first and you are done with the flight assistant. You then have to go back and individually find the oscillation point for the other axis, if needed. Which may take a couple more flights. What I have seen in my Mercury model is that the initial setting is pretty good.
Both approaches have their merits, it's really a matter of how much fine tuning you want to do outside of the flight assistant. With some of these jets, the first flight is so nerve racking that the less I have to tune before I have a working/active gyro the better. I hope that helps clear up what I meant.
sc
06-22-2017, 03:57 PM
#10
sc,
I also use both the Royale and the Mercury and my observations are very much the same as yours - both are great products and I think the decision for me will be based on two aspects to start:
- If space is not an issue, the Royale will be my choice (especially if I want the best-of-best).
- Secondly, how many channels output do I need - the Royale will give you 16+2 and the Mercury 15.
Half the fun is building up to the maiden the other half of the fun; is dependent on a successfully first half....LOL
Cheers,
Jan
I also use both the Royale and the Mercury and my observations are very much the same as yours - both are great products and I think the decision for me will be based on two aspects to start:
- If space is not an issue, the Royale will be my choice (especially if I want the best-of-best).
- Secondly, how many channels output do I need - the Royale will give you 16+2 and the Mercury 15.
Half the fun is building up to the maiden the other half of the fun; is dependent on a successfully first half....LOL
Cheers,
Jan
06-22-2017, 04:03 PM
#11
Hi Anton,
That's an excellent point, the s-bus really makes for a clean install in terms of cable management, connectors and even weight savings. Thank you for your feedback.
BTW- Great job posting all of the testing videos, I think you're definitely differentiating Skymaster from other vendors by doing that. nice job!
sc
