rgreen24

My Feedback: (6)

Today March 21st is certainly my lucky day. I have been planning to replace my receiver pack for about 2 weeks and wanted to wait for local hobyy store to get it. After my last flight today wen i was putting the plane away i noticed that my 7.4 730 mah cell pack had puffed. Again, i wanted to replace the pack becuase when fully charged it would only read 8.27 volts as opposed to the 8.39 that it would normally be. I always check before each flight with a load meter to make sure that they battery can take load that the servos need to operate properly. Long and short of it is check, double check and triple check your batteries, to make sure that they are still good. Lucky pilot signing off

mups53

My Feedback: (41)

That would have been a real bad way to start the season. You got lucky and that ain't all bad. Did Ron get his Impact flying yet? Mike

d_bodary

My Feedback: (85)

I'd rather be lucky than good anyday.

rgreen24

My Feedback: (6)

Yeah Mike; he has got his Impact flying and he is flying it pretty good. He is going back and forth as to what class he will fly this year. He is considering masters. But with you and the other Chicago gang flying masters; i think i will wait till they invent some new class in between Master and FAI; that way i can stand a chance in masters

d_bodary

My Feedback: (85)

Robert join us in Masters. I got killed all last year. Even try FaI i did once last year and finished SECOND. Did i mention the number in the class? No well, guess what there was only two.

rgreen24

My Feedback: (6)

Are you having fun Dennis? if you are that's all that matters; if your not having fun you need to practice more and if you practice more you'll have more fun; that the theory right????

d_bodary

My Feedback: (85)

I always have fun. I don't worry about practice to much. Most of my practice is done the day before the contest. Allthough i start days Monday. So it is possible i will get to practice on the weekdays after work.

byoung466

My Feedback: (16)

My 2nd flight this year last weekend, I land the plane and at the end of rollout I throttle up to taxi back but have no rudder, aileron or elevator....but it still takes throttle (what do we call throttle on E planes?).

So I walk out and verify this. No go, pop the top and the green receiver light is on, then blinks out as I watch.

This puzzles me a little as I could swear the battery was charged, I checked before flight at 8.1V's, it is a 2S 800 Mah Lipo. I checked the pack after flight and its between 3 and 4 V, I put it on the cell Pro and it starts taking a charge but at the Low Voltage feature and reads 0% capacity. Finally it takes 700 mah charge. So either I ran it flat do to poor memory, or something else went wrong. It didn't puff.

Yes take care of your batteries........now...do I run this recovered battery or not...hmmmmm...nahhh.

mups53

My Feedback: (41)

Maybe we should just put a new pack in every year. Both of you are super lucky to have planes. Mike

NJRCFLYER2

My Feedback: (42)

Or run a redundant set of LiPo's with dual regulators. That turns your close call into nothing more eventful than another $30 charge on your MC for the replacement battery!

rcpattern

My Feedback: (45)

I've been running one of the Tech Aero dual regulators and love it. 100% adjustable and definitely worth it. I almost lost my Black Magic last Sept to a battery. Did tear it up some and had to get it repaired. If I'd been flying the regulator then, I wouldn't have had that problem.

Arch

rgreen24

My Feedback: (6)

Where can i buy this peace of mind you speak of?

NJRCFLYER2

My Feedback: (42)

www.tech-aero.net

OhD

Arch,

I didn't look at all their products but I didn't see anything that could tell you your battery was going to fail unless you took the time to test it with another device. Is that correct or did I miss something?

Jim O

NJRCFLYER2

My Feedback: (42)

I'll take this one - ofcourse you still have to test your batteries. Since these regulators are very closely matched to each other, it provides for a very even load balance between the redundant battery packs when both batteries are healthy. Once you have observed that behavior, it makes it a simple matter to monitor each battery before each flight to assure they are tracking to known behavior. It also lets you more easily determine battery health by making note of how much you put back into each pack when re-charging. When that behavior starts to change, you know it's time to look at whether a battery is going south on you.

I should also add that you will survive a complete failure of any one battery, wire, etc. That's the key to this configuration. And the regulators are all failsafe in design, so switches aren't ever going to cause an issue.

Another feature is that they are very low dropout voltage regulators, so it is more likely that even a single battery / single regulator configuration can survive a one cell failure and let you land safely, since only a couple of tenths of a volt is dropped across the regulator when the battery voltage input to the regulator falls below the pre-set output voltage. For example, a LiPo pack has a cell die, but is still capable of delivering current. You have about 4V left to work with. The output of the regulator will be 3.8V, enough to get you home in a lot of cases.

OhD

I guess that is a yes.

JimO

kcnelson

Redundant power should be a good thing....

I've been running a UBEC from my 10s for the last 3 years, plus a regulated 730 with rectifier diodes on both connectors to the receiver. (There are lots of opinions on whether that is needed or not.) A couple of weeks ago, I was finishing a round but when I tried to pull out of the spin there was no response. My Integral went straight down.

The UBEC had a burn spot on the wrapper, and under it was a square component that had some soot on it. My only guess is that it was shorting for at least a couple of seconds, and it takes about another second for the receiver to come back from being locked out. There isn't a lot of time when pulling out of a spin, so that combination got me.

I'll still run with this setup.

Ken

OhD

Ken, if you had a diode between the UBEC and the receiver, a short in the UBEC would not affect the voltage at the receiver as the battery/regulator would supply the required current. The diode would block the current from flowing to the shorted UBEC. How did the system perform after the crash? I believe you need to look for another cause.

Jim O

kcnelson

If the short wasn't instantaneous (but arcing for a couple of seconds) then the noise generated might have interfered with the receiver.

After picking up the pieces, everything was OK except the speed controller (split in half), the UBEC, and TP 5300. 730 lipo was dented but worked fine. Switch was OK. Receiver was OK. Even the motor survived and is back in my Symphony. (Just to be safe, I'm using a different receiver and a new switch / regulator)

There is a very slight chance that I didn't turn the switch on before flying, but I'm pretty consistent about checking controls. When I insert the shorting plug, I get power through the UBEC to the receiver without going through a switch, and that would have allowed flying right up until the end.

Ken

NJRCFLYER2

My Feedback: (42)

Older firmware versions of Spektrum receivers will go through nearly 2 seconds of reset recovery time under these conditions. If this was a Spektrum receiver, sending it in for a firmware upgrade will do the trick. Recovery from such an event is nearly instantaneous.

kcnelson

I was running Futaba 129DP a real antique!

NJRCFLYER2

My Feedback: (42)

Guess you really startled it, eh? Not good for any receiver to ride through that type of event!

AmericanSpectre505

Yep,...I will be switching to Tech-Aero myself.




Bill Holsten


Advantage Hobby&Fliton RC Field Rep/Duralite Batteries/Custom airframes of America/Drangon Fire Custom Graphics/ Guardian America.