Heh HEEEh.. Eye like em cause their Shinyeeee

Nice.

I decided to buy me 1 voltwatch......I'll just put it in one plane and have that plane pull all my others.

Cheaper that way rather than buying one for each plane.

Hey.. you may be starting up a trend here. Plane trane... or plain train, or something.

How many planes will YOUR Voltwatch pull? I used mine the other day for a doorbell. Then used it after getting doorbell replaced to wash my car. Later that same day and some may not believe this but my grandson rode it to the stoor for a pack of gum. Man they have just so many uses. Let a voltmeter do all that!!!!.

A doorbell or a doorstop?

I use mine to determine if my rc plan is safe enough for another flight. It does a really good job at that.

lost my cap232 to low rx. i was stupid. it was the only plane that i didn't have a voltwatch on and it went in as i dove for a low pass. dumb and dangerous. if you don't use a voltwatch, make sure you check the voltage EVERYTIME.

be safe.

Oh man Forestroke that is terrible. We are just poking fun and then to hear that makes me cringe. Hopefully it is repairable. The Voltwatch may not be the best thing for cheking battery power but it does let you know something. I keep my batteries pretty charged up all the time. There have been occasions when i did not charge for a couple weeks and flew fine, but having a Voltwatch just gives you some peace of mind before you take your plane up. I don't own a voltmeter but alot of guys swear by them. Either way it is cheap 10- 11 dollars and looks good too. I don't know price of voltmeter as I probabaly will be stubbern and not buy one but expect they are fairly cheap also lots cheaper than a new airframe. Hate it for you my man.

CG what is that with the DOOR STOP remark? That was DOORBELL DOORBELL,

Well, if it's a small enough door...

One more thing here. The voltwatch is not a loaded device. It relies on the existing load.. RX, servos as the load. So, it cannot be used unless the system is energized.. that is, that the receiver is powered on and supplying power to the servos. Other than that, it is not something that you can just plug into a battery and expect to get a correct reading. It will be high, and not loaded.

For an out-of-circuit test, an ESV must be used, or at least a voltmeter that takes a reading across a load of some sort.

I got a voltwatch for a gift recently and I have JR equipment. The voltwatch has a tab on the side of the plug that prevents me from plugging it into my reciever. Can I cut that off or should I just send it back?

Just cut or snap it off. It'll be fine.

You can cut that plastic tab off, it will be fine. Don't forget to set the little switch to the correct voltage if you got the Voltwatch 2.

I have a JR 4.8v 1100mah Nicad pack, 4.8v 2500mah Nimh pack and a 4.8v 2000mah. I have only used the JR RX pack of 1100mah and have been able to get a full days flying (5 or so flights) no problems. I think if I had a 600mah pack I would be getting worried. So my answer is to get a big capacity RX battery pack and you can insure if you charge the batteries with a peak detection charger the night before you will have no problems.

Not always true. Yes high capacity batteries usually mean a full day of flying but a battery pack can fail at any time fully charged or not. Vibration and what not can cause a weld joint in the pack to fail or one of the cells can go bad. You should always check your battery before flying no matter how much the capacity is.

True but if the battery is going to fail due to vibration then thats the risk I will take. It will probably fail when you are flying and there is nothing you can do once its in the air. On a 4.8 volt system, if one cell fails will it cause a total loss of controls as the voltage to the RX will be too low?

It depends on how it fails. A shorted cell will still deliver the voltage of the other cells and maybe even a little from it. You may still have control but you will lose some range. If the cell opens or a weld breaks you will have no voltage at all and no control.

I recently put in a voltwatch and I think the're great! I bought 2 more for other planes. And as someone else already said, you can move your stciks around and see the load that's being drawn so you have a good idea as to when your battery is getting weak.

BrickLayer, the polarity is the same for the JR so just cut the tab off as suggested. Follow the link to see the wiring diagrams of the common radion systems. http://www.fatlion.com/sailplanes/servos.html

Guys I have a few of the original VoltWatch units and want to be sure I can use them with nimh batteries. (5 cell AA)

The original Voltwatches were only good for use on 4 cell batteries. The later versions have a switch on them so you can switch between 4 and 5 cell batteries. If you unit has the switch, it will work on either NiCad or NiMh 4 or 5 cell batteries.

OUCH no switch..hummmmmm

The "Voltwatch" is for 4-cell (4.8V) NiMH and NiCd packs only. The "Voltwatch2" has a tiny switch on the side to select between 4-cell (4.8V) and 5-cell (6V) packs. There is also a "Voltwatch 12V Field Power" unit that is for monitoring 12V field batteries for your starter/charger. They are all labeled clearly and look quite different (see photos below):

Thanks for posting this. I've always wondered about the ones without the selector switch on them. I traded for one a few months ago, but haven't used it simply because I didn't know about it with no switch.

Whai value [ohms] resistor do I need to use a six-volt battery on a volt watch 1 ? All my birds have voltwatch ones inside the canopy.