I installed a Voltwatch on the side of my plane. When I turn on the switch, the meter glows a green light. When I move the joysticks around, the meter jumps around. I thought I recall somebody saying that if the 'lights are dancing around' you have a problem, but I feel that if I am moving the joysticks around I am creating 'noise' in the system, and the sensitive light should be bouncing around. When you let go of the sticks, it returns to its original state. Does this sound OK?

Please note: If you don't like Voltwatch and are not going to politely answer my question to the best of your knowledge, please don't respond [:'(]

Thanks.

Mine "jiggels " a little..

The lights will change as you move the servos becuase they are drawing current.
That's one of the things you want to watch for. Make sure its not constantly dipping into
the red when the servos are moving, not just when it's motionless.

OK, so everything seems pretty normal then. The battery is definitely not fully charged, and moving the controller around a BUNCH moves the light jumping between green and yellow, then returns to the second or third green light from the 'full charge' position.

Thanks!

Yep, I`ve used volt watches on three of my airplanes and the lights will dance some when you move the sticks for the reasons mentioned. My personal rule is to recharge ( or quit flying that particular plane for the day ) if I start getting a dip into the red light. I try to err to the side of caution by being conservative when it comes to batteries. Lost a 4* 40 to a bad battery. It wasn`t pretty!

Thanks. I doubt there's any comfort in knowing that us beginners will benefit from your mistakes

another thing to look for:
When you move a stick all the way and hold it there the lights should be steady, if they continue dancing it is a sign that you are binding the servo and should adjust end points or make mechanical adjustments to limit travel.

even when the batt. is fully charged the light will "dance" a bit when applying a load,using the sticks on the radio.
I am pretty conservative with battery power levels, when the voltwatch is on the last green light its time to put that plane in the truck, and pull another out there just too valuble to me to risk it.
of course not everyone has more than one plane to fly on a particular day(I usually bring 2 to the field,sometimes 3 if its going to be a all day thing)but having a extra reciever batt isn't a bad idea if you are planning on flying more than 3-4 flights in a session,I have found that a typical Futaba 600mah batt. is good for about 3-4, 12-15min.flights before its drained down to the point of a safe level to fly,on most of my planes,not all but most, I have gone to a 1,000-1,500mah batt. because I have more servos to drive and they drain the smaller batt. down too fast for more than 2 flights.
with alot of transmitters there is a low voltage alarm or at least a safety meter to let you know when there out of juice,I use the voltwatch to check the power before the flying day.

I am going to permanently install them in stelth locations on my planes I ordered a couple more just for that purpose ,ie. inside the cockpit area so I can check the voltage when the planes are assembled through the canopy with WWII planes a voltwatch doesn't look all that great stuck to the side of a fuse but I am sold on the value of a on board meter.

All of the above.

What happens is this: When you first turn on the receiver, assuming that you follow the TX first and RX second (what we are usually taught from the beginning as the process to turn on the electrical power to a model controls) is that if the control surfaces are not exactly centered, the servo's will self correct or center to where they belong. That will cause an initial flash of green, followed by some "movement" of the lights toward the yellow, then it should go right back to solid green (fully charged RX battery).

Now, if a control surface is stuck, jammed somehow, that servo will try to center and draw current as it does so. And probably chatter. This will move the green light and may to to yellow until the problem is cleared. This means that it is drawing a lot of current to correct the servo position. If this happens, shut down and see if you can identify what's wrong and fix it before flying.

If it goes to the green right away as it should, then wiggle all sticks, usually to full deflection and watch the voltwatch. The lights will move according to the load you put on the battery caused by servo movement, then when movement stops, should go back to the first green LED (not the one next to the yellow, but the one on the opposite end) indicating you are good to go.

If it moves into the yellow when moving, identify what servo is loading things down a bit and see if it's ok. This could be a load caused by all servos moving at the same time as you wiggle both sticks, or if you have one that is binding, (throttle usually), then it needs to be adjusted. This is usually caused by the throttle linkage being forced to move "beyond full or idle" which will push against or pull on the linkage as the servo reaches the end points. Adjust this so that full throttle stick movement moves the throttle only to full and not attempt to go beyond.. and back to idle only to the limits of movement of the throttle arm and not to overload the servo by trying to move the throttle beyond idle. It should be smooth and not end up limiting on the throttle on the carb.

With all that said, the same goes for all other controls, but is usually the throttle at fault. Unless you are trying to push the control surfaces beyond what the hinges and hinged points will allow.. This should all have been set before you even maiden flew the plane, on the ground, on the build table so that you don't have these problems at the field.

If all is adjusted right, the indication (not a calibration by any means, by the way) should give you a green with small "excursions" toward the yellow. You may have a flashing yellow when moving the sticks, but never red. Depending on the load, this is normal. When flying, you will probably never move all the sticks all the way at one time.

The voltwatch is not an ESV and should not be used in place of a good ESV, but as a spot check of the battery condition and as a tool to monitor servo loads on the receiver battery pack before and after flight. It will give you a "heads-up" on battery charge level so that you will know when it's time to charge or if you have enough to continue flying. No more, no less.
CGr.

I have been using them on and off for years and like them. Like mentioned though, I still use A good volt meter with A load and check my batteries after each flight.
Another good unit is the GEM 2000, I think it's still made? I have A couple still in my shop so I haven't had to buy one in years. I use those in my bigger planes because they can tell you of other on board problems. The price is A lot more then the VW so I don't use them on everything.
Someone may post up and tell us this answer. When I started using VWs they only had them for 4.8. {I think} And now today they have them in both 4.8 and 6v. Because I had A bunch of them I haven't had to buy any in years. I think I saw this in A magazine or the Tower book.
My question is are they either or?? 4.8 or 6v and do you have to buy them for the voltage you are using??
Guess I could look it up but I'm sure I'm not the only one with that question.

They have a little switch on the side that sets it to either 4.8 or 6 volts.

CGr.

there is the VWII thats dual purpose you can switch from 4.8v to 6v, either/or, not both at the same time but it's nice to have that option,the volt monitor is no replacement for a good volt meter,with a load checker, but there a handy little tool for a spot check durring the flying day for sure.
hey your quick for a OG lol

You're right. The nice thing is that you can watch servo action and their effect on battery power. Great tool but definitely no replacement for a good ESV.

The first VW I tried saved my 60 size Sea Fury by reading a steady "red light" at the end of the third flight!! It was due to a bad cell that had reversed. I would have missed it if not for the VW. Every new plane gets a VW now! Inexpensive means of giving a "Heads UP!" protection and well worth it!!!

That's nice to know. After reading this I went out to the shop and looked, none of mine have the switch to change over. Guess I may have to break down and spend some money to bring myself back up to date.
An old trick was to remove the plastic face plate and install the little LEDs from the bottom of the floor board and have lights showing through down by the pilots feet or on the dash itself so you could look inside the canopy and see the lights. Nothing special, just looked cool.

IMHO I think the VW is much better than a loaded voltmeter. Not only is it always there without having to plug it in each flight, it give you much more better information. If you see those lights dancing more than two or three lights everytime you move the sticks, you know you have either a high impedance battery, a dirty or corroded switch, to small a gage wire between the battery and receiver, a sticky control setup on one or more servos or a combination of any two or more of those problems. Also, if you check it at the end of each flight and the battery is still in the green, you have been excercising the battery with the actual load you use.

Thanks for all the input. This thread was about the proper use of Voltwatch, and not whether it is effective, better than or worse than any other equipment. There was a recent, similar thread that started to get ugly, and I prefer not to see that happen.