CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

No, it does not. However, it gives you a pretty good indication of any linkage binding and a chance to fix it before flying. Hey, it's not an expensive tool, just an aid to help someone identify a potential problem. Not to many of us go to the extreme of measuring individual channel current draw while in flight. Not to many of us have the equipment nor the expertise to do such a measurement. I am an Electrical Engineer and am very familiar with such measurements, so I am capable of doing this sort of thing. However, for the type of flying many, and I may say most, of us do, this is just not that important an issue (in-flight current draw).

If I have a fully charged 1200 mil amp battery that lasts three flights, then there is a reason for that, and I will pursue that problem. But, if I fly most of the day on that same battery, monitoring my voltwatch after each flight, then that's what I bought it for. Hey, for only $10.00, it's quite a useful tool to have and serves it's purpose. It's an on-board, inexpensive current draw device. And it works. Period. And I don't think it was ever designed to do much more than that.

I've seen in-flight monitors and recorders.. not something that many people are willing to fork over the $$$ necessary to purchase such as system. Now, if you have a $2,500 scale model of some such aircraft, then it may be worth your while to get something like that. But, as I said, for most of us, it's just not an issue. A simple current draw monitor, such as the Voltwatch, is just fine.

CGr.

MetallicaJunkie

i have one in a cockpit with double sided tape, and another on the outside close the to the switch

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

I had one in a canopy with cleat tape behind it holding it on. The other one I had cut a small strip out of the covering in the side of my plane, installed the voltwatch behind it, and put clear tape over the outside, so all you could see was the lights, not the rest of the voltwatch.

Buying 2 of the knockoff brands I'd save maybe $6. Like someone said, if something goes wrong or doesn't work, what happens? Hobbico's customer service is amazing, might just be worth the extra few bucks.

Another great thing about voltwatch is that it's a light indicator if you've turned your plane off or not - usually there's no light to see if the plan is on, but with voltwatch there is.

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

Oh, scratch that...I trust hobby city a little, and those are CHEAP!!!

Thanks Metallica Junky, I'm thankful that today my Master of Puppets has become model airplanes That is like the best album in HISTORY.

cappaj1

My Feedback: (1)

Don't you have to push a button for it to light up?

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

No they light up when you turn the plane on, they turn off when the plane is off. You just look at your plane when it's on and know if you are safe to fly or not. They're really great, and I hate flying without them. I'm sure you see that people debate how great they really are, but most guys don't even check batteries between flights. With this, you can't really ignore it! Also, at the end of a flight when I turn off the plane switch, the voltwatch is right there, and a quick wiggle of the sticks shows how tired the battery is. They're totally worth it.

Rodney

Wiggling the sticks may not duplicate the loads in flight but; if you check the status right after landing from a flight, you are getting the results after a prolonged actual flight load drain on the batterya very acceptable way to do it.

MetallicaJunkie

same here, im a harcorce rc nut, i still love Metallica, but now im more of an RCJunkie, i should change my handle

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

That's what I was trying to say

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

Absolutely my contention. And, as far as I am concerned, it works just fine for MOST of us and makes an excellent test tool.

CGr.

Campgems

Guys, I've defended the voltwatch's on every one of these threads. I have on on every one of my planes.

BIG however here. I pulld my Ruperts out of mothballs last week and finally fixed the wing, put on new hinges and control horns. The battery that was in it when it went brain dead was a futaba 6V 1000ma hump. I had took it apart and couldn't find anything wrong, all the tabs were good and it had cycled twice with no drop in capacity. I even checked each cell under a 10 ohm load to see what the loaded voltage was to see if one cell was going south. Nada. It sat on my shelf until last thursday when I finished getting the Rupert back together. I decided to give it another go. I soldered the leads back on and tightly wrapped the cells in monokote and shrunk them down. Put it in the Ruperts and turned on the switch. I couldn't believe it, the Voltwatch showed full charge. I checked to make sure it wasn't set on 4.8V and it wasn't . Great, the battery held a charge for at least 5 months. Better cycle it just in case. 129 mah and it cicked over to charge. Man I wish I had of put a volt meter on before cycling it. This kind of shook my confidenance in the VoltWatch. I would have never completed the first flight. with that little life left, especially with six digital servos. I've got one open port on the receiver, think I'll run an extention out of the fuselage so I can get a reading with the meter and with the Voltwatch at the same time. I'ts really got me wondering now.

Don

cappaj1

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks for that info. How many lights were you getting on the VoltWatch?

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

The only comment I can give you is that perhaps trust in an old battery pack was somewhat misguided. Perhaps a new battery pack was in order.

There is no magic bullet with this RC stuff, as you well know. New plane, new battery pack. Old plane, new refab, new battery. Old plane no refab, new battery. That's my motto. A battery pack is not a place to skimp on cost.

I have a bunch.. and I mean a bunch, of old battery packs sitting around. They have a use.. but not in my planes. Voltwatch or not. As much as I would love to use them, I prefer to find an alternate use, non-airborne, for the old packs. Sorry, but that's the reality of it.

I got in 6 flights with my Goldberg Skylark 70 with a 1200mah 6 volt NiMh pack and when I was done, the Voltwatch still showed green. I was confident that I could probably have flown 2 or 3 more 10 minute flights. The only reason I did not is because I had to leave the field as it was getting late.

CGr.

Mikecam

I like to fly low and slow and you can look at the voltwatch in flight. After installing it I did check the lights to my discharger and it was very close. My first yellow light came on about 5 volts.

Campgems

Cappaj1, it was the last green, fully charged, That should have rang a bell. Well, it did, but I missunderstood what the bell met.

CGRetired , THis battery wasn't an old one, only four or five flights. Recient date code. Age wasn't a factor, in fact the more I look back, I'm thinking the Voltwatch is defective. That may have been the source of the problem when I crashed, Maybe???


Mikecam, my experience has been very good with the Voltwatch sticks. I've checked some with a Fluke meter and the lights agree with the Fluke.

Just not sure on this one. Quoting some oneThere is no magic bullet with this RC stuff, as you well know.

Don

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

Some day there will be an affordable data link to give the pilot current RX pack status, it will be considered standard equipment.
My point about using the Hobbico meter is that you pay $29.99 one time, and that is it. It gives the most definitive assessment of your pack's condition under a typical load and it only takes 30 seconds to grab the meter, plug it in, take a reading, then lay the meter back down in your flight box...Whew! What a workout! [X(]

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

I thought people were talking about the Tower ESV for $10. Is this not sufficient?

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

I haven't seen it, but if it has a load button to simulate a typical 4 channel system, then $10 is quite a deal. NIMH are more treacherous than NICADS were, they can show excellent open circuit voltage and as soon as you place a load on, they can take a nose dive. Remove the load and the voltage can rebound to what looks acceptable.
Guys who load their planes down with the giant packs that weight 1/2A pound that never see much more than a 1/4 amp load don't need a ESV.......they can get by with just a Sun dial.

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

yeah that Tower ESV simulates a servo load. $10. Here's a link:

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXNK82&P=7

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

That looks like a good buy. I wired a standard 3 pin jack into my meter permanently and glued the jack to the case. This way I don't have a tangle of test leads to fool with, just plug the meter in directly to the charge jack on the plane.

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

I have both the hobbico voltwatch and the tower pro version there is very little difference between the two other than the package,I got mine from a ebay seller danbay http://cgi.ebay.com/2-PACK-Volt-Watc...QQcmdZViewItem

the hobbico version I have are for 4.8V so there the older ones,the "tower pro" version has a small switch to either monitor 4.8V and 6V batterys and resemble the newer hobbico's.
here is a photo of one of them mounted in my H-9 Mustang,I just Sharpied the logo out so it would blend into the cockpit better,the other one I used in my H-9 P-40 they seem to work fine.
some like to really get into battery specifics,I really don't if it reads low I don't fly it simple as that,when I go to the field I usually take 2 planes so when the batterys read low,and I have enough time I fly the other one,no need to risk my 1,000$ plane on a borderline charged battery.
it made sense to mount it to the cockpit floor instead of the canopy for looks and I wanted to not be to obvious,like the canopy or fuse side, since most of my planes are Warbirds.

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

Thanks Tim, just bought a couple.

cruzomatic

My Feedback: (17)

You can get them even cheaper. I bought about 6 of them, work great. Shipping takes about a week.



http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/s...oltage_Display

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

They're out of stock. I found 'em on Ebay (from a seller I've used before too) for 2 for $14 including shipping.

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

Hi Don. I stand corrected. I somehow read that you were using an old pack. Sorry about that. I've relied on Voltwatch now for few years and have become pretty much an advocate, as you may have read in some of my replies in other threads. it sure was performing for me yesterday. I put on 6 or 7 flights on my Goldberg Skylark 70 yesterday, and monitored the Voltwatch before and after each flight and it was doing it's thing just fine. I even installed one on my "club trainer", a Hobbico Super Star RTF. And, it did just fine there too.

Yep, there IS on silver bullet for this RC stuff. What is desirable for one may not be for someone else. Different strokes, which is just fine. This is why I will never bad-mouth some equipment that people buy because it's their choice and, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!!

The only exception to that rule may be Futaba... [X(]