low voltage indicator.
 

Hi all,

Should I get a "receiver battery low voltage indicator" that has LEDs or speaker ? Which is more useful ? When plane is lost, I think the one with a speaker would help a little more.
Where can I get these kinda circuitry besides Hobbico ?
However, Do people really use this kinda device ?

Thanks.

Jake.

RE: low voltage indicator.
 

just get one with leds and put on a no-signal alarm. if you crash your plane and your voltage is still fine, what good would the speaker do?

RE: low voltage indicator.
 

As with many things, it depends.

Personally, I just use an external volt meter that I plug in to the charge port on my plane to see what the battery is doing.

Many years ago, I flew at a field that had 12-20foot high brambles all around the field. finding a plane out there was really hard. It was common for planes to go down and not be damaged at all because of the "soft" landing in the bush, but then to not be found for months. (I once found 2 other planes while looking for one of mine. Took me two full days and some cutting tools to make paths, but I digress). Anyway, when I was there, I usually put some kind of buzzer or beeper in my planes. Usually it was just a radio shack buzzer hooked up to a switch that the throttle servo closed at full-down. And yes, it was really helpful on more than one occasion.

So, if your field is surrounded by corn fields (never had that problem, but I hear it's nasty) or something that's hard to search in, something LOUD seems in order. If you have acres of low cut grass, then it's not a problem.

RE: low voltage indicator.
 

I Liked the idea of adding a small buzz and maybe I could connect it to the 5th to 7th channel of my receiver, not being used in my trainner and activate with the landing gear switch.
I already crash landed once and took me some time to find it.

I just bought the receiver voltage monitor weeks ago and installed in my trainner. It's a VU indicator with leds that you can fix in the fus and cut a small strip in the fus for the led to be seen from outside, even when flying close to the runway. I found it very usefull. It cost bout $15


Nilo

RE: low voltage indicator.
 

How often dose someone at your field loose a plane and can't fine it?

Get yourself a "Voltwatch" from Tower Hobbies for 10 bucks.
You can mount it behind a window, under a canopy, on or in the dash or anywhere you can think of and all it takes is a glance to check it out when you turn on your receiver.
One saved my 80" Mustang one day before the first flight, the battery had a bad cell but everything was working (for the moment) and when I flipped the switch I saw a red light flash out of the corner of my eye.

RE: low voltage indicator.
 

All my planes have an onboard monitor.
One on the ignition battery and one on the reciever battery.

RE: low voltage indicator.
 

This is what I use in my Spirit Sailplane and my Electrajet park flyer.
It is called a Digi-Alarm
http://www.californiasailplanes.com/...l%20alarm.html

It hooks to any channel or it can share a channel with one of your servos. It
has the connector to pass through to the servo.
This will work in any plane with a 72 MHZ receiver. This is the one I
recommend to everyone.

Low Voltage Watch

In addition to helping me find the planes, the Digi Alarm also monitors my
battery pack voltage and sounds an alarm if the pack voltage gets below a safe
level. This is especially valuable on my glider. If I catch a good thermal,
I could be in the air for over an hour, so a pack that tested good on the
ground could run low during the flight.

Channel Conflict Test!

As a test to make sure no one is flying on your channel, turn on the receiver
only. If the device does not go into lost plane mode then someone else is on
your frequency.

Here is a review of another Emergency Locator Beacon that illustrates its
value (this site is somewhat unreliable)
http://webhome.idirect.com/~arrowmfg...s/elb-revi.htm


For 27mHZ planes like the Aerobird, Firebirds, e-Gull, etc

My Aerobird does not have a conventional receiver that I can connect to. The
electronics and servos are one integrated circuit board. No place to connect
one of the above locators. On the Aerobird I use a key ringer.
www.keyringer.com One of these on the plane and one stays in my pocket. If I
am looking for the plane, I click the one in my hand and the one on the plane
answers:


Every plane I ever own will have some kind of locator and battery monitor from
now on. Of course you only need one. You can move it from plane to plane,
but at $15-30 they are cheap enough you can put one in every plane and forget
it!

For really long range finds, measured in miles, there is the Walston system.
The plane unit is about $150 while the tracking unit is hundreds of dollars.
This is good for clubs, especially sailplane clubs. If your sailplane costs
$2000, a $150 transmitter is worth the cost.
http://www.texastimers.com/helpful_h.../wal_cover.htm

Many pilots don't know about these devices. Now you do!