On board power
 

Ok this may seem stupid but i would like to know. I know you should alway have an overnight charge on your radio gear before you head to the field. My question is how do you know how much power you have left in your plane. My transmitter has a display 11 v is max it starts beeping at 9 v. So what about my bird?

RE: On board power
 

Get a LOADED voltmeter. When you plug it into the recharging plug/port it will give you a reading. I am the cautious type, so I will not fly if the reading is under 4.6 volts (fully charged it should read about 5.2 - 5.4 volts ). There are others that will fly with a lower voltage.

If you charged your batteries the night before and took them off the charger the morning you are going flying, I would check the receiver battery after the 2nd flight. If the receiver battery is over a year old, I would check it after every flight to be sure it is OK.

RE: On board power
 

Expert and Hobbico also make on board voltmeter that plugs into an open channel on your receiver. They are about $15.00. These are nice because when you turn your plane on you can instantly see if your battery is in the green, yellow, or red area. After your done flying you can check the indicator again before you turn off.


Bevo

RE: On board power
 

What is meant by a loaded volt meter ia a meter that loads the circuit when using it.
An example is an expanded scale volt meter. tower hobbies has them for less than 20 bucks.
A battery can show a full charge, but under a load like supply voltage to the system rapidly looses it's charge. The expanded scale meter will supply a small load gives you a better idea how the battery will do while in use.
Don't forget to cycle your batteries so you dont develope the ni-cad memory problem

fly be free