Power indicator
 

Is there a power indicator that signals you if your plane is left on, or a basic power indicator light that stays on when your plane is on?

RE: power/battery light?
 

[link]http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXHDJ2[/link]

RE: power/battery light?
 

Haha. That is indirectly exactly what I could be looking for...I think I have a broken Voltwatch laying around somewhere.

I've got a regulated 6v system so I don't need a meter, just a light.


Second thought...using a faulty Voltwatch on a lipo system is probably not the best idea I've ever had:eek:

RE: power/battery light?
 

do you just want a on/off light?
cause i just grabbed a 6 volt led from a key chain light, put a 100ohms resistor on it and hooked it up to the switch. ill get a pic if you want

RE: power/battery light?
 

Yeah, I guess at first all I was looking for was something like that. I don't know much about led's and resistors and stuff. I thought about a simple light bulb, but then figured that would drain energy or something.

Now I'm thinking something a little more advanced maybe? Aren't there things out there that beep if your plane is left on and unattended or something?

RE: Power indicator
 

I find a pull-out switch is a good visual. If it's flush against the model the battery is off. If it's sticking out 1/4" the battery is on. Simple

RE: Power indicator
 

If I use one of those, I like it just the opposite. In is on. If the plane brushes up agains my let or anything, pushing the switch is on. Otherwise, if it is the other way, pushing it in (off), could be catastrophic.

RE: Power indicator
 

Charge switch from MPI with LED indicator,

http://www.maxxprod.com/mpi/mpi-4.html

RE: Power indicator
 

Yes, be careful how you arrange your switch. There was a glancing mid-air at our field, but one plane's power switch was turned off and while both planes were minimally damaged in the collision, the one that had it's power switch turned off did not fare well when it hit the ground.

jack

RE: Power indicator
 

What would be cool is a receiver that would beep at you if it was left powered up without any transmitter input for an extended period of time, sort of like the headlight warning on a car.

RE: Power indicator
 

There is or was?? A system called the GEM 2000 that tells you a lot more then on and off. It is an LED light that comes on with your power. It can tell you all kinds of things depending on how it blinks or stays on but it would be just the thing for you. About 30 bucks though so it's not all that cheap. I have a couple on planes and like them. I also have the volt watch. My problem is I tend to forget to look at the things most the time and have to bring out the instructions to figure out what the GEM is telling me. The volt watch is the simple way to do things, just have to mount it someplace you can always see it, I tend to hide mine then forget it's there. They call these my Golden Years!!!:eek:

RE: Power indicator
 

They sell a 3 pack of LED's prewired wiht a resistor at most autozones. Put a servo connection on it and plug it into a aux channel, it'll cost you 5$ for a three pack, and they come with bezels.




http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...8/IMG_1055.jpg

RE: Power indicator
 

That's perfect, thanks.

RE: Power indicator
 

The nice part is, there's no resistor to solder in, it's just a little bump under the HS tubing on the negative side of the LED, and they'll handle up to 12v.

RE: Power indicator
 

Any idea what kind of energy they drain? Will it noticeably reduce flight time?

RE: Power indicator
 

^^thats what i was talking about

i use a lot smaller and dimmer led so the drain is around 5-10mah
for that led its prob between 20-30 mah

it wont really reduce flight time

RE: Power indicator
 

gaRCfield, you should just stick to the voltswatch, they dont drain the battery enough to worry about it and its serves two purposes. If you're worried about cosmetics and dont want something affecting your streamlined airplane, just mount it under the canopy and make a small hole for it to go through to the reciever.

RE: Power indicator
 

Uh most LED's in this power range consume about 10mAH per hour. We had an array of 35 running for 6 hours on a 2s li-po pack. Adding one in never dropped my flight times at all, power usage is minimal. If your that worried about 20mah's spread over an hours usage you need to get a bigger batt pack(btw the LEDS in that volt watch are the same thing as this one.... probably a narrower band but the sameconsumption). I took that picture on manual exposure to make it appear brighter than it is. In daylight it's actually less draining that the one in your receiver pack.

RE: Power indicator
 

That may be something I was looking for and the price is sure right. What is the lowest voltage they work on/with?? 4.8 or 6 volts?? For myself I would like to have one on each wing half like landing lights and set up in Ch. 5 so I can turn them on and off. One place I fly at you loose the plane during your turn into the runway and lights would help out a lot.

RE: Power indicator
 

I went to autozone, they were 3 for $10. Right next door was Radio shack, and I got two individual lights for $2.00 each. They are rated at 15mah and 12 volts, but should work at 6.

Voltwatch for me is a waste of money now as I have a 6v regulated system. My battery could be dangerously dead and I'd still get full bars on the voltwatch (but thanks for the suggestion).

RE: Power indicator
 

Mybe you had a faulty Voltswatch, seems to work fine for me. Good luck with your LED project.

RE: Power indicator
 

They've gone up, I boguht mine a year ago for about 6 I think.