I just picked up three off them and all three of them are reading caution on both my 6 volt batteries with the Voltwatch switch set to 6 volts. If I put the switch to 4.8 volts then it says full charge which is what the batteries are as per my Hobbico Digital Voltmeter. Anybody have this happen?

G'day Mate,
6 volt batteries checked at 4.8volts will always state they are fine.
Did you check it with a 4.8volt battery on the 4.8 volt setting.

Yes, the one I have check out good.

If set to 4.8Vcc and checks out OK with a 4 cell battery, and when switched to 6Vcc setting and your 5 cell packs show a fail, I would be looking at my 5cell packs, as I would say they are bad. You don't say weather your packs are NiCd or NiMH, or how old they are. Old NiCd packs I would say that you have a bad cell.

Cheers

They are NiMh and both are new. I said both are showing a full charge using my Hobbico digital voltmeter. I'll have to give Tower a call.

How are you charging the packs?

If you have a charger that can do it, you could charge and discharge the packs and see what capacity they are rating at.

If not, you could charge them and then test them in a plane on the ground and see how long they last. If the voltwatch is connected you can see how fast they drain down.

I have an Accu-Cycle Elite Battery Cycler and its saying there both reaching full charge.

When you discharge them, can you discharge at least 90% of rated capacity?

The batteries can reach full charge but still be toast. The important number is what you can pull off the batteries. For example, you should be able to discharge around 900mah out of 1000mah pack.

This information might be of help about "Formatting" new batteries.

Problem solved! I have voltage regulator and a Miracle Switch to the other and thats the problem. I bypassed them and they work fine. Now I really cant use them. Wish the Tower tech notes mentioned this.

Would have helped if you had of told us about the use of a voltage reg in the first place. All information will make for a more correct anwser. You can still use the volt watch you just need a Y lead and another switch fitted before the other switch and reg, or remove the reg all together. When using only a 5 cell battery a reg is not req.

Cheers

The regulator was doing its job and lowered the voltage. But get rid of it, its better to run your servos on 6v anyway.

If the regulator puts the voltage at 4.8 the voltwatch will still work, just set it to 4.8 and not 6v. But again why put another device inline that can fail when 6 volts is fine? When setting up the radio equipment in your planes, simpler (less connections) is always better.

I never really liked the volt watch any way. Check out the cell spy at www.loganvillehobbies.com. Although the cell spy is used to check lipos it works great on receiver batteries to tell you exactly what the voltage is, and as you move your controls it will show the exact voltage of the battery under load. It needs a y harness female, male male that they include with it.

That spy cell looks pretty cool. I think I might pick up a couple of them.

I have just the opposite opinion of the Voltwatch. IMHO it is superior in many ways to other devices as it has a fast reponse and will show up momentary voltage drops at the point it is connected to. If, when you move the sticks fast and the LED's drop momentarily into the red zone, you can be assured that you have a problem somewhere as you are getting a momentary voltage drop out at the receiver (or the point at which the unit is plugged in). This can be because of excessive current draw from some item, from a high contact impedance switch, to small a gage wiring between battery and receiver, high impedance battery, etc. Most items will not give you that much information so easily as the Voltwatch does.