IORDERALLYOURCAIRPLANEFLYERSTOCHECKYOURRECIEVERBAT TERYBEFOREFLIGHT!!!!!!!! today I smashed my sig hog bipe today because my battery was dead after charging it all night, so somethin went wrong. PLEASEcheck it so you don't loose your airplane, learn from my mistakes!

Thank you.

Comments welcome, stories welcome.</p>

Sorry to hear about your hog bipe. You are right...just because a battery is charged is no guarantee it will hold the charge. Also checking the battery with an expanded scale voltmeter is good practice but no guarantee of anything either.

Check before every flight, cycle every 20 charges, and replace switches every time I replace batteries. The only thing left that can get mine is a bad connection.

I check with an ESV before the flight, then after the flight. Gives you a feel for whats normal and you notice when you use more than you normally should.
Edwin

Good point, I have gotten a bit laxed about it over the years but I do have a GEM 2000 and a Volt Watch on my two most often flown planes. Sometimes I even remember to look at them. Too often not.

Hi LargeScale88
Did you do a range check before the first flight? I always do, always, never an exception, never.

A bit of modern day electronic magic made a save for me about a month ago. While flying using a Hitec Eclipse with their 2.4 system I heard a loud annoying warning beep. Having never heard this one before I landed somewhat annoyed and confused.

The confusion soon cleared up when I put a meter on the flight battery and discovered it was critically low. I no doubt would have continued on untill loss of control. I was saved by the magic of telemetry downlink low flight battery warning.

John

Yes, I did 2 range checks. I checked it at home with a volt meter that puts a load on, and it was fine. After I tore the electronics apart whenI got home, somethin shorted out with made the reciever battery go dead.

Why replace switches when I replace batteries?

Jason

VOLTWATCH, VOLTWATCH, VOLTWATCH. Makes checking before and after each flight almost a certainty plus will catch lots of other problems a loaded voltmeter will not.

Can I have a link for voltwatch? I've never heard of it. I am currently building a top flite p-40 warhawk. I would sure use it on there because you know how important warbirds are, and cant ever loose one

[:@] Large Scale 88, this is starting to sound more like a bad switch. One of the websites I buy batteries from says more bad switches cause crashes than bad batteries. I believe Voltwatch could have provided low voltage warning before flight and is a good investment, unless your switch failed in-flight. A radio system like Johns may be the best investment.

This makes me want to use an Arming plug instead of
a Switch. hmm,


Bob

You can find it here.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...3C%2FB%3Ewatch

I have one on all of my planes. They are great.

Bruce

So far I have had one battery short and one switch go bad in the air. I also had one switch so full of dirt it made the plane control surfaces start jerking around so the problem was caught on the ground. Changing switches with every new battery?? First time I have ever heard anyone do that but I can understand the thinking. I gave up using the cute little switches that come with flight packs years ago and went over to the JR heavy duty switch. It was one of these that I managed to pack full of dry lake fauna. By using electrical cleaner, the spray, it started to work again but for the price I cut the wires off and trashed it. I use the wire leads to make up extensions, waste not!!!

Check out some the newer switches that are designed to fail in the on position. That way if it fails in flight you don't lose the plane.

If the switch failed how would I not loose my airplane because the battery would be shut off.???

I'm building a new one so not to much to worry about. Everything was salvagable, but this airplane I will CHECKand RECHECK before every FLIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>

To reduce the chance of switch failure, mount the switch inside the model, and have a hole drilled in the side. CA a piece of music wire in the hole, and have about 1 cm protruding out the side. Therefore, there is no pressure on the switch (common cause of failure), and it looks way better then having the entire assembly on the outside.

Never had a switch failure with this setup - mind you, pilot error always seems occour before anything has the chance to fail!

Thank you,

Graeme

Agree that VoltWatch is great. I use them consistently in all my NiMH equipped planes. BUT... I have now moved to LiFe, with 6.6v nominal. They have a very flat d/c curve so neither a VW nor an ESV are of particular value. One just has to keep track of the mAh used per flight, and stay under battery capacity with some safety margin.

Giant scale - sounds like you do not have dual switches. Many guys at my field with the larger aircraft use twin battery packs, and twin switches. On failed battery or one failed switch will not take down your plane.
That approach is a little problematic on small (.40-.60 sized) birds, but appears feasible for 1/4 scale and above.

Where would I get one of those?

Where and how do you mount them? Can they be mounted in the fuse to where you can see the LED's with out taking the wing off?

Nevermind. I see how small they are and that 2 sided tape is used. It looked bigger in the pic.</p>

I do run duel batteries and switches on most of my giant planes, one I have the battery that is set up for two switches, single battery though. Volt watch fits very well in a canopy/cockpit. I built one warbird for a guy and he removed the LEDs and installed them into the gauges on the instrument panel, very cool.

I make my own.

I'll post a link later.

Bob

It's not really related but I use one of these in an lst2, I installed it after being hit with the truck wide open! I had a rec. pack go bad from sitting in the on position, but even after charging it would read as charged on a DMM but would die moments into the run. I installed one of these volt gauges after the switch so if anything is going bad it will show up in the led light bar, I've ran this setup since last summer and have not had another runaway since!