Volt watch troubles
 

Ive been installing Hobbico VoltWatch Receiver Battery Monitor's in my planes well i took the new plane to the field had a new futaba 6EXA 6Ch FM and it filed the range test glitched like mad when i looked at the volt meter it was going nuts so i pulled the meter out of the plane and the range test was fine Hobby services replaced the volt watch and it was fine for 6 flights one day i took all 3 planes to the field and the new one and an older one failed the range test tested the voltages all ok took out the volt watches in the 2 planes that failed and all was good the older plane has at least 50 flights with the volt watch in it it would not respond to the radio at 10 feet not a single input till i extended the antenna my cub the oldest plane has never failed it has a Futaba 6YG 6-Channel FM the cap that failed has a xf421 JR in it this whole mess has me confussed we have hello pilots ussung the volt watch without trouble but they are also ussing PCM equipment and i dont see to many of them doing range checks even the guys with 2-3 grand in there aircraft have a bad habbit of not range checking. the 6yg is on channel 29 the Jr xf421 is on 25 both have a computer Im at a loss. N E help ?

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

I have used the Voltwatch on all my planes and have never heard of it causing a failed range test. Are you running the antennae near the Voltwatch?

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

I have 4 airplanes with a VoltWatch installed and I never have had a problem. Saved me from flying with a low battery a few times.

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

Why is it doing this ? The clue could lie therein. My experience with volt watches have been good so far, and I have one in every plane.

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

well I dont have a clue as to why it was going nts but as it glitched it would read from dead to about the 3rd light and never full charge. the thing that troubles me is that ive had these in all 3 planes and some have almost 100 flights on them. the cub one of my favorite planes has never had a bit of trouble. The cub is the only non computer radio as well. at one point i took the antenna off the tail and ran it out the front of the plane opposite the volt watch and it still glitched Im thinking its something to due with a radio tower neer the field as im unable to reproduce this at home and its not allways a problem. Im also sure its not other people at the field as ive been the only one there and still had this trouble. Im at a loss as to what is wrong but rather happy i havent lost a plane.

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

I don't have an answer for you, but I saw it happen on a guy's Jungmeister (sp?). He was getting all sorts of glitching... tried different receiver, different servos, different battery pack, different switch, moving the antenna so it ran out to a wingtip instead of back along the fuse, tried with engine running/engine off, different transmitter/receiver on another channel. Finally pulled the voltwatch off and the glitches went away. Exactly what was wrong, I don't know.

On the other hand, there are several guys who have them on their planes and have had no trouble with them... which is why it took the first guy so long to figure out what was wrong...it was the last thing he suspected!

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

Thanks for the heads up. I'll have to keep a close watch on my voltwatches. Could be noisy circuitry in these bad units emitting noise to the Rx

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

I wish it was a bad batch but its not i have one that is perfect still in the futaba non computer but out of the 3 bad ones i have all have had more than one day of flying with no trouble and one has a few months on it I feel confidant that its our location that has some kind of troubles all the pilots there notice a small glitch as they pass the ends of our north south runway im sure a pcm radio would mask this very well. just sunday i saw a $3000 wild hair edge 540t pass the same spot and his rudder went blip real fast didnt move the plane but i saw it plain as day there is a wire fence line going east and west and one going north and south as you cross theis fence line you get a glitch at under 40 feet. what i dont get is why its not 100% of the time that the volt watch takes out the radio i want to use them i sure dont want to buy all pcm radios god knows I spend enough.

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

I think we should revive this thread because I think I am suffering from the voltwatch glitch. I have replaced just about everything in my DPM Ultimate and it still glitches. Glitching occured AFTER I have added the voltwatch. I came across this thread and never would have thought the possible cause would be the voltwatch. I am going to fly this plane in a few weeks without the voltwatch and see if it helps. Is anybody else having similar issues!

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

Im in process of buying an voltwatch. If not Hobbico then wich one? Sure would like to find an alternative after been reading this, as not having any waringsystem is not an option.

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

IC4 Products has a small voltmeter that can be mounted to the side of the plane and it actually reads out a digital value on an LCD screen. Works well.

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

Any link to this company?

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

http://www.i4cproducts.com/

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/WTI0001P?&I=LXSZ87
how about one of these in stead ? ;)

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

Thanks.

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

I wonder if these VoltWatches are going into self oscillation and creating noise at 72 MHz. I'd say bring it up at your club meeting. There may be an electronics guru who can check out your voltwatch with an oscilloscope. If they are oscillating it should be brought to Hobbico's attention.

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

Hey FirstOfficer.
Check out the MPI heavy duty switch. It is a really a good dependable switch plus it has a voltwatch on the switch! No extra mounting. :)

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

6 planes with voltwatch no problems. 6XAS transmitter.

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

I just purchased and installed a Voltwatch on my Hobbistar and then my flying buddy's plane bit the dirt, HARD, he uses a Voltwatch also. I split the fuse for about 15 inches, knocked off the landing gear, and snapped the tail off! He got the plane up about 50 ft and it went nuts. Total loss. We found that the servos would "twitch" when the Voltwatch was connected, but the problem disappeared when it was unplugged. Is this actually the meter causing the problem?

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

What's your radio, receiver and servo setup like ? It will be great if someone could get hold of one of these so-called "bad" voltwatches and do a thorough analysis on it

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

I hate to bash a product but I have to at least coment here. I was very lucky I found my troubles durring range check every time. One plane i had flown successfully 1/2 a season then one day it glitched that plane had a JR XF421 with standard servos hangar 9 cap232 OS46AX I installed a volt watch in a seagull Spacewalker II with a Futaba T6EXA all standard servos and a OS46AX that never passed a range check My first Volt Watch went in a Great Planes Piper Cub with a Futaba T6YG and a OS 70 II Surpass standard servos and that plane never failed to pass a range check and i flew it a whole season the next season it crashed just as it left the field area It was to close to the ground and it was to windy to tell if it was due to a glitch from the radio or a glitch from the wind or a glitch from me the pilot But in this game there are allways going to be glitches. as of now the 3 Vlot watches I have are stuffed in a box never to be flown again

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

The radio is a Tower Hobbies 4TH, I'm not sure what receiver or servo models. This was the Tower HObbies Trainer 40.

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

I sent an e-mail to Hobbico asking if there were any problems with the volt watch and glitching. Explaining this thread. Below is the answer that I received back.


"No there are no issues with the volt watch that would cause glitching"


I am no electronic or radio expert, but it seems that there are some that have trouble and some don't.

Could it be the way that the unit is mounted? Such as touching or near the antenna? Any experts out there that could answer this question?

I have experienced servo chatter on the bench if the Tx antenna is near the model. This same thing occurs with the voltwatch attached. The lights blink back and forth from red to max. The lights also blink when the sticks are moved.

What if the volt watch is on board but not plugged in? Does the glitching still occur?

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

I'm using several VoltWatches and haven't observed any problems - yet. I traced out the circuit a while back so I could convert one for use on 5-cells (I don't recommend this, it's a pain and new ones are available that are switchable for 4 or 5 cells). The circuit is basically several op-amps configured as voltage threshold detectors to drive the LEDs. There wasn't much in the way of bandwidth control of the amps and it might be possible for one of them to 'take-off' and oscillate if manufacturing parameters varied significantly from the original design. In that case, even the lenghth of the cable to the VoltWatch could have an effect. Getting a look at one of the suspect devices might prove interesting.

RE: Volt watch troubles
 

To convert the 4.8 volt Voltwatch to 6 volts, I put a 1.2 volt reference diode in series with the red wire. Works fine, not too hard to do.

I found, when checking the voltage of the Voltwatch with a power supply, the input current changes from 5 mA to 19 mA, depending which LED is lit. I don't know how they limit the current inside, but they may be temperature sensitive. Beyond that, if Voltwatch is plugged into a receiver with a long or resistive battery wire, and if the receiver is susceptible to changes in buss voltage, the Voltwatch could cause a high-frequency glitch when it switches LED's and causes a change in buss voltage. The glitch is smaller, however, than the spike from servos.

I use dual heavy duty switches - # 22 wire - and dual batteries. The buss voltage is more robust than a single, # 24 wire setup. Have had no glitch trouble with Voltwatch.

Bob