im looking at a old boat hull that i ran a nitro motor in 10+ years ago, and i was thinking of putting in a brushless setup. i hear of people talking of a tool to measure amp draw. cause i want to figure what prop to use. what is the tool called and any idea cost or where to get one. hard to use?

It's called a "Watts Up" meter. Tower has em' as do many other sources.

thanks, im sure there not hard to use?

If you can connect a battery to an esc, you can use a Watts Up meter.

THANKS KMOT!!! UHHH WHAT IS A BATTERY??[sm=confused.gif]
Im guessing there just different colors.
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...FVSEARCH=watts

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXTNL0&P=ML

Use this only. That watts up meter is extremely limited in use and will only log peaks / spikes which are useless. It is also only good up to 50A where even the SV27 can exceed this!

Using the data logger, it will record the WHOLE run and you may view instantaneous results including averages and peaks. It also does speed, temperature, altitude, RPM, ect. A 150A verson is also available.

These are extremely easy to use.

EDIT: I attached a graph from a run in my plane. This shows what can be done and how you can easily analyze every second of this run!

Ryan

that looks to give more info, but i need to hook it to my computer to see the data. maybe im looking for the wrong thing, tha main reason is im building boats left and right. and i dont want to over work my motor/ esc's. and trying to measure a prop as well. am i going about this the right way?

You can buy the display screen but I'd rather hook it up to my computer.

Heat will tell you how many amps are going through the ESC, cells or motor. If it's over 140F too much current is being passed through too long of a time. If temps are under 140F, you are drawing a safe amount of current.

A logger will allow you to see accurately the actual figure. You may also see how many watts are being consumed and the overal cell performance. It's not a must have item but it definitely comes in handy.


Ryan

ryan - I was also looking at that thing. Have you tried it with the SV? If that can measure boat rpms and other stuff, then I'll seriously consider it.

Yes I tried it with the SV. I have the older version which is not as good. I don't use it with boats anymore as it tends to slow them down due to the type of sensor being used. The newer version does not use this sensor. I'm wanting to purchase the V3.

It can measure a lot, I mostly use it for my planes now.

Ryan