R2 Prototyping Cap pack ?

[trillian]

Is there any shop selling the R2 Prototyping stuff besides World of Heli? I have searched but the only other hits were in the USA.

I'd like to buy one of their cap units but the only shipping option at World Of Heli is 16 Euros! And this is an item that only weighs 45 grams

[Guest]

Always used WOH for those. They tend to have the latest variants. States risky with duty maybe you can find a few others in need and split it. They give excellent service and post never thought too hard about it. Lots of things in the hobby if you overthink feel like a rip off. Not aware of any stockists nearer to home.

MJ

[PKNEC]

This maybe of use Sheryl
R²prototyping gmbh

[chrisleematt21]

Are the cap packs any good? (these are the receiver backups aren't they?) most of my opti backups guards need new lipos so these could be a viable replacement

[trillian]

OK, I ordered one from MHM Modelbau as it was a bit cheaper postage. One shop was 9.90 Euros postage but their cart outputs the address details in a format that Paypal won't recognise so it kicks you back out, tried a couple times and gave up. Some shops stock other R2 products but not the buffer packs and some shops listed didn't stock any of their products.

[trillian]

Are the cap packs any good? (these are the receiver backups aren't they?) most of my opti backups guards need new lipos so these could be a viable replacement

The R2 buffer pack works a bit differently in that it seems to do the job of the Opti Bec-guard and it acts as a buffer to keep the voltage up in the event of amp spikes when the servos get a high load. If the Bec fails it will continue to supply power for generally long enough to auto down - I have seen tests where it powered the servos for nearly two minutes. So not as long as the Opti guard as a backup.

In my case I want it as a buffer to give the Jive Bec a little help if needed and the assumption being that it's unlikely the Jive Bec would fail and yet still have power to the motor - so in the event of a failure I'll know imediately. (just to clarify - yeah, in theory the Jive Bec can fail independent of the motor power - but chances are an in flight failure will be an ESC shutdown due to poor collective management or a LiPo connector issue etc.)

I have not used the R2 one yet but I do have a Fromeco DCup which works very well as a buffer in conjunction with a small NiMh pack, but the R2 unit is a level of magnitude more capacity than the DCup.

[mahbouni]

I'd like to buy one of their cap units but the only shipping option at World Of Heli is 16 Euros! And this is an item that only weighs 45 grams

Funny how most of the European shops charge 15 Euros to ship to UK yet Amain in the USA charged me only $1.99 to ship a set of tail blades. As the value was under £18 I never got charged any customs fee either

[Grumpy]

I don’t think it’s safe to assume that BEC failure would always occur along with failure of ESC power to the motor. The BEC circuit is separate to the rest of the ESC so no reason to think they would necessarily fail together. The problem being that if the BEC were to fail and the cap pack took over you would have no way of knowing until the cap pack ran out of charge, so all it would do is delay your crash by a minute or two! Or does the cap pack have some sort of alarm to tell you when it’s activated?

[chrisleematt21]

If its like the bec guard at all then it wouldn't have the voltage to power the motor would it?

[trillian]

If its like the bec guard at all then it wouldn't have the voltage to power the motor would it?

No it wouldn't power the motor just the FBL and servos.

[trillian]

I think it does have some type of LED that lights up. I wouldn't have it by itself, I'd run a small buffer pack as well, which is a common practice with Kontronik ESCs. (and I suppose, for real overkill you could still have an Opti Ultraguard connected )

I don’t think it’s safe to assume that BEC failure would always occur along with failure of ESC power to the motor. The BEC circuit is separate to the rest of the ESC so no reason to think they would necessarily fail together. The problem being that if the BEC were to fail and the cap pack took over you would have no way of knowing until the cap pack ran out of charge, so all it would do is delay your crash by a minute or two! Or does the cap pack have some sort of alarm to tell you when it’s activated?

[trillian]

Are the cap packs any good? (these are the receiver backups aren't they?) most of my opti backups guards need new lipos so these could be a viable replacement

I'll just mention as well. I also have a number of Ultraguards and have had at least one of the LiPo packs die when the heli was sitting up for a while. What I am trying to do now is share a single Opti guard with as many helis as possible, for the reason that this way it is always being charged and tested. On my gasser I have one strapped in with cable ties but on other helis I am trying to mount them with a little velcro and a strap so just a few of them can be moved around easily rather than having one for every heli.

The R2 buffer unit is not to replace an Ultraguard it is to shore up the RX power for potential amp peaks with a Jive 120 Bec on a heli with very powerful servos.

[Guest]

The cap bank is very simple. It stores some of your energy and releases it if you need it. Just like an accumulator. It self manages its charge with its circuitry. It’s active from power up and monitors your voltage and will activate if the voltage drops at a predetermined level. How long the cap lasts depends on demands. Generally speaking when I ran one it was about 40seconds of banging the sticks which is way more than I would have ever needed.

How do you know it’s using the Cap bank power?

With mine through a telemetry alarm set at 0.5v below normal.
If you have a total esc failure it would be obvious although bec may still operate.

It also deals with voltage spike and current ripples. My preferred backup over buffer as small lipos don’t last long and chance of fire. Nothing is totally foolproof but is a very simple solution and needs zero attention. Just fit and forget.

When you power down your rx system will still operate just touch the button to turn it off so need access to it. You don’t need to do anything else if you packing up for the day it’s bleeds the power over time.

So tbh they are really good I ran them for 2 years and always worked as advertised. I think they have been revised over that time and prob even smarter. No need imho to have a backup for the cap which is a backup to your main power that’s just getting silly ;-)

MJ

[myxiplx]

Yup, what maj says. I don't own one yet, but these have been on my shortlist for a while now. The guys at RCHN reviewed one last year and absolutely loved them. You really want a telemetry alarm to get the best from them, the nature of capacitors means the voltage starts to drop fairly smoothly if the BEC fails so with telemetry you get a reliable early alarm that the R2 has kicked in.

They don't have any LEDs or alarm that I'm aware of, but the big advantage for me is that they don't require any monitoring, have no LiPo to wear out, charge or fail, and just sit permanently attached to your helicopter, working every single flight.

[Grumpy]

Seems like telemetry Rx voltage alarm is absolutely essential for these cap packs to work, that’s the ‘missing piece’ I was wondering about. Without telemetry to tell you that voltage is dropping all the cap pack you’ll do is delay your crash by a minute or so.