What a great Idea!!

[mattie-lodge]

What do you reckon of this little gadget guys ?


Thunder Tiger Power Monitor TT8086

[Jamin_00]

Good idea but I would not fit one.

I've looked at montiors and alarms before but I fly on a timer which is accurate enough for me plus you got to find room for it and be on show and it's butt ugly lol

[KnifeEdge]

Looks cool. Would be good to see how this would work in flight. Obviously when u land and measure there is no load in the packs. But in flight the reading would be different?

[Steve]

Looks cool. Would be good to see how this would work in flight. Obviously when u land and measure there is no load in the packs. But in flight the reading would be different?

Exactly, so bringing the heli into a hover and reading the display will have a nominal load on the pack, so will give you much useful info than a 'no-load' test. I'm not a lecky flyer at all, but the obvious question for me is how would you relate a 0-9 scale into actual LiPo charge, and what does zero mean? Does it mean 'zero' charge or does it mean 25% left or something?

Sorry, haven't read the specs if it's already posted there, just looked at the pictures.

[horsham rc]

Exactly, so bringing the heli into a hover and reading the display will have a nominal load on the pack, so will give you much useful info than a 'no-load' test. I'm not a lecky flyer at all, but the obvious question for me is how would you relate a 0-9 scale into actual LiPo charge, and what does zero mean? Does it mean 'zero' charge or does it mean 25% left or something?

Sorry, haven't read the specs if it's already posted there, just looked at the pictures.

me to would want to no this info but looks good to me.

[J3DI]

High quality alloy case for better heat dissipation.

This would seem to indicate that it draws more than a little power from your battery?

[steve_b]

It looks interesting but I'd have preferred to see a 2 digit display, just telling my 7 on a 2S lipo means the pack could be just under 8 volts and ok to use, or a little over empty and not worth flying with.

[Ubi22]

Ive setup some think very similar on my 450 a year or so ago, took it it off after a few flights as in some lights its very difficult to see and once you have it in mind to look you waste lots of time until you do ... imho a total waste of time sorry !!

[midnightx1]

Hi all,

I have just had one of these ACE RC TT8086 power monitors to my Trex 550, my opinion is that it looks good and fitted well on the side of the chassis, however there is a big problem with the monitor and that is accuracy.

Basically, the TT8086 under reads by up to 20%, so on a fully charged battery which is showing almost 4.2 volts per cell when checking via the battery balancing leads using a run of the mill battery checker, however the TT8086 will show a "7" on the display which indicates that there is only 4.0 volts per cell. Then after a short bit of flying, it soon drops to "6" and before you know it it is flashing "3" indicating you should land as the voltage is now 3.6 volts per cell. Upon landing and checking the battery via the balancing lead you discover the battery actually has 3.9 volts per cell and the monitor should still have been showing "6".

I asked the chap at the local Sussex model centre who fitted it for me if he knew why it may be doing this but he was unable to help and so i contacted Thunder Tiger Corp who make it, their response was less than helpful as they said they too had noticed that it under reads as well and that they had never seen more than an "8" on a fully charged battery (8 means 4.1 volts per cell). I think the monitor is totally useless as a real time diagnostic tool unless anyone out there had a bright idea on whether the connections can be modified to change the configuration?

The connections as as follows:

1 lead soldered to battery ESC terminals
1 lead to BEC output from ESC and receiver (Y lead)
1 lead to receiver
1 jumper plug to set battery type
1 jumper plug to identify how many battery cells

Im thinking of removing it and just buying a DX8 with telemetry instead which is aparantly very accurate.

Any help or comments would be gratefully received.

Thanks,
Mike

[sacko]

Take it back, sounds useless (like most battery voltage readers imo).

I didnt think the DX8 telemtry was that accurate either. Always read around .2v under what it actually was.

[jamiem]

Just get your money back on it, sounds about as useful as a chocolate teapot

[midnightx1]

Thanks for your replies, perhaps it is the case then that all battery monitors that measure the power at the receiver are going to be incomparable to the balancing leads, but which way is more correct. The manufacturers must have thought of that through when they designed them i would have hoped. Perhaps we should not be bothering to monitor in the 1st place and we should just rely on the esc to tell us when its time.

[jwatts007]

I bet it works better in the summer...............

[PKNEC]

If you want to know what's going on with your electrics while flying fit one of these VoltMagic R/C Voltage Monitor with Glitch & Failsafe counting
great bit of kit

[Rctintin]

Still for me the best way is to fly on a timer, and see how many Mah you put back into the pack. Then adjust your timer to suit.

I have flown a foamy plank with a low voltage buzzer, and any time you hit full throttle it would buzz even on a full pack.