Optipower Backup Guard

[OPTIANDY]

Mike, if you brought the combo or super combo it comes with LIPO attached, all up weight is 37g and its small at 50mm * 30mm * 15mm. All parts can be purchaed on their own, the balance connector is JST-XH LiPo is 430mAh.

[Mark_T]

They use a selection of ESC and some use BEC's some don't. Tested on Kontronik, Scorpion, Castle and other all work fine.

Castle have previously stated that when using a back-up power supply with their ESC that incorporate a BEC or with their separate BEC products that a diode should be used to prevent the back-up feeding voltage to the BEC.

Do you believe this is necessary when using the Ultra Guard or is there something about this device that means a diode is not needed?

Also in regards to the testing, can you tell us a little about how you induced mid-flight failures as I imagine the testing involed more than just having the Ultra Guard along for the ride

[Mark_T]

Mark, we designed it such that it will work with all ESC's and deliver a trouble free power supply as an emergency system, its not designed to be a full on 3D power supply just take over as required and indicate that you need to land pronto.

Andy, I don't think I have ever suggested otherwise, the point of my test was to show that it would not simply brownout a Spektrum system if the power failed while you were in the middle of something like 3D flight.

Obviously you should land immediately, but you can have confidence that even with power hungry Align servos the voltage will stay high enough to avoid problems.

The problem does remain though that those without the warning lights may never know that their main BEC has failed ...

[Mark_T]

One thing that's really getting on my baps, if you turn the motor when you have shut it down it comes back to life, so you have to plug the main power back in and go through the shutdown process again, not shure if its a bug as it just seems to be pulsing a small charge ?

Do you actually have to plug the main power back in or can you just put it back to sleep by pressing the button?

Either way, it is not good that it can 'accidentally' power up like that. I'll do some of my own testing later today.

[ragge1]

One thing that's really getting on my baps, if you turn the motor when you have shut it down it comes back to life, so you have to plug the main power back in and go through the shutdown process again, not shure if its a bug as it just seems to be pulsing a small charge ?

hmm thats not good , anyone else tested this

[lee mister]

One thing that's really getting on my baps, if you turn the motor when you have shut it down it comes back to life, so you have to plug the main power back in and go through the shutdown process again, not shure if its a bug as it just seems to be pulsing a small charge ?

Update, it also starts back up if you move a servo lol
I don't see it as a real problem you just need to be aware of this and don't move the heli around until you have unplugged the pack from the board at the end of the day.

[10x]

Morning All
I received my opti guard on Tuesday and fitted that night. This is running with a rx life pack. I did not notice any of Lee's problems, so I have just checked and I have no problem with the unit coming back to life.
I too was not very impressed by the soldering to the led board so added hotglue. Looking at the original pictures the led board was soldered at the other end to the output wires, so this must have been a mod
on the production model...Also I felt that a piece of clear shrink wrap around the led board would have been better...
Regards Adrian

[OPTIANDY]

Mark,


A diode is not needed. Switching BEC's do not like getting feed with voltage grater than their respective set-point. Since the Ultra Guard is auto sensing and having a set point 0.5V below its respective input it is safe. One point to bare in mind is during first setup of your BEC you should have the Ultra guard unplugged from the BEC once setup it can be left connected. So with a Hercules or castle BEC you can change the set point from lets say 8.0 to 7.5 Volts. While you change the setpoint (during setup) the UG should be disconnected. Because, in this very moment, the BEC does change the setpoin and the UG can feed higher voltage back (setpoint learned during powerup). Once you complete your setup, it is safe to reconnect the UG because it will learn the new set point (-0.5V). I trust this makes sense. Any ideas to improve the device would be welcomed and incorporated where we are able in V2 down the line.

[panosg]

I believe the LED was added later?
Also my unit will come back to life after you move the servos!
Also the soldering for the led on the board is not that great and the heatshring is not covering the whole board.

Otherwise the unit works great.

[Dan22]

I have now put some hot melt on the soldered LED wires.
Otherwise as said above this is a great product & i look forward to V2

Dan.

[Zeeflyboy]

The reason I asked is that in the case of Castle at least they have said specifically not to use products of this type with their ESC as they are not designed to work with another power source. Now it may well be that this unit has features that eliminate the reasons for that comment from Castle, I just don't know from what I've read so far.

Kontronik on the other hand have advocated the use of buffer packs for some time now but in their case it has been suggested that a backup power supply does not provide the protection that a NiMH pack offers in regard to back EMF handling. I don't know if that is true or not but would be keen to hear a reply.

This is a product that I want to be able to use and to suggest that others use, but I can't do that without knowing if it is sufficiently different from the Scorpion BUG to remove the previous objections to that device.

if worried one can just put a schottky diode on the power line from the BEC - this will prevent any current flowing the wrong way and damaging the BEC...

the slight issue I have with what Andy said is that while it is true that during use the device won't set a higher voltage than the BEC, when you disconnect the flight packs and the BEC turns off this will of course kick in, until you push the hibernate/off/whatever button. During this time it will be back driving the FETs in the BEC and some designs don't like that (namely synchronous designs unless protection is built in) - I had a failure of my Jeti's BEC while using the scorpion that i suspect was due to this issue.

There is very little disadvantage to fitting a schottky or two if your BEC has dual outputs, beyond a small drop in forward voltage (which if your BEC is adjustable you can likely compensate for). if it gives you piece of mind then I say go for it...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-PCS-15A-4...item3f25ea59e4

This product sounds great though I must say and address almost all the issues i have with my current scorpion unit - perfect for my scale build too where it is hard to access something like a scorpion to turn it on after having buttoned it all up. I will be buying 2 of these immediately!

[lee mister]

I believe the LED was added later?
Also my unit will come back to life after you move the servos!
Also the soldering for the led on the board is not that great and the heatshring is not covering the whole board.

Otherwise the unit works great.

I was starting to think it was just me I must of moved a servo when I was spinning the head to spin the motor and assumed it was the motor bringing it back to life.. as I can't get it to come on just spinning the motor now.

[Mark_T]

Update, it also starts back up if you move a servo lol
I don't see it as a real problem you just need to be aware of this and don't move the heli around until you have unplugged the pack from the board at the end of the day.

Problem is though we are not supposed to need to unplug the pack from the board unless we are leaving it unused for a long period of time.

It isn't always going to be easy to install this so you can get to the battery plug and the switch which are at opposite ends to each other.

Just folding the blades and stowing them away is going to move a servo every time I would have thought.

Hard to understand why this wouldn't have been discovered during testing?

Wonder if it is limited to some servos and not others?

I'll check mine shortly.

[Mark_T]

OK, so from my test I'm not sure this is anything to worry about.

Tested using Align 610 servo.

It took more than just a small movement to trigger the Ultra Guard, but all that happened was a brief flashing of the green light and then it shut down again.

I would assume that the lack of a steady voltage prevented it from actually arming.

Is it behaving differently for anyone else when a servo is moved?

[Jez N]

I had yet to fit mine or even take time to have a proper look at it (busy with other stuff unfortunately), but from reading these comments I was already feeling disappointed I had shelled out £40 on something that others didn't feel was fit for purpose. Even worse the mentioning already of V2 and we have only just received V1. I started writing a comment here berating the fact that we the end user are always beta testing for companies 'blady blah!'. But then thought I should take it out and fit it and see if there really are any issues.

I agree that the soldering of the LED cable is fairly flimsy, but that is also a reflection of the very thin wires to the LED board. I shall certainly be putting something around those wires as they will get destroyed almost instantly there are any repairs needed to the model. Their flimsiness also means I am unlikely to be exchanging this from model to model in fear of destroying the cable. For me a better solution would be an LED and wire that can be unplugged at the battery end so that I can buy several LED boards and use just one ultraguard between models. It's easy enough to put the ultraguard in an accessible place and plug stuff into it rather than leaving it on the model permanently. I know for those who have deeper pockets buying several units and leaving them on their models is the go to option. But £40 a time is expensive, especially since a BEC and NIMH battery has always been my reliable method and significantly cheaper!

The servo motor issue is for me a bit of a non-issue as it simply sparks into life and immediately goes back into hibernation mode. If it suddenly powered up all the servos and needed to be replugged in and de-powered then it would be an immediate postage back to the shop as it would just never work.

Overall i am happy with it, however my suggestion for the seemingly inevitable V2 (why oh why!) would be to have the LED which can be bought separately and plugged into the battery end allowing the unit to be moved whilst leaving the rather flimsy cabling on the model. I guess from a manufacturer view, you would rather we all went out and bought 4 or 5, so i shan't hold my breath!