Optipower Backup Guard

[Mark_T]

Now that is the quickest turn around of customer suggestion to production change!!

With respect, Andy has to have known before he even shipped these units that a socket for the light was needed.

It really is not even close to satisfactory to have people working with a soldering iron on these boards to add something that was listed as an option.

[Jez N]

With respect, Andy has to have known before he even shipped these units that a socket for the light was needed.

It really is not even close to satisfactory to have people working with a soldering iron on these boards to add something that was listed as an option.

My comment was very tongue in cheek!

But yes i completely agree that we shouldnt be having to solder things onto a product that has cost £40.

Anyway dont get me started on the customer as paying (rather than paid) beta testers for companies. It's an all to often situation and I'm afraid we are taken for mugs by some companies. Not completely suggesting that's the case here as i have not had to solder anything and overall i am happy with my product. But to already have decisions made about how to improve a product before it is released does seem a bit unfair on the consumer who hasn't been warned about the inferior nature of the design compared to how the next version (presumably the next batch produced) will be.

Many industries hand out pre-production items or software to gain information from people. The problem possibly with this hobby is that they go to the 'sponsored elite' who are happy for a freebie and not to the customer base who are likely to be more objective and critical.

[enterpryse]

Fitted mine today to my G 500. Seems ok to me

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[Mark_T]

update::: just fitted it to my rave 635 with external gryphon bec and its working perfect if I move the servos the green light comes on and it goes back into hibernate mode, shuts down like it should.
its looking like it has a problem with the yge 90lv internal bec ?

Interesting.

I know it is not the same, but as I had a YEP 150LV laying around I just tried that and could not get it to misbehave.

Is your YGE the Mikado version with the extra large capacitor along the side of it, or the standard version without that extra capacitor?

[Mark_T]

Fitted mine today to my G 500. Seems ok to me

I think the combo without the LED unit is OK, as long as you know you will not ever want to fit an LED unit to it.

It is the super combo that seems flawed to me, it looks like it has been re-worked, and pretty badly at that. Solder joints for the LED cable onto the main board are poorly done with sharp points left on. The heat-shrink has been poorly applied leaving areas of the board exposed.

Nothing that couldn't have been fixed with a proper socket which is going to be there for V2, but really should have been here on V1.

[Zeeflyboy]

What is the pin spacing there?

I order two of these today but I think I'll want to desolder the led wires and fit a plug.


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[lee mister]

its the Mikado version with the extra large capacitor

Interesting.

I know it is not the same, but as I had a YEP 150LV laying around I just tried that and could not get it to misbehave.

Is your YGE the Mikado version with the extra large capacitor along the side of it, or the standard version without that extra capacitor?

[OPTIANDY]

Thanks for the comments guys some helpful some not and many way off the mark. We do not give freebies to sponsored pilots as many think, most all sponsored pilots pay for what they receive, there are one or two exceptions like Nick and Dunkan or those actually doing development work. They pay a reduced price something around trade prices, I do not know of many sponsored pilots who receive FREE anything except factory based pilots, we have none of those.

Secondly we are not doing any field beta testing using the customer base, we do not expect clients to add the wires for the boards they will be delivered that way if and where you buy a super combo. We are adding some further functionality to the firmware we designed back in September which has come from field testing and no doubt more tweaks will come along as the product develops over time, that is the natural product development process.

We were not helped at all by being pushed into an earlier than planned launch date due to one of the magazines putting the advert in a month early driving demand we were intending a post Toy Fair launch, these things happen I am afraid.

With respect to future versions, the development time for a board change is about three months, this is a Euro built product not a Chinese built product and we have planned for some changes as you know to improve production and the overall product. We are always open to suggestions on what and how we might improve a product so please continue to suggest constructive changes/additions.

If you use telemetry you do not require the LED of course jut set your voltage alarm on your TX to 0.5V less than your system set voltage, the option LED is really for those with no telemetry of which there are many including myself.

Any constructive suggestions to me please at andy@optipower.co.uk every one will be considered and responded to.

[ChrisB]

I might consider a product like this but thinking more the Scorpion one as it looks a ton more refined than this thing.

But my question is how do these products benefit over just using a lipo,life,or nimh as a standalone backup,of a capacity that IS CAPABLE of powering the model throughout a whole fligh of 3D with plenty to spare.

Example on my old 700E running a helijive inbuilt bec i had a 1450mah LIFE as backup running thru EC3s direct to v bar,on occasions i removed Jive bec from equation by breaking power supply lead and flew 2 or 3 flights on the LIFE pack on its own,this proved a bullet proof backup so what does an electronic product that adds complication bring to the table please?

On my Logo 700 i run a Kosmik at 8v BEC and a 2s lipo as backup which again is capable on its own of powering several flights if needed.

[Mark_T]

What is the pin spacing there?

I order two of these today but I think I'll want to desolder the led wires and fit a plug.

Take a look at the updated manual Andy linked earlier, it shows the power being taken direct from the main servo lead output from the board, not from the pins at the opposite end where the signal wire is connected.

I would suggest asking if there is a reason for that before assuming you can pull power from the pins next to the signal connection.

[Mark_T]

its the Mikado version with the extra large capacitor

Another one for Andy, but I wonder if it is possible that under conditions of no load, that the capacitor is holding the voltage high enough to confuse the Ultra Guard?

[Mark_T]

Secondly we are not doing any field beta testing using the customer base, we do not expect clients to add the wires for the boards they will be delivered that way if and where you buy a super combo.

Yet the description on the Combo product says : "A separate external high intensity LED can be fitted that shows you are on the buffer pack, this is an option and these can be cascaded if required."

You can't blame people for expecting that adding an option shouldn't require them to cut plugs off your supplied cable and break out their soldering iron to work on a small circuit board.

Similarly I don't think it is unreasonable to expect that the results of your field testing should have been incorporated into the released product not listed out a couple of days after people have ordered what they should have reasonably expected to be the best you could produce at that time.

This is why it feels a little like buying a beta product as despite knowing you were going to change things pretty much immediately you shipped anyway and didn't mention this before people rushed to buy what they were told was a product tested by the best in the heli world ...

[Zeeflyboy]

I might consider a product like this but thinking more the Scorpion one as it looks a ton more refined than this thing.

Have to completely disagree... This is FAR more advanced than the scorpion (which I own). There is in fact very little comparison between the two.

- The opti will charge and balance itself as needed, the scorpion will not (and needs a special charge adaptor)
- The opti will hibernate and automatically switch on, the scorpion you need to remember to switch on.
- The opti will auto sense voltage and kick in at 0.5v below, the scorpion is fixed at 5v
- The opti appears not to brown out under heavy load, the scorpion has been known to.
- The opti has the option of a bright remote LED, the scorpion doesn't.
- The opti has an easily disconnected or changed lipo, the scorpion doesn't.

The only thing the scorpion has in its favour is a fancy gold heat sink, but the rest is just black heat shrink.

But my question is how do these products benefit over just using a lipo,life,or nimh as a standalone backup,of a capacity that IS CAPABLE of powering the model throughout a whole fligh of 3D with plenty to spare.

Example on my old 700E running a helijive inbuilt bec i had a 1450mah LIFE as backup running thru EC3s direct to v bar,on occasions i removed Jive bec from equation by breaking power supply lead and flew 2 or 3 flights on the LIFE pack on its own,this proved a bullet proof backup so what does an electronic product that adds complication bring to the table please?

The main benefit over using a separate lipo/life/nimh is that you don't need to charge and worry about a second battery pack. It simplifies the process since you only have main packs to charge, plug in, and monitor voltage/charge state of.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using a separate pack, and if that's your preference then I don't see any real need to change. Personally I much prefer just have the flight packs to charge and monitor, it's more convenient to me.





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[ChrisB]

Ok cheers,we will indeed disagree on the Scorpion option.

But i will stick with a backup system that can safely complete a flight however long it might be without crapping out.

[panosg]

The Scorpion is nothing else than a Lipo with a switch and a fancy heatshring.