Optipower Backup Guard

[OPTIANDY]

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.

Chris, the concept here is not to be used as a power source but a safety device. You can indeed put a big RX pack in or separate LiPo pack and those are very valid alternatives. If you want a small light weight device you do not need to charge or switch on as a secondary get you out of trouble device than that is the UG430's function. If you want your secondary device to be a flight pack then that is something different. One point you might want to consider is that in the Kosmic the boot voltage is 5V it arms and then goes to the set voltage in your case 8V. It is not a good idea to have your 2S LiPo in the circuit during the boot process as the system voltage would be unregulated at 8.4V this would stress the FETS in the Kosmic. The UG430 works slightly differently in that it waits and samples allows the Kosmic to set, arm and step up to your set voltage in this case 8V, the UG430 then arms at 7.5V thus no stress on the Kosmic. If the BEC failed the UG430 would give you power to auto in. If the Kosmic reboots in flight, unusual but I am told this can and does happen it comes back at the set voltage it does not go through the rearming process the UG430 cuts in and then drops out again on 8V being re-established.

It sounds like you have a solution that works for you. If you want to apply the UG430 board to a larger 2S pack you can as it is sold as a stand alone part, just need a JST-XH balance plug on the 2S LiPo and do not use the main leads on the LiPo.

[Mark_T]

You'd have to put me in the same camp as I also don't regard the Scorpion as coming close to the Ultra Guard.

It was a step in the right direction, but it missed the mark. I came close to buying the Scorpion BUG several times but its limitations were such that it never made sense when compared to a simple NiMH buffer pack.

The Ultra Guard ticked all the right boxes which is why there are two of them on my desk right now.

[milly0812]

You'd have to put me in the same camp as I also don't regard the Scorpion as coming close to the Ultra Guard.

It was a step in the right direction, but it missed the mark. I came close to buying the Scorpion BUG several times but its limitations were such that it never made sense when compared to a simple NiMH buffer pack.

The Ultra Guard ticked all the right boxes which is why there are two of them on my desk right now.

I hear you Mark but the BUG is there just to give you the ability to auto down in the event of a failure. Sure the opti guard is cleverer and the big advantage is you can't forget to switch it on lol. Just gives you servo control but if your inverted low down nothing gonna save you

[OPTIANDY]

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, might be right here we are checking this out. The device looks for volts and volts are volts. It might be possible that the YGE in this case has a high residual capacitive load and that is over 4V, if so the moving of the servos would create a small voltage wake up the device it samples after a short wait and sees >4V and try's to arm. A second shut down would solve this or wait a minute or two for the capacitors to degrade but we will investigate as we have tested on YGE and have not seen this issue.

[panosg]

One of my club members that he uses Scorpion bug, he forgets every time to switch it on.... goes to the flight line, puts heli down, walks back ready to fly, spools up, spools down, walks to the flight line, turns bug on, walks back and fly's.......every time lol

[Mark_T]

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.

Just an observation from testing with the Super Combo.

The LED warning does not seem to trigger merely because the voltage has dropped by 0.5V but the Ultra Guard is turning on and supporting the voltage but probably only briefly.

I used a YEP 150LV which has probably one of the worst BEC's I've ever owned. It can be persuaded to drop from, 5.5V to under 3.5V without too much trouble.

With the Ultra Guard in circuit the voltage reported via Spektrum telemetry never fell below 4.9V and the Ultra Guard warmed up a little so was obviously working to supply current, but the LED warning did not go off.

I'm certainly not complaining about the way the Ultra Guard was stepping in to stop the voltage falling, but without telemetry I would never know it was happening.

It seems as though the conditions to trigger the Ultra Guard to step in are a little different to the conditions to trigger the LED alarm.

Once again, not a complaint, more a question about what the difference is, is it just a matter of duration, so transient falls will trigger support from the Ultra Guard but not an alarm?

[ragge1]

One of my club members that he uses Scorpion bug, he forgets every time to switch it on.... goes to the flight line, puts heli down, walks back ready to fly, spools up, spools down, walks to the flight line, turns bug on, walks back and fly's.......every time lol

is it me your talking of , that happens to me all the time

[ragge1]

Mark, might be right here we are checking this out. The device looks for volts and volts are volts. It might be possible that the YGE in this case has a high residual capacitive load and that is over 4V, if so the moving of the servos would create a small voltage wake up the device it samples after a short wait and sees >4V and try's to arm. A second shut down would solve this or wait a minute or two for the capacitors to degrade but we will investigate as we have tested on YGE and have not seen this issue.

wondering if its the YGE with an extra capacitor ( mikado version ) , got the 120lvk without the extra capacitor , hopefully mine will arrive next week , going to test it

[Mark_T]

wondering if its the YGE with an extra capacitor ( mikado version ) , got the 120lvk without the extra capacitor , hopefully mine will arrive next week , going to test it

Yes, that was already confirmed, it is the Mikado version.

[jasoncook]

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

You forgot to say" but it works" . Have you ever heard of KISS design principle !!

KISS is an acronym for "Keep it simple, stupid" as a design principle noted by the U.S. Navy in 1960.^[1][2] The KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complex; therefore simplicity should be a key goal in design and unnecessary complexity should be avoided.

[Zeeflyboy]

Optipower Backup Guard

You forgot to say" but it works" . Have you ever heard of KISS design principle !!

KISS is an acronym for "Keep it simple, stupid" as a design principle noted by the U.S. Navy in 1960.^[1][2] The KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complex; therefore simplicity should be a key goal in design and unnecessary complexity should be avoided.

*works if you remember to switch it on and also remember to check that it's sufficiently charged.


What the opti lacks in electronic simplicity it replaces with operational simplicity IMO. I am replacing my BUGs with these mostly for that reason.

[jasoncook]

One of my club members that he uses Scorpion bug, he forgets every time to switch it on.... goes to the flight line, puts heli down, walks back ready to fly, spools up, spools down, walks to the flight line, turns bug on, walks back and fly's.......every time lol

Reading all the posts would you trust tho opti guard to stay in sleep mode with the model in a bag with the blades folded ?? I know people are unplugging the battery on the opti when the heli is being stored , so i think a simple switch was a oversight in the design. A device similar scorpion bug that charged its self and beeped when it detected external power and it was not switched on was all that's required. Maybe the lipo connections on the opti version are designed to have the lipo unplugged many times before it fails when its actually needed. Both devices are only designed to land a sick bird a keep power to the servos nothing more.

[Mark_T]

Reading all the posts would you trust tho opti guard to stay in sleep mode with the model in a bag with the blades folded ??

Based on what I've seen so far, yes, I would.

Leaving out the switch was a plus point for me, not a risk factor.

The bit I believe Andy is looking into is the effect of having large capacitors on the BEC circuit which AFAIK is limited to the Mikado version of the YGE. Now if anyone else is using additional capacitors on the BEC side then this could be an issue, but so far in my own testing I cannot persuade it to rearm accidentally when used with a Kontronik 100LV, Talon 90 or YEP 150LV.

[milly0812]

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

So how it output 5volts ? A lipo cell is 3.7v or multiples of so there must be more than just a switch ?

[Zeeflyboy]

Optipower Backup Guard

Yeah it's a lipo, regulator, switch and a voltage sensing circuit so he was oversimplifying a bit