[JimMcIntyre]

Originally Posted by volksman

me will stick to futaba and ya they even work on the down wind turn.

Radio manufacturer discussions are akin to religious discussions. None are perfect, it's the ones that deny this fact that make me nervous.

Pack up those servos and ship 'em to me, I'll send them in to horizon for service ... I've found JR listens to their users and adapt to their changing needs, the 8411 failures are a good case in point;
http://www.nircha.com/News___Tips/84...1_warning.html

Futaba on the other hand, you don't have to search long to find accounts of failures ( especially with their 3304 series) that have never been addressed, let alone acknowledged....

[adaptabl]

Originally Posted by Noin

Thats an easy one....use it to fly your aircraft.

I don't really want to fly free flight.

[JimMcIntyre]

Originally Posted by adaptabl

I don't really want to fly free flight.

Might be safer than flying F.U.taba, at least there wouldn't be any uncommanded input. :P

[Midair]

Originally Posted by JimMcIntyre

Might be safer than flying F.U.taba, at least there wouldn't be any uncommanded input. :P

Ouch! You guys are brutal Regarding an earlier Futaba "anchor" remark, I note that JR (Just Rubish) now advertise that their top end radios come with metal cases - I wonder which brand would be a better anchor I also question why JR flyers would need a metal case radio transmitter - is it because they are more frustrated with the performance and reliability of their equipment and therefore tend to throw their radios to the ground in anger :P

Apologies for continuing to hi-jack a valid battery question, but I couldn’t resist

Peter

[JimMcIntyre]

Originally Posted by Midair

is it because they are more frustrated with the performance and reliability of their equipment and therefore tend to throw their radios to the ground in anger :P

Peter, Peter, Peter,

Your mistake is in superimposing your F.U.taba experiences on others. JR flyers recetntly see a greater need to protect their equipment from jealous 14Mz owners who see no other way to compete on an even field than to damage the competition's equipment. :P

No really, when you own something you truly cherish (bear with me, I realize this is all rather foreign to a confirmed F.U.(taba) owner) you tend to want to protect it from accidental damage. This is the same reason I invested in a hard shell case for my Stratocaster (guitar) while my cheapie clone get's relegated to a plastic/cardboard case ... come to think of it, my clone guitar case does appear quite similar in construciton and design to the new F.U.taba 14Mz cases. Although I understand you can now purchase a refurbished army surplus case for the 14Mz

Originally Posted by Midair

Apologies for continuing to hi-jack a valid battery question, but I couldn’t resist

Peter

No worries, I believe the question was answered.

[moo]

Originally Posted by jpmodels

That is to say, when I move my servos around, the led indicator goes from full charge to just below the ok-to-fly range.

Probably one bad cell on the pack. Same as I had in one pack. Digital servos make this much worse and more apparent.

[moo]

Originally Posted by jpmodels

3. I agree that the Voltwatch should be read with the servos static, but reciever powered on. This makes sense.

Nope. What you are allowing is the condition that the receiver does not get enough voltage when the servos are under a high load, a bad, bad thing (like a failure pulling out of a dive).

Voltage drop under load indicates insufficient current available, probably due to increased cell resistance (age or a bad cell).

[jpmodels]

Originally Posted by erg

Nope. What you are allowing is the condition that the receiver does not get enough voltage when the servos are under a high load, a bad, bad thing (like a failure pulling out of a dive).

Voltage drop under load indicates insufficient current available, probably due to increased cell resistance (age or a bad cell).

Interesting... I think I'm leaning more towards the "Voltwatch system is deceiving and worrysome" philosophy because I have two of them and have used them on at least 4 different battery packs and I find that the voltage is consistently 2-3 bars lower (at least) when the servos are being moved around.
Admittedly, the led's are hard to read at 75mph and frankly, the whole experience scares me to death!

Jon

[Guest]

A good high load volt meter is the best check IMO. A 250 mA load is not high enough with todays digital servos, 5 digitals will draw well into the few amps range under moderate flight loads. Even good non digital servos will draw serious amounts of power at times. When I was flying glow models I was seeing average draws from the flight pack of about 1-1.5A.

Personally I use a 1A load tester, and stop flying when the pack reaches nominal voltage. Test every flight, its the only way to be sure. Currently I am flying with lipo's for Rx packs and use the same criteria without any issues.

If I need more flying I bring more packs, or chargers, or use a larger capacity.

[moo]

Originally Posted by can773

Personally I use a 1A load tester, and stop flying when the pack reaches nominal voltage.

In that case you would never fly;

nominal: adj., According to plan or design

Are you saying 'when the batteries reach their design voltage, I stop flying'?

As an aside, my voltwatch II stays at the high end and flickers one LED down when I twich the servos. I have four Futaba s3151 (cheap digital) and one Hitec hs100 (old, old, old micro servo), and a 1600 mAh four cell nimh pack.

My best guess is:
1) check the switch setting on the voltwatch,
2) voltwatch is out of calibration,
3) bad pack,
4) pack to small for load

Voltwatch is an expanded scale voltmeter designed for 6V or 4.8V nominal, how would you use it on a lithium pack other than after the regulator? Any such reading would be misleading in the extreme.