VoltMagic Pilots

Sponsored Pilots

VoltMagic is one cool tool.

I usually fly the machine very hard the entire flight, and I was on the hairy edge and didn’t even know it. I was using a 1700 NiCad 4 cell pack to keep the weight down and charging after every flight, which is the only thing that saved me. It wasn’t running out of milliamps, but was pulling too many amps and dropping the voltage dangerously low. VoltMagic was blinking red for PLV (peak low voltage).

Turned out there was also excessive resistance in the switch and battery plug. The more amps you draw, the more important it is to keep the resistance down. After some testing, the one with the least resistance was the Futaba heavy duty switch. I also decided to try taking the battery plug off the battery and hard wiring it directly to the switch. This brought the resistance down (and the voltage up) even more. With a 1950FAUP battery the electrical system was working smooth with power to spare.

I was also having a problem with one of my machines locking out. One of the really neat things VoltMagic does is count failsafe lockouts with PCM, or glitches in standard FM. Very cool! The memory (data logger) is a VERY useful feature. How many times has your machine wigged out for no reason and crashed? Well, I’ve had this happen too many times. For me, this is the worst kind of crash because of that big question mark!

I would put it back together, checking everything humanly possible. Back in the air, my knees are knocking and my finger is on throttle hold. NO FUN!! The worst thing about a crash like that is the unknown. If you could buy an on board device that would record useful information to look at after the fact, wouldn't you? VoltMagic will hold the memory even if the battery gets thrown in the crash. Just power it up and it will tell you if there was a voltage problem or a lock out issue.

Of course, it's best when you're alerted to glitches or voltage problems BEFORE a crash! It's cheap insurance.

Lately, I've been using lithium batteries and the Arizona regulator from Fromeco with a prototype of the new VoltMagic. It has additional ranges specifically for regulators. It even checks for over voltage. Way to go! I wouldn’t fly with out one.

Bill Pierce

VoltMagic
Model Avionics
Fromeco

OMI

Tammie's Hobbies

VIDEO: "Bill Pierce at the Park" flying the "Sky Tractor".

Congratulations Gordie!
4th place - 2007 US Nationals F3C

VoltMagic

I am now running the VoltMagic on all my models. It has ranges for 4 or 5 cell nicads/nimh or regulated systems including lipos. It gives you the current loaded voltage as an in flight readable LED display and also shows the peak low voltage that occurred during the flight. If you are running ppm, it records the number of glitches you get or if running PCM it records failsafes. It weighs only 7 grams and is pretty easy to set up.

Gordie Meade

Team Futaba

Miniature Aircraft

Wildcat Fuel

YS Engines

Duralite Systems

Radix Blades

VoltMagic

My fascination is electric. R/C planes since 1989, and helis since 2007. I love teaching others and sharing information, and enjoy every technical aspect of helis both on the workbench and in the air. I usually tackle technical problems with tenacity until a solution is found.

Sam2B

VoltMagic saved my TREX 700 from crashing over the weekend. One of my 2 cell 2500 mAh LiPo receiver batteries slowly died even though it was less than one year old. A worn out LiPo can be an expensive crash, so VoltMagic is a low cost insurance. Rob Clark.

The instructions that come with this unit have a lot of information in them. To get the most out of your Voltmagic, you really need to read the instructions. Read them until you understand them. Once you do, you will see how valuable this little device can be.

Ron Lund

More Pilot Feedback

VoltMagic detects problem early

Eight gallons through the gasser and never a glitch. This weekend at Brooks, after the third flight, the first LED blinked once indicating a glitch. I didn't actually notice it while flying, so I looked the machine over and wrenched a few bolts. I flew again and VoltMagic showed a couple more glitches. After a more thorough inspection, I found the cause was that the muffler had started to loosen.

Once again, Voltmagic signaled a problem before anything bad or expensive happened. Amazing, many thanks!!

Jay
Washington, USA

The Voltmagic is an excellent tool for my setup. I recommend it to anyone with a generator.

Thanks,
Scott

Upstate Heli Cam

Greenville, SC

VoltMagic finds bad receiver switch

While at a Fun-Fly, a factory rep proposed we attach a VoltMagic to see if there was a problem with his latest aircraft. He suspected something was wrong. The symptoms were subtle and intermittent, but seemed to be getting worse. With VoltMagic connected, the sticks were stirred quickly to simulate flying loads while on the bench.

Quick reversal of a servo's direction causes current spikes that approximate actual flying. Try it on your own aircraft when the battery is nearing its last flight of the day and compare the Peak Low Voltage (PLV) to what you had while flying.

After quickly oscillating the transmitter sticks for a few seconds, the PLV was in the red. The battery had already been thoroughly checked with a loaded volt meter (ESV), so he tried plugging the battery directly into the receiver, effectively bypassing the switch. The PLV was normal. Replacing the switch fixed the problem, and the troubleshooting happened risk free without even starting the engine!

Beta Testing Success Stories

Battery trouble found early with VoltMagic

One of our beta testers had installed a new compliment of digital and coreless servos plus a new battery with almost 3000 mah capacity which had been cycled, checked for capacity, and checked with a loaded volt meter (ESV). It had only two flights before installing VoltMagic.

Fortunately, each of these prior flights was with the battery fully charged because this battery had too much voltage drop for the current load of these servos. After one short flight the PLV was already under 4.0 volts. It turned out the battery was a slow discharge type with too much impedance.

Glitch detection on VoltMagic

One of the helicopters in our beta test program started to indicate one or two PCM failsafes per flight. The failsafes must have been only a fraction of a second because none of the pilots noticed anything abnormal during flight - only VoltMagic knew what had happened. Inspection revealed an aluminum clutch drive rubbing on carbon fiber plus a loose bearing in the assembly.

VoltMagic detected the problem before any other symptoms were evident.