floridawen

I have several Fluke "standard" digital Voltmeters from being into electronics, but I saw quite a few guys at the flying field have these portable, small, but easy to read Voltmeters that they "dial-in" a LOAD onto their batteries to get a true output voltage (under load) of the battery packs in their planes.

I looked in Tower Hobbies catalog and could NOT find any ?? Perhaps I was not looking in the right place, but I went "cover-to-cover". Can anyone suggest a well built, easy to read, affordable, dependable Voltmeter w/load capabilities ??

Thanks !!

theluckyone17

I did some searching around on Google (waiting for Time Warner to come and fix my intermittently acting up internet & phone service, so I may as well do something useful).

I found this article... and here's the same text, with a diagram. I don't know that much about electronics, but I can't see why you couldn't replace the light bulb with a potentiometer (variable resistor).

On the other hand, I did find a Hangar 9 Digital Variable Load Voltmeter. Try doing a Google search for "digital variable load voltmeter"... that brings up a few products that might work for you, I think.

jdetray

Just to be clear, gadgets like the Hanger 9 meter or the circuit from our own Red Scholefield are designed to check the condition of a receiver pack, not the main battery of an electric plane. You could build a similar device for checking the main battery, but you would have to use a much larger load.

- Jeff

xplo5iv

Sorry if I'm being stupid/ patronising, but why dont you just measure the voltage when under load from your motor? Or, have you seen a WattMeter? Haven't got one yet (too skint!), but would seem to be a good idea.