RC Model Reviews

OK well not really true telemetry but I wanted to tell you about a simple receiver battery monitor that my buddy designed for me. It uses an LED mounted to the plane that glows bright when the receiver battery voltage is up but dims when it is too low (there is plenty of redundant power left to get the plane back on the ground).
Mounted under the wing it should tell me during a low slow flyby if my battery voltage is high enough. Cost was totally minimal got the parts from Radioshack.
I wanted a simple way to check my receiver Lipo without hooking up my volt meter.
I dont see much offered to achieve this commercially.

Nice idea Jeff,

What about a line of multicolored leds that turns on on transmitter input, when you press a button on the TX ?
It could easily fit under the wings. maybe 5 leds could do: 3 green, 1 yellow, 1 red.

Or maybe just a single multi-colored led that can do green/yellow/red when you press the button on a nearby passage.
Simple and probably very effective.

Is there anyone that is able to design the needed circuitry?

Marco

You could use that with a remote power switch connected to a free channel on the rx an switch on/off as needed from your tx. (ie - http://www.mars480.com/xtelonun.html )

The idea is to use the led lights as a power level indicator.
So the circuit needed has to detect the onboard battery level and turn on the corresponding led(s) when a button is pressed on the TX.

The remote power switch you offer is nice, but is only a part of the solution.
An onboard charge level sensing circuit is needed, so to turn on the corresponding light configuration.

Marco

My buddy designed a very simple circuit that would shut off the light when the power dropped to a certain level, I am sure he could design something that would also turn on an LED when it was over a preset voltage. You would just have to wire in both. The weight is minimal and the current required is very small.

A led with a resistor of the right value should do it or a trimpot?