An Honest Review, The Quanum Battery Telemetry System

 

     Ever since the first day I started flying electric modem airplanes I’ve longed for a way to know how much flying time I had left. Back then it was a rather simple matter of just using the timer on your transmitter to time your flight. This worked rather well when using NiCad batteries and resulted in quite a few successful flights. Later NiPh batteries became the norm and again it was just a simple matter of using the timer on the transmitter to time the flight. Along came the Lipo and everything changed. These batteries had to be handled with care else disastrous results could occur. Critical cutoff voltage was determined to be 3.2 volts. However, depending on the way one flew the model, the drain on the battery was different and timing of the flight became a rather interesting judgment on the part of the modeler. Modelers needed a better way of knowing how much flying time was left in the battery back.

2.4 To the Rescue

 

     One of the biggest advances to the model industry of the last several decades has been the development of the 2.4 MHz radio system. This offered modelers the ability to use many radio transmitters at the same time with an added feature, the ability to add Telemetry to the system. While development has been slow, several companies have jumped in the game to provide the modeler a downlink filled with information of the condition of the model. Quantum became one of the first to offer a telemetry system to monitor batteries in flight. No longer modelers have to guess at the level of voltage left in the battery pack and how much longer the model can safely fly.

The Quantum 2.4 MHz Telemetry System

 

     Quantum introduce the first Telemetry system several years ago giving the modeler a reading

of how much voltage was left in the battery powering the model. This eliminated the guess

work associated with how much flying time was left. The system comes in 2 parts, a

transmitter and a receiver that work separately from the models guidance system. The

transmitter needs to be bound to the transmitter. My first attempt at this resulted in a

transmitter that would not bind. I was following the recommended procedure found on one

of the forums. No one could explain the extra plug with the servo connector except the

procedure I was following. This, however, proved to be inaccurate information and I quickly

lost the function of the transmitter.

     Binding is a very simple procedure and the follow steps are recommended.

1.    Press and hold the binding button on the transmitter and attach a battery to the

balance plug until the green light flashes rapidly then release. The transmitter is

now in binding mode,

2.    Next, press and hold both the power and the binding buttons on the receiver.

 When the display comes on release the power button while holding down

the binding button. The binding should be almost instant. Release the bind

button and the receiver splash screen should display the battery count and the

voltage of each cell in the pack.

3.    Unplug the transmitter first and then turn off the receiver. Your transmitter is now

bound to the receiver.

4.    Plug the battery back into the balance plug and turn on the receiver. The splash

screen should appear and then switch to display the battery count and voltage. If not,

press the bind button on the receiver for about 1 second. The screen should switch

to ‘Searching’ and then quickly switch to again showing the battery count and

voltage. Again, binding is a simple procedure and really only needs to be completed

one time.

On to the fun

      I took my Sky Walker to test the Quantum Telemetry System.  This unit provides Voltage reading back to a receiver attached to your transmitter.  All in all it works fantastic and can be seen in bright sunlight.

 

      Note that it is around 85 degree outside and I have a heavy shirt on.  Believe me I really don't

want to deal with anymore Skin Cancer. 

 The next image is a look at the system linked up and ready to fly.  Again you can see the

display in bright sunlight.

 

 

 

 

      I'm using the Flex Antenna and ran it down the cargo bay of the Sky Walker.  I also have

carbon fiber tubes that run the length of the inside of the fuselage.  Everything checked

out fine on the ground, however, just after launch I lost sync with the Quantum transmitter.

I believe this was caused by the Carbon Fiber tubes and the antenna placement as sync

became interminent at that point.  

 

     After 25 minutes riding a thermal to around 500' I popped out and started a decent and again aquired sync. and noted it was time to land.  I only like to push my batteries so far and as you can see in the following image I was down to 11.22 volts. Landing was uneventful however

my Number 2 Squeeze had other opinions of the spot I landed. (I was Spot on)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     I have a Version 3 Receiver on order from Hobby King and should receive it later this week.  Next. I will be adding the temperature and Amp sensor.  Great littleunit so far and it is a perfect gas gage for electric models.

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I received Version 3 last week and tried it out last Sunday.  The results of me, mounting the antenna perpendicular to the planes receiver yeilded the best results so far using this system with complete downlink and sync through the entire flight.

 

All in all I believe this is going to be a very useful tool in my modeling activities and is a very useful tool in my planes giving real time data on the condition of the battery pack while flying my model.