Tx battery bar ?

[bertrand35]

We release again c9x tomorrow. It will be there.

[Kilrah]

Looks like ROTENC is missing on stock too.

[bertrand35]

BATTGRAPH and ROTENC are in the very last companion9x release!

[acefx]

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiicccceeee , un Hourra pour Bertrand !!!!!!!!!! and a thank you too

[jlummel]

This is great to finally have! But rather than the calibrated battery meter discussed in this thread, they chose to implement a simpler battery meter that should still be very serviceable if you set it up right.

When you select the battery meter from Companion9x it adds a battery meter to the home screens (I don't know about the telemetry screens) and an option to set the range on the radio setup screen, with both a high and a low value. The high and low battery values are limited to no less than 1 volt apart, so you want to start by setting the low value first.

I use a Zippy 1800mah LiFe battery in my 9x and it spends 95% of it's usable voltage range between ~9.0v and ~10.1 volts with 9.9v reading the majority of the time the radio is on, and the voltage dropping very fast when it gets below 9.0v (there are weak cells on all my LiFe batteries, so they all do this, though I get upwards to 95% of the rated capacity before I hit this rapid drop on them).

So I've set my low voltage alarm to 9.1v (we have a busy airfield and I've been stuck in the air several minutes after my alarms have gone off, so I always build in a buffer just in case), then I set the low range on the battery meter to 9.0 and the high to 10.0. This allows me to see at a glance that my battery is no longer fresh (meter is not 'full'), yet the majority of the time the radio is on the meter will be showing above half. Once I go below half then I may want to charge it up or at the very least I'll know that I may have to land if I'm up in the air for a long time. Below half would also remind me to grab my spare battery if I'm just heading to the field ( a Hobby King 1400mah LiFe, I also use one of these in my Futaba 7C).

A battery meter set up this way will display the usable range of the battery's power, though it'll stick in certain areas of the meter's range for longer period than others (the gas gauge on my car does this, it stays in the 3/4th to Full range for the first half a tank of gas and then drop rapidly for the second half a tank). This stickiness is the problem that calibration would have fixed, so you just need to be aware of it so you can interpret the meter correctly.

The same basic idea should work for a LiPo battery as well (though you'd set the low range and the low voltage alarm to a level adequate to prevent over-discharging the pack), but I'm not sure if the meter is that helpful on a NiCAD or NiMH pack.

Anyways, I'm a happy camper!!

James

[sgofferj]

Very very cool!!! Love it!
Stupid question: What's the recommendable battery range for 8xAA NiMH 2700mAh?

[Rob Thomson]

Well... as they are NiMH batteres.

According to wikipedia

A fully charged cell supplies an average 1.25 V/cell during discharge, down to about 1.0–1.1 V/cell (further discharge may cause permanent damage in the case of multi-cell packs, due to polarity reversal). Under a light load (0.5 ampere), the starting voltage of a freshly charged AA NiMH cell in good condition is about 1.4 volts.[18]

So...

Max
1.4 x 8 = > max voltage on good cell. lets play safe and say:
1.3 x 8 => max voltage of 10.4v (check your pack after charge on a meter)

Min
1.1 x 8 => min voltage of 8.8v

So... 10.4v / 8.8v sound ok?

[jlummel]

... So... 10.4v / 8.8v sound ok?

I think that'd be a real good starting point for NiMH or NiCAD, with a low battery alarm around 8.9v or 9.0v.

Unlike lithium batteries (LiPo, LiFe) the voltage on the NiMH doesn't directly correspond to a particular mah still left in the battery, so a person using a NiMH battery pack should start with these settings and then adjust the high, low and alarm voltages as needed to give them a display range they find is more useful.

And you need to be aware that with NiMH and NiCAD you can turn on your radio and it may show a full battery, only to have it drop to less than half after a minute or two (or more). Many RC pilots had a full battery when they left their house and a dead one after they get to the field and turn the radio on for more than a second or two! Don't get caught by the false readings!

James

PS- remember, the battery meter shows any battery voltage over your high setting as full (per my testing), so it's OK if the high setting is lower than the highest voltage your battery charges up to, it's not going to stay at that higher voltage for long! Just make sure to set the battery calibration value in the calibration screen properly and then adjust the meter range to give you a readout you find useful. I cover the rational I used for setting my LiFe battery in an earlier message in this thread, hopefully someone else might find it useful in deciding how they want to do their settings as well.

[agusta600gt]

Hello to all.....ive been away for some time now but now playing with my T9x again.Last night ive flashed the latest Opentx FW r2168...Maybe ive missed something but im searching for the newly implanted battery bar.....Thanks for helping me refreshing my memory as i forgot some things for the last year bahhhhh hahaha

[Rob Thomson]

Just check the bat bar box option in your companion preferences.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[agusta600gt]

Thanks rob,i think you mean Bargraph chekbox...is that right ?

cheers

[Rob Thomson]

that be the one

[agusta600gt]

So...ive re flashed the latest Opentx FW with the batt bargraph checked in companion9x...its 6 o clok a.m. and my wife came out of the room with a sledge hammer in her hand and pointing at my tx with killer eyes...oupsss...biiiiiiip !

ive turned on the tx but still dont see the batt bar (for now) damned she's gonna kill me hahaha...

[jhsa]

Mine does the same when I stay up late..
But I just rest the tx on my legs and tell her that if she hits the tx, she might damage something else.. Then she backs off and go back to sleep..

If one day she hits the TX I know that something is wrong

[agusta600gt]

mouahahaha