Turnigy Watt meter power analyzer

[6sHyper]

i have the Turnigy watt meter/power analyzer the question i have is it says 130amps, so what exactly does that mean?? i haven't used it very much, but i did record it on my mono and it registered a max amp draw of 139, so does anyone know the deal with these things and what the whole 130amps is about?? i just know my setup now is gonna be pulling more amps so i'm worried i might fry it and possibly ruin something else in my boat?? anyone know what the limitations are with these things?? thanks.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dProduct=10080

[Simon.O.]

I am curious about this unit, it says it is accurate and the reviews back that up.
How it is wired in to your setup ??
Are any instructions included with as to how it should be wired in ??

Watching this thread very closely as I may have to get one !!

[6sHyper]

wiring it in is simple you just solder a pair of battery connectors on either end and add it between one of the batteries and esc

[sailr]

This unit makes no sense for boats. It does not retain the highest amp reached....right? It just does a live real time reading? There is no way to know what the amps were once you bring the boat in because it doesn't save the data. Right? Wrong?

Watt meters are great for airplanes because you can hold the plane on the ground, go to full throttle, and watch the meter. You can't do that with a boat because you are not pulling the amps unless you are running in the water and holding the boat will run the amps WAY up.

[6sHyper]

Actually it does retain the highest amp rating reached

[sailr]

Wow! Good to know. Nothing in the description at Hobbyking says that. I have never seen a regular watt meter do that. Thanks!!

[785boats]

Sailr
I've been using one to get some useful knowledge during setting up a boat.
It retains Peak amps, minimum volts, total watt hours used, & peak watts.
When you bring the boat in it continuously scrolls through those values while also displaying the present battery voltage. Plus it has a few other uses too. Can be used as a charging monitor & a servo/receiver tester also.
Here's a bit of info for ya.
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...X352223X46.pdf

I find that if you take off nice & easy, do a couple of smooth laps at WOT with no skipping, the displayed 'Peak' amps can be taken as your running current. And if you subtract the displayed Minimum voltage from the real time voltage also on the display, it gives you a pretty good idea of your voltage drop under load with that setup in the boat.
Not as accurate as an Eagle Tree, but good enough for me.

6sHyper
The first one I had, I brought the boat in & it read 133A. The next run it jist failed & the boat stopped dead in the water.
The one I have now did the same once but this time I opened it up & it was just that the solder on one of the leads let go. That might have been the problem with the first one. Should have checked it before tossing it
But I haven't put this one in anything since with more than 130Amp draw.
So I'm not sure on it's real limitations.
Cheers.
Paul.

[6sHyper]

good info Paul, i just soldered on the 8mm's and now it wires in very nicely at the esc picking the batts up in series and running 22.2v+ thru it, it says it can handle 60v so i'm not worried about that but the 130 amp is what i'm worried about, well i know it read 139 amps last time i used it with the m447 so i'm sure it should be higher amps with my new x645, will test later today.

[6sHyper]

So i ran it directly between my batts in series (6s) and the esc, i put it in the water and did probably way too many wot passes, just when i was about to bring her in she died, recovered her and the watt meter had failed, took it apart and sure enough one of the load wires had desoldered. Never got any readings, so will repair and try again, this time 2 wot passes and back in..........

[785boats]

I'm not saying that the following holds true, but if you look in the specifications at the bottom of the instructions it says that it reads 0-6554 watts.
At 60V that's only about 108 Amps. Max.
At 22V that's about 295Amps.
So there must be other limiting factors in the design of the unit for them to put the 130A limit on it.
You won't know the limit until you find it, But then it's too late.
Cheers.
Paul.

Edit.
Looks like you posted while I was typing my post.
Seems the solder is the limiting factor. He! He!
Better luck on the next trip. I'll be interested to see the results.
Paul.

[6sHyper]

For sure Paul, i think with these the best thing is to just run them for 2 passes and bring them in. The only negative thing about that is IMO it seems that my boat will actually get a little bit faster after a few passes and a bit of heat builds up, so i bet the amps are higher atthat point as well.

[785boats]

You are right about that .
Here's a bit of an update on mine.
I put it in the Whiplash 33" on the weekend with a rather old & tired 4s pack, did 3 laps & the reading was 139A.
Put in one of the packs I use in racing, & it stopped dead in the water after 4 laps.
It was the load side negative cable that desoldered this time so the display still had all the numbers up & running. All except the resting pack voltage in the top right corner, which I found strange.
Max current was 144.9A
Closer inspection showed that there is a little bridge on the backside of the board between the source & load connections of the negative wires. This had also desoldered & slipped sideways & was touching some other connections on the board.
I'll have a go at fixing it tonight.
Cheers.
Paul.

[6sHyper]

LOL, that is too funny, i hooked mine up last week after fixing the deosldered wire and on the second pass it died, upon further inspection that bridge thing was desoldered and laying sideways touching other components on the board and looked like it wrecked them, so i chalked it up as toast, not to mention just not a good enough meter and removed my 8mm bullets and tossed the meter. haha, now i'm looking for a data logger..........

[785boats]

He! He! It seems the solder is the 130A limiting factor.
I'll give mine another chance by using some higher temperature solder.
I'd like to know what that bridge is. It's got some numbers on it that I can't read. Maybe it gets hot & causes the melting solder .
Anyway. I'll have a go at it later.
Cheers.
Paul.