As electric, or battery powered RC helicopters become more and more complex, having the ability to monitor the performance of your components is a very important thing. By monitoring your components, you can tell which might be over-powered or under-powered, or just acting as dead weight.
A good example of how to make your RC helicopter more efficient is to think about a component that is designed to draw up to 25 amps. Let’s say this component is put into a small helicopter that only requires that particular component to handle 5 amps. Well, you are wasting a lot of relative weight in just that one component. But if you do not monitor individual parts performance you would never know that.
The measurements we are talking about in this article deal with a few basic electrical terms:
- Amps is the description of the flow of electrical current.
- Volts is a measurement of the electrical potential.
- Watts are a measurement of electrical power.
In order to measure the electrical current of your RC helicopter, you can insert a wattmeter between the battery and speed controller. This will tell you voltage, current, and power drawn from the battery. Be sure to take the measurement with your helicopter at full throttle. There are small wattmeters available that you can install on your RC helicopter. This will allow you to log electrical data for the duration of flights. These meters are called flight date loggers. Depending on which model you install on your helicopter, you can measure things like current, voltage, temperature, rpm, and more. The addition of other sensors may be required for some other measurements.
Be sure the reading you get for the current is within the rated limits of your motor, battery, and speed controller. If you can measure the voltage as well, you will be able to track the performance of your batteries. As long as the current is below the stated maximum for your battery, you can be sure you have an adequate battery.
Temperature is an important measurement to track on your RC helicopter. The temperature to pay attention to is 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Your motor and batteries should remain under that temperature. Your batteries can be permanently damaged if subjected to higher temperatures. Your motor will at best lose efficiency, and at worst burn up if the temperature gets much higher than 140 degrees. On the other hand, if you motor is too cold it probably means you have overpowered your RC helicopter. The result is an inefficient motor. If your batteries get below 50 degrees they won’t put out as much power as they do at optimal temperatures.
If you have not been keeping track of the electronic measurements of your RC helicopters, you may be missing out on an interesting and important way in which to improve the performance of your aircraft.