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Today we will be reviewing the new
Spektrum "Smart Technology" Avian
electronic speed control (ESC)
and smart batteries.
This system offers easier battery
management as the electronic speed
control (the ESC) sends data back to the
transmitter via telemetry so that the
aircraft alerts you at a certain battery
level and hence when it's time to land
rather than rely on a timer.
The model I've chosen to fit this to
is our 2 seat Spitfire that featured
as a build series earlier on the channel.
This already had a Spektrum receiver, but
annoyingly this was not compatible, so
we'll change it for this AR410
receiver.
This symbol shows "Smart" compatibility.
The speed controller comes pre-soldered
with these new IC3 connectors, although
they are back compatible with the EC3's
you need the new connectors to realize
all the features.
We will hard solder these three wires to
the motor, although they do come
pre-soldered with gold bullets.
There's also a programming port tucked
away up here but we will use traditional
stick programming.
To make that easier, Spektrum supplies
this excellent instruction manual.
The next step is to charge the battery.
Now I don't have one, but if you have a
Spektrum battery charger, these new smart
packs when you plug them in with these
new connectors
remember your settings and that should
prevent you from having an accident by
miss setting your battery charger.
You can set your transmitter to read the
data out to you at intervals or set a
tone when certain parameters are met for
example when the first cell reaches a
low voltage threshold indicating that
your battery is empty and it's time to
land.
So with the new ESC installed and the
battery all charged, let's see how it all
performs in the real world.
This is a 3200 mAh 30c
Spektrum smart lipo battery pack.
Now that we're up and away, let's have a
bit of fun and fly around, taking note
of what we get back from the telemetry.
I've set the telemetry volume on a
transmitter slider.
This battery is providing loads of power
despite the cold weather.
You can also hear that we are drawing
much less than the 45 amps maximum
continuous current, and that the speed
controller is running nice and cool.
I got just over eight minutes of
enthusiastic flight, leaving 25% left in
the pack.
So that was the Spektrum smart battery
pack, and you can see performance was
pretty good. Now we're going to compare
it against a standard 35c 3 cell lipo
of 3,000 mAh capacity.
Once again, the telemetry worked just
fine even at this range with no dropouts.
You still get your overall voltage,
current,
rpm, and temperature, but without a smart
battery you lose the battery temperature,
the individual cell voltages, the number
of cycles of the pack, and the imbalances
between the cells.
Both packs perform well, and in both
cases throttle response was smooth and
linear.
This time I used overall pack voltage to
tell me when it was time to land, and
again I got about eight minutes.
So in conclusion then, this Smart ESC and
battery pack was a worthwhile upgrade
for this little aeroplane.
It is quite expensive for what it is, but
the information you get back at the
transmitter is invaluable, particularly
for telling you when to land rather than
rely on a flight timer.
The incompatibility with the receiver -
the first receiver - was a real pain,
and I did think however we'd have to
update the firmware in the dx18
transmitter but it worked just fine.
So overall, I'm quite happy with it. I
hope you found this little review
informative,
and we'll see you next time on Scale Me
Down. Thanks for watching