# Stand Alone Low Voltage Cutoff LVD ????



## qbayle (Oct 19, 2004)

Okay, I've found allot of people talking about stand alone LVC devices but other that one website that has a DIY schematic, I can't seen to find one.

I have found LVD (detectors) that flash a LED or sound a piezo but no actual device that just shut the car down when the voltage is low.

If anyone knows of such of a device and has the information on where to purchase it, I would greatly appreciate it.

I'm really tired of Ni-Mh packs, no matter what charging, discharging, cycling, and or storage routine I've tried, they just are not consistent enough (and I'm not even a very good driver B-C main type!!!). It's no wonder for national events you see guys run new packs for every race and them sell of the extras that they don't need for club races afterwords.

I'm really looking forward to using Li-Po packs and I'll just buy and sell off the Ni-Mh packs if and when I every go to a race that is regulated to the point I can't use the Li-po packs

Thanks for any help!!!!!


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## ta_man (Apr 10, 2005)

*Low Voltage Cutoff*

Here you go:

http://www.redrockethobbies.com/product_p/kkmp1600.htm

You need to use an ESC that is smart enough to stop operation on loss of radio signal. Ones that I have experience with that do that are the Futaba MC330CR and MC230CR. I am sure there are others.


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## qbayle (Oct 19, 2004)

Awesome!
Thank you!

Are there any other manufactures (this one is fine, I'm just hoping to get some more replies and maybe the next person looking for a LVC can find this thread), and does anybody know if Novak GT7's have this feature? I'll see if I can get a hold of Novak in the meantime.


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## qbayle (Oct 19, 2004)

I talked with Novak and the GT7's will stop with loss of signal. The down side is that from Novaks testing they found that the cutoff devises do not detect the difference between a momentary voltage drop and the resting voltage level. So there is a really good chance of premature cutoffs.

I think that after all of this that I'm just going to get larger mah packs like the 6k or 8k packs and use them responsibly, for example don't run them for an hour just because the math says I can. I never really bash anymore only race.

Anybody have thoughts or recommendations on this method?


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## khyron (Apr 2, 2006)

Check this little guy out...










http://www.fmadirect.com/detail.htm?item=2117&section=45

...I've been researching this stuff for a couple weeks now around all the R/C forums I know of, and I've found nothing quite like it. I wrote to the guys at FMA for details and they were very helpful. This device pulses and then cuts off power, not just a visible or audio alarm. However it does include a connector on the back for an LED/speaker assembly if you want one. It sits on the throttle channel of the radio, not on the main pack power wire itself (unlike some devices) so you don't have to think about how many amps might be going through it or not. It senses the difference between momentary voltage drops on acceleration and real voltage drops, using firmware they could only describe as "proprietary" (but the mere fact that they worried about this made me happy). Finally, and this is the thing's killer feature I think, there is a "tap" connector on the back as well, and through this the device monitors the cells in your battery pack individually. Since it's possible one cell in a pack could drop dangerously low on its own before the pack voltage drops to a "cutoff" level (if the pack became unbalanced for some reason for example) this is very handy I think.

Please let me know if you find anything more desirable that this, because I haven't and would love to hear about it!


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## qbayle (Oct 19, 2004)

That's awesome! Thanks for the reply! Does anyone have experience using this device? If so does it perform as advertised, and would you recommend it?


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