MEDUSA RESEARCH POWER ANALYZER PLUS.
With the advent of electric flight is was inevitable that quality products to get the best from both batteries,propellers and motors would appear,in the recent past modellers have relied heavily on simply trying out different combinations to get the best from their models,now thanks to this product this is all a thing of the past and the guesswork,trials & tribulations can now be handled by the Medusa Research Power Analyzer plus to get the very best results when you fly electric.
This device goes far beyond the standard watt-meter and will measure accurately what is happening from your battery power source right through to the final output ie your propeller,to fine tune we are aiming to get as near as possible to between 75 to 100 watts per pound of model,sounds easy well just try an handful of different props with varying pitch,mass and length, and you will soon begin to see what a black art this becomes without resource to a precision instrument as we display here,and make no mistake about it this is exactly what it is ! Also given that up until now many models have been equipped with what is available in terms of propeller sizes things are about to change,a whole new range of super efficient blades will start to appear as motors get more powerful and require custom made propulsion units.So where does the Power Analyzer fit in ? well right from the moment you decide which electric motor to fit into your new model,without even waiting for that first test flight you can sit at home and fine tune your vital combination of unleashed power,you see the product also comes with its very own built in software package which allows you to not only monitor but record the operating voltage,Amps,watts,amp-hours and watt-hours via your laptop,once the software is installed then its powerful qualities will soon become apparent and the full potential of this device be realised.
Here is a screen grab of one of the graphs in use
In this case we are recording watt hours with the watts peaking as a vertical blue line on the left of the screen,all five parrameters can be recorded simultaneously and monitored by clicking onto each respective operation,you can then save the graphs onto your hard drive for study at a later date,thus making comparisons with various functions,and above all relating them to a specific battery,propeller combination.
Note on the right of the graph box appears the resultant 'real time' readings,comparisons with those shown on the Power Analyzer box itself during the test showed them to be spot on.Once the functions of the software graph package are grasped ( and they really are easy if I can handle them !) then the sky is your limit,the ability to monitor and once more usefully use the information for efficency gain brings this package into perspective.
Now we will move onto the actual physical set up of the meter,so for this out came my trusty electric powered soarer with its Astro cobalt motor,wel why not use something tried and tested ? here we can see the layout of the cables
Setting up is simplicity itself,firstly we connect the load side ie the motor with its propeller source,the meter then becomes the bridge from which we can monitor what is happening exactly as we did with the software,then the battery is connected to the source business end ie the battery,once the power source is connected the display appears thus-Voltage (V),Current (A),Watts (W),Amp-Hours (AH) & Watt-Hours (WH),the amp-hous and watt-hours shre the same space,in the upper left hand corner of the display,these effectively alternate every 3 seconds.
It is interesting to note that the Power-Analyzer has two ranges of current and automatically switches between low and high range,to quote from the excellent booklet supplied with this equipment it says-'Low current range has a resolution on 0.05A,and works from 0.0A to 19.00A,High current range has a resolution of 0.10A,and works from 19.00A to 100.0A'.
However that is not the end of what this piece of kit can do,it is also capable of measuring the capacity of a battery by first discharging it from a battery charger that has a discharge facility or by using the ESC (Speed controller) and motor,then connecting the battery to the 'source' side of the Power-Analyzer' once the battery is discharged the final battery capacity is shown in amp hours.
Measurement of the charge being placed into a rechargeable battery is yet another task that the Power-Analyzer can amply cope with,in this case the battery becomes the load,at the end of the charge cycle,the amount of charge placed into the battery is displayed in amp-hours on the units display.
Summing up the Medusa Power-Analyzer is that for a modest outlay (retails at £46.00+VAT) you have a very capable piece of test equipment which will enable you to get the utmost from your electric flight equipment,gone are the days of working in the dark as to what is happening within your power source and the eventual power train,this is in my eyes the Crypton tuner of the model world and I have no hesitation in recommending what is without doubt a first class quality piece of equipment.
The product is available from Aurorra Ltd,108 Wheel Lane,Grenoside,Sheffield,South Yorkshire,S35 8RY,Tel:01142570401,check out their web site at www.aurorra.co.uk for other allied electric flight goodies,the company is committed to top quality fully tested goods.
Our thanks to Mike at Aurorra Ltd for supplying the review equipment and his unstinting support.
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With the advent of electric flight is was inevitable that quality products to get the best from both batteries,propellers and motors would appear,in the recent past modellers have relied heavily on simply trying out different combinations to get the best from their models,now thanks to this product this is all a thing of the past and the guesswork,trials & tribulations can now be handled by the Medusa Research Power Analyzer plus to get the very best results when you fly electric.
This device goes far beyond the standard watt-meter and will measure accurately what is happening from your battery power source right through to the final output ie your propeller,to fine tune we are aiming to get as near as possible to between 75 to 100 watts per pound of model,sounds easy well just try an handful of different props with varying pitch,mass and length, and you will soon begin to see what a black art this becomes without resource to a precision instrument as we display here,and make no mistake about it this is exactly what it is ! Also given that up until now many models have been equipped with what is available in terms of propeller sizes things are about to change,a whole new range of super efficient blades will start to appear as motors get more powerful and require custom made propulsion units.So where does the Power Analyzer fit in ? well right from the moment you decide which electric motor to fit into your new model,without even waiting for that first test flight you can sit at home and fine tune your vital combination of unleashed power,you see the product also comes with its very own built in software package which allows you to not only monitor but record the operating voltage,Amps,watts,amp-hours and watt-hours via your laptop,once the software is installed then its powerful qualities will soon become apparent and the full potential of this device be realised.
Here is a screen grab of one of the graphs in use
In this case we are recording watt hours with the watts peaking as a vertical blue line on the left of the screen,all five parrameters can be recorded simultaneously and monitored by clicking onto each respective operation,you can then save the graphs onto your hard drive for study at a later date,thus making comparisons with various functions,and above all relating them to a specific battery,propeller combination.
Note on the right of the graph box appears the resultant 'real time' readings,comparisons with those shown on the Power Analyzer box itself during the test showed them to be spot on.Once the functions of the software graph package are grasped ( and they really are easy if I can handle them !) then the sky is your limit,the ability to monitor and once more usefully use the information for efficency gain brings this package into perspective.
Now we will move onto the actual physical set up of the meter,so for this out came my trusty electric powered soarer with its Astro cobalt motor,wel why not use something tried and tested ? here we can see the layout of the cables
Setting up is simplicity itself,firstly we connect the load side ie the motor with its propeller source,the meter then becomes the bridge from which we can monitor what is happening exactly as we did with the software,then the battery is connected to the source business end ie the battery,once the power source is connected the display appears thus-Voltage (V),Current (A),Watts (W),Amp-Hours (AH) & Watt-Hours (WH),the amp-hous and watt-hours shre the same space,in the upper left hand corner of the display,these effectively alternate every 3 seconds.
It is interesting to note that the Power-Analyzer has two ranges of current and automatically switches between low and high range,to quote from the excellent booklet supplied with this equipment it says-'Low current range has a resolution on 0.05A,and works from 0.0A to 19.00A,High current range has a resolution of 0.10A,and works from 19.00A to 100.0A'.
However that is not the end of what this piece of kit can do,it is also capable of measuring the capacity of a battery by first discharging it from a battery charger that has a discharge facility or by using the ESC (Speed controller) and motor,then connecting the battery to the 'source' side of the Power-Analyzer' once the battery is discharged the final battery capacity is shown in amp hours.
Measurement of the charge being placed into a rechargeable battery is yet another task that the Power-Analyzer can amply cope with,in this case the battery becomes the load,at the end of the charge cycle,the amount of charge placed into the battery is displayed in amp-hours on the units display.
Summing up the Medusa Power-Analyzer is that for a modest outlay (retails at £46.00+VAT) you have a very capable piece of test equipment which will enable you to get the utmost from your electric flight equipment,gone are the days of working in the dark as to what is happening within your power source and the eventual power train,this is in my eyes the Crypton tuner of the model world and I have no hesitation in recommending what is without doubt a first class quality piece of equipment.
The product is available from Aurorra Ltd,108 Wheel Lane,Grenoside,Sheffield,South Yorkshire,S35 8RY,Tel:01142570401,check out their web site at www.aurorra.co.uk for other allied electric flight goodies,the company is committed to top quality fully tested goods.
Our thanks to Mike at Aurorra Ltd for supplying the review equipment and his unstinting support.
The Power Analyzer Plus is a precision measurement instrument that allows you to accurately measure and calculate all the performance information you need to get the most from your electric model. It measures five different parameters real-time including voltage (4.5 - 60 volts), current (0 - 100 amps), power (0 - 6000 watts), amp-hours (0 - 150.000), and watt-hours (0 - 9999.9). The current mode is auto-ranging to accommodate both high and low currents so it is just as useful on your parkflier as on your hotliner. The Medusa Research Power Analyzer Plus comes calibrated from the factory so there is no startup calibration sequence. Included with the Power Analyzer Plus is a serial port cable to allow you to connect it to any Windows 98 or later PC equipped with a serial Com port and PowerPLUSview software. The supplied PowerPLUSview software enables you to record, plot, track, and save all of the parameters that the Power Analyzer Plus can display. The Medusa Research Power Analyzer Plus allows you to accurately predict flight time, determine battery health, and measure the performance of different motor and propeller combinations
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