I have a 12CH Mini Maestro & the 24CH as well.
I am looking for a way to take measurements of my battery pack Voltage and log it on my PC, Can someone please recommend such sensor that is compatible with the Maestro.
I tried to test some telemetry voltage sensors from different manufacturers but any sensor that I plugged in to the maestro simply didnt show anything on the Maestro Control center, it’s just ‘Blinked’ every one second or so, it might be some missing configuration for Maestro Input channel or I simply need to get a certified module that is compatible with the Maestro.
Can someone please assist me?
Thanks,
Eran
Hello, Eran.
You might be able to use one of the Maestro’s channels to directly read you battery pack voltage. Channels 0-11 on the Maestros are analog, and when configured as inputs, they can read analog voltages up to VCC (which is 5V). If your battery pack voltage is higher than 5V, then you will have to do something like add a voltage divider circuit to lower the voltage to less than 5V. You can learn more about configuring a Maestro channel as an input inside the “Channel Settings” section of the Maestro’s user’s guide, which you can find under the Resources tab of its product page.
If you tell me more about your other sensors (i.e. link to a product page or datasheet for them), I can help you figure out if (and possibly how) the Maestro can read them.
-Jon
Thanks Jonathan.
I think that the problem was that i bought RC telemetry modules for Telemetry systems instead of a general purpose voltage sensors.
I saw this module earlier today- please advise if you think i could get the reading out of it:
link
I have 4 x 24v batteries (Lipos).
Thanks,
Eran
That board looks like a voltage divider, which is what I was talking about in my initial reply. So, it would probably work, as long as it outputs a voltage that can be safely read with the Maestro (e.g. its output does not exceed 5V). As for how well your battery pack works with that board, it is not entirely clear what battery you are using, since 24V is not a common LiPo voltage. If you link me to the datasheet or product page for your battery pack, I can check to see if it would work.
-Jon
Thanks for replying Jonathan.
I have several battery packs on my vehicle running a brushless motor/servos/lasers/alarm… I have 3S (3 cells ~12V) , 6S (6 cells ~24v) and 2S (2 cells ~6V) lipos and they are all standard Lipo batteries, nothing spatial about them (balance lead and charge/discharge output).
My intentions are to constantly monitor the voltage of these batteries so I can safely return the vehicle once its batteries are about to die.
If you are aware about another ‘off the shelf’ voltage sensor that you know I can use to get these readings - please share a link.
Thanks in advanced,
Eran
Just so you are aware, when identifying the kind of LiPo battery you have, it is generally useful to refer to the number of cells it has like you did in your latest post. If you don’t mention the number of cells, instead of approximating the voltage that LiPo could be, it is more appropriate to refer to its nominal voltage. For example, since each LiPo cell is nominally 3.7V, a 6S LiPo is nominally 6 * 3.7V = 22.2V. Also, keep in mind that the fully charged voltage will be even higher than that. When fully charged, an individual LiPo cell’s voltage can be as high as 4.2V. In the case of the 6S LiPo, its fully charged voltage is 6 * 4.2V = 25.2V.
We do not have any specific recommendations for other electronics that measure voltage.
-Jon
Thanks Jonathan.
Actually once you know the number of cells for a Lipo the link for the Lipo manufacture is irrelevant as they are all 3.7v (As you mentioned), I wrote ~24v for 6S Lipo for the exact same reason that you mentioned above - when it is fully charge each cell gets to 4.2v
What I meant to say is that the voltage sensor I referred to is capable of measuring voltage <25v, so I am good with any battery that is capable of discharge less than 25v when it is fully loaded and my only concerns is the signal port – would I be able to get the readings? how the Maestro control center reads the analog data from this sensor (Or any other sensor)?
Thanks,
Eran
Like I mentioned before, so long as the voltage being supplied to the signal pin (of a channel configured as an input) does not exceed 5V, the Maestro should be able to read it. As for how that works, the Maestro has an ADC that it uses to read analog voltages. Once a channel has been configured to be an input, you can observe the position of the slider on that input channel under the Status tab of the Maestro Control Center to see what voltage is being read. When writing a script, you can use the get_position command to obtain the value of the reading.
-Jon
