New Warp Feed & Battery Charger Boards (Thoughts??)

[p8ntbal4me]

With the New E/X-Mag Boards coming to a close we have moved into a new market for replacing the existing AGD electronics line with more current and up to date items.

We will be making a New ACE Board that will mate with the New E/X-Mag board soon.

With that said, the two most likely candidates up next would be:

The Warp Feed Board
The E/X-Mag Battery Charger (the entire unit, meaning cord, housing and board)

What Im asking for is suggestions for changes and some logical thoughts on both.

Ideally, we will produce BOTH and release them at the same time or close together as possible.

Some thoughts on the New Warp Feed Board:

Removable Battery clips
I would LOVE to make some kind of PCB insert that allows you to drop your double 9v batteries in the housing and not use the clips to connect the power to the board. I have looked into the PCB and its simple and cheap to make. The issue is the housing itself. We would have to mold a sleeve to keep the batteries from moving around.


Removable Drive Motor Power Cable
The motor would have a connector to the main board that could be un-plugged if you need to remove or replace the motor.

New Vibration Sensor
I was thinking of getting rid of this one all together and making it a SOUND activation.

RF/Wireless Feed Activation
The new main board supports pulse of an AUX/external logic connection (low voltage) that works on both the solenoid and the port based on sync software.
Wireless is costly, right up front you should know that. But at what expense would it be worth having.
My original idea was to have the option of using something like the RF link on a Pulse Loader or a Virtue RF kit plugged into the main board, then wireless to your hopper. The hopper can split the signal and be wired to the warp feed. But that provides a flaw in some cases, not true wireless from hopper to warp feed.
So, here is the new idea. Make the warp feed board wireless and sync with the main board. Then, if you want to go wireless on your hopper, you can add that piece in as well. Or use something based on sound activation (B2). Either way, its all possible.

Increased voltage to the Motor
Straight forward. all the power from the batteries to be sent to the motor. Software adjustable speed control.

Some thoughts on the New Battery Charger:

Bundled with a House and Car charger
One cord that does BOTH jobs. Simple.

Rapid One Hour Charging
There is no reason we can make this thing charge quick and fast in an hour. I talked with some guys and they think its a simple fix.

Multiple Charger Stacking
With this, I was thinking you could use just one cord, and link chargers together. Then charge all your batteries at once on one line

Built in Battery Charger Retaining Screw
The screw to hold the battery to the charger would be hard mounted and on a spring so you couldnt loose it.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!!!

[sQuidvision]

What about a LiPo pack to go along with the warp? ditch the 9v all together and include a charger with the whole package?

Also building in the 12v mod would be a nice feature.

[luke]

We would have to mold a sleeve to keep the batteries from moving around.
Any thoughts would be appreciated!!!

I could do these pretty easy, machine the part/make a mold/mold the parts, piece of cake.

[p8ntbal4me]

What about a LiPo pack to go along with the warp? ditch the 9v all together and include a charger with the whole package?

Also building in the 12v mod would be a nice feature.

Ah i forgot to add that in.

We were going to push the 18v mod on the board.

I will add that in!!!

[GoatBoy]

What about a LiPo pack to go along with the warp? ditch the 9v all together and include a charger with the whole package?

Tend to agree with sQuid here, but take it a step further. Get out of the battery business altogether. It looks like there's enough space to fit a 3-cell lithium pack in there; about the size that you'd find in the RC heli's. Just use what they use. Cost effective + high availability.

Don't reinvent the square wheel.

If you want to invent something, invent an inductive charger for the setup.

[pinkanese]

Why move away from 9volts? They are relatively cheap, easy to find in a pinch, and what most every gun and hopper out there uses. I would go with a system like the ricochet hopper. So two 9 volts side by side tab contacts a the top. Wire them in series and use a 12v regulator.

As far as the motor. You could get a simple mosfet, basically an electronically controlled switch. Use the boards output to the motor as the signal. Then wire the motor so it gets 12 volts straight from the batteries. Or if you are using the two 9 volts like I suggest you could run the motor at 18 volts.

The electrical parts to do this would be a few dollars. Then some cheap plastic to reform the warp shells to hold two 9 volts snugly side by side.

As I understand it the warp board does not control the speed of the motor, simply the time it spins for.

[vf-xx]

What about a LiPo pack to go along with the warp? ditch the 9v all together and include a charger with the whole package?

Also building in the 12v mod would be a nice feature.

I already run an 11.2v LiPo pack.

They're easy enough to get from China and the chargers are in-expensive as well.

Look to the RC world for Batteries and chargers.

[sQuidvision]

i fly RC planes as my other ridiculously expensive hobby... www.hobbyking.com is a great source for dirt cheap LiPo packs... as much as i would like to shop USA the packs from this site are often less than a 1/4 of the price i see them listed for here.

The LiPo batteries are a much better battery than the nicads... longer life and rechargeable!

[hill160881]

Why move away from 9volts? They are relatively cheap, easy to find in a pinch, and what most every gun and hopper out there uses. I would go with a system like the ricochet hopper. So two 9 volts side by side tab contacts a the top. Wire them in series and use a 12v regulator.

As far as the motor. You could get a simple mosfet, basically an electronically controlled switch. Use the boards output to the motor as the signal. Then wire the motor so it gets 12 volts straight from the batteries. Or if you are using the two 9 volts like I suggest you could run the motor at 18 volts.

The electrical parts to do this would be a few dollars. Then some cheap plastic to reform the warp shells to hold two 9 volts snugly side by side.

As I understand it the warp board does not control the speed of the motor, simply the time it spins for.

With a 11+ volt LiPo rc car plane battery it will have all the power it needs and will pull upper 20s in the ball per second range. Even a 9.6 volt LiPo will out pull a dual 9 volt with regulator at 12 volts. My 9.6 volt LiPo rc plane battery ran around 20 bps all day long. Also a recharable option is more usable.

The 18 volt mod would be possible with a new board that could handle it but why push the motors limits when 12 volts with a battery cappable of unloading its load fast, like the RC plane batteries, will out run the emag. The voltage determins the rpm of the motor, the speed at which the battery can dump its load determines the motors torque. I suspect 12 volts will be plenty if the battery discharge rate was as high as the motors consumption capabilities.

[sQuidvision]

Might be overkill... but if you could supply a motor upgrade too and go brushless... they would extend the battery life even further and would never wear out.

[p8ntbal4me]

Why move away from 9volts? They are relatively cheap, easy to find in a pinch, and what most every gun and hopper out there uses. I would go with a system like the ricochet hopper. So two 9 volts side by side tab contacts a the top. Wire them in series and use a 12v regulator.

As far as the motor. You could get a simple mosfet, basically an electronically controlled switch. Use the boards output to the motor as the signal. Then wire the motor so it gets 12 volts straight from the batteries. Or if you are using the two 9 volts like I suggest you could run the motor at 18 volts.

The electrical parts to do this would be a few dollars. Then some cheap plastic to reform the warp shells to hold two 9 volts snugly side by side.

As I understand it the warp board does not control the speed of the motor, simply the time it spins for.

I already tried this and let me tell you,... it doesnt work the way you understand it to be, because I was thinking the same thing.

I rigged up a MOSFET in the power line of the batteries and even took it a step beyond and added in the 5v regulator to step the power down to keep the 18v from killing the main board.

The issue believe it or not is in the dwell control of the warp board. It uses a resistor bank that sets dwell. Which when you run 12-18v into it, you add speed, but add in the danger of frying the board as well.

The board needs a minimum of 9v. 5v is too low. So in the process of what we both were thinking to be correct, you need a 9v source regulated to power the board and protect it. Then you need a MOSFET to "switch" the 18v to the motor. Add in some relays between the 18v and 9v source to prevent back feeding of the power, etc.

Basically you just spent the cash on developing the new board and battery housing in DIY parts.

I still have the warp feed rigged up and can show you a video of what happens when you use it with a input power source (e-mag) versus a switch trip (manual button or lever)

Your theory is right for manual applications, but when you talk about the E-Mag and how the warp receives a signal from it, it makes the theory completely wrong.

[p8ntbal4me]

All you guys talking about the R/C battery options here,.. school me.

I can follow the PCB side of the deal because Ive reverse engineered the e-mag and the warp feed.

I can put the battery in if I can see it electrically.

[hill160881]

Buy an 11 volt LiPo battery with charger, and set up a plug, and plug it in. I velcro mine to the back of the warp case.

This is my big battery and they come in all sizes but I already had this one and a charger so i used it. 11.1 volts and holds 25bps.


I had a smaller battery that fit in the case with only half an inch out the bottom and i used velcro for it as well but it was only 9.6 volts and was not a LiPo.

[sQuidvision]

All you guys talking about the R/C battery options here,.. school me.

I can follow the PCB side of the deal because Ive reverse engineered the e-mag and the warp feed.

I can put the battery in if I can see it electrically.

I wont claim to be an expert on batteries or anything, but I know enough to know what to look for when I buy for my heli's and planes.

take this one here for example, a three cell (3s) lipo pack:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...idProduct=6306

11.1V - Battery voltage
20c - Discharge rate, the higher the "c" rating the faster it can dump its charge safely
2200 mAH - The batteries capacity

Compare this to a 9v:

9v
550 mAh
(im not sure how the discharge rate is measured on these)

Granted the pack i linked is physically about 3x bigger than a 9v, but the benefits of using a similar pack would be

*longer battery life
*no "drop off" as the cells die. LiPo cells should not be run down below a certain voltage, a voltage meter would need to be used to shut off the board when the cell voltage passes a certain point. the plus side is that until that point is passed the cells keep working at full power.
*rechargeable! - i recharge these packs in under an hour...
*no "memory" - older rechargable batteries needed to be fully discharged and then fully charged or they would begin to "remember" the upper and lower limits of their last charge and store less, not the case with LiPo's.

there is a reason electric cars, laptops & cell phones use LiPo packs... they are lighter and more powerful than their predecessors.

feel free to ask more questions... someone more knowledgeable might be able to chime in, i will certainly try to answer if i can.

[hill160881]

That is the exact same battery I use only a different color.