With the SP140 this project is starting to become a viable alternative to a standard paramotor.
But there are some things on it that I would like to modify and is wondering how flexible it is to do that, or if there are drawings available to figure it out. Not sure how open the sp140 is, what is available for modification. So I ask generally first.
I would like a 12V outlet. So I can connect my electric heated gloves and why not west and such in cold weather.
I would like a strobe that is turned on as soon as the motor is turned on. For safety reason so it is clear when the motor is live or not. And I like using strobes anyway on my paramotor.
Is the propeller on the sp140 spinning when it is on “idle” in the air? If it is spinning, does the ESC have capacity to brake the propeller to let is stay stationary?
On the site where I will fly it is mostly soaring on a hill side, so I don’t need much power, but the motor will be very useful to get to the site and improve safety to be able to choose landing zone compared to free flying.
That has been some discussion regarding a 12v and/or 5v auxiliary power outlets for heated gloves, gopros, comms, etc. Generally it would be an obvious convenience but there are two concerns.
First, with current (sic) battery tech there is not a lot of extra energy available. Electric cars suffer this same problem. If your range is 300km then on a hot day with the ac on it’ll be maybe 250. On a cold day with the heater going and defrosting the windows you could be down to 200 (just guessing, its probably not that bad).
Secondly is the question: do you really want accessories connected to the flight power or control system. Presumably a separate dc-dc converter could be pretty isolated from the motor controller. Personally I prefer not to have other things plugged into my flight power battery but I might be needlessly concerned about that.
When the battery is plugged in the motor beeps pretty annoyingly. You know the system is powered. I don’t arm my motors (I have the X4) until just before I launch, and disarm immediately after landing. An indication that they’re armed isn’t really useful. If the motors are armed, I’m flying.
I see your point, but the power from 12V is in the region of 20-30W so it is negligible from the total flight time. It will affect the battery by about one percent of total capacity if the flight lasts an hour.
Ok, didn’t know that it makes sound, do you know if the sp140 has the same behavior?
I second that.
Thinking that for the SP140 you have the battery terminals at the motor controller. It’d be a simple matter to connect a dc-dc converter right there for your auxiliary power. Would, or could, that effect the controller at all?
Lots of good points here.
For clarification the X4 beeping is different than the SP140 due to a change in arming sequence. We could do that for the X4 as well via firmware update if the beeping is annoying.
The 12v output from the SP140 is low amperage so I wouldn’t use it for accessories. As suggested I’d stick with a separate DC-DC converter off the power in leads to the ESC. Make sure to get converter that can handle the high input voltage as most don’t.
I really don’t mind the beeping because I know it is safe. Y’all have done a great job with these machines! It is great fun to be on this “ride”! Thanks! Bill
From factory it shouldn’t have extra gimmicks unless it is really useful for the general users. I agree that it should stay simple and clean and safe. Keep the price down.
Not asking for that. But one of the beauties of open projects is that people can modify to their own liking. If there is information available enough so you don’t have to back engineer everything to find out where to access information.