Duralite Powerbox Royal - First Peek!

[LeadingEdge]

Our friends at Duralite will soon be adding a very cool product their arsenal! Here at FlyingGiants, we love reporting on technological innovations in our hobby, and our friend and duralite Rep, Reza, tells us all about it. Take it away homey.

Hi Folks,
Here's the latest Powerbox Royal technology that some of you have been waiting for.
This is the first unit that has hit The States as far as I know. Duralite has been doing testing on another unit for some time. This is the production model. However, no manual yet. I will write up a set of instructions for those early customers that Duralite have on their list. I will go through this product in detail. I will also show all the steps one need to take to set up this unit.
This is a phenomenal redundant system. Those of you who have used Powerbox in last few years; you know how reliable these units have been when operated within their specs.
This unit will give you complete receiver/power redundancy along with all other cool features such as:

• Servo matching for up to 20 servos and 5 channels.
• Very cool display that shows how much of each battery has been used
• Min Voltage Drop
• Max Current draw
• Always maintains 5.5v power to the receiver
• You can operate your servos at 5.9 or 7v
• Multiple heat sinks and powerful regulators with more than 30 amp of capability
• Built-in RRS module that allows you to connect (2) 72, 2.4 receivers to it. Which ever has the strongest reception would operate.

I love all the features but quite frankly I love the current/voltage memory and RRS more than others. I needed to use a separate system to be able to tell if I might have any power problem with high demand servos monitoring voltage and current, now I can get all the info from Powerbox itself!
Here are some pictures of the packaging. We will role as I learn more myself. I have no instructions either but I promise to make this informative and interesting for all. Look forward to "how to" videos on operation of the unit as well as installation photos.


Stay Tuned and thanks FlyingGiants!


Reza

[LeadingEdge]

more photos..

[AirMcNair]

Any type of availability date?

Chris

[adrian]

nice unit!! - why only 5 channels???

[zivbit]

I believe its 7 channels Jan
5 of them can be programmed and 2 are not (1 & 7)

Cheers
Ziv

[adrian]

just like the champion - tx - i like the rrs

[xtreem3d]

reza,
if you gang 4 servo's on channel 2 (for example) does the Royal automatically match them throughout thier movement?
thanks,
steve

[Plane Wrappers]

I'll be waiting for this one!
VERY COOL!

[snap a saurus]

How much does it weigh?
Same question as Steve, how does matching the servos work?

[Reza]

Hi Guys,

I didn't realize this article was up!
Weight wise I doubt it is anymore than the SC-12. It might be actually lighter as it does not have the ferrite rings. It does not automatically match the servos you need to do that with the programmer. There is no instructions with the unit but I have already tested everything and figured it out. I will go through how this unit operates this evening when I come back from work. I will also put up a very user friendly instruction for early purchasers. Duralite has been taking names on it and I think we will have the first shipment within couple of weeks!

It is amazingly cool. The LCD BlackBox gives you some insane information! I have bench tested this unit with 2.4 and 72PCM.

I will bring you more info this evening as soon as I get back home, as I am heading to work right now

Thank you all,
Reza

[rc4flying]

Looking forward to hearing more about this unit. From what I was told, the PB Royal is another leap forward in helping to manage the power consumption and maintain a strong reliable rcvr signal. All the info that this unit provides, easy of mulitple servo setups and the redundancy is great. I have had much success with other PB units and I expect this new unit to provide the same kind of service with confidence.

[prizzy]

This thing is bad#$$

[rcflyer]

What's the ball park price?

[yakwrecker]

Something like 650$ on the site but it come with programmer and readout display which make it a great value.

[Reza]

I’d like to give you a brief on my findings before I start going into details of how to operate this unit.
<o></o>
Here are some Questions that you might have, along with their answers. I thought this would be a good way of introducing this product capabilities.
<o></o>>

• What does the LCD (BlackBox) do? This unit works exactly like the data logger on 2.4 SPM. Idea is to give you info to be able to monitor the health of your system. <o>></o>>

It gives you information such as current voltage of each battery, mah spent on each battery. Min voltage of the system. Max current draw of the system. Which receiver has been active or how many times receivers have switched during the flight.<o>></o>>
<o>> </o>>
There are two screens (I will show them this evening) first screen is LIVE, you can see the changes such as voltage of the pack, <o>></o>>
Regulated voltage, <o>></o>>
Capacity used of each battery.<o>></o>>
Which receiver is actually having the control at that moment.<o>></o>>
<o>> </o>>
Second screen shows the recorded data up to the time you bring the screen on. Meaning the numbers do not change live in front of you but rather it records and keeps it in memory. If you go back to the first screen and come back to the second screen the numbers have changed. After you are done flying, you would look at the second screen to see these:<o>></o>>
<o>> </o>>
Min Voltage<o>></o>>
Mah used from each battery<o>></o>>
Max Current<o>></o>>
How many times receivers have switched<o>></o>>
<o>> </o>>
You can mount the LCD in your plane but I would not do it! Why? This unit is only good to monitor the health of your system. So you can get one flight and pop the canopy connect the unit, read the info and repeat this couple of times, once you know you have a healthy system, You won’t need the unit unless something changes. If GOD forbid plane crashed, you can plug the unit to the powerbox and get some help locating what caused it unless it was pilot error. If you keep the unit onboard, you may destroy it! Keep in mind once you turn off your powerbox, all the info gets reset that is why I don’t think I should carry it in my plane. I will weigh all the components this evening.<o>></o>>
<o>> </o>>
2. What does the RRS do and how to set it up?
3. How to do servo matching?
And more will come soon.
<o>> </o>>
Please ask any questions you may have regarding this unit! I will answer them this evening with more pictures. As far as I know and told by Powerbox and Duralite, this is a production model and the first one to hit the States. Powerbox has been testing this unit for the last 4-6 months in Europe<st1></st1>. It is solid! Very well thought out.
<o>

Thanks Guys,
Reza
</o>