New Xtrema Charger/Motor-Lab from TME

[LBMiller5]

Hello All,

Have I got great news! A very good friend of mine, Albert Tejera, who owns TME (Tejera Microsystems Engineering, Inc.) is bringing a new product to the market that is just what we all have been looking for. He will be debuting the Xtrema at the Toledo Show next weekend, so if any of you are planning on attending the show, be sure to stop by and check this out. TME will be in booth #218 in Aisle H at the show. If you do stop by, be sure to look for Albert and tell them that Lucien sent you!

Here is a photo of the unit:

http://innov8tivedesigns.com/rcgroups/xtrema600.jpg

I have been working with Albert over the past couple months putting in my 2 cents worth, and helping run simulations on some of the internal circuitry that went into this beauty. This is the first product on the market to do everything you need to run and test a motor. The Xtrema features a 4 Line x 20 Character LCD panel that displays Battery Type, Charge Type, Input Voltage, Battery Voltage, Battery Temperature, Charge Current, Charge Timer and Total Charge all at the same time.

The unit is a combination Charger, Wattmeter, Motor Driver and Motor Analyzer all in one.

This Charger will charge up to 10 cell Li-Po's or 30 cell Ni-Cad's. The included remote battery temperature probe can prevent a runaway thermal condition by shutting off the charger if the battery overheats.


In the Wattmeter mode, it displays Voltage up to 60 Volts, Current up to 50 Amps continous, Power Out up to 3000 Watts Continous, and with the remote temperature probe, you can measure battery temp, motor temp, or even check the temp on your speed controller!

The best part for us Do-It-Yourselfers is the motor analyzer function. The charger can produce up to 12 volts at up to 8 Amps for testing smaller brushless CD-ROM type motors or brushed motors for that matter, with your speed controller. With this feature, you can program the output to simulate your battery under load, and measure all your motors operating parameters with various props. The LCD panel displays Power In, Current In and Voltage In for your motor. This allows you to find the perfect prop for your motor, and with a constant voltage source, you don't have to worry about the voltage sagging halfway through the test.

I am really excited about this product, as it is the perfect tool for CD-ROM motor development. This one product will replace a Microprocessor controlled Charger, a Wattmeter, a Temperature Probe and a power supply. It is supposed to be available for retail purchase in early fall with a MSRP of $199.00, and street price will most likely be around $159.00.

I am scheduled to receive one of the first Production Prototypes for Beta Testing in a month or so, and when I do I will put together a full report for you guys. You will just have to get a box of Kleenex to clean up the drool until then!

Here is a link to the TME Website for the complete press release that gives all the info. It is a PDF File so you need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it.

http://www.tmenet.com/pdf/Xtrema_Press_Release.pdf

This will be the most important test tool to come out for us motor builders, and I can't wait!

I will keep you all posted.

Lucien

[bz1mcr]

Thanks for posting. I will check it out at the Toledo Show. It sounds like a great piece of gear. But a little pricey. It would be great if it also had a computer connection and software to do plots and the like.

[LBMiller5]

When you consider that a Triton charger costs $129.00 from Tower Hobbies (and it only does up to 4 Li-Po cells and only has a 2-line display), An Astro-Flight Wattmeter costs $59.99, An Adjustable Regulated power supply costs about $100.00, and a digital thermometer costs around $40.00, you are replacing over $320.00 worth of equipment for around $159.00. To me that is a bargain!

You also need to consider the convienience of having everything in one box, and not having to string 3-4 pieces of equipment together with test leads all over your bench.

I can't wait to get my hands on one so I can check out the motors I have built. I think that the best part will be the ability to match a prop to a motor with a constant voltage source so you get good comparative data.

Let me know how you feel after you see it at Toledo.

Lucien

[ScubaSteve]

mmmmmmmmmm me want cool new toy..... :P

[tmenet]

Lucien, Steve, bz1mcr, all,

Thanks for the nice words on the Xtrema. We have taken the prototype to the Toledo Show and the Joe Nall and the response has been absolutely amazing! I am a big fan of gobrushless.com having built 5 motors and I credit the availability of DIY brushless motors for sparking the idea of having a "motor driver" feature added to the Xtrema.

Once I decided to build a wattmeter into the Xtrema Charger the next logical step was to combine the regulated voltage output of the Charger with the monitoring capabilities of the Wattmeter. It was inspired by winding and testing GB motors and wanting a better and easier way to take measurements.


I can't begin to describe how handy it is to program say 7.2 volts and then play with props, windings, speed controller settings to see what the effects are to thrust, current, and power. All without seeing massive changes in voltage as you would with a LiPo.

All that is left on the design is to add beep alarms, a few more checks on the battery charger, stress test the hardware at extreme voltages and current and then we make some board layouts.

We will be offering a special intro price to all those that sign up for a one time email. We promise not to sell or spam your email address but instead we will send you a one time introductory price when prooduction units become available in the fall. (be sure to check on the form that you saw it here )

We have set up a new domain for the Xtrema, it is www.theXtrema.com You can go there to sign up or simply to check on our progress. Within the next few weeks I will be adding some screen shots so you can see how simple the menus become when you have such a large LCD display.

Thank you all again for your interest.

Albert

[latrans]

I agree with Lucien, that's an incredible bargin. My only comment is why the (&^%(&^ *)&^(*^$ (&*) ((*)&57 (&(* $&( *(&%&% ( ()*@#$%$& didn't this come out before I bought all that stuff seperately!

Seriously though hats off to you and your friend Lucien.

Latrans

[saitrix]

Wow, i am needing to buy a lipo charger and a watt meter. I am very very tempted to wait for one of these :D

[ScubaSteve]

Albert,

Just signed up. :D Do you have an estimated release date? I want one...

[tmenet]

Just hold on guys. I am doing every thing I can to make sure we start shipping production units by mid September. Bear in mind tht I am an engineer first and a marketeer second, which means I want to make sure everything is right before we start shipping! Remember we are talking about a lipo charger that goes up to to maybe 10s 4p.

I have a healthy respect for LiPos so multiply that by 40 cells charging simultaneously and you can begin to see how I feel about all this. So far it charges 2 cell packs perfectly, the added safety of the temp probe and timer all work great.

The wattmeter looks great with the big display. It even calculates horsepower too! And since it already has a temperature probe, you can monitor battery or "motor" temp. Very handy!

I still have to simulate a 6000 watt or 8.2 hp load to max it out but it measures a GB motor just fine. :-) Hey Steve your GB singles input about .07 horsepower. I think thats a little more than a Chihuahua-power! :D

The motor driver is really sweet for these little motors. It looks like it will be able to handle motors under 120 watts with no problem. Voltage regulation is about +-.1 volts. I m hoping to do a little better than that but it is still way better than a LiPo. It has an over current cutoff to protect the Xtrema and your battery/motor/controller. All that works fine!

Thanks to all of you for the encouragement. It really helps to keep me going. Just bear in mind that I want whoever buys one of these, to be absolutely awed by its usefullness and versatility. This probably has the highest "cool" factor of anything I have ever designed before and so it's got to be right!

[saitrix]

Would it be possible at all to make the power supply a little higher? Maybe about 200watts? Thats the only slight let down to it right now!

[tmenet]

saitrix

Maybe... Right now the 120 watts is based on running at 12 Volts at up to 10 amps. It runs fairly cool at that point but the voltage boost circuitry has been disabled during those tests. ( I am leaving the high stress circuitry for the end after all the software is running perfectly )

When the boost circuitry is added, the efficiency will be a little less. The easiest way to deliver more power will be to up the voltage limit but leave the current limit to 10 amps. There are many other ramifications to increasing the current capacity beyond 10 amps so that is the limiting factor to keeping the Xtrema in its price range.

20 volts at 10 amps may be easily doable but I doubt this is what you had in mind. As it is right now it matches most applications that a Phoenix 10 on up to a 3 cell Lipo could handle.

Don't forget, you can ALWAYS use an external LiPo, NiCd or power supply (computer PS's are great for this) and measure up to 100 Amps at 60 Volts (6000 Watts) peak with the Xtrema. The Xtrema's motor drive feature was a freebie that I threw in one day because I was winding and testing motors and the idea simply hit me like a ton of bricks! :idea:

Here is a real application that demonstrates the usefullness of the Xtrema's motor driver feature as is. Just the other day a friend from my flying club was bench testing his new foamy and when he went to run up his motor his LiPo battery puffed up. :shock: He called me not knowing what to do. I didn't want him to risk another battery so we met at the field and I plugged his airplane into the Xtrema. We were then able to confirm that his ESC and brushless motor were just fine with the guarded safety of the Xtrema's currrent limit.

Turns out his pack was old and he may have had the prop stalled against his bench top. Had his motor or wiring been shorted we would have seen that with the Xtrema without risking another battery pack. This is one of those applications that I had never considered until it actually occured. My point is that while there may be some limits to certain applications there are some applications that make the motor drive feature very valuable.

Well gotta get back to work or I won't make it by the fall. :wink:


Albert

[saitrix]

Ahh the only reason i asked was for use with 2 stator gb motors and 25mm motors!

[ScubaSteve]

Any news?

[spoke2570]

I saw a press release for this toy in silent flight, september issue. It cryptically said, "availiable this fall..."

pete b

[ScubaSteve]

Lucien,

Heard from Albert lately? :?:

[tmenet]

Steve,

I am still around. The Xtrema is looking real good now. We even have backorders from our distributors. It has been a tremendous amount of work and I keep wanting to add bells and whistles.

The biggest problem I have had is the fact that I have to run a company AND be an engineer. Those two things are not compatible.

Engineers like to be left alone or with their own kind and not have to deal with parts that come late, paying bills, shipping product, marketing, keeping up a web site, answering tech support questions.. and the list goes on and on. I am sure you know what I mean Steve...

I had hoped to be going out of beta by now but I still have to lay out the board and make a few protos for the beta testers.

The only remaining software task left is I would like to have is to add hooks in the Xtrema so that a future USB cable could be offered and users could update their own firmware as well as add data logging capabilities. This would be similar to what Castle Creations does with their speed controllers. If I get the code in there now, then the first run buyers won't have to send the Xtrema back for the initial upgrade.

We have set up a web site at www.theXtrema.com I will try to update it over the weekend to show how the menus look and have the "Quick Start" users guide available for download.


Hopefully they will be available by Christmas. If you have signed up on our web site you will be the first to know about its release and our special intro price. We proimised it would be a one time mailing and we will keep that promise unless you ask us a question.

Steve thanks for your continued interest ... oh! and Lucien I haven't forgotten about you.


Albert

PS My gobrushhless motors are still running great! Best of luck!

[LBMiller5]

I just found out from Albert that the first run of circuit boards for the Beta Test chargers are finished. They are stuffing parts into them now as we speak. I should have a charger to test in about 1 week. It looks very promising, and a few more features have been added to boot! I will give a full report once I receive one.

Lucien

[ScubaSteve]

Lucien/Albert,

Got an update? :D :D

[LBMiller5]

I took possesion of the first Beta Test unit last week. What an AWESOME unit! I have been playing with it, charging batteries and running motors with the motor driver. I have been working out a few small bugs in the software with Albert. I am on the second software release right now, and everything is running great.

I started a thread over in RCGroups that details my progress, so instead of repeating everything here, I will post a link over to that thread. I also just finished a new motor test/thrust stand to use in conjunction with the Xtrema to test some motors using the motor driver feature. I have a thread for this as well over on RCGroups. Here are the links to both threads.

Xtrema Beta Testing Thread (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=471481)

Motor Test Stand Construction (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=476666)


Check out the specs over there. I will be posting some more updates this weekend.

Having too much fun!

Lucien

[tmenet]

I just wanted to announce to those of you that have been following this thread that we are giving away a free Xtrema just for signing up for our random drawing.
*
To find out more simply go to www.theXtrema.com*hurry only a few days left!
*
Production units are are just weeks away and we are very exited with the feedback from our beta testers such as Lucien and designer George Hicks with E-Flite/Horizon, Dave Patrick of Dave Patrick Models *and Will Hicks . These guys have* used their years of experience over the past six months to flush out*problems so that our first batch should be rock solid.*
*
Hobby Lobby, Great Planes,*and Horizon Hobbies have placed orders so they will be available at your favorite hobby shop or mail order outlet soon!