Xtrema LiPo Charger / Wattmeter / Motor Driver - debut in Toledo

[tmenet]

TME is introducing the new Xtrema at the Toledo Show 2005. It is more than just a powerful LiPo charger! The oversized LCD display, the included motor/battery temperature probe, the wattmeter, the one of a kind motor driving functions and the upgradeable firmware make it a complete lab for electric flyers' needs today and tomorrow! It's also the perfect tool for the experimenter building CDROM motors and robots!

TME has raised the bar on what to expect from our electric field equipment. Please come by our booth at the Toledo show for a live demonstration! (See us at booth # 218 Aisle H)

The complete pdf of the press release with details of this amazing new product is available at http://www.tmenet.com/pdf/Xtrema_Press_Release.pdf and a high resolution image of the product is available at http://www.tmenet.com/images/Xtrema%20proto.jpg . As always, the latest information can be found on our web site www.TMEnet.com


Al
TME

[JoeR]

Can you give us more info on it? A spec sheet? Price? The press release page does not work. Thanks!

How many cells does it charge, max charge rate, etc

[tmenet]

The pdf file is working now. Our server had some down time yesterday. Please try again.

In short the Charger does 1 to 10 cells at up to 8 amps with all parameters including temperature simultaneously visible in a large 4 x 20 LCD display. The Wattmeter measures up to 100 amps peak at 60 volts. Thats 6000 watts or 8.1 HP! It has a separate window that displays peak temperature of your battery or motor, peak amps, minimum voltage and the calculated watts and horsepower from the peak/min figures. The Motor Driver is programmable from 1 to 12 volts at up to 8 amps. This allows you to test small brushed/brushless/CDROM motors

Well we are off to the show. Hope to see some of you there!

Albert

[JoeR]

Price? Will it discharge? I just read the press release... Not available until fall...

[tmenet]

The price is till to be determined but we beleive it will retail for less than $189 with a street price around $159. If you were to purchase an equivalent charger with a temperature probe, a wattmeter and a programmable power supply for testing motors you would easily be over $250

We do not include a discharger because honestly it does not do LiPo batteries any good to fully discharge since each time you use it you use up one of its lives. Discharging for battery health is attributed to NiCd technology. Secondly, most people find it more fun to discharge by flying your plane. And third leaving out that function made our unit smaller and lighter.

It is however, good to occasionally do a timed discharge to test for capacity. There are very nice stand alone units that can do this.

The Xtrema still in devlopment and will not be available untill fall. That means that If there are any ideas for more features, let me know and it can still be added to the design. We are always looking for good ideas...

Thanks for your interest.

[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 (http://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!

[BEC]

Hmmmmmm.......looks like the motor driver function is gone and the price has escalated considerably. Save for the programmable end points for charging it seems that an AF 109 and a Medusa Power Analyzer Pro (or a Hyperion eMeter) will do all this does and more.

I find the horsepower readout "feature" amusing. 1 HP=746W. Not much math required there.....

[tmenet]

Sorry I missed your remarks. Yes, sadly we have removed the motor driver functionality. We agonized over that decision. The limited initial spec of 8 amps (which is great for a charger) turned out to be disappointing in that only very small CD rom motors would be tested. We did not want to disappoint our customers expecting they could test mid size motors.

The Xtrema has a lot more going for it than just programmable end points as you suggest.

1. We use a more expensive and larger LCD display that gives you lots of real time data while charging and wattmetering. Coupled with a joystick it makes navigating through menus xtremely simple.

2. Safety while charging is an integral part of the design of the Xtrema and a high priority at TME. Two collective features actively prevent overcharging your battery. They serve as backup to the normal constant voltage termination. We include a temperature probe with programmable cutoff and a safety timer that aborts the charge if it takes longer than your programmed limit.

3. We offer Free lifetime updates. Our promise is to keep up with the times. We are now the first to support the new A123 cells. And we will be there when the new "XYZ golly gee wiz" battery comes out next year. This represents an incredible value in that it will not become obsolete. Other companies want to sell you a new charger or sell you upgrade chips, we use a modern FLASH based processor. You can either send the unit back to us or download our updates that are freely posted on the web.

4. We have an expansion port that will allow you to connect our optional data cable for logging your charger and wattmeter on your computer, and downloading your updates from our web site. This same port will be used to connect with our upcoming balancer. future tachometer, future servo driver and many more add on accessories.

5. We handle 10 cells where the leading competition only handles 9.

6. We feature a solid compact anodized custom aluminum case made in the USA not a cheep plastic case

7. We feature four programmable memories for your favorite packs. With cell verification for extra safety.

8. The Xtrema can control the amount of current and not just shut it on and off. Because of this we can do a true CC/CV charge as recommended by Lithium Battery manufacturers.

9. And yes we calculate horsepower which is a simple calculation as you suggest. So is watts as it is only volts times amps. But do other wattmeters have a built in temperature probe that can monitor battery, motor or speed controller temps and peaks? And by the way, all this information is displayed simultaneously on the large display. We had to add horsepower because the display looked empty without it!

What's more the target street price has always been $189 which is what it is selling for all over the net. So really the price has not gone up.

I will agree that this charger is not for everyone. It appeals to those firmly committed to electrics that fly from park flyers to giant scale. It is also for the park flyer that dreams of some day getting into bigger and bigger models. This charger will grow with you and will not become obsolete thanks to our free lifetime updates. Now that represents an incredible value when you also realize all this technology is designed manufactured and tested in the USA

By the way we are giving away a FREE Xtrema..... check out our web site to sign up for the Free Xtrema giveaway at www.theXtrema.com (http://www.theXtrema.com) Now thats a great price!

Albert

[BEC]

I can't find the prior price reference now that led to my comment back in June about the price going up......

As a charger, it has some very unique capabilities and may well be worth the price on that basis - especially the ability to support new battery chemistries via firmware updates that are downloaded (rather than done by chip replacement as is done with schulze or Astro Flight).

It's also nice and compact - a plus.

I'm glad that its long gestation period is over and they're actually getting out to users.

On the other hand, as a test tool it does not do more than the Medusa Power Analyzer Pro (which today can also log RPM and drive a servo or ESC - through a user defined automated profile or series of profiles as well as manually) in addition to capturing/displaying current, power, two temperatures, peaks, and even static thrust via an interfacing scale. It also has very flexible software on the PC side that allows custom displays, graphs of mulitple parameters at one time, overlaid graphs of a single parameter from several runs or tests, and more. I use one regularly and am still learning what it can do. You can see some of the graphs in my charger reviews, and will soon be seeing them in ESC reviews as well.

The PA Pro can also have firmware updates from Internet downloads (as can the Hyperion Emeter, which is handier as a standalone device and still can do computer logging - but no temperatures).

[tmenet]

Thanks for the kind words. :) We are not trying to be everything to everyone. We just want to have a high quality tool that everyone that chargees big Lithium batteries needs.

We are actually working on outputting data via our expansion port for data logging while charging or while analyzing with the wattmeter. There are some other very cool feaures in the works as well but due to the develoment times involved, I don't want to give any ideas to our competitors. :cool:

Albert