Power question....

[Cryofix]

On my rig I opted to go with a single 3 S 2100 to power the entire system, meaning full heli electrics, along with camera, and camera controls.

I power the system by splitting the connection to the battery 3 ways, first goes to a 6V/5A BEC and controls the heli electrics, second splits a second 6V/5A BEC that powers the an AR6000 2 servos, and shutter switch, 3rd powers my black box which powers my camera and downlink.

Anyone ever do this?
Is this safe?
Do you see any draw backs to this system?

Thanks!

[Efliernz]

That is what I have planned for my rebuilt T600 AP project this week. As I'm doing a dedicated AP heli/mount system the beast will be wired for just just one job :)

Since I'm about to put an SLR under the T600, it seamed like a good way to save the weight of a battery. It also simplifies the number of packs you need to keep charged. The filtering on the 5/6v BESCs these days should mean that no electrical noise should get from the video transmitter to the main heli RX.

[crewchief]

What are you using to step the 12V down to 6V? Is it efficient? Will you be losing power and defeating your purpose? If you use an AP2000i, it will flash two voltages on the main screen: the current BEC output voltage, and the minimum voltage it's seen since it was powered up. Sometimes there's quite a difference, meaning that sometime during the flight the various servos put a heavy load on the battery and dropped the BEC output voltage significantly. If this voltage drops below a certain critical point, the Rx will initiate a restart sequence, and...seeya.

There's no doubt a single-source system can work, but what about redundancy? Are you really willing to put all your eggs in one basket when control may be lost if something hiccups? On my T-Rex 600 I've gone to a MaxAmps 4200 mAh 2S2P, which fits really nicely in the slot where the 2100 used to be. Now I only have to charge the Rx battery about once a week. Additional LiPo's are relatively light considering the integrity they add to the system.

Just a thought.

[Cryofix]

Primary flight controls are, 5/6V 5 amp switching BEC XPS 8 channel, 3 9650, gy410, and 9254, as for this I do not see them drawing a significant amount of power or enough to shut down the system. This is being drawn off its own BEC and the battery is rated at 20C

On the mount side, there is 2 servos Hitec 5625 or something (115 oz torque, 11.0 speed @ 6) and the fly soft switch this also has its own BEC

Then the Black box gets a direct connect and runs the downlink and camera

After a 7 minute flight the total power used was 238 mAh so I am really not taxing the battery too hard

[bullaculla]

Dood, if you want to save weight, get these!

http://photos.imageevent.com/bullaculla1/heli/websize/IMG_8620%20copy.jpg

http://photos.imageevent.com/bullaculla1/heli/websize/IMG_8605%20copy.jpg

http://photos.imageevent.com/bullaculla1/heli/websize/IMG_8604%20copy.jpg

I run a 3s for the viewfinder camera and the wireless TX, and a 2s (with align 3amp regulator) for the RX and mount servos. they are really cheap too. I have 2 of each, and also a bunch various 800+ mAh packs in 2s and 3s just in case :)