BEC or not???

[rcflyers]

I have the stock Align ESC in my 500, I have heard they are not that great.
Should I fit an external BEC?
If so, how many amps?
Thanks.

[Russell Bear]

The stock ESC and BEC works fine, run it...

[Shef]

I installed a SportBEC...works like a champ. $30 insurance policy. I'm sure there's a bunch of others that you can use too.

[Gregor99]

SportBEC here as well. There are too many brownout related issues with running a built-in BEC. Seems like most ESC vendors, not just Align, cut corners on the BEC to keep overall ESC cost down. So you end up with your heli acting weird or falling out of the sky

I'm glad to see HobbyWing and CC now offering thier ESCs without BECs. That forces you do to the right thing. Now if we could just get all servo vendors to publish real current draw values. That would give the user the right information to properly size the BEC.

Hitec does publish thier current draw values, but when I've tested them, the numbers are total fiction. My results are almost double what Hitec reported. I emailled Futaba about the 9560, 9257, 9452 and 9254. They reported that each servo draws between 1 and 2 amps. If that is true, we need BECs that are rated between 4 and 8 amps. I need to test my Futaba servos and see what they are actually drawing. I'm guessing typical heli use won't approach 2 amps. But even its only 1 amp, the we need a 4 amp BEC to run all 4 servos at the same time.

[eightythree]

but then again printed info on the rating of a bec is probably under what it can actually take..

i think the stock bec will be fine. i just setup my 500 and im weary about it, but im sick of wiring in becs and when i can get away without it ill chance it. theres also the same chances of an external bec failing also...

are there many reports of stock becs failing? or with this just early on?

[Shef]

Gregor - so does the SportBEC provide enough juice at 3.5 amps? I've never had a problem w/ it, but it's an interesting question.

[Redfire SVT]

A BEC is insurance for me too.

http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/s...BEC_for_Lipoly

[Gregor99]

Originally Posted by Shef

Gregor - so does the SportBEC provide enough juice at 3.5 amps? I've never had a problem w/ it, but it's an interesting question.

The SportBEC is working fine. But I'm still need to take the current draw measurements to see how close to 3.5 my setup is drawing. Been busy with other stuff but will get too it soon.

[JaggedEdge]

I have a servosense on my flybarless 550 with CC80/SportBEC/9650's/SK360/401/9254.

In FFF flight the heli would porpoise no matter what I did with the SK360 and the Servosense read max 2.5A current draw. Replaced the SportBEC with a 5A Hercules and no more porpoising in FFF.

On a 500 you should be fine with the SportBEC unless you're drawing lots of current with a 8V/flybarless setup.