[NSRCA-discussion] Main battery redundant lead for receiver

[John Gayer]

You need to be somewhat careful about the products you parallel up for 
the redundant supply setup. You cannot use a switching regulator such as 
the Castle. These are usually touted as BECs. You cannot use the BEC 
from your ESC if you have one. There is nothing wrong with these 
products, you just cannot operate them in parallel with another power 
source. If the regulator will accept an input voltage higher than a 2s 
lipo, it is probably a switching regulator.
It is a good idea to use  regulators for which you can adjust the output 
voltage to tune the load sharing.
John

On 1/24/2012 7:34 AM, Scott McHarg wrote:
> Anthony,
>    The draw for a pattern plane for the receivers per flight is 
> between 25-50 mah typically.  The cells do come out of balance but 
> they also typically will easily have that much variation in them in a 
> normal flight as each cell will not have exactly the same discharge 
> rate.  When you charge your pack after the flight, the charging 
> process will balance them out.  It also depends on how you set up your 
> redundant system.  If you set the voltage regulator from your main 
> pack to be your "back up" by setting a lower voltage than the primary 
> pack, you won't use your main battery unless something goes wrong with 
> the primary pack.  If you set the voltage regulator on the main pack 
> to be the same as your regulator, you will be running a dual system 
> which means (ideally) the rx will take power from both main battery 
> and primary and you can reduce the draw on the pack by 1/2 of the 
> normal mah used.  If you set your main battery regulator higher than 
> the primary pack, the main battery then becomes your primary and your 
> small rx pack does not get used unless something happens to the main 
> battery.
>    As Dave stated, you should not run switching regulators parallel 
> but standard regulators such as the Tech-Aero and Smart-Fly as well as 
> others is not a problem.
>
> Scott
>
> On Tue, Jan 24, 2012 at 8:15 AM, Anthony Romano 
> <anthonyr105 at hotmail.com <mailto:anthonyr105 at hotmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Seems like a great idea but I have two questions. Do the packs
>     come down out of balance since two cells are serving extra load?
>     Is there a problem with parallel operation of two regulators?
>
>     Thanks,
>
>     Anthony
>
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>     From: joddino at socal.rr.com <mailto:joddino at socal.rr.com>
>     Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:25:00 -0800
>     To: nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
>     <mailto:nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org>
>     Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Main battery redundant lead for
>     receiver
>
>     I've been using this setup for sometime and it is working great.
>      I have my two cell LiPo charged to 7.5 volts and it is connected
>     to a 6.0 volt regulator into the receiver.  The cable connected to
>     the balance connector on the "bottom" 5S is connected to a 6.3
>     volt regulator so it supplies all the current to the system and
>     the 2S pack never needs charging.  I'm using an 800 mAh pack but
>     it could be even smaller.
>
>     Jim O
>
>
>     On Jan 23, 2012, at 2:09 PM, Scott McHarg wrote:
>
>         Guys,
>            Chris Moon just e-mailed me about some leads that were done
>         at the factory.  These leads run off your balance leads to a
>         voltage regulator and allow your main battery pack to be
>         utilized as a redundant receiver battery.  It is NOT meant to
>         be a primary but it will save 20+ grams if you're running 2 rx
>         batteries.  You still have to run the 2nd regulator for true
>         redundancy but you eliminate the 2nd battery.  These leads are
>         factory made and eliminate the need to make them yourself with
>         the concern about plugging in to the wrong cell.  I know in my
>         article, I was pretty much against doing this as a backup but,
>         with Chris having this made at the factory, he has all but
>         eliminated making a mistake by tying to the wrong cell.  I
>         have the link that I'll e-mail you off-list or you can just go
>         to his website.  I don't want to break the NSRCA list rules by
>         advertising for him even though he advertises with the NSRCA. 
>         The leads are only $3.99 each and are found under the
>         Connectors/Adapters listing.
>
>         Thank,
>         Scott
>
>         -- 
>         *Scott A. McHarg*
>
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>
>
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>
>
> -- 
> *Scott A. McHarg*
>
>
>
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