gsmith6879

My Feedback: (37)

I'm going to jump in here with some observations. Both the kill switch and the smoke pump batteries if properly hooked up are for powering the engine ignition and the smoke pump independent of the receiver power. Your receiver should not see those battery voltages. Your receiver just sends a signal that tells the two devices when to turn on or off. The biggest issue I see in your post is the use of the 5 cell 6 volt ignition pack. If you are running a DLE/RCexl ignition it will not tolerate a fully charged 5 cell pack. The voltage will damage the ignition. I know, the instructions say you can run 6 volts but that is the absolute maximum. A fully charged 5 cell pack is over 7 volts.

Good luck!

goldy48

Thank you for your reply....going to use Two 1700 nicads for radio and engine after reading the forums I read.....will still use the 5 cell 6v for smoke.
couldn't do this project without the great guys in these forums... Thanks again

Doomking

My Feedback: (38)

Hello all
I broke the little LED light right at the wire connection.
Is the switch still functional or I need to buy another one?
Thanks for the help.

Doomking

My Feedback: (38)

Hello all
I broke the little LED light right at the wire connection.
Is the switch still functional or I need to buy another one?
Thanks for the help.

airborne2.4

I did the samething. I picked up a LED light from radio shack and solder it to the opto kill wire connection.

Doomking

My Feedback: (38)

Thanks for the fast reply
I will be paying a visit to Radio shack myself tomorrow.
Thanks for the help.

Frankie b

Agree w/u Dan. Being using two Tech-Aero IBEC kill switch since 2010 w/out any problem until now. My new AW Sport Cub w/ DL 50cc started glitching very dangerous soon at engine started (after a few nice flights) and after few re-configurations in the Rc/batts and all relateds had to get the IBEC out of the system and problem solved. Now have to place an order for an Opto kill type.

Frankie

scubaozy

I have a dumb question regarding the setup of this switch. I currently have a mechanical switch for ignition, so if I install this kill switch, mechanical switch will become redundant. Can I in fact control the whole ignition power from my transmitter. If so, will it draw energy when I am not flying?

karolh

The kill switch permits you to cut the engine from your Tx while in flight and the mechanical switch allows you to cut the engine when the model is stationary. When all systems are turned off the kill switch draws no power.

ahicks

My Feedback: (2)

The way I read that question is he's wondering if that's the case even if it's connected to it's own battery (presumably with no switch)?

scubaozy

Yes exactly, I would like to use the kill switch to control the ignition, stationary and in the air and not install the mechanical switch. Is this doable? I would like to know where the kill switch gets its power from. If it does get it from the receiver, then this should be ok. Kill switch will power on when receiver is on then ignition can be controlled from the transmitter and when receiver is turned of, kill switch will hopefully not draw any energy anymore.

ahicks

My Feedback: (2)

I've never wired an opto up without a switch, so I'm not certain on the "drain" question.

I can tell you that as supplied it's looking for it's own battery. However, the directions come with instructions to change that. It involves 2 small dots of solder. Very easily done if you know how to solder. A second option, that does the same thing the soldering does, is to splice the red and black "in" wires, to the respective red and black wires that plug into the receiver. Either one of those plans would allow the switch to be powered by the receiver like you're asking. That's also how I've been installing them for quite a while now - since deciding a dedicated ignition battery wasn't necessary.

If you would like a copy of the Rcexl switch directions, that includes pics on how that soldering is done, just holler. Be happy to post them for you. -Al

Cyberwolf

My Feedback: (4)

I don't know about the others ,but I do know the Smart Fly opto kill will draw a small percentage of power when not in use if a mechanical switch is not used.

scubaozy

Thanks for the responses, I have already a switch, I was just wondering whether it is doable. I have the v2, so I am not sure the instructions for soldering will apply to this one. It is nicely packed, I am not even able to see the circuit inside.

lean-run

As ahicks I've never wired an opto-kill without a switch.

As karolh says the mechanical switch allows manual shut-off if required.

Rx > opto-kill > mechanical switch > ign. module.

The switch is also a bit of security against switching "on" radio with ign. armed if Tx switch for opto in "run" position.

With or without mech. switch I don't think the Rxcel unit should draw power when radio is "off"

Ain't it great to taxi back and hit the "kill" switch.

ahicks

My Feedback: (2)

V1 switch was only produced for a short while. Many have never seen one. Most easily identified as encased in clear shrink wrap.

The V2 is the switch with the directions to solder to change it. To gain access to the circuit board, one just slices the label along the seam in the case along just one side with a #11 or razor knive. As the 2 sides are not glue together, the uncut side of the label will act as a hinge.

I've attached a copy of the Rcexl directions below. Wiring mod changes shown near the bottom, accompanied by a bunch of Chinglish text that doesn't make a lot of sense, is in need of a rewrite big time. Just reference the pictures for best results. -Al

miklos

My Feedback: (38)

I have a problem with my RcXcel ignition kill unit. I installed it in a plane and checked it out using a voltmeter connected to the output lead. When I flip the switch on my radio that I've assigned to control the ignition kill unit, (channel seven) to the up position, I measure voltage at the output lead of the kill unit that goes to the ignition. When I flip the switch on the radio to the down position, my voltmeter shows no voltage. Now this weekend I tried the unit with the engine running for the first time and was surprised to find that when I flipped the switch on my transmitter to the down/off position to kill the ignition, the engine kept running! What's going on there?

scubaozy

Did you check your servo end points for channel 7? It has to be adjusted for max servo travel, otherwise switch might not switch off/on. Mine also has a red LED to confirm status.

miklos

My Feedback: (38)

I believe so. The led also shuts on and off when I flip the switch on the transmitter.

miklos

My Feedback: (38)

OK, confirmed servo travel set for max on channel with opto kill switch connected so that shouldn't be the problem.

scubaozy

In that case you probably have a defective unit.

Bcolici

Adjusted in both directions??on/off.
Took me a little bit to get mine working.

Modded mine to work as a ibec as well.
Thanks ahicks for that one.
You can peel the label off and then open the unit up,once done stick the label back over it .

miklos

My Feedback: (38)

Tried it again this weekend and it worked fine. Not sure what was going on originally.

douglas racer

Can I resurrect this string with a question? A couple pages back the discussion was having the fail safe kill the ignition in the event of a a signal loss. Being new to gas my thought was to set up the fail safe for idle rather than ignition kill because I didn't want the engine to die from a brown out. Any thoughts?

Truckracer

My Feedback: (19)

Set it up as you prefer and I can understand the logic behind several different ways of setting up the ignition kill, etc. Just keep in mind the danger and damage a large, uncontrolled gas engine can do.

I prefer to have the engine dead after a fail safe event and I will deal with the dead stick landing as best I can. With good equipment and installations, fail safe or brownouts are very rare events these days.