freeair

guys, just for some added safety , can you run 2 battery packs from an aileron Y lead ? i have 2 new 1100 mah 4.8 volt nimh packs by J.R. thanks.

alan0899

G'day Mate,
You could do it that way, but the best way is to plug the 2 switches, from the 2 packs, yes you need 2 switches, & charge leads to charge them, into the battery port & any spare servo slot in your receiver.
I always try to avoid "Y" leads, they can be a source of trouble, that I can do without.

freeair

thanks Alan, this does sound like a much better way to connect 2 packs. so all i need to do is have 2 complete switch harnesses and run one harness as normal to the battery plug on the receiver and do i connect the other switch unit end to an aux chanell on my R-600 receiver ? so say if one switch battery plug goes in the normal rx battery socket does the other switch unit plug go into the spare aux 1 or 2 socket ? cheers.

alan0899

G'day Mate,
Yes, any spare servo slot, will do, all the positive & negitive connections are linked together, in the RX, & that goes for just about ALL RX's only the Signal connection is used for each individual servo.
Have a look here, http://www.rcbatteryclinic.com/
& scroll down on the left hand side, until you get to, Parallel Operation = Reliability & More Flight Time.
Enjoy.

freeair

thats great info Mate, thanks very much Alan.

OldRookie

My Feedback: (13)

allan0899,

Exactly what type of problems have you experienced with using a Y to hook up a battery?
I have seen the use of a Y mentioned numerous times, and not one problem mentioned.

Greg

freeair

greg, sorry for jumping in on your question to alan, when you think about it the Y lead is no where near as safe when running twin batt packs compared to the double switch method. with 2 switches you have double safety in case one switch goes bad, both switches are connected to separate receiver plug sockets, both batt packs can be individually tested via the charge lead exit without removing a wing or cowl ect. when i saked this original question regarding [ twin battery packs ] i thought the Y lead set up was the way to go but when Alan mentioned the twin switch set up this really got me going in the right direction, even the site Alan sugested to look at is well worth a look and in my case a save as.

OldRookie

My Feedback: (13)

freeair,

Never Mind
I misunderstood the question. I thought the extra battery and switch didn't have a place on the receiver to plug into.
I thought allan0899 was saying that you couldn't use a Y to combine the servo and battery to same channel.
Tapping into the channel like this works well.

Greg

Rodney

There are two, probably more, reasons to not use a Y to parallel two batteries. The first one is the quality of the connections in the Y, I have seen some that are quite marginal. The second is the size of the wire, if you require the additional current, you need adequate size (gage) of wire. Many of the Y's use a small gage wire. Alans suggestion of useing a second switch is far the better way.