RECEIVER AND BATTERY TOGETHER?
 

Hi, folks; I’m new in this fascinating hobby and I’m very concerned about vibration. My questions are:

SWITCH: What if I conect the battery directly to the receiver when I need it whithout using any switch? I think the most reliable switch is not to have switch at all!

FOAM WRAPPING: I’ve seen most people wrap the battery and the receiver separately. Theoretically if the battery is wrapped together with the receiver, the vibration could be greatly reduced (for the same reason that heavy weights are attached to the rotating drum of the washing machines). If this is not a good idea please tell me how should I wrap the receiver (type and amount of foam, how to fix it, etc…)

Thank you in advance, you have a great forum here!

RE: RECEIVER AND BATTERY TOGETHER?
 

You don't need it a switch, its just more convenient, but it does have a high failure rate. As long as you can turn it on and off without a switch, you don't need one.

Wrapping the battery and receiver together is also fine. Just make sure there is something between the battery and receiver when you wrap them up. A thin layer of foam between them is all that is needed just to keep them from banging together.

RE: RECEIVER AND BATTERY TOGETHER?
 

I have been toying with the idea of replacing the switch with one of those inline automobile fuse link with a knife fuse. The fuse would not be the thing here but rather act as a switch.

What is your thoughts on this Steve....or anyone for that matter.

RE: RECEIVER AND BATTERY TOGETHER?
 

Most connectors are rated for a fixed number of insertion cycles.

For dry contacts we rely on the plating to keep the contact resistance low. Once the plating is worn through then the connector will become intermittent.

So, before using a connector as a switch, I'd get some idea of how many insertion cycles the connector is rated for.

The regular RC connectors are not very robust, and the receptacles have low spring force. At the very least you would want to use a more robust connector to perform the switching function. Ideally there would be some form of mechanical latch.

RE: RECEIVER AND BATTERY TOGETHER?
 

I think you are making things unnecessarily difficult. Everyone uses switches and even though there are some failures, nothing could be more convenient. The idea of pulling off your wing after every flight in order to connect the radio and bashing the connector in and out of the receiver each time sounds awful to me. I have built nearly 50 RC models and never lost one due to switch problem. Enjoy flying and use the switch.

RE: RECEIVER AND BATTERY TOGETHER?
 

Phil says it well. You don't need a switch as long as your replacement method is more reliable. It all depends on what you are replacing ti with. A straight piece of wire is the most reliable, but then there is no way to turn it off [:'(]. A fuse would work well if the fuse fits the connector well, stays tight, and makes good contact.

I'd prefer to run two swtiches along with two batteries. That solves the switch problem by having a redundant configuration, as well as adding some redundancy with the second battery as well. My second option, would be to just use a high quality swtich like the heavy duty JR Charge switch, or similar (see http://www.giantscalerc.com/technical-switches.htm for details on the JR Charge switch). My last choice would be the fuse, because its another thing I need to carry around with me, and if I lost it or its spares, I couldn't fly the airplane that day. The fuse socket would need to be changed out every so often, but I do that with my swtiches anyway, so thats a moot point. I don't see any issues with the fuse and vibration, but Phil pointed out the insertions issue.