ORIGINAL: stevekott
I agree ... Compuserve, That's Funny! [img][/img]
What I don't get is why guys want to use Regulators with A123 batteries. A123's are rated at 30 C. You take two packs in parallel, that's 4600mah at 30 C which equates to 130 Amps! Continuous! I can't imagine any regulator made that could compete with that. And the Servos and RX just seem to thrive on the 6.3 volts.
Lipos, well thats a different story. You need to reduce the voltage as the 7.4V is a little too high for most servos.
The weak link in the current carrying chain is the motor controller inside the servo. Or the motor itself. When I've had electrical meltdown it's always been a cooked motor controller or motor inside the servo. Never in the wire or servo plug. It fries and then usually (hopefully) blows an open circuit so the wires don't start melting. I've not had it ever happen from aerodynamic forces. It's only been from mechanical binding or crash damage to the servo or linkage.
Just my two cents trying to save guys money and complexity. And I'm not knocking any setup that a modeler likes or has had great success with. There are a lot of great ways to get to the desired result of a dependable, redundant system.
Happy Flying,
Steve<br type=''_moz'' />
Hi Steve,,
Good points you make on the current carrying capacity of the servo. When I think about it, the little wires inside the servo case that actually carry the current to the motor communicators are tiny in comparison to a normal servo lead..
I am one of those people that do use a regulator on my Life batteries. The reason being, JR quite clearly state in their sales literature that the input voltage for my 8411 servos is between 4.8 and 6 volts.
My partially discharged 2 cell Li-fe battery will maintain well over 6 volts, even at high loads. When the pack is fresh off the charger the voltage is above 7 volts.
Now I am not an electrical genius, so when I was faced with making the decision on what power supply to use, I chose to go with what JR recommended, and keep the voltage to below 6v with a regulator. It may well be overkill, and adding unnecessary complexity to the system, however this is what the manufacturer recommends, be it right or wrong.
It may be perfectly OK to operate 8411 servos at 6.3-7v, but I simply do not know enough about it.. Anecdotal evidence here on RCU would suggest that it is fine to do so, and no regulator is required, however the internet has lied to me before!!!
I also agree with dbsonic above. I could not find any published info, but the consensus here seems to be that a good quality clean and new JR gold connector, can handle up to 3 amps continuous.
Roger