Originally Posted by
pilotpete2
I'll put 2 2500mAh A123 packs with dual switches against any regular and lipo setup for voltage stability from the first to last flight of a charge. As for relability, there's no contest. Regulators are an added point of failure....Pete
Depends on the airplane, 2500 mah batteries would not cut it in my airplane LOL. I guess we will disagree, I cant see how a linear regulator with redundancy is less reliable then mechanical switches. I have seen and experienced far more switch failures then regulators. As far as voltage consistency I just can't see where you are coming from. A LiFe battery right off the charger is around 7.2V it does not drop off that peak voltage as quickly as nicads would so flight 1 may be at 7V and each flight after will be about a 1/4 volt drop. With a regulator the voltage my servos see is a constant 6V and is verified by telemetry. My TX is set up to give me an audible if the voltage drips .2 volts. Hasn't ever happened with my regulated setups. It did once on a pylon airplane equipped with a LiFe battery while dropping the gear ( Electric retracts ). Almost all pattern and IMAC pilots are running regulated systems, there is an obvious reason. This all really has nothing to do with this thread however except Dirtybird claimed that a regulated Lipo setup can be the cause to a twitchy throttle servo but has yet to answer the question to as how. My question to you Pete, have you used both power setups in a competition environment to come to your conclusions?