Joystick TX

I had to edit this a lot, I messed up. Chemo brain?


I've been watching the progress of the LiFe batteries for a couple of years now and haven't seen any "single" batteries that have failed in flight due to "opens or shorts", so it looks like they are doing pretty well.

Seems like it is time to replace my NIMH two 5 Cell battery system for a LiFe one battery, 2 Cell, system.

The LiFe 6.6V receiver battery comes with two "universal" receiver connectors. Instead of using a Y connector and single on off switch with one connection to the receiver I'm using two switches and two connectors to the receiver for redundancy.

If one of the LiFe cells opens, since they are in "series" to get the 6.6V, there will be no voltage going to the receiver, so this is not as good as the two battery solution that I used to have. The good news is that the LiFe batteries do not seem to be as susceptible to that failure mode as the old Nicad and NiMh batteries were, so for me it is worth the risk.

I still like the two switch installation. Mostly for redundancy, the switch is the least reliable right now.

The LiFe battery will need to be taken out occasionally to balance the cells, or an extension lead will need to be attached.

See diagram for my installation: