ORIGINAL: Spychalla Aircraft
I am glad to see that P-40 driver put "Isolated" on the description of the battery packs. That is key. Dual batteries are not much better than one stand-alone battery if they are not isolated. Failure in one pack just quickly drains the second pack down.
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2. Closed circuit Battery Failure (a.k.a. Fried the Pack) - On a single pack system it is over. On a dual pack system that is not isolated it will quickly cook the second pack.
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Leo
Leo,
According to information that I've read elsewhere, such as Red Schoefield's Battery Clinic and some testing results that were posted somewhere here on RCU, it's not a problem to use two packs without diodes. According to the testing that was done, a failure in one of the packs caused only a very slow drain on the second pack. My recollection may not be correct, but I thought that after an hour, the remaining "good" pack was only drained by 10% or so. The conclusion of the testers was that with regular checks of battery voltage, e.g., between flights, or every other flight, that the risk of a failed pack draining the other pack and bringing down a plane was extremely low. I generally use two 6v receiver packs into two ports on a receiver on all my planes and am interested if you have more information on this approach. I would like to better understand the scenario you are thinking about.
Thanks,
-Ed B.