Looking for a onboard switch for my radio system in a new plane i'm building. In one of these thread i can no longer find someone describe a switch that if it fails it will do so in the "on" mode. Does anyone know what that brand of switch is called. I'm going to the RC show tomorrow in LA and hope to pick one up.

skeeter

I've seen several brands of that kind of switch. You might look for a "fail safe" switch.

http://www.smart-fly.com/index.html has some.

MPI miracle switch?

http://www.maxxprod.com/mpi/mpi-21.html is the MPI switch

I like the smart-fly unit especially with the charge jack, but it doesn't say anything about the switch being fail-safe. Are there any other brands out there i can look at? And just to let you know it's going a 60 size super sportster if that makes any difference.

skeeter

You'd have to get the more costly power system to have an option to use a failsafe with Smart-Fly I believe http://www.smart-fly.com/Products/Po...ersystems.html or look at Fromeco http://www.fromeco.org/Products/04FR...s/Default.aspx and others.

All of these are fail safe http://www.fromeco.org/Categories/Switches/

http://www.californiasailplanes.com/
building tips, flying tips and faq.....
2) How to build a DC power jack
You can even make a flag "remove before flight"
Hope this helps

for the money, I think one of the best things you can do in planes that size is just run a parallel battery system. Two 5-cell packs, two conventional switches, each plugged into a separate channel on the RX. Use gold plated connectors on everything, and use a voltmeter before each flight. Check each battery separately. I turn on one, check the controls, turn the second on, and the first off, and check again, then turn both on and go fly. The odds of having 2 switches or batteries fail on the same flight is remote.

Even with any of the electronic switches, you still have several places where a single failure will cause loss of the model, the electronics in the switch can fail, the battery can fail, a connector can fail, etc.