I bought a new liFe 6.6 volt 1800 mha battery and was wondering if I need a voltage regulator to step down the voltage in my plane. I'm using a futaba 6ex radio with a R617FS receiver powering 5 futaba 3003 servo's. the guy at hobby town says no as does tower hobbies web site. If any one can give some more assurance I would appreciate it.thanks scott

Hi Scott,

Are you sure your battery is 6.6 volts ? i`ve never heard of this before. Usually if it`s a ni-mh it will be multiples of 1.2 volts, normally 4.8 or 6.0 volts or if it`s a LI-PO, it will be multiples of 3.7volts, normally 7.4volts for a reciever pack which will require in most cases a step down regulator. If it`s a 4 or 5 cell ni-mh then it`s fine to use as is.

Hope some of this helps

john

John thanks for the reply.and yes it's 6.6 volts each cell is 3.3 volts because it's a liFe battery. it's in the lipo family, there are suppose to be one of the best receiver battery's out there. you can find them at tower hobbies or at advantage hobby.also there was a article in the last month's issue of model aviation on them. they have superior memory retention and perform way better than a ni-cd or nimh packs do. Like i said in my posting tower hobbies web site says that it is fine to run with out a regulator and so far from me hooking it up and playing with the servo's it has worked just fine. but for piece of mind I was still thinking of putting a regulator just to be safe. I know you have to step the voltage down when you are running lipo packs or when your reaching 7.4 or higher, but was wanting to know what other people thought of this. thanks again for the reply Scott

Hi Scott,

From what you say i think the 6.6 volts in it`s self wont be a problem, if theres any doubt about them it would be what is the voltage when they are fully charged ?

My gut feeling is they are fine to use without a regulater, but i have nothing 'hard' to back this up.

                                  Take it easy
                                                  john

Thanks again for replying to the post John! I think all will be O.K ,hope your flying weather is better than ours right now,very much windy. see ya Scott

Yeah it`s kind of wet and windy here at the moment, hoping for better tomorrow.

Are you looking for 4.8V or 6.0V?

If yu want 4.5, then go to radio shack and get a 5 volt regulator (about $2.00). The part is a 7805 ic regulator. It has 3 leads (in, ground, out) it will handle up to 1.5A.

If you looking for 6v then google 7805 regulators and you will find several ways to make it regulate 6v.

Larry

Is that an A123? I know that A123 are 3.3V/cell. Is the 6.6V max voltage or nominal? If it's nominal than no, it won't work w/o a regulator since the fresh off the charger voltage will be higher and 6.6V is just barely tolerable for most receivers. The other problem is the servos. Some of the newer receivers are designed to handle 2 cell LiPo which would be 8.4V fresh off the charger but your average servo can't handle it and you need to use a servo rated for the higher voltage.




Mike

Been using the A123 since last year for RX batteries. Thought they were only 1100mah or 2300mah. Did you get the rectangular prism variety?
Anyway the standard 1100mah cylindrical 2s pack works great with the XPS, and Hitec 2.4 rrx' and the Hitec servos I have.

Hi Dennis thanks for the reply.I have the rectangular shape battery and it is 1800 mha two cell, I got it through advantage hobby they are fairly new and there was a article about them in last months issue of model aviation.their called a liFe battery and they are from the lipo family they have superior memory retention and are suppose to be the best receiver battery out there right now. If you don't mind send me a link to the battery your using,you say they are centrical shaped? I have have got a few responses from people about the voltage regulator and finally one from futaba and they say the receiver and servo's will be O.K with this battery. hope your flying weather is better than ours very windy right now take care Scott