I have just installed an electronic kill switch on a 1/3 scale Edge 540. I have always just used a regular cut off switch for electronic ignitions so my question is: Should you use both a manual switch and the electronic or just the electronic?

I like the use the kill button on my TX...its fast. A back-up would not hurt...maybe a good thing. One thing I would like to see posted here is some examples of why a person gets into a situation that you really need to use a kill switch...together with the ways to avoid bad situations. Also I do not think any kill switch is 100% reliable if it is activated by the radio system. So lets here your stories! Capt,n

I could see a modified electronic kill switch that used a mechanical relay. The electronic kill switch would pull in a normally open relay. The relay would make the power connection to the ignition. No matter what happened ie. signal loss, battery failure, interruption of signal, current would be lost to the relay which would return to the N/O state and break the current to the ignition. It seems to be an extra step, but would be 100% fail proof.

Most optical ignition switches still need a manual switch to turn their input power off because they have an idle current draw of around 10 milliamperes. If left connected to the battery without a switch to turn them off they can drain your battery to nothing in a week or so.

If you're thinking of an ignition battery eliminator that incorporates ignition power switching and voltage regulation, they do not require a separate switch because they get their power directly from the Rx, when you turn off the Rx they can't draw any current.

With an electronic switch for the ignition power, you do not need a mechanical switch to turn off the ignition power. A loss of power to the receiver will turn off the switch, so the receiver switch becomes the mechanical on-off switch for the ignition. But like Jedijody said, you will have the idle current draw. You will need to unplug the ignition battery at the end of the flying day.

Jerry

On my airplane I have 2 switches...one for the rec battery with charge jack...and another switch for my ignition...also with its charge jack. My kill switch is on the TX...come that way from factory! Capr,n

It sounds like you're describing this little gem of a kill switch from rcats.com. There is a tiny relay inside that can be setup to be normally open or normally closed. I use it in the normally open configuration so that it opens and shuts off the ignition when I flip a transmitter switch or if the receiver power fails.