I'm new around here so forgive me if this has been covered previously. This will be my first big airplane ( AW 33% Edge 540T) and first year competing in IMAC events although I have been to several contests including the Imac Nats last summer. I would like your opinions regarding dual battery packs, Pow'r Back'r type systems, two switches (not including ignition), etc. Are any of you using just one pack and one switch any more? Has anybody had switches and/or batteries fail ? Thanks!

Bob

Most of the larger airplanes are using a simple approach, which is very reliable, and has the least amount of failure points. And that is to use two batteries, two switches, and plug each one independently into a port on the receiver. Its simple, redundant, with the only failure rates being very rare occurrences.

Using a battery backup system is probably the second most used solution. The only difference is there is only one connection to the receiver. This allows a failure of the connector, the wiring, or the battery backup itself to cause a complete failure of the power system. Not as rare as the dual battery/switch setup, but fairly close.

Either of these two setups will work well. I prefer the simplistic method, since there is no circuitry involved, and that improves its overall reliability.

Here is one link with lots of reference information

http://www.rcuniverse.com/showthread...hreadid=424119

I rarely see anyone flying the larger planes with a single switch and battery. It seems rather rare these days..

oops.. posted the wrong link

Here are the others;

http://www.rcuniverse.com/showthread...hreadid=517101
http://www.soaringissa.org/tech_tips.../Batteries.htm
http://www.rcbatteryclinic.com/parallel.html]