Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Michael Pursifull on October 13, 2011 at 11:26am

You know that your lipo usually puts out 12.6 - 11.1v, right? And that you will most likely need to regulate the power, because if you tap directly into your flight power, it will be jumping all over the place anyways from the draw from the motor...

 

Is it just that you have "11.1v batteries" that makes you decide to not use a 12v camera? 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Matthew Smith on October 13, 2011 at 11:29am

Thanks for the quick reply! 

 

We understand that we will have to regulate the power, no biggie. However, we are already drawing some serious amps with 4 x 25amp motors. We want the bird to last as long as possible and the camera will be on the whole time. Just trying to maximize our flight time.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Michael Pursifull on October 13, 2011 at 11:33am

Well, most camera and transmitters need to do about the same amount of work, and most transmitters are designed for a certain amount of power output. So a camera and transmitter designed to run at 12v is going to have a lower current draw than one designed for 5v, at the same power level. 

 

So you may want to consider going with the 12v system.

You get get a lot of already assembled FPV systems at places like ReadyMadeRC or HobbyWireless - and any of them that include batteries will include an 11.1v lipo....

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Gérard Charlon on October 13, 2011 at 12:19pm

You could feed a 12V camera from a 11.1V Lipo battery by using a switch regulator, such as DE-SWADJ3, from Dimension Engineering.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Don Cramer on October 13, 2011 at 10:52pm

The 12v video tx and cameras from readymaderc work fine running off a 3s lipo flight pack with zero regulation. That is how my FPV tri's are setup with no problems. The only thing you will need to do is put an LC filter on the power line to the tx/cam.

You COULD power  the video gear from their own 3s lipo but this will add more weight as well as likely reduce your flight time.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jose Angel on October 13, 2011 at 11:47pm

Don, could you elaborate a bit more on the LC filter.... I'm a completely noob in the electronics world :)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Don Cramer on October 14, 2011 at 12:08am

Sure.. When you power your video tx/cam on the same battery used to power the esc's/motors you will likely get video noise from the ESC's that varies with the speed of the motors.

 

Here are a few links of samples of what people are doing to rid theirself of this noise...

 

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1241385

 

http://www.readymaderc.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&a...

 

Just google "lc filter video noise rc" and you will find tons of examples.

 

For my stuff i simply run a separate tap off the main battery and make a 5 or 6 turn wrap around a Ferrite Torroid followed by a 100-200uf capacitor on the output and feed that to the video tx/cam.

 

That seems to work well for me as without it i had all sorts of horrible video noise from the esc's.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jose Angel on October 14, 2011 at 12:57am

Thanks Don, really useful links!

 

• ▶ Reply