Pixhawk power brick battery max voltage

I see in the common-Pixhawk Overview that it comes with a "External power supply similar to existing 3DR power brick".  Anyone know if the power brick supports higher voltages than the standard 3DR power brick which only supports up to a 4s LiPo (18v max) battery?  I would like to use the Pixhawk on a multicopter with a 6s battery and was wondering if I could avoid a separate battery or ubec to power the Pixhawk.

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  • From all of the reading that I have done the device out of the box only supports 90 amps at 18 volts max and it is a required part. That being said, I am in the same boat as you. I will be calling 3DRobotics on Monday to get more details. I did see one post from a 3Drobotics tech that they are going to be working on a 6s version. I'm currently researching on how to power the device from just a normal servo supply 5-6V. I can see a voltage issue being there due to the on board regulators. I will post back what I find out. 

    • Did you end up adding resistors between sensor unit and Pixhawk?

      • https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10644

        I ordered this product to fix the issue for the voltage and current measurement you will select the product in the APM software under hardware configuration. You will want to use quality cable to make a heatsink from the current shunt. Make sure it is soldered correctly, I used a BEC for supplying power from the 6s1p to the pixhawk and the ESC's. Im looking into a redundant power option. Hope this helps.

    • Hi, Tyler,

      The 3DR power brick which comes with the Pixhawk (at least as of January 2014) is the same one (or has the same specs) they have been selling for a while.  It is still only useable up to a 4s LiPo battery.  I finally received my PixHawk with the 3DR power brick and forgot about this question was unanswered in the forums.

      • Hello Robert, Glad that to see there are options available. I'm going to be ordering a pixhawk soon. Still have to work out a voltage regulator to supply power for the unit. Happy Flying!

      • http://www.ebay.com/itm/Power-Module-V1-0-for-Pixhawk-APM2-5-APM2-6...

        Something like this from 3Drobotics would be cool. Knockoff tho. I would not trust it.unless you re-soldered it.

        • And i found it.... http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-using-a-current-sensor/

          • Hi, Tyler,

            The AttoPilot sensor does work.  I purchased that and am using it with an APM 2.6.  The AttoPilot is only for voltage and current sensing though.  It does not supply the 5v power for the APM or Pixhawk.

            I am using both the AttoPilot sensor for current and voltage sensing, and then the 3DR Power brick for supplying the 5v to the APM.  But in order to use the 3DR power brick, I needed to step down from the 6s power to something the 3DR power brick would handle.

            My configuration is laid out like this:

            6s battery -> AttoPilot current sensor -> uBec 6s to 12v -> 3DR power Brick -> APM.

            When configuring the APM, the current/voltage is read from the AttoPilot current/voltage sensor off the APM a1, a2 pins, while the 3DR power brick is just used to get the 5v required for the APM.

            Kind of a kludge, but it works.

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