I recently purchased a Turnigy 4.0 20-30c 4000 mAh battery, the one that the website (http://copter.ardupilot.com/apmcopter/) suggests. The battery is as shown here (http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__9185__Turnigy_4000mAh_3S_20C_Lipo_Pack.html). I have two issues, firstly the connectors on the battery are not the same as those on the battery leads on the drone. I am almost sure that I can simply solder new connectors on and it will be fine, but I just wanted to make sure. The second issue that I have is that the pdb has two wires that I cannot determine the function of. These wire are shown here:
Any help on the matter would be greatly appreciated, as I am only 15 and this can be a bit confusing.
Thank you,
-Isaac
Replies
I would recommend that you swap the connector on the PDB to the XT60 I'm guessing your battery has.
The two wires are for regulated 5V supply from the internal BEC in the ESCs. BEC is a "Battery Eliminator Circuit" which is a way RC removes the need for a receiver battery and a main motor or flight battery. ESC is Electronic Speed Control and they internally need 5V for the microcontroller. The internal regulator can be used to power other devices, and you can even power the APM with it, if you are not using the Power Module supplied.
see http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-apm25_overview/