I am thinking of making a power distro board with a BTS555 power switch that i first found on this thread http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/arducopter-with-xaircraft-x650-value-frame 2nd page. What i am thinking is a power distro board that powers up the RC reciever. then when a switch is toggled (gear switch or something) a RC-Relay thingy like this http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__8833__Turnigy_Receiver_Controlled_Switch_.html will pull the BTS555 pin 2 low switching on the APM and ESC's. i could even have them switched seperately to allow powering up the AMP for programming but no the ESC's. This will give stop the power spikes to APM when connecting the battery and give a way to disable the motors in the event of a flip over and loss of apm control (has happend to me once and others have reported on forums). Another thing i would like to do is disable the motors after an auto land. maybe using the relay or unused PWM port. i remember reading that mortors will keep turning after an auto land but im not sure this is still true?
other things =>
I want to make it so the power wires to the ESC's are super short (5mm for strain relief)
allow for directly mounting a attopilot current sensor to the board.
have a deans connector soldiered to the board to make battery removal easier and one handed.
A stackable layout ie: one board for quad, add another board with metal spacers for an octo
multiple switchable outputs for nav lights, landing lights, video tx, camera etc.
Any other ideas that may be worth implimenting while im at it? or is this a bad idea and me just over complicating things?
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