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Using 240v to 12v power supply to run small quad for indoor testing.

Posted by John Campen on August 11, 2012 at 7:30am

I have now set up my battery charger power supply unit with a cable long enough to supply power for my small quad copter for inside testing. This will save the life of the batteries as well avoid the hassle of swapping them over constantly for when doing PID tuning etc. Only thing its not powerful enough to fly my X8 quad and trips the over load at about 29amps. Ill try see if ii will run my hex next. Here is the video of the small quad run

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM4oZEulyqg&feature=youtu.be

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Comments

  • John Campen March 20, 2015 at 2:07am

    1 guess Anmh :)  

  • Anmh March 20, 2015 at 1:25am

    ...And...What will happen if the power supply from AC socket suddenly lost...?

  • Chris Riccio August 28, 2013 at 10:41am

    Its worth mentioning that Corsair IS a quality name in computer PSU's.

  • Chris Riccio August 28, 2013 at 10:38am

    I'm curious about this. I have a pretty beefy Corsair 750W PSU that is specced to provide 62A on its 12v rail. The pure current requirements seem to be there but there is more to it? Such as the quality of the output? 

  • John Campen August 19, 2012 at 4:18pm

    TS, I do get what your say and yes a lead-acid battery would work for sure and will no doubt run my larger copters. The point of the exercise is not to be doing extreme flying maneuvers, but just to use it for playing around with PIDs and learning how they affect the flight of the copter as well as fine tune the auto trim. So far what Ive done is working really well and is achieving what I set it up for. When I take them out for a fly using the lipos its nearly the same as when I did the tuning using the 12v lead.  I'm going try out a 24volt PSU on my larger copters and see how that works.

  • TheSlanderer August 16, 2012 at 8:40am

    @Jack Crossfire:
    The power rating on PSUs is more complex than that. First, the 1000W rating is the sum of the maximum power of all of the separate voltage rails added up. Second, 1000W PSUs are notorious for being unable to meet their specs, unless you get a name brand.

    @John Campen
    Using an AC-DC converter is still the wrong solution for this, for a lot of reasons--chief among them is it is not cost effective to get a sufficiently-spec'd power supply, compared to getting a whole bunch of lipo packs from hobbyking. Even if you do get a good enough converter to handle the average load, it almost certainly won't be spec'd for the extremely high current current spikes--you won't see these with a multimeter. Batteries, on the other hand, are designed with that in mind.

    If you really want to be physically connected, use a lead-acid battery, hooked up to an AC charger.  Car batteries would work, as would deep cycle marine batteries, or sealed lead acid batteries (the type found in UPS units). As long as your cable is sufficiently sized for current spikes (2X your base current is a good assumption), you would be fine. If not, you might need to few large electrolytic capacitors to the quadcopter end of the cable, specifically ones with extremely low ESR (otherwise they won't be able to supply current quickly enough to filter out the pulses). Photoflash capacitors are spec'd for exactly this kind of operation, and are cheap to buy from surplus websites.


  • John Campen August 15, 2012 at 4:25pm

    Not true Crashpilot. And to Papachristos. The theory sounds good, but its not what Ive found happening on the ground in really life mate. The voltage at the PSU is 12.3 volts and at the copter its 11.85v. so not a big drop. I also have done some really good PID tuning using this and its working fine once Ive taken it out to fly. It might not be perfect but its a whole lot easier than all the issues you have to face trying to tune the PIDs outdoors. Firstly its rare to have completely still wind condition outdoor to do the tuning and then you have the battery running down where you don't want to be doing the tuning when its very low which gives unreliable results. At least this is a constant power supply to to work as a bench mark were as Lipo power supply fluctuates during use. Using the PSU it great for doing the auto the trim and really good to learn how much each PID affects the behavior of the copter and get it fine tuned. There is not a whole lot of difference when I fly it on the lead to when I take it out. I even open the door to my apartment and I get a good breeze blowing through to test how it reacts in wind conditions.  The convenience s not having to swap batteries over all the time and you can play around with the PIDs for hours. I think good variable power supply for this will be worth the money considering the amount of battery life it will save long term as well.

  • Cody O. August 13, 2012 at 8:02am

    The inductive reactance can be canceled by adding a capacitor with the proper value for the frequency and inductance of the circuit.

    REACTANCE AND IMPEDANCE -- R, L, AND C

  • Jack Crossfire August 13, 2012 at 1:28am

    A 1000W computer supply should produce 12V at enough amps to do it.  Those are a lot more than a battery, starting at $110 + $10 tax + $10 shipping.  It would be useful to have indefinite hovering of an indoor camera, light, or ceiling fan that could follow a person.

  • Crashpilot1000 August 13, 2012 at 12:47am

    I doubt that indoor PIDs (by wire or with lipos) can be used outdoors in fast forward flight and sharp turns. BTW perhaps we can do a "car battery lift" competition instead of the silly "beerlift" competition.......

This reply was deleted.