Postby Andy Boylett » October 19th, 2010, 4:42 pm
Hi,
I run all my planes on 2 cell LiPo's. There are 2 main types of voltage 'regulator'.
The most common is a 'ubec' or an 'sbec'. Both of these are an electronic switching circuit that essentially switches he supply onand off very quickly, regualting the speed to maintain the required voltage. These can be prone to a noise issue because of the high frquency switching - I used to have noise issues with these when using 35meg but no problems though now I use 2.4.
The other type of regulator is sometimes called a 'linear' regulator or 'non switching. This type loses the excess voltage through a power transistor that converts it to heat. hence you will often see a heta sink attached to these.
All my planes are electric and since the main flight batteries can now and again have a cell failure, causing a dead-stick, it is very sensible to have a seperate battery for the receiver/servos. Rather embarassingly last weekend I was flying a plane and as it came out of a stall turn the flight pack battery fell out and parted company with the plane!!! Hence a dead-stick, saved by the seperate 1000mah battery.
Have a look on HobbyKing, there are 30 different types. I can let you know which ones work well if you like.
Cheers
Andy
