Redundancy Power System for RC Airplanes | Simple diodes

[@technoxtreme178]

This is most educational and practical at the same time. In flying electric-assisted RC sailplanes often to the limit of sight I often worry about a fried ESC knocking out my receiver voltage, and therefore, I like to use redundant packs on large/expensive craft ...though the quality of ESC's on some plug n' play foamies is so suspect that I'd like a simple and low weight system to give me a few minutes of receiver control if the ESC fries. My only comment would be to make sure you test servos in full stalled state, where it really can draw power (and is a frequent cause of flight failures), though it looks like you have plenty of "headroom" at 5 amps.

[@bobwebber8521]

This sounds good. Have often wondered about some supercaps in the circuit that would at least give you enough power to get down on the ground. Well presented video by the way.

[@Joyplanes]

That's a good idea as well, but it will have to be a good cap.

[@dcsmith5839]

Nice safety backup to get landed in one piece.Might I suggest a temp sensor for more accurate evaluation.

[@Joyplanes]

I'm working on a more complex one that will beep or flash when something fails.

[@kalvinnoble488]

Interesting concept for battery power redundancy for electric powered rc vehicles. I'm wondering if your circiuts will work the same way in nitro and/or gas rc vehicles to provide electrical battery redundany. As far as heat dissipation, you might want to use a higher current rated diodes and/or mosfets or heat sinks.

[@donnieeudy7293]

Good job I all ways like your videos and learn a lot from them thank you for making them.

[@mariuszabedzki6446]

Hi, Do you have something similar for a bigger current? I mean for mid-range fixed wings based on mateksys flight controllers? So let's say I use normally 4s lipo to power my aircraft, and to aux, I connect a small 3s battery - when my 4s will fail, the system switch to backup power and I will be able to land safely

[@b.w.oostdam8875]

Wonderful !! Thank you, it is just what I am looking for !

[@malatoke]

I really like the idea of using the LM5050 chips. I was hoping for a circuit schematic for that. The link here appears to go to the diode version. Did the other version fail?

[@LoRd-rn3bp]

Please I want you to teach me how to make a plane and what things are needed and use cardboard to make a plane and I would like to thank you

[@christopherleveck6835]

You should go to the flite test KZbin channel and look at their diy foam board plane designs. You can order a kit from them really cheap with everything you need and watch the video to build it or you can download free plans and buy your foam sheets and do it from scratch.

[@pssh23]

there are small signal diodes or germanium diodes for low drops... use high power switches with low vrds. also, you may have option to use things (diode, switch - mosfets) parallel. also if your circuit is not much high speed switching then go for power transistor they are better in the case, check their data sheet for max frequency.

[@srinandan6047]

Hi. I am having a thought for an UAV, where I am using 4 motors and 2 batteries ,so 1 battery for 2 motors. NOTE: Both the batteries are power supplies .Now if any one battery fails, I want my other battery to supply to all the 4 motors instead of 2. So my question is whether I can use a MOSFET or not. If yes, how the circuit can be? If not MOSFET, could there be any other solution?

[@christopherleveck6835]

Seems like a good idea for trying to build a small solar plane. I have been thinking the big problem with most solar plane attempts is that they are still using large storage batteries in their circuit. Maybe a capacitor to be used as a buffer would work to supply power to servos and with the reduced weight of no batteries a smaller motor could be used.......I like this circuit a lot more than using these complicated battery management systems and chargers....

[@Joyplanes]

Well for a solar plane I would prefer something with the best efficiency to not waste any power, that's why electronics become complicated to achieve that. I hope technology bring us better and lighter batteries soon.

[@christopherleveck6835]

@@Joyplanes my brother used to work for SunPower.... Their new solar cells are supposed to be 30% more efficient this year they are light and flexible... I'm thinking a small hand launch type of sailplane or flying wing using flexible solar cells as wing skins with a few smaller sized supercapacitors and an efficient gear head motor swinging a larger folding prop at slower rpms with your circuit and some kind of current limiter might make a pretty efficient super lightweight airframe ...

[@Joyplanes]

@@christopherleveck6835 That's cool!

[@kidalainababy5337]

I have a question for you can you please tell me that, you are using two lipos but most of us fly with 1 lipo battery what should we do then?

[@ThreePilotsFPV]

Will this work for 2 BEC’s

[@random_name-]

drop voltage is contact for silicio diode are 0.7 v and 0.2v for germanio.. also in mosfet are the same

[@alienbeef0421]

Okay hear me out. I kind of thought about using both a LiPo and LiIon battery for long range applications. How about making a circuit that can switch between battery types? Or better yet, a 2 power switcher that can, for example, switch between 3S and 4S.

[@gbraadnl]

a remotely operated DPDT (dual pole dual throw) switch to move from 4S to 2S2P is possible... it is just wiring. in that case it would be speed or endurance.

[@wheatboy2468]

amazing joy dude

[@LoRd-rn3bp]

How to make a plane, and what are the required things? Do you use cardboard to make a plane? Please reply

[@scottfirman]

Have you checked out Flite Test? Many great ideas on how to build foam airplanes. As far as cardboard, you could use the kind that has the z pattern inside. I would suggest using Modge Podge to stiffen the cardboard. Cardboard by its self is far from strong enough to make an airplane with.

[@scottfirman]

Why wouldn't you use a capacitor to power your servos in the event of a failed battery? That's what a UBEC does. I switched all my expencive planes to an external UBEC when I lost several planes to the Failed ESC combined with an BEC. the problem is, once a ESC frys, it also destroys the on board BEC. by running a separate UBEC, you still have the ESC, the difference is the UBEC is no longer subject to the ESC burning, taking out everything. This leaves you with your controls functioning and a good chance at bringing your prized Biplane down in one piece.

[@spidermaker]

Nice👍👍👍 Video

[@sajalacharjee7008]

Please make a rc gyrocopter .

[@tmtmmtmt3611]

renew circuit link please................... renew circuit link please...................

[@galmagen6212]

most likely that the MOSFET current rating is too low, try to replace them with higher current rating, also, look for low Rds rating, this will reduce the voltage drop between input and output best of luck!

[@AmjadKhan-cm5sm]

bro i have an old helicopter i want to convert it to plane with no extra supply....bro plz make a video about it i am wait for it

[@kalvinnoble488]

P.S. : Your link to your circuit diagrams no longer works.

[@garrykraemer8993]

ALERT: Do not use this circuit in RC airplanes. A forward biased will fail if the Amp draw exceeds the specification. When 1 fails, then the other will also fail almost immediately! Now the airplane will be flying without power. 1N400X diodes fail at 2A! Surface mount diodes fail at lower amperage values. Servos will cause the diodes to fail.

[@Joyplanes]

Did you see the test I did?

[@Miami_Beach_RC]

🤙🏼✌🏼

[@spidermaker]

Hii

[@Kikerumbo]

Congrats on the video and the efforts. That test with the propeller and your hand right on it... that's a "no-no". Less so to show in a KZbin video were people without any clue can see it. You could easily do the same test with the propeller at the other side of the table, pushing the plane to you. With this "redundant" system, you aren't going to solve the issue you talk about at the start of the video. ESC dead = BEC dead = No power to the servos = No control to land the plane. To avoid the "power issue", you never, ever, power your servos from the ESC regulator. You use a stand alone 5V BEC. In the case you explain, you could have landed without any issue even with a dead ESC and motor. It doesn't matter if you carry 5 batteries with diodes... etc, if the 5V rail is dead. Also, the only thing you solve with using two batteries, is if one battery dies and that's one in a million (anyways, less probable is that the battery is going to be lower than 5V and the servos would still work). Also, if a battery fails, it may burn your plane before you can land it and disconnect the battery. From my experience, it's much more useful to have a redundant 5V regulator (and that's more tricky). Happy flying! (editing, because the spaces between paragraphs aren't working sometimes...)

[@Joyplanes]

Yes the propeller is dangerous so is not recommended doing that. And I disagree, if the BEC dies the other power keeps feeding the system so I do solve the problem, you are right by recommending using an extra BEC but you can not connect 2 of them in parallel because they interfere, that's why you should not connect all the red wires in a flight controller from ESC's with BEC's in a quadcopter, it can be done but not recommended and not efficient depending on the DC-DC converter, they produce a lot of ripple when connected like that, and I'm not sure what you mean with the 5V rail, the rail is powered by the 5V from any power supply like a battery or DC-DC converter. Thanks for your comment and happy flying.

[@Kikerumbo]

​@@Joyplanes Thanks for your answer. I still don't understand what do you solve with two batteries. I can see the use of that system when you are using batteries in parallel because of flight time/range and one battery dies in flight, but... that's a pretty niche situation. Most of the time, if a battery goes bad it'll puff, burst and flame up. The situation you propose at the start of the video (a plane without flight controller or FPV, using the 5V regulator from the ESC to power the servos or maybe not, since the servos aren't connected). Your plane had a burnt ESC, so no power for the motor (even if the motor is burnt or not), nor the servos (since you were using the 5V regulator from the ESC). A second battery solves nothing. There's already power "somewhere" since the battery is ok. To where is the power flowing in that case and what can you do with that power? In a situation where the 5V regulator from the ESC burns, you have no control over the servos nor anything else, since the receiver isn't powered up. So, you can't steer the plane. Also I'm still not sure that an ESC with a burnt regulator will still work, since it seems easier to step down the 5V to 3.3V (for the microcontroller of the ESC, driver... etc) than using a 3.3V that can step down +16V or whatever voltage from the battery. But maybe they do work without the internal 5V regulator. Now, in case of a flight controller (no one talked about that or at least I didn't hear you say anything in the video. Maybe I missed it). It already has a 5V regulator. ESC for quadcopters don't have BEC since... 2017? plus you should never buy an ESC with an internal regulator for a quadcopter, nor use it if you build your quad with one (usually OPTO ESC). Back to the flight controller, you should NOT use the 5V regulator in the flight controller to power the servos (3.3V for flight controllers are mostly stepped down from the 5V regulator), unless you aren't using FPV, because servos produce so much noise in the FPV. What can happen is (I'm sure there are more situations, but these are the ones that pop into my head now): 1) Your battery dies, then all is lost and a "brick is falling from the sky" or, with your redundancy battery system, the other battery still gives power and all is well. The question is: How many times did you have a battery die in flight? I've been "RCing" for more than 20 years and it never happened to me. 2) Your ESC dies and there's no power for the motor, but since you have a standalone 5V regulator (be it from the flight controller or a separate one) the FPV (if there's one), flight controller (if there's one) and the servos work so you can safely land your plane. 3) Your 5V regulator dies and now all is lost (since you are using one for everything). No power for the receiver means no control, so no motor either. Second battery does nothing. And 5V regulators die "often". I hope you can solve the issue without having to pay +100€ for a redundant 5V rail. Happy flights! Hopefully without issues! (editing, because the spaces between paragraphs aren't working sometimes...)

[@daviddavids2884]

some info. hmmm. you now have redundancy at the power supply. but problems usually Originate in the ESC. that problem you have Not solved. Main power is now running through TINY wires, All the time.!!! those tiny wires are gonna MELT, when energy consumption is NOMINAL; not minimal.!!! cheers googletranslate