Redwing RC life battery.

[3dNater]

Cool. I have a little experience with your black power board. It totally rocks! It is in a friend's 50cc Pilot yak. I love how it provides redundancy, manages voltage, cleans up wiring, and best of all takes the job of powering servos away from the rx bus. Anything I build over 30cc is getting one

 

[Taildraggerrc]

I normally run my batteries with one deans from the batt to rx power/ jr plug to opto kill and never a noise rfi issue. Actually the battery itself is the best rfi filter around and also the ignition power is coming direct from the battery itself via parallel outputs and not the rx. I thought this may be what Tim meant. Just from my experience this has always worked for me

 

[Matt Goethe]

Quote below is from the Redwing website.

"Description:
The Optical Kill Switch for gas rc planes, allows you to safely and remotely kill your electronic ignition. It is Fiber Optically Coupled to isolate your ignition system from your radio system so there is NO interference "

Now I'm confused. What will happen to the battery that will effect either the Rx or servos? It states that it is "fiber optically isolated". Does this mean that the electrical signal noise from the ignition turns into a optic signal and then an electrical signal thru the battery then thru the Rx and to the servo? Sounds convoluted or the Optical Kill Switch is a hoax.

 

[3dNater]

This topic was discussed here: http://www.3drcforums.com/showthread.php?1325-IBEF-versus-Opto-Kill&highlight=ibec
[MENTION=109]NJSwede[/MENTION] did a nice write-up describing the differences between and IBEF, Opto Kill, and IBEC. An Opto Kill only provides perfect signal isolation only when using a separate pack for ignition. The fiber optic is only a switch that gets its signal from the rx. It does NOT transmit power to the ignition.

So... if you power your ignition with the same battery as the rx you are running a risk of ignition noise coming back through the power connection to the battery and into the rx.

If you think I had fun putting my plane into the ground twice within a few weekends due to this issue you are sadly mistaken. I am glad some people have success with this but I am telling you it is a ticking time bomb.

I just brought this up to point out a possible setup flaw that could cost a plane.

I am not trying to be an alarmist and I will concede that perhaps not every opto kill has the same design specs.

I don't buy into the argument that a battery is a good RF buffer. I also think servos are not all going to react the same way to the RF noise from the ignition.

I also want to point out that I ran this same setup on a 70" slick for many many flights without an issue... then I had a plane into the dirt twice within a couple weekends. I am running the same setup now with the only difference being an IBEC instead of an opto-kill on my single LiFe pack setup. I have had no subsequent issues with this gear.

FYI the servos that freaked out are power HD 1214TG (I think that is right off the top of my head). They have been great "budget" servos but are slowly being cycled out for savox. I still have a pair of them on ailerons.

 

[3dNater]

Quote below is from the Redwing website.

"Description:
The Optical Kill Switch for gas rc planes, allows you to safely and remotely kill your electronic ignition. It is Fiber Optically Coupled to isolate your ignition system from your radio system so there is NO interference "

Now I'm confused. What will happen to the battery that will effect either the Rx or servos? It states that it is "fiber optically isolated". Does this mean that the electrical signal noise from the ignition turns into a optic signal and then an electrical signal thru the battery then thru the Rx and to the servo? Sounds convoluted or the Optical Kill Switch is a hoax.

An opto kill is for providing the functionality of letting you remotely kill your engine with an actual switch on your tx vs having a choke servo or some other untrustworthy method. It also kills the engine in the event that your rx loses power. It was never designed to provide noise isolation from the ignition to the other power circuits.

I just looked up a couple of different setup documentaion sheets. They all call for a separate battery for ignition and rx. My advice... spend 10 or 15 more dollars and get the right switch if you really want a single battery setup. I am only harping on this because of my own experience and the experience of others that I have read about.

I think the rcexl opto kill is great WHEN configured properly with a separate pack for ignition. Keep in mind the ignition draws hardly any power. You could probably fly all day on a 2s 1000 pack. If you hate charging two packs I suggest getting into parallel charging. If you run two packs of the same voltage you can charge them together at the same time.

I just want guys to keep their models safe as well as people at the field. When my model wigged out it was totally uncontollable. If it would have happened near the Pitts in a high speed pass there could have easily been an injury.

 

[Matt Goethe]

Thanks Nate - I thought about it last night and it makes sense that the opto kill is not isolating ignition noise. Now I weigh my options on running another battery or switching to the IBEC.

 

[amstd7]

All very good points guys and very noteworthy, but changing the subject how do you guys power up the smoke pump on 100cc, seperate battery or shared from another source?

 

[BrandonD]

The JR and deans work the same way, you can swap them and use either one for the same purpose. Obviously the deans is more heavy duty and is better to use when flying then JR (disconnection problems) But the JR can be used to charge the battery's in case your charger does not come with a deans or is not compatible with a deans connector!