Keeping 3S on board for other electronics?

[Pyromed1]

I'm upgrading to 4S batteries and was wondering if it would be a good idea to just keep a smaller 3S on board to power LEDs and FPV equipment. Or just use a voltage reducer and utilize the 4S power.

Thanks for any ideas,
Corey

 

[kloner]

your better off using "buck converters" to drop voltage to things that need it. it's filtered, cheap, low power so they don't make a bunch of noise

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...&sr=1-1&keywords=buck+converter&condition=new

 

[Old Man]

Thanks for the tip!

 

[gtranquilla]

Pyromed1....
buck converter is a great idea such that you have fewer batteries to manage and these are less dead weight to carry aloft.

With respect to the stick on LED strips please keep in mind, if your MR is made of carbon fiber which is electrically conductive, the sticky side of LED strips may have copper termination points that can potentially short out on the cf....
Load side circuits that short out typically can affect the supply side where the FC etc. are located..... Just one more reason why Multirotors can suddenly crash.

 

[Ronan]

Pyromed1....
buck converter is a great idea such that you have fewer batteries to manage and these are less dead weight to carry aloft.

With respect to the stick on LED strips please keep in mind, if your MR is made of carbon fiber which is electrically conductive, the sticky side of LED strips may have copper termination points that can potentially short out on the cf....
Load side circuits that short out typically can affect the supply side where the FC etc. are located..... Just one more reason why Multirotors can suddenly crash.

I'll expand a bit on that, while the carbon fiber itself conduct electricity (with a high resistance), the resin doesn't. This creates some carbon fiber parts that will NOT conduct and other's that will, since some parts are not always completely encapsulated with resin. Usually the more expensive carbon fiber parts will not conduct electricity since they have been probably made & cured.

So test those carbon fiber parts people and the rule of thumbs is to keep CF away from electrical current! I saw a guy set his bike on fire because he had a carbon fiber gas tank that wasn't probably insulated!