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powering gimbal from heli flight batteries

Discussion in '3 Axis Gimbal' started by Laurence Hamilton-Baillie, Nov 28, 2014.

  1. Laurence Hamilton-Baillie

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    Hello, My dream is to be able to power EVERYTHING including camera, video tx, gimbal and octocopter all from the main flight batteries. I am experimenting with running power from the heli through a 12 wire slip ring to the gimbal (6 wires per lead). The problem is that this would mean that i really really can't afford to have a short circuit either in the slip ring or anywhere in the gimbal! Is there a BEC out there that has a voltage output that matches the input but will protect against short circuits? .. this is proving very hard to find!
     
  2. Janne Hoglund

    Janne Hoglund Member

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    I think you will be much safer in the air if you power only your copter from the flight battery, and everything else from another battery.
    Powering everything from the one battery that you really do depend on, does indeed not look like a good idea to me.
     
  3. Gary Haynes

    Gary Haynes Administrator
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    Laurence a few people have tried the slip ring idea. I don't know of anyone reporting success. Other issue is running from the flight batteries usually introduces noise into the step-down power. Most noticeable in downlink video signal. I don't know of any BEC's or orhter down step voltage regulators that offer circuit protection.
     
  4. Ryan McCrae

    Ryan McCrae Member

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    Im using a slipping on a 3axis converted to alexmos gimbal. works great.
     
  5. Laurence Hamilton-Baillie

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    would you be able to explain your setup a little? are you using any kind of short circuit protection or step down voltage regulator? I know the slip rings can fail after a while but I would have thought that if using one of the new 18 wire slip rings, it won't matter if a couple of connections get lost. my main concern is shorting out the flight batteries!
     
  6. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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    By the time you've engineered all that, you'd be better off with a small, separate battery on your gimbal. A 1000mAh 3S battery is usually more than enough to power a gimbal, vTX and camera, and only weighs a little. And your copter isn't going to crash if something goes wrong in that system, as opposed to a single battery powering everything that could potentially fry with the slightest malfunction in any of your gimbal wiring.

    I do the single battery thing on my smaller copters (all quads, simple GoPro gimbals), but would never do that on a heavy lifter.
     
  7. Laurence Hamilton-Baillie

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    Interesting.. interesting yeh all good advice. think i might stick to my external 4 cell to power the gimbal then. how long does your 1000mah 3 cell last powering the camera, gimbal and tx?? i have a 2200mah 4cell only powering the gimal which only lasts 2 flights crystallizing a BMPCC maybe im running too much power through the motors.
     
  8. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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    Against the advice of Freefly (sorry guys, works great for me :)) I use my MōVI M5’s 1300mAh 4S battery to power the gimbal, the HDMI converter and the video transmitter. I get 2 flights easily (15 minutes each...total of 30 minutes of run time) and could get 3 or 4 if I pushed it. But the MōVI is more power-efficient than most DIY gimbals in my experience.
     
  9. Laurence Hamilton-Baillie

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    I have a new gremsy H16 with a slip ring already built into it. Best settings I have found for the gimbal are with the motors on full hold strength which gobbles battery. I also have the FS7, hdmi converter and video tx all powered through the gimbal so gimbal battery life is very short shooting 4k@60fps. I am very tempted to try and power it from the flight battery with one of these for shot circuit protection.

    http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DC-DC-4-5...92573003&tpos=top&ttype=price&talgo=undefined
     

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