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Power Ideas for Alta Setup?

Discussion in 'ALTA' started by Bo Kostelac, Oct 16, 2015.

  1. Bo Kostelac

    Bo Kostelac New Member

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    Hi,

    I want to fly the Alta with a Movi M15, Wedge, Amimon Connex, and Red Weapon (and other cameras which generally have their own battery).

    Do you guys have any recommendations on how to power this? Can one of the Movi aux batteries be used to power the Wedge and Amimon Connex at the same time?

    Thank you in advance for any input.
     
  2. Mateusz Hajdziony

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    I haven't used Wedge yet, but I'm using Redrock Microremote with Torque motor (and I guess the power draw is close to Wedge with any motor that can spin cine glass) and while I can power the Redrock from the M10 battery, it's not ideal. Spinning focus on cine glass requires a lot of current and when I play around with the Redrock (focus in and out really fast few times) the voltage of the Movi battery gets so low that the Movi shuts down.

    Why I am saying all this? To show you that Freefly's Movi batteries have really low discharge capabilities and the voltage dips pretty fast when you draw too much current form them. I know that you want to power all the accessories from another battery (not the ones that are used to power the M15), but RED cameras are power hungry. I would recommend using something like 5000mAh LiPo (other than Freefly's) with around 10C (or more) discharge to power everything that sits on your gimbal, camera included.

    I am using this Multistar LiPo to power a Dragon. It gives me 40-60 minutes of operation when powering camera only. I think that Weapon is a bit less power hungry than Epic Dragon (~60W vs. ~40W but don't take my word for that), so when powering HD video downlink and a follow focus, you should get a solid 25-30 minutes of work. That's one or two flights if you conserve the power in between flights. This is by far the lightest power solution that I've found for powering RED cameras and accessories on Movi.

    Red Bricks are huge (hard to fit on Movi and balance) and heavy (plus the vlock expansion plate for Weapon) so your flight times will suffer (and you may even exceed the max weight treshold for Alta, depending on where you fly). The sidehandle with Redvolt weights 200g more than the Multistar LiPo, is huge (harder to fit and balance) and Dragon can work with it for 20 minutes (without powering accessories). Plus they require like, what, 2 hours to charge? And they're expensive.

    You could maybe get away with using two Freefly AUX packs to power everything. The capacity is the same (5.2) as the Multistar. Two packs *should* have enough discharge, but I haven't tested that yet. They're also more than twice as expensive as Multistar batteries.
     
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  3. Bo Kostelac

    Bo Kostelac New Member

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    Hi Mateusz,

    Thank you for the reply! Just to confirm, what you are suggesting is using one of the Movi aux batteries to power the Movi M15 and using the Multistar Lipo with a splitter to power the WEAPON, WEDGE, and Amimon Connex?
     
  4. Aj White

    Aj White Member

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    Just my 2c but I made a splitter for the Movi batt that powers the gimbal and the Connex. Then side mounted a lipo to the epic for all camera related stuff. It just worked out that way better with how I mounted everything. Got less time on the movi battery but it worked out great and the 2 batteries lasted all day.
     
  5. Mateusz Hajdziony

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    Exactly, but as Aj suggested, you can power the Connex from the main Movi Lipo because it will give you cleaner cable distribution. You can mount the LiPo on the right side of the RED. I have built a custom lightweight frame made of glass fiber (or carbon fiber but it's a bit more expensive) that I screw to the RED. I then use velcro straps to mount the LiPo on the frame securely.
     
  6. Jack Schaefer

    Jack Schaefer New Member

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    Hello guys, very curious on how to make a splitter for the Movi battery to power my M10 and Connex. Any links by chance?
     

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