Hey Guys,  

It's been a while since I posted something.  These days most F3 FC's, vtx and camera can take voltage directly from 4s battery.  I need to rebuild one of my machines and I'm thinking of not even using a pdb.  I'll make an LC filter to get rid of spikes and clean up the signal and get a 5v regulator for misc. components.  Does anyone here advise against this?

You're probably wondering why?  I've tried a number of pdb's and they all just fail after so many crashes,  I figured the simpler it is, the less likely to break.  I also dont' need any fancy osd connections, the built in camera osd is good enough.

Thanks !

To add to the fun, can I just use this to make my 5v regulator? These are dirt cheap https://www.sparkfun.com/products/107

Entirely possible now with wide voltage range components, check Arturs build here: https://oscarliang.com/qav-x-frame-review-build/ , he just used a small cap to clear power.

I've been thinking about doing that as well. Not only the FCs can take power directly from the lipo but also with the wide adoption of small body frames, the extra space can be handy. The QAV-X is a great example of a frame where it's challenging to fit everything.

On my current quad I have the Racebase FC which has built-in LC filter for FPV gear and one extra 5v output. That's pretty much all most people need.
I'm even using the basic Lumenier PDB without any added electronics at the moment so removing it won't make any difference to the build.

I have two upcoming builds where I will be using 4-in-1 ESCs with no PDB. I couldn't justify adding a board solely for regulated voltage. My Vtx can take battery voltage and output cam voltage and I can add a low ESR cap for filtering. I think it's a good idea. I've seen several builds where ESC's are wired together to battery - looks good to me.

You've always been able to go without  a PDB.  IT just makes the wiring a little cleaner and simpler.  I believe Bruce at Painless 360 did a video of a biild without a PDB.

Awesome thanks guys. I knew that the PDB was not really necessary, I was just worried about the voltage spikes. I've been using the maytek ones but they seem to break after a while. I'm also worried about voltage spikes.

only part you will need to think is are you going to do the harness for power or mary go around,

harnes is like "H" and it is all connected, as mary go around you have battery connector connected to esc that esc to next ... and so on... somewhere( over the rainbow) you have voltage regulator if your FC needs it... if not, one cap and you are good to go.

Mary go round sounds fun

(11-Oct-2016, 11:42 PM)trojanGoat Wrote: Mary go round sounds fun

Here's a nice neat way to do it:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost....stcount=51

Mine was a little different.  But it seems to be working alright so far

I'm quite happy with how this turned out.




I made my own lc filter based on Oscar's blog.

https://oscarliang.com/lc-filter-fpv/

Then following the results from this video...



I attached an adjustable regulator after the lc filter, changed the voltage to 9v to power my FC, VTX and Camera.  I also soldered a 470uf 35v cap on the output of the regulator to filter out anything extra.

The result is basically the cleanest video I have on all my quads.  I'm getting much better results than my machines that use maytek and other fancy pdbs.

If it works, just leave it, but in general, power regulators induce theirown noise, especially if they are switching type. You normally should plug the lc filter between reg and fpv gear.

...OT

(20-Oct-2016, 10:57 AM)KonradS Wrote: If it works, just leave it...

when I do this approach you always laugh

(22-Oct-2016, 10:25 AM)Grisha0 Wrote: ...OT

when I do this approach you always laugh

yeah, if he's getting *some* interference that still makes his gear usable. You are the only pilot that had to learn how to properly fly LOH, as in - Line of Hearing ;p