Separate RC receiver battery?

by MJ

I think I may need a second RC receiver battery. I'm fairly new to electric RC planes. Several years ago, well let's say from the mid 60's to about the late 80's I did fly gas RC planes. Of course if your plane ran out of gas you just landed it. Life was good right?

Well, now I crashed two electric planes lately because I let the LIPO battery run down too low. I lost power to the radio receiver and down she went without any control. Yes I know it's my fault. I shouldn't have let the battery get this low...

After the first crash I started connecting a sound alarm to the Lipo pack so that I would know when the alarm sounds off that I need to land before the battery goes completely dead. Unfortunately this last crash I didn't hear the
alarm because of a noisy helicopter flying close.

So now I really want to add a second RC receiver battery to have power when the main battery runs down and the motor quits.

You know like the old days. So how do I add the second RC receiver battery along with the ESC to the receiver?

Thanks .MJ

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Separate RC receiver battery?

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Make sure LVC is set correctly
by: Matt

Hello Mj,

What is the brand and model or the ESC you are using?

Most all ESC's these days have a low voltage cut-off (LVC)setting that cuts the power to the motor while maintaining power to the receiver.

Many times if you throttle down after reaching the LVC it will let you throttle up again for a short amount of time to help you land. Not always though...

But with the LVC set you will always have control over the servos, so its a dead stick landing just like with glow planes.

If you are using Lipo batteries it is absolutely critical that you use an ESC with a LVC. It will ruin a lipo pack if you discharge past 3.0 volts per cell. You don't even really want to go near that low.

If you get a bind and fly or ready to fly plane the ESC's will come preprogrammed for the appropriate battery pack. The LVC is usually set for certain a percentage of full charge.

I would highly suggest focusing on getting the LVC set instead of installing a second RC receiver battery.

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2nd battery
by: rcflyguy@rocketmail.com

If you havent already i would look into getting a speed control with a built in BEC. A BEC eliminate the need for a second RC receiver battery.

What this does is when the speed control senses your battery is too low, it kills the power to the motor, but allowing your servos to function properly so that you can "dead stick land" this is very common amongst electric fliers.

The first few flights you need to mentally monitor the "thrust" of your plane and you should just kinda guestimate when the battery is too low and then set the timer on your radio for that amount of time.

I got out of electrics due to their short flight times, but small foamies or park fliers usually get 6-15 minutes depending on how much throttle you are giving it.

As far as adding a second RC receiver battery, it is really not necessary. Your entire RC plane can get power from the battery which plugs into the ESC which plugs into your receiver.

Although there is a battery port available, on electrics, that is usually for binding the radio.

Try considering a higher Mah battery for longer flight times.

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2nd battery.
by: AnonymousCobra Ray

Yep! He's right!

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I say go for the seperate battery
by: Anonymous

When it comes to RC resiliency you should always do more than less. So in addition to having a BEC feature on your ESC, and a beeper to save your LiPOs, I'd go for a dedicated receiver battery.

I'm actually buying one now, after a crush, that was the result of an electric disconnection between the battery and the ESC.

I'm also replacing all my connections from round bananas to Dean ULTRA. The 20 hours of repairs I've just spent, are simply not worth it (and I think I was lucky).

Once you fly well, it's really a shame to have a crush due to equipment quality or setup choices. As long as the extra weight is not an issue, why save the 10$?

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