To BEC...or not to BEC?

I wouldn't go with a separate RX battery, Richard.

I think that Norbert Bruggen put it well in his book. The chances are doubled that one of the batteries will fail.

Best go with a BEC in my view.


Actually I now go with a separate switch mode "BEC". Running on 12v I find that the normal BEC overheats and you go into shutdown every few seconds. Most disconcerting!

Hello,

I am also a supporter of a central power source design that delivers the power for all the systems on board and I have made good experience with it over the years.
For receiver and servo supply and vor other low voltage/ power consumers I use some switchmode step-down converters of own design in my models to reduce the main battery voltage (12V or 14.4V) to an intermediate voltage of 6V with linear low-drop post regulators following for each supply path (one for receiver, one for servos ...). Of course the switchmode converters need a good EMI suppression but this is no problem you can't solve.

Best regards
Hermann

Hi Hermann,

Yes, I suppose I have had reasonable experiences with switch mode supply. But we have been having an interesting discussion on another Forum (Model Boat Mayhem - Sorry Richard!) with John who suggests that they cause RF interference.

I realised from this that I have had a problem with this - solved by switching to dual band conversion receivers.

So my confidence in recommending switch mode power supplies has taken a slight knock but I still think that the BEC principle is the best one.