Ignition Cut-off Power System Sport

[Dumorian]

I have a PS Sport on the way. I may have one misunderstanding. I assumed the ignition cut off would be totally built into the PS Sport. In other words, regulated and buffed power to the ignition as well as the cut-off optical switch. Looking more closely, it is looking like I'll need to run a separate battery for ignition and that the Power System Sport unit simply provides the on/off optical switch. Is that correct?

[sweetpea]

Yes.

I have the sport plus and this is how it works.

On the left side top is the battery inputs. On the right side top (but bottom 3rd input) is the Ign words. You plug a male to male jumper (included) into this and whatever channel on the Expander you want to control the ignition kill from.

From there you plug the optical wire into the black optical port sticking out of the exander. The other end of the optical cable attaches to a smaller unit. You plug your ignition battery into a witch and the switch into this small unit (so you can turn the ignition off via a switch and charge it). Then this small unit will plug into your power port of your ignition. I also comes with a red LED that will show you when the unit is on.

So in short......you still need a battery for your ignition.

[rrritchey]

Hi, We VERY strongly recommend not using the same power source for your ignition as your radio. The ignition can generate a lot of noise, especially if its misbehaving. This can travel over the power and ground leads and is nearly impossible to filter out. While using the same power source may initially work, any change in the ignition system, even a loose plug cap, can take your plane down very quickly. This is why the Ignition Cutoff is optically isolated from the ignition system.

[Dumorian]

OK, and thanks. I can understand the separate power supply... but not being really strong with electrical, I was hoping you had it isolated.

OK, that being said, it looks like I will be doing a third battery. This is going into a 25% Extreme Flight Yak with 4 Hitec 6545s and one 7985. It will be powered by a 40cc with CDI unit. I'd like to have enough power to run perhaps 60 minutes of flights... which could be near 100 minutes counting time in the pits... It's just pretty darned easy to have 4 minutes on the ground for 6 minutes in the air.

I'll be running a FASST receiver. I am at the moment torn between using a 617 or a 608. I'm Mr. Lipo... so I will be using Lipos for the power system.

First, do you have suggestions as to the mah I should use for this setup for the Power System and also a suggestion for the CDI unit?

Second, given that the 617 only has fail safe on the throttle channel and that their is a rumor that the 608 might have heat issues greater than the 6014, which receiver would your recommend? On the surface, it sounds like a 608 or 6014 would be the best choices, but if the 617 holds last known position during fail safe, would I be able to rely on this to not kill power to my CDI?

I know I might be going a bit overkill with this system for a plane this size, but I have had less than perfect results with the FASST system. I think I have it limited now to my having less than perfect antenna positions off the start and at the moment, I do believe I have my problems down to one bad 6014 receiver. It's not been fun.... This one receiver has muddied the water for me all along, leaving me unsure about everything. Using your sytem should insulate the receiver (and no, that one 6014 is not going into anything but a mailing box addressed to Futaba) from any possible servo noise, it should provide excellent signal to the servos, it should reduce the load on the receiver, possibly reducing potential heat build up and it should provide very clean and redundant power to the receiver and all servos. Of course you already know this. But these are all very important reasons for my purchase. I'm simply running a bit scared at the moment as I have lost two very nice models to that one 6014 and it certainly wasn't heat from the weather nor heat from any external source... I guess it is possible that it could be heat generated within itself... but I think it's just bad for some other reason.

Either way, I'm trying to build an extremely robust system as I just can't stand losing another model right now.

Also, my flying buddy has been moving into the land of larger planes. We've been looking at power boxes for some time, so we'll get to learn from this one... in something not quite so big and therefore relatively less expensive. So, for those who say this is overkill, I'm viewing it as an investment and a way to eliminate some of the potentials for a failure... yes, at the expense of adding one more complex unit, which could itself have a failure.

Thanks for reading!

[rrritchey]

Hi, I really cannot comment on the receiver. We are in the southwest and I have a good friend that does most of my flight testing and he has flow the FASST 6014 all summer with no problem. As far as the batteries go, two 1350mAH should give you 5-6 flights at least, another 1350mAH on the engine should do you fine. Let me know if you have any more questions.

[Dumorian]

Perfect! I already have a couple of 1350s which are almost new... maybe two or three charges... and they are substantially lighter than a 2100. I was hoping you'd think that was a good size. Sounds like I should grab about 4 more and have a second 'set'.

Thanks so much for your guidance. My Smart Fly came yesterday and it looks very nice. I'm looking forward to placing it into my new model. Although this particular model is likely a bit small in the 'need it' department, we do have a few other models which will benefit from this first use and getting to know a product for future use.

[rrritchey]

Hi, OK, I assume they are 2-cell packs, you can't use 3-cell with the PowerSystems.