Airborne Magazine - Issue #249 | Page 73

On the back of the unit can be found 3mm alloy plate that plays the role of a strengthening base, heat sink and also has an electrical schematic printed on it for reference. CDI Ignition Cut-Off Features The CDI cut off remains the same on this unit as with the previous mini power distributor (separate 4.8v or 6v battery is required) and also included is a remote switch that shuts off the power from the supply battery and regulates the CDI ignition to 5 volts if you are using a 7.4v 2S Lipo. If you need 6 volts or more, you can plug directly into the power unit directly and leave the remote switch out. I would still recommend a standard on/off switch between the battery and remote switch for the added security of isolating the power when not in use. to activate at. This is easily accessed by pressing the small set button next to the digital display (with a pen tip or similar) and holding it until you note the battery being displayed U1 or U2 and then pressing the set button again to lower or raise the voltage setting that you want the alarm to activate at for that particular input battery. This alarm is quite piercing with a high intensity Red LED flashing light which can be mounted externally. Power Distributor DP BEC Product Features: High intensity strobe light with alarm. Test Incorporated into the power unit is a voltage display. Remote CDI on/off switch and power regulator. A square LED indicates if the ignition is on or off and a round LED that can flash from green to red to indicate the ignition battery condition as per the original mini power distributor set up. New Integrated Voltage Display You may recall that I recommended the optional digital voltage display unit from my previous article. Well this display is now built into the power unit. It does have a slightly different operating mode as it now indicates continually the voltage of each main input battery shown as U1 & U2 which it alternates continuously between. LED’s mounted in the power board circuitry also indicate the power is on or off. What I do miss, relates to the optional switch on the previous mini power distributor. It had the ability to view the servo voltage during adjustments; this new integrated display does not allow this so you will need to use a separate volt meter to assist in adjusting the servo voltage via the small adjustment screw with a voltage range of 4.8v to 9.6v. (and “no” the optional display switch does not suit the new power distributor). This minor loss is made up by the ability to be able to set a under voltage alarm for each of the main input batteries and can be adjusted to a low of 3.7v depending on what you require the alarm Models as superseding there current unit. I see this as progression in product range and is aimed towards even larger models. You may not have the need to operate 34 servos, but it does have other features that most modellers can certainly use, including dual battery redundancy, voltage indication and audible alarms to give you more peace of mind on flight pack condition during your time at the field. If you have the space in your next project or just want to update the system you are currently using, this latest product would definitely be worthwhile investigating further by contacting Austar Models to provide you with the details. My preference would be to run the system on 7.4v Lipos or similar size battery’s but I was more interested in testing this unit to its limits and elected to use the 11.1v Lipos for this reason. I connected two 11.1v 3S 2200mAh Lipos to each of the power inputs to the Power Distributor, and turned on the switch, I was greeted with a low volume high pitch noise, which was a warning that I was at the upper voltage range of 12.6v, something to be mindful of