One test flight on the Turnigy Multistar batteries. So far so good. Took 13 minutes to get to 15V with 4S 5000 20C, and 19 minutes on the new 4S 8000 10C batteries. 46% more time, 60% more battery capacity. The weight seems to match what they say. We'll see if these get better after a few cycles.
Most others only drop the voltage.... some with older technology that results in some wasted heat energy.... newer do it digitally and much more efficiently.
Careful. The "older technology" you are talking about are linear regulators. Linear regulators have some very, very strong advantages compared to switching regulators, and still have a place in some applications. Linear regulator advantages are (for good ones):
1) Far more reliable, with MTBF >>10,000 hours.
2) Much lower output voltage noise and fluctuation.
3) Much much lower dropout voltage. That is, the minimum voltage headroom required.
4) Better performance when dropout voltage is violated. Many switchers will just shut down. Linear's will just suffer a V/V output reduction.
When considering power a flight controller or VTx with relatively low power requirements, the power loss of the linear regulator is meaningless.
