Connector/adaptor confusions!

[FletchyFletch]

Hello again helpful people

I'm trying to connect my SuperX Xaircraft controller to my battery. It has a JST connector (at least I believe that's what they're called) and Hobbyking have told me that most people will attach that to the balance cable on their battery. I have a JST-XH connector on my battery and can't seem to find the adaptor for this. What's worrying is that I've just seen few posts where people have connected their flight controller to the balance cable and it's killed it! So the confusion continues…
Additionally.. Do I need BEC between the flight controller/LED's and the battery?

Connectors are so frustrating! With the sheer amount of research I've done on this in the last 10 weeks you'd think I'd have picked up something on connectors but it's a massive tangled web of crap!

 

[Motopreserve]

This might be one of those posts where a photo helps, especially since you're not totally sure which connector you're talking about. Many multirotors use ESCs that supply the power to the FC, so the battery doesn't connect to the FC directly at all. Does the XAircraft have a monitoring system that it uses JST connection for?

does that FC not have a manual???

 

[FletchyFletch]

Sorry, you're right, I should have included photo's. I'll get some on here tomorrow.
The Xaircraft has a manual but it's not all that helpful in some areas.. I did read it before asking. All it says is that the power cable is a Futaba - JST connector. I've found out that it's a J-ZH on the IO Module end and a two pin JST (although specifics weren't given) connector on the other. My ESC's are 40A Turnigy Plush, they do have the J-ZH connectors on them but these obviously connect to the output end of the module and, unless I have something really wrong here, this won't power the flight controller.. I do hope I'm wrong.

 

[SleepyC]

XAircraft can take from 3S - 6S batteries directly into it. All you need to do is soldier a 2 wire (black and red) servo lead to your main power distro board and plug that into the "batt" port on the super X. And you are good to go.

 

[Motopreserve]

Those ESCs should be giving power to the FC through one of the channels. In fact, many people remove the positive and negative wires from all but one of the ESCs, only running the signal wires from the other 3. This eliminates the redundant ground and hot signal.

Maybe the XAircraft is different than the othe FCs? My futaba RX has the small 2 pin input to read the power at the battery - but only for telemetry to send back to the Tx. Not as the power for the system.

EDIT: Aha. Sleepy chimed in while I was typing . You should be on your way. Good luck!

 

[SleepyC]

I'd power the SuperX directly from the power distro, using the ESC's BEC is not a great idea.

 

[Motopreserve]

I'd power the SuperX directly from the power distro, using the ESC's BEC is not a great idea.

Sleepy, are you talking for all FCs, or just the XAircraft? This is the first mention I've seen for powering an FC directly from the battery. The XAircraft must have a way to internally step down the power???

 

[FletchyFletch]

Thanks for the replies! The manual does state that the module will take 3S-6S batteries so I just wanted to clarify before potentially ruining a £400 FC.
Is there any benefit to removing the - and + from the ESC inputs?

 

[SleepyC]

Yes, it has an internal step down. I run 6S directly into the SuperX on all my big rigs.
When you use an ESC you are potentially adding heat to they ESC, and if it fails, your FC fails! With an Octo, if one motor goes out, I expect to still land!

And no, ha ha I'm just a multi rotor nut now, and have been working with the SuperX for quite a while. Def my fav FC currently!

From the SuperX manual:
View attachment 15497

 

[FletchyFletch]

I did see that Sleepy but there's a lot of money invested in this and I can't be too careful! I've absorbed a lot of information in the last few months and it's been an intense learning curve but something that I've learned is that relying on personal logic is a fools game!

 

[SleepyC]

All good, never hurts to ask!