Home-made UBEC
 

Right now I am working on making my own UBEC. This is NOT a linear regulator as I have used in the past. This is a switching regulator, similar to the Kool Flight Systems UBEC. I haven't ordered the parts yet, but I will soon. If this design works well and doesn't cause radio interference, I may consider selling this. Parts cost is about $13 including all wires/connectors. The specs are:
-Up to 40volts input (30 cells)
-3 amps continuous output
-Switching regulator about 80% efficient
-5v ouput (I could try the adjustable version to get 6v, but that uses more parts)
-Minimum 8cells

Would you mind contacting Mike about this?

It is his forum, and he sells the UBEC, perhaps he is interested in those things, but please contact him about this first!!

Contacting Mike may just lead to something...he's open for new ideas!
I hear him say: But you want 6 Volts :)

If you can provide something with the same quality, for a better price, any business-man will gladly test it.

I too would say; 6Volts!! (or selectable, 5 or 6, by a jumper, though with switching power supplys this is easier said than done.. )

How are you going to make it?

A friend of mine lives in China, and he is able to make PCB's for the lowest price possible..

here is the link to his advertisement.. He is reliable and one of the most kind people I know.. (he used to life in Holland, but he emigrated to China)

Yes, this is Mike's forum! And I gladly appreciate him for providing it. I just wanted to see if another option could be out there that is less expensive than the current UBEC. I will admit that the unit I am working on will be larger/heavier than the UBEC, but for some (like myself), $15 is a lot of money!

I figure that a 6v version would add 3 more parts. 2 of those being resistors, and the other being a capacitor

Rene, this time it's your link..... Pagina reageert niet ??? huh

Cool... Dafni speaking Dutch!!!!!!!!!!!!

my ears are flapping on my head..

here is the right link.. Skip to page no 2 and there are the PCB's..

Bitte...
Entschuldigen Sie mich

hahaha, actually it wasn't my voice, I copy'ed the ebay message.

:L:

Would love to see your ears flapping, though.

I don't really do PCB work. I would, but I have no experience with it. "Breadboard" designs are my type.

than i would not buy one from you. I don't think breadboards are the way to go! you need a pcb to make a good product (no flame intended, but if the price is 20 dollars, and for 35 dollars i could get the real deal (light weight, 6V instead of 5 and with a proper PCB) I know what I would buy. that's 3 against 1..

I agree that a PCB would be great, but for my purposes a breadboard would work just fine. Also, I edited one of my previous posts. I could do a 6v version, but that would add 3 more components.
I realize that you could get "the real thing" for $35, but $15 is a fair bit of money to some people like myself. I get $20 a week, so that extra $15 would just add another week of saving up. Instead, there is another option that may be heavier and larger, but some people don't mind that.

I have one of MetalMan's regulators in my Ofna 9.5, and it's worked great since the first time I took it out. My T2, on the other hand, has to run a rx pack because I'm too lazy to try and figure out any other way........being a poor college student too doesn't help. :)

But that is a linear regulator! And that one can only handle up to 2amps! This one I am working on right now can do everything better than the linear regulator, except for size, weight, and price.

I have a 5 volt, 1.5 amp external switching BEC that I will test this weekend, hopefully. About half the size(or less) than the UBEC and it plugs inline(controllers plugs into this unit, which plugs into the receiver). The price on this would be about $20 vs. the $35 for the UBEC(6 volts, but must be soldered in). I prefer 6 volts myself, but if this works well enough, it is a less expensive, easier option for those in the need.

1.5amps will only be enough for a 1/10 ST IMO. I have found that a BMS-620mg, no matter the vehicle, will pull so much current that the voltage on my 7805 will drop low enough to where my Novak XXL will send a signal to the servo that makes it just keep turning, then re-centering, and so on.

I could do the sort of thing where the controller would be plugged in-line with the BEC unit. This is because everything that plugs into the receiver shares the same positive and negative! What I am planning on doing with this particular circuit, is I will combine it with a LVC device that I am also making, so both will be on one circuit board, eliminating extra wires. And it will go in between the controller and the receiver. The LVC will cause stuttering of the throttle when the battery gets low, and the BEC will do what all BECs do.

I had the same thought on the amp draw, so I figured I would give it a whirl and see what happens.

Hey Travis, you get anywhere on this? At the very least, I'd like to know of a link for the electronics to make another regulator, don't think it'd be that hard.

It is made, and it also has a 4s Lipo regulator on the same circuit board. But since I don't have a controller to use, my testing only get as far as using a variable voltage power supply to see where the cutoff device would cut off. I also saw that a BMS-620mg can pull more than an amp easily! The cool thing about this regulator is that when the amp draw goes up, the voltage does also! It is rated at 5volts, but under enough amps it went up to about 5.30v.

I got two Warriors (9918 and 9920) that'd be willing to test it......and I need one for the 9920 anyway. ;)

To start out, here is the datasheet:
http://www.jameco.com/wcsstore/Jamec.../310391NSC.pdf

See if you can make any sense of what to do before I intervene :).

Okay, way too many words and junk, all I needed were the diagrams on pages 28 and 29. So does that stuff come in a kit, or are they just showing you how to make one? Either would be easy enough, I'd just bust out the 20 watt Weller and attack it somehow......:D

Dabid, are you aware that those ESCs are perfectly identical? Just the sticker is different. And at some point BK decided to go dual wire on their products.

You're right, they are identical, with the exact same number of wires and everything......no joke.

No kit. This is the fun part! You are lucky I already found a inductor (coil) that will work! It took me about an hour to find.

You should look at the diagram on page 13 to see what parts you need.

I will get a list together later of the parts you need. But I will add that this regulator isn't small. The capacitors and inductor are large in diameterand the diode is big.

What would it cost to build MetalMan?

How big is "big"? I know the one I had you make for me was fairly small, would this one be larger because it's better and has more complex components?

Once I get the list of parts together, I can tell you. It's not that expensive, though.

It's about 2 1/4" x 1 1/4" x 0.5" (thick). This is excluding the capacitor that is external (to reduce the size). The one I made for you was small, just 2 3-pin regulators, 2 small capacitors, and a small diode. That one is rated at 2amps and 6v, but only ~60-70% efficiency (depending on input voltage), whereas this switching one's efficiency is ~85-90% on 15v (but it gets higher as input voltage increases), and is rated at 3amps and 5volts.

I am working on the parts list, and it will soon be here.

Okay, here we go. These are the best parts that I found from before after numerous hours of searching.

-Regulator - "Simple Switcher" 5v 3amp
-Inductor - 47uH, 3amps

-Input capacitor (probably overrated, but the bigger, the better) - 50V 470uF
-Output capacitor - 16v 330uF
-Diode - 40v 5amp
Cost not inluding shipping/handling for these parts:
$7.56. Not too expensive! But then you will have to add ~$15 more for shipping/handling. I realize that it isn't very conveniant to order from 2 different sites, but they are just where I found the optimal parts.

These are not the only options for parts, as one could choose smaller (in size) parts that would work, but I tend to like to be conservative when it comes to these things.

Wow, okay.......so would this be a better purchase than another regulator like the last one you made for me? Also, where would you get the circuit board needed for this?

This regulator would be better suited to higher voltage than the linear regulator that I made for you before. It will run a lot cooler than the other one. Whether or not it would be a better purchase is up to you - they both have their drawbacks.
I just found a board that can be used! http://www.mouser.com/index.cfm?hand...oductid=458618

Cool, so theoretically, the whole thing would cost about $20 or so?

what would it be like? with a stepup transformer? or with a voltage regulator? and the specifications (max current)? will it be adjustable with 5 or 6V?

David, it would be around $20 to build, as long as you have your own wire/plugs to attach it to the batteries.

Serum, it is a buck regulator with a maximum of 40v and 3amps max continuous. There is a 5v version and an adjustable version, but the ajustable version is much more involved, so I will be "content" with 5v :).

So are you going to try out this idea?

I already have. As far as I can tell, the regulator will work (it does with bench tests), but I don't have a controller to test it out with. The question is, do you want to try it out :).

Couldn't you just try it out with a brushed controller? All you're looking to prove is that it gives voltage to the receiver and electronics and junk......sounds fine to me. :)

I could try it out in my Rustler with an EVX and a 12v motor (not the Johnson one), but I feel like doing that as much as you feel like working on your TF :). Maybe later today, but I got a bunch of homework and stuff to do too.

Hey hey, I got the TF running, and running great! Now, if you'll just take after my example....;)

I did yesterday morning :). I got pretty bad glitching when the car was about 30ft. away, but I am not sure yet what caused it. I also had bad throttle movement, which was either caused by the glitching or LVC kicking in with 4s Lipo. I did have the regulator right next to the RX, so that is the worst possible case for glitching.
This setup was terrible, though. The EVX and batteries weren't actually mounted, they were only sitting on the car. The next time I do this, I will do it right with everything mounted up and with the batteries charged to eliminate LVC problems.