Power switch for drones_ 50 Amps

Hi,
Would like to know if there is a innovative circuit which can help me in powering up my drone without using both hands to join an XT-60 female and male plug housing every moment that I want to turn ON the drone power !

Do you have any specifications for the current and voltage the switch would need to handle (what is your max battery voltage after charging)? Do you know if / how much back EMF it might need to be able to handle from the motors?

Hi,
thanks for the feedback… the switch should handle 25.4V DC with handling capacity of 60Amps max. No idea about the back EMF from the motors but consider will be take care of by the electronics present in the ESC which delivers the PWM signals and power to the motors .

Possibly an automotive relay and driving circuit might suit your needs if this is quick and dirty thing for home use. They are typically rated for 12 or 24 V coil voltage (the former for a separate supply, the latter if you want to power it from your LiPo). 60 Amps is a common rating for them, although be aware that they derate their current capacity as operating temperature increases. So for in vehicles they often go with their “under the hood temp” rating of 85 degrees Centigrade which is around 30% less than their headline spec.

Hello,
I was actually searching for a circuit .

The issue with a relay is again you have to make a switch for the relay to power ON ! In a drone , space is a limited and restricted.

Wouldn’t you still have to deal with the connector to swap the battery?

We’d need much more details about what you’re trying to accomplish and the constraints that you are trying to deal with.

What aspect of the having to switch on the relay is objectionable aside from having to turn the coil on? Coil currents are usually only around a few tens of mA. A rounding error compared to the total capacity of most batteries that use XT connectors.

Your ESC is itself a form of a power switch. If the ESC works, the parts making up it’s output H bridge should work.

Hello,
Wouldn’t you still have to deal with the connector to swap the battery? Yes but could build a T connector to take care of that movement .
We’d need much more details about what you’re trying to accomplish and the constraints that you are trying to deal with.
the concern is we have to push and pull the battery connector so hard that sometimes the flight controller doesn’t work properly . i know this sounds very funny but it really happens that the F.C doesn’t turn ON . After many push and pull of the XT 60 connector, the FC turns ON.
What aspect of the having to switch…objectionable aside from having to turn the coil on?
The size of the relay matters as it is big in height. We don’t have space to place a relay of that sort on a drone having a frame size of 18cm x 10cm length and height if maximum 3 cm between frames. Besides the drone does have or require multiple sensors and these have to be fixed on the top .

Your ESC is itself a form of a power switch. If the ESC works, the parts making up it’s output H bridge should work.
YES

picture of my drone we.tl/t-PdBCtPf2lB

You might find it useful for yourself and for getting help if you make and share a simple schematic or block diagram of how this unreliable flight controller is connected to the battery. I presume you don’t feed 24 V straight into it and there’s a voltage regulator between them, or do you? I would focus on improving the stability of the supply to the flight controller rather than adding a power glitching circuit in the hope your flight controller will properly initialise.

I have tried many solutions over the years but to no avail. You know in the drone industry you don’t see many with a switch to power the drone rather they use this manual push and pull of the connectors !! :smile:

I think that’s a safety thing. You don’t accidentally think you left your drone de-energized when you have to actually pull the pack away…

Actually it is a safety thing without having any meaning to it. The flight controller already has many safety features build into it and on top of that the radio controller is not switched ON. which is again a natural safety mechanism.

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