Other uses for a UBEC.

[BrianG]

Ok, I apparently have too much time on my hands. Got a couple of the cheapie $10 UBECs floating around at the house and was wondering what I could do with these things. With some tweaking, they can provide exactly 5v up to 2-3A - sounds like a good candidate for USB powered devices! And since the input voltage is so flexible (~7v to 40v DC), you can hook pretty much any battery pack to it.

I hooked up a UBEC to a USB female port so I can charge my iPod through the dock connector. Since I have a 5g, I also had to tie the USB data+ wire to ground via a 10k resistor and the USB data- to the 5v line via a 10k resistor (otherwise the 5G will run off the battery but not charge). When watching movies, the 5G iPod draws around 400mA. If I use 4s 8Ah lipos, I can watch movies for 57 hours straight! With 10s 5Ah lipos, I can watch movies for 92 hours! OK, that's a bit much, but sure comes in handy.

I was also able to get my Motorola cell phone to charge by playing with the USB data+/- wires as well. All I needed was a CC ESC USB cable.

Sure, there are special adaptors for each of these things, but it might be good for emergencies.

[generalg]

That's called to much time!!!!! Cool though

[t-maxxracer32]

damn.

you are stupid smart!!

thats awsome that you could figure that type of stuff out.

[johnrobholmes]

I thought I was the only one that strapped big lipos to the mp3 players via 5v input :D

I use my CC BEC to power my nomadio React. The stock 800mah 4 cell pack is too wimpy, so I threw in a 6 cell 1500 pack switched down to 5.5v. Double the runtime plus the gain of a lower duty cycle on the pack. I will guess about 3x the runtime of the stock pack, I haven't run it down yet with about 2 hours of driving. Stock pack is barely 45min.

[BrianG]

Originally Posted by t-maxxracer32

damn.

you are stupid smart!!

thats awsome that you could figure that type of stuff out.

lol, I think you're giving me a tad too much credit. It's just a matter of realizing USB is 5v and so is a UBEC, and the fact that UBEC's are efficient and can utilize a large range of input voltage. Then, iPod and USB pinouts can be found all over the net. But thanks though.

JRH: Yep, there are only two ways to increase runtime: increase battery capacity, or use a switcher to utilize high voltage. The switching PS method is better IMO since the output voltage is constant at all times - whereas any battery has the off-the-charger value, the nominal value, and the min value.

[MetalMan]

Originally Posted by johnrobholmes

I thought I was the only one that strapped big lipos to the mp3 players via 5v input :D

I use my CC BEC to power my nomadio React. The stock 800mah 4 cell pack is too wimpy, so I threw in a 6 cell 1500 pack switched down to 5.5v. Double the runtime plus the gain of a lower duty cycle on the pack. I will guess about 3x the runtime of the stock pack, I haven't run it down yet with about 2 hours of driving. Stock pack is barely 45min.

I did something similar, except I used a cheaper UBEC and 2s 2100mah Lipo. After ~2hrs of usage over a period of 3 weeks, I might put back 250mah in. It's just awesome .

I built one of these MAP adjusters http://www.angelfire.com/my/fan/MAP_adjuster.html for my jeep awhile back. I got to thinking the other day. You could probably use the cc bec to do the exact same thing. What The MAP does is take 12v down to approx 5v to control fuel mixture. If you change the voltage up or down you change the mixture.