PowerExpander Family
The Smart-Fly Power Expander provides full power to servos and clean power to receivers at an affordable price. The Power Expander provides the functions you need for 33% and larger planes. There are three PowerExpander models, the Sport, Pro and 14mz. The Power Expanders use Deans' Ultra connectors for input power resulting in the ability to deliver in excess of 30A of power to the unit. The power is distributed to each servo through a high current buss that results in negligible voltage drop to each servo. In addition, the input power is regulated to 5.0V and filtered before it is delivered to the receiver. All signals in and out of the unit are RF filtered resulting in extremely clean operation. The units also include long-extension matching which results in a cleaner signal to the servos and less RF noise. The Power Expander provides status LEDs that indicate power from the battery is on and power to the receiver is on.
The receiver mounts on the Power Expander providing a clean installation in the plane. The connections to the Power Expander are kept short resulting in a minimum of radiated noise. The Power Expander mounts in the plane using a simple grommet and eyelet system just like a servo. This provides vibration insulation and shock relief.
The Power Expander will provide benefits for 33% planes and up. The unit provides power where it is needed when it is needed. One might ask why you would want to put a Power Expander in a 33% plane when you can support all the servos needed on your receiver ports alone. The answer to this question lies in how the receiver is connected to the battery pack. The normal connection from receiver to battery pack is through a single connector with 22 gauge wire. The normal RC connector is rated at about 3.5A. Digital servos in full stall can draw between 1.5A and 2.5A. With six of these digitals on the plane’s aerodynamic surfaces you can see that the power capability of the battery connector is quickly exceeded. What does this mean? What happens is that you start losing voltage? When you loose voltage to the servos you loose torque, and when you loose torque you loose holding power. You think you don’t have big enough servos on the plane so you go to bigger servos when in reality if you had supplied the full voltage to the servos when needed you probably would not have had to go to larger servos. The Power Expander allows you to provide full voltage to the servos resulting in stronger servos holding power.
