Risk it all on a £5 (BEC)

[mpd79]

During my rebuild it occurred to me that everything will rely on a £4 UBEC, the Turnigy 5A.

Which got me thinking maybe this is an area to upgrade? I';ve read very few negative comments about the TGY but have now replaced it with a Castle Creations BEC 10A. 10A is way over the top but I figured it will run nice a cool, and that';s the smallest they make! (I know even the best makes can fail too)

What';s the consensus; worrying about nothing or worth the extra!?

Mike

[robshaw]

I was thinking something similar recently. I';ve just build a set of retracts which will run from the 5v from the ubec. This is gonna put considerably more load on the ubec compared to normal usage. I too run the turnigy 5A units. Was gonna upgrade to be on the safe side.

To be fair,  for the sake of a tenner I';d rather not take the chance.

[robshaw]

Although saying all that I think 5A is probably plenty.....

[Hands0n]

Not sure if it is worth the extra for simply capacity of output (10A vs 5A) as I don';t suppose the FC and assorted other typical bits will use anything like even 5A.  But maybe for better or more reliable build quality, I don';t know the Castle Creations kit. 

What I find a bit worrying about using a single BEC is the lack of redundancy that is typically associated with using the ESC';s built in BEC.  At least there is 4 x power and thus an element of redundancy on the go.

I really don';t know how often the low-voltage stuff fails, it doesn';t seem to be common from all the reading I';ve done since coming to the hobby. So maybe redundancy is not something to worry too much about.

[Biffa]

In all the years I have spent in RC I don';t think I ever heard of one BEC failing under normal conditions.

[rickp]

I';d be more concerned about an ESC failing ';short'; and dragging the whole battery down. There';s an argument for fusing the feeds to each power item individually, then a failing ESC that goes short, won';t bring the multi-rotor down (assuming hexa or better....)

[nub]

suppose its something u don';t really think/worry about until it does fail, then it';s to late!

but in all the years i';ve been flying RC models i';ve never had one fail on me yet.

[Gadget Man]

I';ve never had one fail on me either but I do worry about my bec too, I';ve been thinking about dual BEC redundancy, it';s the seamless switch over which wuld be the hard bit I think.

[rickp]

I';ve never had one fail on me either but I do worry about my bec too, I';ve been thinking about dual BEC redundancy, it';s the seamless switch over which wuld be the hard bit I think.

I think you need to have far more statistics on what really causes failure before you can even begin to think about what the ';high spot'; is that needs fixing. I imagine that motors/props fail far more than the BEC, so if you';re that concerned - look to hexa/octo before you add more BECs..

Redundancy is hard(TM) and often not at all obvious...