Posted this on the multi rotor forum, but this may be where is should have gone.
I really like knowing the voltage and current used when flying, but the Attopilot 180a is like the size of a postage stamp! Is that completely reliable? I put one is a Tarot 960 with 5010 motors, 18" props and a pixhawk with a single 6s22ah pack. That setup has proven excellent. But now I’m building a Foxtech D130 (1300mm X8) with U8pro motors, 28" props and two 6s22ah packs. Things are getting a little more serious. Especially considering it’s also carrying a $170,000 lidar. The lidar only weight 2.5kg, so I won’t be driving a lot of current through the Atto but it could be a fail point. Would it be a better idea to run one pack through the Attopilot and the other direct to the distribution board? I’d only be monitoring one 22ah pack, but I could live with that. I’m sure there’s some internal resistance through the Attopilot as well, so the packs may not discharge equally but again it may not be a big deal. Or should I just run both packs through the Attopilot? Could just be overthinking all this lol. One last thought, what is this power module so small? Anyone using 180 amps isn’t flying a micro quad lol! If you look at the picture, 12g wire is a challenge soldering, let alone 10.
I took the approach of using the Attopilot on just one battery. The Attopilot board is pretty small and the traces are extremely small. The thought of 180 amps through that board is laughable, even though the designed posted on DIY Drones and said it will indeed handle the current that it is rated for. At any rate, I just did a big quad on 28" props and KDE 7215 motors on 6s 40ah. I used the Attopilot 180 on one of the packs and just double the amperage to get true current draw. I have done the same on several other birds, from an Aeronavics CX600 quad to the big bird on 28" props. I have not seen any problems with the discharge rate or other issues after a combined total of roughly 100 flight hours.
I’m building an octocopter right now and planning(?) to use the Attopilot 180A 5v. I’ve got hte DJI s1000 running Pixhawk and planning to use one 22,000 mAh Lipo to run the copter and gimbal. Reading this makes me think twice about the Attopilot, but maybe with only the one battery is ok? It’s not clear to me, can anyone tell me from their experience if I should be concerned about this?
As you can see, I’ve been using them for a while without any problem : ) Or you can go with the Mauch, but at a much higher cost. Both are rock solid, just depends on what you want to spend.
I guess I could trust the Attopilot since you’ve been flying for years now, but actually I think I will go for the Mauch. This is because it promises to waste less power going into a resistor, and also because it claims to give more accurate battery level readings. The only question now is, which one? They make a 200A 28v for 2-6s packs, or a 200A 60v for 4-14s packs. I do a lot of hard throttle flying. Enough that I usually have to bring it back by 50% battery remaining, or it gets too hot. How can I calculate or figure out which Mauch I need?
I ended up going with the Mauch 200A 28v for 4-6s packs and a backup module for the servo rail side of the Pixhawk. I’ll feel good knowing I’ve got something up there econtrolling precisely how much current I’m flowing without wasting any into heat or risking overheating a capacitor or resistor. Plus the Mauch looks to be much more accurate, which in my experience matters a lot when it comes to single battery flying copters.