Suggested decoupling capacitor for F450 frame quadcopter

ArduCopter
1

Hello,
I build a quadcopter with a Pixhawk 2.4.8 and a F450 frame. I am using 4 Brushless 1000kv A2212 motors with 30A ESCs (burst 40A up to 10 Secs) and I am using two 3S 1300mA batteries in parallel.
Does any one know what would be the suggested decoupling capacitor I should use?
At this stage I am using none.
Thank you

2

I dont believe there is any rule about that except the normal electrical rules around filter capacitors and ripple current.
So it should be

  • Low ESR
  • voltage must be higher than the battery voltage
  • connected directly to the ESC
  • mounted so the capacitor wont vibrate and snap off
  • more capacitance will be better

Considering what is available and what can easily fit in, I would say

  • for a 4in1 ESC you want a single 470uF Low ESR capacitor
  • for individual ESCs you want at least 100uF per ESC
  • for 3S you want a 35v capacitor
  • for 6S you want a 63v capacitor
3

Hello Shawn, Thank you for your detailed explanation.
Would you recommend that I use one capacitor per ESC, so 4 in total, instead of only one (larger) at the end of the power distribution then?

4

Hello again.
So I just wanted to confirm if it would not be a good idea to use one large capacitor at the main power cable terminals, instead of using 4 individual caps (1 per ESC)

5

Yes, one per ESC. Not one in total.

I’m not sure how this could be interpreted any other way…

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