What the heck is OPTO?

[Mel279]

I usually use UBEC connect with 7.4v lipo to power up the receiver, dont ever connect UBEC through esc cables thats connect to the battery, have a bad experience with that

[sailr]

Yep, a UBEC makes a great voltage regulator....which is all it really is anyway. It's funny, some people make voltage regulators to sell to the R/C airplane crowd and charge a big price! Hahaha. Sucker born every minute.

I usually use UBEC connect with 7.4v lipo to power up the receiver, dont ever connect UBEC through esc cables thats connect to the battery, have a bad experience with that

[ncornacchi]

So if I'm to understand this right,,,,By powering the bat terminal on the rx (either by UBEC or external power supply) I am sending power to the etti brain board and also using power to run the servo for rudder, while also providing low voltage cuttoff should the lipos drain too far down? Sorry to beat this to death with the newbie questions, just want to fully understand OPTO theory....you know, I own a 150 navy w/bec and it was a simple setup,,, but the only reason I bought the OPTO was because of the dual water ports on the OPTO cooling plate vs. the single water plate on the Navy...I even bought a dual port plate only from etti, but was hestitant about ripping off the plate and correctly mating a new one onto the Navy, so I just rushed in and bought the Opto, never considering the non-bec situation..."Only fools rush in"

[Gerwin Brommer]

You are no fool.
If you use a UBEC, you don't need an separate batt for the rx, and at the same time
you now have a better cooled esc ! :-)

[sailr]

You are mostly right. However, the UBEC or external power supply has nothing to do low voltage cutoff. That is taken care of by the ESC.

So if I'm to understand this right,,,,By powering the bat terminal on the rx (either by UBEC or external power supply) I am sending power to the etti brain board and also using power to run the servo for rudder, while also providing low voltage cuttoff should the lipos drain too far down? Sorry to beat this to death with the newbie questions, just want to fully understand OPTO theory....you know, I own a 150 navy w/bec and it was a simple setup,,, but the only reason I bought the OPTO was because of the dual water ports on the OPTO cooling plate vs. the single water plate on the Navy...I even bought a dual port plate only from etti, but was hestitant about ripping off the plate and correctly mating a new one onto the Navy, so I just rushed in and bought the Opto, never considering the non-bec situation..."Only fools rush in"

[sundog]

You are no fool.
If you use a UBEC, you don't need an separate batt for the rx, and at the same time
you now have a better cooled esc ! :-)

And I'll add that 'no bec' esc's usually allow higher voltage lipo's to be used as well.

[ncornacchi]

Thanks so much guys...I don't know what I would do without this forum and the gurus who monitor it and keep us all informed and out of trouble. Gerwin, thanks for your kind words, because I've been really beating myself up over this brain fart. I usually scour the forums for answers to problems or upgrades before I rush in..I really have to say though that Etti should make at least a small note in their instructions for the OPTO that it requires external batt connection to the rx. But I guess, if you're buying this stuff, you should know what you're doing....When a UBEC is listed as 3 amps, 10amps, etc...is that the rating of the UBEC that it can handle for current, or what it draws for current. My current setup for this fiasco is the Nue 1515Y, Etti150 OPTO, 4S Flightpower 5400 mAh, UL-1 with custom made scale rudder with dual water pickups and a 57x3 Grim prop...My next learning curve will be the various radical props that I can possibly use to get myself further into trouble.

[egneg]

When a UBEC is listed as 3 amps, 10amps, etc...is that the rating of the UBEC that it can handle for current?

Yes

[ReddyWatts]

Thought this was a good explanation.

Opto means that the ESC circuit is electrically isolated from the receiver/sevo circuit by optical isolators. So, in effect, the throttle channel of your ESC does nothing more inside the ESC than flash an LED on/off then an opto sensitive receiver on the ESC heavy power side of things "reads" the signal and uses it to modulate the power.

If the Rx+servos are optically isolated from the ESC then the ESC does not feed power back into the Rx to power the servos (like an ESC fitted with a BEC would). So the Rx+servos have to get their power from somewhere else.