Batt port on Rx ok for nav lights?

[Sky5900]

Hi:

I have an AR620 receiver that I want to hook up a plane's nav light harness to. The only port available is the Batt port which I understand will power the lights but unlike the other ports, it doesnt. Any thoughts what the issue is? Is that port perhaps defaulting to a switch input on the tx I'm not aware of?

Thanks,

Jeff

[Hugh Wiedman]

Not sure this will help. I use the AR636 with gyro in all my planes and it has 6 channel ports plus the binding port. In your AR620, it has a separate bind button instead. Normally, power to the receiver from the battery is through either an internal BEC on the ESC, and comes in through the throttle channel which is port #1, or if the ESC does not have an internal BEC, the power to the receiver (and consequently power to servos and lights) comes from a separate UBEC (which is powered from a - and + wire soldered into the battery leads), which can be plugged into any open port or directly into the bind port or in your case the batt port. I do not believe that with an AR620 the batt port will give power out, only power into the receiver. The nav lights are then plugged into any open port other than the batt port with the 620, or if all ports are used, they can be y-connected to any port (except the batt port), but the nav lights will only have 2 wires, the - and + so no directional signal (the yellow servo wire) is sent to them via any port you plug them into.

Once a battery is connected, the nav lights should work. BUT BE CAREFUL. Some LED lights can not handle the voltage or amps that a BEC provides to the receiver and may burn them out (which I had happen to me once). Check to see if the nav lights you are using require a light controller. Most Freewing models have a light controller that the nav lights must plug into first. The lead into the controller is then plugged into the receiver via any way described above. Motion has various LED light systems on the website under electronics, so you can see some of the options and light controllers available.

I think all you need is a y-connector to plug into any of the ports 1-6 and then plug the servo wire for that port and light plug back in. Hope that helped.

[Sky5900]

Appreciate the reply, Hugh.

This was very helpful. I don't know why Horizon tech support said I could power lights via the batt port but oh well.

I may have to Y-connect as you said or just forgo the lights. 6 channels would normally be enough but one channel is used by the S-bus lead from the A3-L gyro. So I might see if that s-bus channel can be shared with the lights.

Many thanks!

[Hugh Wiedman]

Appreciate the reply, Hugh.

This was very helpful. I don't know why Horizon tech support said I could power lights via the batt port but oh well.

I may have to Y-connect as you said or just forgo the lights. 6 channels would normally be enough but one channel is used by the S-bus lead from the A3-L gyro. So I might see if that s-bus channel can be shared with the lights.

Many thanks!

Not having an AR 620, HH may be correct that you should be able to power the lights through the batt port, don't know myself, but since you said it didn't work, I assumed you couldn't. You can always just disconnect one of the other servo's from any channel, plug the nav lights in and see if it powers it. If it does, then a y-connector will help you out, if not, then maybe there are other issues with the nav lights or they need a light controller. Hope it works out for you.

[xviper]

It should be easy enough to test if the BATT port on the AR620 is putting out any juice. If you have an old, dead servo, cut the plug off with about 6" of wires hanging out. Peel the wires apart and strip the ends off the center and negative wires. Plug that thing into the BATT port while the RX (and plane) is powered up and put a volt meter on the red and negative wires to see if anything's there.
If you don't have a dead servo and your volt meters has very tiny probes, you can just put the probes on the + and - pins of the BATT port, being very careful NOT to touch anything other than just those 2 pins. if you jump those 2 pins, you may fry something.