How-To

Connect a Conventional Receiver to High-

Voltage Servos … and eliminate “Y”
connectors.
Why discard a perfectly good When you connect a battery to a conventional receiver, the
conventional receiver, to use HV power delivered is also distributed on a bus inside the receiver
servos? This article will show the that allows you to conveniently connect servos to each channel
advanced modeler how to have without having to worry about providing a separate way to
more control of your airplane power the servos. This is good, but if you want to connect high-
electronics system. To do this, I voltage (HV) servos to the same receiver, using high-voltage,
will discuss some basics, and then you now have a problem: how do you separate the receiver
present a break-out board solution power from the HV servos you want to add?
that will not only eliminate “Y”
connectors but also give you the ability to use one, two, or even three batteries to power servos,
receivers, and gear. As a plus, you now have a convenient way of injecting power from a Lipo battery
into your receiver, instead of having to make adapter cables. The board is highly versatile, and can be
adapted for use in many situations.
To show how to separate receiver power from servo power, let's use a simple example of adding a
single HV servo to a conventional receiver like the ubiquitous Futaba R617FS. To demonstrate, we are
going to use a “Y” cable.
The positive power pin
that connects to the
receiver is removed (this
prevents “conflict” of the
“low” voltage to the
receiver, and the high-
voltage to the HV servo).
Power is injected to the
HV servo via a separate
(LiFe) battery on one of
the pigtail leads, and the
servo connected to the
other pigtail. Since the
servo has a source of its
own power, all it requires
from the receiver is a
negative “common” wire,
and a control “signal”
wire. In this case, the
black and white wires.
Note that the receiver is
powered with a separate Ni-Cd receiver pack (4.8 volts). It’s really that easy!
When you want to connect more channels, the “Y” cable method becomes impractical quickly. A
better method is needed and that would be to make a servo-receiver “break-out board”.
 One kind of break-out board can be made from
Vector board. This board has pads and traces
connected together to form multiple contact points
for (in our case, a bus) negative power, positive
power, and a
signal wire. To
make breaks in
the circuit, you
physically cut the traces with a knife. This method is especially
good for eliminating “Y”'s, due to the common bus, but still is a
little clumsy in handling the power injection function. This
method may not be pretty, but it can work well, is easy to
prototype, and is inexpensive. The downside is that it is time
consuming to make these kinds of boards, and larger wire sizes
tend to come close to other bus traces.

The image below shows a conceptual summary of the way to

power the receiver with a "low" voltage battery and feed high
voltage to HV servos. It is simplified to reveal what is "under" the rat's nest of wiring that results from
making so many connections:

Board "A" serves as a tie-in point for

the receiver battery. The battery could be
connected directly to the receiver, but this
"part" of the board allows you a place to
anchor wires.
Board "B" serves as the connection
point for the high voltage Lipo battery,
and as a place to connect servos (here not
shown, for clarity).
The Ground wire is common to all.
The positive low voltage wire only feeds
power to the receiver. The positive high
voltage wire feeds power to the servos.
The signal wires are feed from the
receiver directly to the servos.
Black is the negative bus. Red is
positive power, and the signal is shown as
white.

The deluxe treatment would be to make a custom Printed Circuit (PC) board. Because of cost, we
want a board that is as versatile and suitable to as many common applications as possible. The easiest
way to make a PC board is to use a PC board creation service like Sunstone Circuits to make the PC
boards for you. No masking, drilling, cutting, or etching, is required. You can order as many PC boards
as you need. This is a tremendous time saver, but it is a little pricey, especially for quantities below 10
pieces of the same board. If you are in a club, sharing the cost with other members is a great solution.
 Servo Receiver Power "Y" Interface Breakout Board (SRPYIB)

Let's look at a board that I designed and see if you can use some of my ideas in your project. You
can use my board design as is, or as a starting point for your own ideas, and customize the board to
your needs. My cost for 30 boards was $10.83 each board, with a promo code, and free delivery.
As a service to our members, you can download the design file of this board free of charge (see the
address on RCGroups under “Sources”); once you have the file, you can download the PCB123
software from Sunstone to edit or order boards.

This SRPYIB board has many advantages:

• Expand receiver outputs with clean power, and eliminate "Y" connector cables.
• Use conventional receivers with high-voltage servos, without the worry of damaging your
receiver.
• Provide a convenient way to power electric retracts with a single or separate battery.
• Monitor voltage of your servo and retract batteries.
• Heavy-duty PC (Printed Circuit) board will handle high-current digital servos.
• Versatile – many easy to hook-up configurations. All low voltage, all high voltage, or a mixture
of the two.
• Provide an interface to connect a Lipo battery to the system (power injection).

Printed Circuit Board Design Considerations

Board thickness can be standard 0.0625 inch or thin 0.032 inch. Unless you have special needs, use
the standard board.

Use standard 0.1 inch pitch for headers, and electronic components. To prevent that “crammed in”
connector look often seen in receivers, space connector housings so that they have some room to
prevent them from being jammed up against each other. My design has spacing between header
housings of 0.110 inch instead of the more commonly found 0.100 inch pitch.

Double-sided board will give you greater current carrying ability. Use the same pattern on the top of
the board as on the bottom of the board.
 Standard copper weight is 1 ounce per square inch. 2.5 ounce per square inch adds cost without any
real benefit for our needs.

Consider how you will distribute power and signal routing, whether you will use headers to connect
external devices or wiring, and what features you want the board to have, like LED indicators, etc.

Place components in efficient locations to minimize routing and try to avoid having to use “jumper”
wires to make connections.

The size of the board will have a direct relation to cost. The smaller the board, the better, in terms of
weight and cost. You want to be able to utilize the board in as many scenarios as possible to give you
maximum versatility.

How are you going to mount the board? Thru holes, guides, stand-offs, bottom mount with Velcro?

Solder pads will vary in size, but most will be 0.075 inches with 0.038 holes. Traces can be 0.060
inches.

You must also specify drill hole sizes in the board. Sunstone can produce any finished size hole from
0.010 inch to about 0.250 inch. My board uses standard number gauge drill bit sizes. I would
recommend that you keep the number of different sizes to a minimum. See chart for recommendations:

Drill Chart:
Size (inches) Quantity Drill Bit Pad Size Comment
0.025 20 #72 0.075 LED's, Caps, Resistors, TO-92 Regulator
0.038 104 #62 0.075 Header Terminals and 22AWG
0.0465 4 #56 0.100 20 AWG wire
0.0785 8 #47 0.150 16 AWG wire
0.089 8 #43 -- For board mounting, passes #2 screw
Batteries - 6 volt sources and 8.4 volt Servos
sources. Conventional servos operate on 4.8 to 6
For the purpose of this article, and to avoid volts. The newer high-voltage (HV) servos
confusion, I want to refer to (and group) Ni-Cd, operate directly on 6 to 8.4 volts. One of the
NiMh, LiFe, A123, and LiFePo4 batteries used major advantages of the HV servo is the higher
as a source of power, as simply "6 volt" torque and performance from operating on 8.4
batteries. While Ni-Cd and NiMh can be 4.8 volts. One servo from Hitec, for example, has
volts, let's just refer to their 6 volt versions in an amazing torque rating of 611 oz.-in. (38 lbs.)
this article. Can you use this board with 4.8 volt on high voltage. There are some specialty
batteries? Yes; in fact, you are not limited to servos that operate on voltages are great as 4S
any kind of power supply (or type, such as a (16.8v), and this break-out method can be made
BEC); limits are imposed by the allowable to work for them as well.
voltages of the receiver, servos, and other
devices you may connect. Limits are also Receivers
imposed when the voltages of the receiver, Conventional receivers use 4.8 to 6 volt
servos, and other devices are different. batteries. The newer high-voltage (HV)
Can you use a Battery Eliminator Circuit receivers can use an 8.4 volt LiPo battery
(BEC) or the BEC in the Electronic Speed directly.
Control (ESC) instead of a battery? Short
answer: yes. Electric Retracts
Conventional fully charged 2-cell (2S) Lipo Most electric retracts are designed to operate
batteries will be referred to as “8.4 volt” between 6 and 8.4 volts. Most manufacturer's
batteries (not 7.4 volts as their nominal voltage recommend that a separate battery be used for
is often referred to). operation apart from the receiver battery. The
We can use a 6 volt source on a conventional reason is that most electric retracts when
receiver, but we cannot use an 8.4 volt source operated, have a large power surge when first
on a conventional receiver unless we use a starting up or when coming to a stop. This
voltage regulator. We need to be especially voltage surge can damage receivers. 2 cell Lipo
careful when we want to mix 6 volt servos with or LiFe batteries are recommended due to their
HV (8.4v) servos. The board I designed can ability to provide large current inrushes and
give you many signal and power options, but handle surges. Even though it is an “extra”
you need an understanding of each components battery, that brings along with it some weight, a
voltage requirements and limitations. I will try small 20C, 1000mAh Lipo, for example, will
to illustrate as many practical examples as operate even very large electric retracts for a
possible, but I cannot cover here every possible very long period of time, before recharging.
connection combination, or every caution.

SRPYIB Details:

This circuit board has four sections:

(1) Yellow - provides a "breakout box" to eliminate "Y"
connectors and to inject power.
(2) Blue - provides an independent source of battery
power and connections for electric retracts.
(3) Orange - provides clean 5 volt regulated power for
receivers (optional).
(4) Red - lets you plug-in external voltage monitoring devices (optional).
 In my design, battery power connections are “V-Servo” and “V-Gear”. Negative polarity is common
to all. The large holes in the board for the battery are designed for 16 gauge wire with two sets of holes
for 20 gauge wire. If you wish, you can use one battery and connect each of the positive rails together,
or you can use the board with two separate batteries utilizing the “V-Servo” and “V-Gear” terminals.
Another option is a third battery that could be used to
power the receiver directly, instead of using V-Servo
power or the regulator.
Optional LED battery indicators are placed at the
positions marked “LED”. The positive terminal is
marked “A” for anode. A ¼ watt resistor is placed in
holes marked “R”.
The figure shows the main routing of power and signal. Black is the negative bus. Red is the
positive bus, and the signal bus is shown as white. Blue is other routing.

Break-out Box – (Section 1)

The board has eight break-out “Y” boxes to connect
to your receiver. You can use header terminal pins or
wire (up to 22 gauge). This section is powered by the
battery connected to the
“V-Servo” terminals. Since
the PC board I used is two
sided, it can carry a lot of
current for those power-hungry digital servos. Another advantage of the
two-sided board is that you can mount headers on the top or the bottom of
the board. I like to have the “Y” on the top, and the wire or header to the
receiver on the bottom, so that I can mount the receiver directly below the
SRPYIB, to have a nice clean finished look. If you don't like the Bottom mount
designations of the silkscreen I used for each channel on my board, just header and wire.

cover them with your own label.

Retract Break-out - (Section 2)

The board has one break-out 3-position “W” box to
connect to your receiver. You can use header terminal
pins or wire (up to 22 gauge). There is a header for left
and right main gear, and one for nose-gear. This section
is powered by the battery connected to the “V-Gear”
terminals. There is no reason why you can't re-purpose
this for other uses such as LED lights or other control needs. You can even use it with digital serial data
communication systems like Futaba's S.Bus or JR America's XBus.

Voltage regulator - (Section 3)

This section is OPTIONAL and only needed if you
are using a conventional receiver with HV servos
powered by a 8.4 volt source (and you are NOT using a
6 volt battery connected directly to the receiver or a 6
volt source on “V-Servo”).
Voltage Monitoring - (Section 4)
This section is used for plugging in your favorite
voltage monitor. There are terminals to monitor the
battery voltage on the V-servo bus and the V-Gear bus.

Application:
Specify the components that will be in your project: Rule #1: In ALL cases, a
Chose what batteries you want to power the project common wire (negative power)
with: Ni-Cd, NiMh, LiFe, or Lipo. You can use one MUST exist between the board
battery to power everything, or two batteries to power and receiver.
the servos, gear, and receiver. You can even use three Rule #2: If the voltage is NOT the
batteries to provide independent power to each set of SAME between the interface
servos, gear, and receiver. It is also possible to use a board and the receiver, DO NOT
BEC. use the positive power wire from
Choose the receiver: conventional or HV, decide the board to the receiver (*).
how it will be powered. Rule #3: V-Gear section should
Choose your servos: conventional or HV, decide have signal and negative wires to
how they will be powered. receiver. Do NOT use the positive
Electric Retracts: decide how they will be wire.
powered. (*) An exception exists when using the optional on-
board voltage regulator

Once you have the components sorted out, you can make
decisions on how you are going to configure the board for the voltages you want to use. You also need
to make decisions on how connections will be made from the board to the receiver.

One of the most common applications will be using a 6 volt battery to power a conventional receiver
with a separate Lipo for the Gear, and a separate Lipo for the HV Servos.
 Application showing how to use a BEC set to 5 or 6 volts for a conventional receiver with a separate
Lipo for the Gear, and separate Lipo for the Servos

Another common application will be using a HV receiver with a Lipo for the Gear, and a Lipo for
the HV receiver and servos.

Expanding an output channel: typically on multi-motor electric

aircraft you need up to 4 throttle outputs from the receiver. A jumper
between the signal connections can provide this. Shown here, as an
example, the headers on “THRO” and “AUX1” labeled “1”, “2”,
“3”, and “4”, would connect to the ESC’s.
Decide on how the board is to be powered. If by battery, then
disable the positive wire of each BEC, and make your controller connections to each throttle header.
Consult manufacturer’s instructions for connecting ESC if using BEC power.
Parts List:
You will need standard gold-plated 0.1 inch Header Strips. Typically
these are sold in a 40 pin configuration that you can cut apart into 3 pin
sets. Each 40 pin strip yields 13 three-pin headers. If you fill the board
completely with 3-pin headers, you will need at least three 40 pin
headers. You can obtain these headers though Hansen Hobbies or other
electronics dealers.
You should install CIN in two locations. This ceramic capacitor can be 0.01µF to 0.1µF at 25 volts
minimum. I suggest Digi-Key # 490-8814-ND (0.1µF cap). The purpose of this capacitor is to filter
noise from the wires to the board.
LED indicators are optional, and not critical, and almost any device can be used. I
suggest: 3mm, Green, Diffused, Digi-Key # 754-1723-ND. LED's require a dropping
resistor. For 8.4 volt sources, use a 560 ohm, ¼ watt resistor; Digi-Key # S560CACT-
ND. For 6 volt sources, use a 390 ohm, ¼ watt resistor: Digi-Key # S390CACT-ND
In addition, you will need male servo-type connector pigtail leads or male-to-male
servo connectors to make connections from the board to the receiver. I like to use black
wire for negative power, red wire for positive power, and white wire for the signal lead. Other colors
are fine, as long as you know which wire is negative, positive, and signal.
Servo type connectors should be prepared with a signal and negative
wire (remove positive wire) when the voltages between the receiver
and board are DIFFERENT. This is IMPORTANT; there CANNOT be
a POSITIVE wire connecting the receiver and board when the
VOLTAGES ARE DIFFERENT!

Assembly:
Use a low power (10-20 watt) soldering iron with a fine tip for soldering the components on to the
board. Use a quality, fine diameter (0.031”), rosin core 60/40 (Sn60Pb40) electronics solder; I like the
Kester brand.
A note on the installation of the
headers on the board: Headers can be
more easily placed by building a jig. This
jig is made by placing the board on a
piece of hardwood on the opposite side
that you want the headers to be soldered
to, and by drilling holes with a #62
numbered drill bit. Strips of wood hold
the board in position with alignment
marks. Cut your headers into 3 pin
segments and place them long pin in, into
the jig. Then fit the PC board over the
pins, aligning them, and seating them, so that you can then solder the headers to the board. This results
in a professional looking board with absolutely straight headers. Also note that in my design, the thru-
holes for headers are “square shaped” outlines on the board, and positions for wires are “round”. This
helps distinguish location on the board.
The mounting holes on the board are designed for #2 screws. Make sure when you mount the board,
there is nothing that can touch the board to prevent shorts. A piece of clear heat-shrink tubing can be
placed around the battery end of the board (with cut-outs for the terminals, if necessary).
Board Testing:
Check your work; be especially aware of REVERSED polarity. IF YOU ARE UNSURE of
anything, before you connect electrical power, please have an experienced electronics person check
over your work, or design.
Make sure that before you connect your receivers or servos or any other electronics, that you use a
voltage tester and protected power supply to determine if the right voltages are in the right places on
the board. This is especially important if you plan to use more than one battery.
For example, if you have a conventional receiver that will be powered by a 6 volt battery connected
directly to the receiver, and you will be powering your HV servos and retracts with a single 8.4 volt
battery on the board: [make sure receiver, servos, and gear are not connected, and V-Servo and V-Gear
positive terminals are connected together] Connect a short-circuit protected voltage source to the board.
Use a voltage tester to determine if the correct voltage is present on the board at various points. Check
pigtail leads (header leads) to receiver, there should be NO voltage present on them. Check to see if
there is voltage on any signal wires, indicating incorrectly wired or crossed-connections. If all tests
pass, then you are clear to connect your electronics.

Other thoughts:
I like having two power leads from the board to the receiver, if possible. This gives you power
redundancy in case one of the power wires fails due to a bad contact crimp or other damage. Once you
have the two sets in place, you can leave out the red power wire for the rest of the channels or ports on
the breakout board; you can even just run a short signal wire from each channel to the board without
the positive and negative wires since these are already connected elsewhere.
If you are using the board only as a “Y” break-out box, you can save some weight by cutting away
the unwanted section of the PC board.
Servo leads that have had the positive power wire removed should have a “filler” contact inserted
into the housing. 3 terminals have more “grip” than 2 terminals.

Accessories:
To complete your airplane installation, you may need connectors to allow you to disconnect the
wings when you transport the plane. ElectroDynamics and TailDragger RC, among others, sell
harnesses that are perfectly suited to this task. The harnesses connect directly to the break-out headers
on the board and make connection and disconnection of your wing wiring easy.
I like to make my own wing connector ends using
housings and a PC board Servo Y-harness from
Hansen Hobbies. You can buy them still attached to
each other so that you can “break-away” what you
need. I used two of the harnesses that were still
attached to each other to make one half of the wing
receptacle shown. The cable is about a foot long. The
other end of the cable is soldered directly into the
SRPYIB board.

I hope you found the information presented in this

article useful.

− Nick Gaynor
Here is a complete test system. Conventional receiver, with HV servos. Note the wing harnesses: I
used three Hansen Hobbies harnesses and a 90 degree, 9-pin header to make a custom wiring
harness for aileron, flap, and retract. On the Interface board, instead of using headers, I used
leads soldered directly to the board. In the model, the cable from the wing harness to the
SRPYIB board would be about one foot.

Shown here, free of clutter for clarity, is the

on-board 5 volt voltage regulator and
connectors to the receiver. There are seven
connectors, two of which feed power from the
board to the receiver. Note that the signal
(white) wires are connected to the break-out
section. The receiver has 7 channels and this
wiring lets you use all the channel slots
without having to take up a slot just for
power. Note also, the orientation of the Texas
Instruments LP2950 regulator.
Sources

RCGroups (location of this blog article and design file) Hansen Hobbies
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=249 http://www.hansenhobbies.com
9623
Kester Solder
Sunstone Circuits, Printed Circuit Manufacturer http://www.kester.com
http://www.sunstone.com/
You can use their free drafting software (PCB123) to ElectroDynamics, Inc. EDR-102 OneClik Multi-Connex
create your own PC boards. Sunstone Circuits prices are http://electrodynam.com/rc/index.shtml
moderate in quantity.
TailDragger RC has 20 AWG Dual Servo Multiplex
Digi-Key Electronics Extension Harness's
http://www.digikey.com http://www.taildraggerrc.com/servo-wiring-accessories/

LED Calculator:
http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

Additional Info for the optional Voltage Regulator in Section 3:

Power applied to the “V-Servo” terminal is filtered and regulated down to 5 volts by a 3-terminal
electronic regulator such as the Texas Instruments LP2950. The LP2950 is designed for battery circuits
and typically has a very low dropout voltage of less than 380 mV. The device has a very wide input
supply-voltage range of up to 30 V, and it has a rated output current of 100mA. You may think that 5
volts at 100mA is not enough power. Keep in mind, that we are NOT powering servos and a receiver,
we are ONLY powering the receiver. The Futaba R617FS receiver, for example, only consumes 38mA!
The 8.4v battery connected to “V-Servo” is powering the servos directly.
Other low dropout voltage regulators like the Microchip Technology MCP1702, or Linear
Technology LT1121 may be used. If you need a low dropout voltage regulator in the 1 amp (1000 mA)
range, you can use the STMicroelectronics L4941. I do NOT recommend that you use the 78L05 or
7805 series of regulators as the dropout voltage on these devices is typically about 2 volts, and they
cost about as much as the LP2950 anyway. If you select your own regulators, always consult the
manufacture's data sheet before using the device.

If using the LP2950, 100mA voltage regulator, or other low-current regulators, you must NEVER
connect a servo or servos, or anything else, like LED lights, to the receiver bus. You will exceed the
power capacity of the regulator, and it WILL shut down, and so will your airplane!

Some tantalum and aluminum electrolytic capacitors are polarized. Observe polarity. There are
markings on the device that indicate polarity. The negative lead is always inserted into the outer most
hole in the board. Capacitors are available in 0.1 inch or 0.2 inch pitch, the board accommodates both.
LED: long lead is the anode and is positive. Case may have a flat on it, this indicates the cathode or
negative lead.
Here are four different regulator and capacitor set ups that could be used:

DEVICE CIN COUT NOTES

LP2950 5v Regulator 22µF 25v Alum Electrolytic 22µF 16v Tantalum Note polarity of 22µF caps.
Digi-Key # 296-20933-1-ND Digi-Key # P15802CT-ND Digi-Key # 478-8973-1-ND

MCP1702 5v Regulator 1µF 16v Ceramic 1µF 16v Ceramic

Digi-Key # MCP1702-5002E/TO-ND Digi-Key # 445-8614-ND Digi-Key # 445-8614-ND

LT1121 5v Regulator 1µF 16v Ceramic 22µF 16v Tantalum Note polarity of 22µF cap.
Digi-Key # LT1121CZ-5#PBF-ND Digi-Key # 445-8614-ND Digi-Key # 478-8973-1-ND

L4941 1A 5v Regulator 0.1µF 50v Ceramic 22µF 25v Alum Electrolytic Note polarity of 22µF cap.
Digi-Key # 497-6695-5-ND Digi-Key # 490-8814-ND Digi-Key # P15802CT-ND

DISCLAIMER: Electrical and other Safety:

Your safety and the safety of others is your own responsibility; including proper use of equipment and
safety gear, and determining whether you have adequate skill and experience.
Use of this article with its instructions and suggestions is at your own risk. The author disclaims all
responsibility and liability for any resulting damage (including aircraft), expense, injury, or death.
This project uses electrical power and the use of high-power batteries. These power sources have
cautions and warnings that must be followed for safe use. The most prominent danger is from accidental electrical shorts
and sparks, leading to possible fire, burns, and explosion.