Power supply for a tethered drone

I think you would be risking your $1200 - I've had mixed results from very low cost power supplies, never tried one as big as this.

That's a very low price for a 6kw power supply - the spec on Ebay isn't very convincing.

I assume you are on a tight budget.

A new one from a reputable supplier will cost you $5000 or more - Farnell have a couple (no stock in UK) at about £6k.

You might be able to rent one if you only need it for a short time.

You could go for a second hand one but it's hard to be sure it's good unless you buy it from a reputable dealer.

In the end it's up to you - are feeling lucky ?

MK

Aside from that very suspect power supply, the cable is not going to be cheap or light. Just look at the ampacity charts (learnmetrics.com/.../) and it seems you need something about 85mm^2 cross-section. That's jumper-cable thickness. The weight of that alone would also likely keep your drone tethered quite firmly to the ground ... The cost is also around US$30/m per conductor, multiplied by two for positive and negative. That works out to be US$900 of cable alone.

- Gough

The only way to get those costs lower, is to lower the current. To do that, roineust will have to up the voltage.

But then, a DC-DC converter will have to be built into the drone. Again, not a light component to get into the drone - albeit lighter than meters of a 85 mm^2 copper cable.

Agree, maybe 48V or higher, if it's allowed. Also, maybe a hybrid method could be interesting too, using the battery for high current demand periods, but using the tethered connection at all other times. Probably requires a lot more sophisticated design and software!

That sounds like a beast of a drone - over 5 horsepower.

At 200 Amps you would be looking at welding cables. Even the mains supply will need to be pretty substantial.

Are you planning to put the power supply onboard and run AC through the tether? It might be less weight than 200 A cables.

As far as using that power supply, I wouldn't expect it to put out its maximum power over long periods - it only weighs 8 Kg.

dougw said:

At 200 Amps you would be looking at welding cables. Even the mains supply will need to be pretty substantial.

Yes. Most 100+ amp designs I've seen, the cable was a fixed copper bar. And the cables that allow 200 A are almost as inflexible as such a bar.

Thanks for the knowledgeable replies.

I decided to be more cautious and start with a Meanwell 15V 100Amps, if there will be a need i can parallel 2 power supplies of this model.

Hi,

Better to first measure the current with the existing battery. You can get a probe to measure the current for ~$300, you'll probably need to borrow an oscilloscope to do the measurement with. Otherwise you['re shooting in the dark, with a PSU that may or may not fit your needs (it's not straightforward paralleling supplies if the first PSU doesn't meet your needs). Better to spend the $300 than $$$$ on PSU and cables.

check the spec on your motors. I doubt if they take that much current.   take the current for one motor and multiply it by how many motors you have this will give you the total motor current.  

Hello,

It's not that hard to use that much current:

A very quick look on Aliexpress found this motor:

www.aliexpress.com/.../1005001605801893.html

The OP only needs 4  to hit the 200A. according to the supplier that would give  a maximum thrust of 8kg in total.

You can power them with batteries like these:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000629938084.html

I think the OP is wasting his time looking for a mains supply, the batteries claim 120A continuous and double that in bursts.

MK