Power supply for a tethered drone

My two cents: if you want to use a power supply to power up any kind of motor instead of a "traditional" battery please keep one thing in mind: batteries are bi-directional (they can sink or source current) while most power supplies are uni directional (they can only source, not sink). Every time you slow down your motor will discharge stator inductance on whatever is connected to it. That could create a huge voltage spike and over time it will damage the power supply if it can't sink current.

I don't know how drone motors behave but in RC cars that's something to keep in mind. Even with battery and additional filtering capacitors this effect is noticeable.

Can the following power supply sink current:

www.jameco.com/.../SE-1500-15-MEAN-WELL-AC-to-DC-Power-Supply-Single-Output-15-Volt-100-Amp-1-5kw_2104073.html

Is the PFC power supply function related to sinking current?

ALL PS can sink or source 

Hi, 

It's not related, however your existing motor controller will already support this, or will have a connection for you to append a resistance. By the way, there's a school of thought that you should start small, gain experience, and then incrementally move to a large system, if this is the first time you're attempting this, because you will learn as you go, what is required. Personally, I know nothing about drones, and feel uncomfortable even replying to this, but it's a best guess. Sending up something so powerful, which could potentially crash, to me at least feels risky if the system is designed for batteries but you're replacing with a large cable. 

Only two-quadrant (or four-quadrant) supplies technically will sink as well as source.

Regular power supplies are made to source only, with a very limited amount of sink (usually a resistor in lower-cost supplies) for transient down-regulation. You are likely to cause OVP trips on attempting to slow-down the motor due to back-EMF.

I wouldn't choose a 15V supply to power something that can accept 15-21V. The cable losses will reduce the voltage available so you may not have enough at the load to even run.

The advice from shabaz to start small is very good advice.

- Gough

This is the drone that I'm trying to move to a tether and power supply, for now only of length up to 3 meters:

https://youtu.be/aGuPY6EwWR4