DIY Quad Copter build - Naza Lite and Q Brain ESC

The Q-Brain will give power to the board and the board will give power to the rx. You just need to power to the Q-Brain. There are two types of speed controllers - ones with build in Battery Elimination Circuits (BEC) and ones with OPTO. OPTO uses optical communication and doesn't pass power to the board. The Q-Brain has a BEC, meaning that it will cut voltage to the power going out to the board so you don't fry the board, but it will send power to it.

Q-Brain BEC Output: 5.25V@3A

Typically, if you have traditional ESC's, you're going to cut the power on all but one of them as they connect to the board (and only keep signal wires on those), but I'm not sure what the deal is with the Q-Brain. On traditional ESC's, you're going to have a 5V BEC on each, so 20V potentially going to your board (although your battery is going to be 3 or 4 cells, so you won't have 20 to send to the board - but you'll definitely have more than 5.) Anyway, I'd assume the Q-Brain has one BEC in front of to all of the power wires going to the board, so you don't have to worry about cutting any of them - but check the manual to verify.
 
so if you give power to the esc that will give it to the rx and to the esc, but where does the led unit/vu get power?

thanks for the help buddy
 
Scratch what I said. Sorry. If you're using the VU, that powers the board. You will need to wire up your battery to the VU to power it and it will power the board and RX. You will also need to connect your battery to the ESC's since the motors are power through the ESC's. If you're using the VU, I've heard multiple different stories about whether or not to disconnect the power leads from the ESC's to the board. Some say get rid of all of them, some say get rid of all but one, and some say it doesn't matter. The only concrete thing I've really seen is that someone said:
If you have a linear BEC, it is fine to leave the red cables connected.
If you have a switching BEC, you need to remove the cables, or you will fry your BECs and possibly your FC.

Although, almost everyone says they keep them connected and don't have an issue. If you do decide to remove them, don't cut them, but carefully pull them from the connector so you can snap them back in later if you need them.

Page 8 of the manual has a wiring diagram:

http://download.dji-innovations.com/downloads/naza-m lite/en/NAZA-M LITE_User_Manual_v2.00_en.pdf

It doesn't include the ESC's though.

As far as powering all of that from the same battery, it will be fine. If your PDB only has pads for battery and 4 ESC connections, you can basically split off a + and - wire from your battery connection wires between the battery and where they solder to the PDB and run those to your VU.
 
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