"At 1W XTends run very hot.  You can't touch them."

"I love the SE5.  WWI aircraft are flying works of art."

"5. Could you use a picoswitch cotrolled by your throttle pwm output?"

"Yes, although you won't hear speed controllers referred to as inverters.  Although a BLDC motor will follow a 3-phase AC signal at low rpm (open loop), once a load is applied and/or the speed increases, maintaining synchronisation requires…"

"If only it was that simple.  Unfortunately your circuit will not be able to drive a brushless motor.  The term "brushless DC motor" is a bit of a misnomer - these devices are in fact synchronous 3-phase AC motors with permanent…"

"The Micrel looks like a good choice.  The ST L4940V5 (or L4941) is another common choice for low drop applications: http://www.st.com/internet/com/TECHNICAL_RESOURCES/TECHNICAL_LITERATURE/DATASHEET/CD00000442.pdf"

"I think you are being too modest - it is very nice - much neater than I can ever get my hacks on veroboard.  I do support the concept of keeping large noisy servo currents away from sensitive electronics, as far as it is possible anyway."

"Thank you again! Yes, servo connectors can fall out if subjected to enough vibration, and so a locking mechanism was developed to overcome that embarrassing point of failure. An adjustable linear regulator sounds like a reasonable approach, or of…"

"Thank you! That product uses a switching regulator to generate a 6V rail from high voltage, where a linear reg would not work due to the heat dissipation.  It uses a linear regulator to generate a 5V rail from the 6V rail, where the voltage…"

"Hi Rick, I am an electrical engineer, I design switching power supplies as part of my work.  I do not own an APM and I am not particularly familiar with its power supply requirements, so I can't really comment with any authority on that…"

"Linear regulators would have to be amongst the most reliable semiconductor devices in existence.  Used correctly, they are close to indestructible. Failure is almost always the fault of the implementation. The most common causes of…"

"All switching regulators will have some switching noise on the output (which linear regulators do not have).  How much switching noise will depend on how well the unit was designed, but it is usually in the order of several hundred…"

"Rick, you are correct, in general, linear regulators continue working even when the input voltage is not sufficient to maintain the target output voltage.  Linear regulators are nice in this respect - they fail gracefully. Switching regulators…"

"Hi Jake, You are correct that a simple diode rectifier is sufficient to extract power from a motor.  A 3-phase diode bridge is what you'll need for a brushless DC motor.  This will generate a rail whose voltage will be roughly…"

"I wouldn't build a hybrid for efficiency (although I do commend the research). I would build it for endurance."

"Hi Tridge,Great job on the radios.There are a number of reasons why the receive performance on a small mobile platfrom can never be as good as on the ground, but it is worth exploring them to try and minimise the difference.  You have noted an…"