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Power supply for a tethered drone

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There is a drone which I'm experimenting with and want to move from batteries to a 2-15 meters 14AWG tethered cable.

The drone voltage is 15-21 Volts and consumes up to 200 Amps.

What would be the best method of searching for and the best brand, model and condition new or used, to find a good but not expensive power supply for the drone?
 

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Others will tell you, you really need higher voltage up to the drone...then step it down on the drone...otherwise , too much conduction loss and/or heavy cable.

As you know, high voltage is lethal, especially DC. Vicorpower are the known drone power supplies.
 
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$1200 sounds a lot to risk.
Is this related to the tethered drone thing?
Why only to 30V?
And why adjustable.?.....whats the PSU for?

When i said high voltage i meant higher than 30V.
Did you look at the solutions for teth drones on vicorpower website?

I struggle to see many applications for tetherered drones.....if you want a long time flying drone, just put a diesel generator on a normal drone.......or use a hydrogen balloon drone......these are already in use to >1000 metres.....or have a drone which can be fast recharged by another drone which docks to it in mid-air.

Tethered drones will never be able to lift much weight because they are already lifting their heavy tether.

I would also think that a tethered drone in military applications would be a total joke...since the tether would be a huge antena.....detectable to radars all over the globe!!!....might as well paint a huge bullseye on yourself.........missiles here please! "come friendly bombs....." (no offence to Slough)
 
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Hi,

shown power supply:
Europe 1 phase outpus are limited to 16A (3600W in best case at 230V AC).
From this I don´t think it can provide 6000W for longer than a couple of milliseconds (if ever)
Also the connections are too small for 200A continous current.
The same applies for the power cord. 6000W at 110V means about 60A

I guess it does not work as you expect.

Klaus
 
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You really need a 200V cable, 10A = 2kW, and a down converter at the drone end - we have done several designs like this for various companies ...
 
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What do you think of the meanwell SE-1500-15?

SE-1500-15 MEAN WELL | Jameco Electronics

MEAN WELL SE-1500-15 Switching Power Supply, Enclosed. Products in stock and ready to ship. Quotes, samples and datasheets at Jameco Electronics.
www.jameco.com www.jameco.com

Mean Well RSP-1500-15

Mean Well RSP-1500-15 AC-DC Single Output Enclosed power supply; Output 15VDC Single Output at 100A; PFC; forced air cooling
www.meanwell-web.com www.meanwell-web.com

Someone told me that there might be a problem where if i lower the throttle of the drone motors, a lot of current will go back into the power supply and ruin it, does the meanwell SE-1500-15 have protection against such problems?

I see that the difference between the meanwell SE series and the more expensive RSP series is a function called PFC, what does this function do? Are these model differences of quality important for my application?
cupoftea said:
$1200 sounds a lot to risk.
Is this related to the tethered drone thing?
Why only to 30V?
And why adjustable.?.....whats the PSU for?

When i said high voltage i meant higher than 30V.
Did you look at the solutions for teth drones on vicorpower website?

I struggle to see many applications for tetherered drones.....if you want a long time flying drone, just put a diesel generator on a normal drone.......or use a hydrogen balloon drone......these are already in use to >1000 metres.....or have a drone which can be fast recharged by another drone which docks to it in mid-air.

Tethered drones will never be able to lift much weight because they are already lifting their heavy tether.

I would also think that a tethered drone in military applications would be a total joke...since the tether would be a huge antena.....detectable to radars all over the globe!!!....might as well paint a huge bullseye on yourself.........missiles here please! "come friendly bombs....." (no offence to Slough)
Click to expand...
 

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PFC means power factor correction...they are both PFC'd.....PFC means that the power supply cleverly makes sure that it draws a sinusoidal current from the mains, and this sine is in phase with the mains voltage sine. Its mostly a legal thing
 
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Hi
Max power = 21V x 200A = 4200W = 4.2kW
I suggested change voltage to 2kV, then Irms reduce to 2.1A -> metal of wire will be reduced more weight.
It is not DC 2kV, it is AC with 500kHz. Then on drone only need transformer + rectifier + supercap (or sub-battery to boost peak power).
Need a feedback to regulated output voltage power (use wireless to feedback). Because of long wire - high leakage L -> should use LLC type. This also help pulse more smooth and nearly sine to reduce EMC. Twist pair of wire. Voltage gain in transfer function of LLC is not change so much when load change.
Use SiC diode to rectify for high frequency is better.
 
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