Looking for a power supply recommendation

[jgauthier]

I am looking for a power supply that can provide a high discharge, on par with a LiPO type battery. LiPOs are typically used in quadrotors, and when the motors turn on, especially all 4, they are able to discharge a significant current to power them. Ideally, I'd like a table top DC power supply with a similar capability. Does such a thing exist?

 

[Harald Kapp]

Usually power supplies are made to limit the output current regardless of the current being a spike or a permanent current. A high inrush current from the motors will activate the current limiter.
I suggest you use an affordable quality power supply and add a bunch of big electrolytic capacitors at the output. When turning power on. these capacitors will be charged by the limited current to the output voltage set for the power supply. When you then turn on the motors, the current spike will be supported by the capacitors while the power supply will take care of the permanent current (and recharging the capacitors). You will, however, experience a short drop in voltage while the capacitors are being discharged.
A rule of thumb I used to build power supplies is 1000 µF per 1 a of current, so to support 10 A peak current I suggest you use 10000 µF.

 

[jgauthier]

Thanks for that! I will consider that option. I was running my board from a PC power supply, but when the motor kicks on, like you said, there is a slight voltage drop, and the board resets. I was trying to avoid that.

 

[WHONOES]

I use a system of a Sealed Lead Acid battery with a charger connected to it whilst I am using it. Seems to work well. Don't know if it would work for you.

 

[hevans1944]

Testing a quad-copter on the bench prior to actually flying it, eh? What a concept!

I would suggest you remove the four propellers, thereby removing the wind load from the motors. Your existing bench power supply might then work without resetting the control board. Of course, then the motors might over-speed without a load and promptly fail.

Or connect the quad-copter to a nice beefy SLA battery, like they use in UPS or emergency exit lighting, as @WHONOES suggested in his post #4 above...