Lighting question??

[RC'n OLD GUY!]

Have a Wraith build and realized I had only a 5v ESC (AE-5) to run my light bar (40 LED's) and front/rear lights. I don't want to replace the ESC since it's still GtG , but I need at least a 6v ESC to run all my lighting. What's the best way to run my bar lights without tapping into the battery? This would be a temp kind of thing until I burn up the ESC, because I do have a switch set for aux 2 ch. (3 POS.), to turn all lights on/off, on the remote/trans. Max output of 7.4v is what is needed for my bar lights. Should I just use a separate AA battery to run that set of lights or can I use a 9v (smoke detector) battery with a male servo plug (for light bar) & a bat. adapter soldered to it?? Any suggestions is greatly appreciated and thanks in advance.
OLD GUY!

[Voodoobrew]

HeyOK Performance makes a bunch of stuff, also there are some cheap becs that would give you always on lights that you can add a cheap switch to

[RC'n OLD GUY!]

Originally Posted by Voodoobrew

HeyOK Performance makes a bunch of stuff, also there are some cheap becs that would give you always on lights that you can add a cheap switch to

Thanks for the info. VooDoo. I do have one of his light controllers in my rig already. Just wanted to have a simple way to run my bar lights until I need to replace my ESC. Once that happens, I can upgrade the ESC to a higher output one and the problem should be a non issue. Thanks again. OLD GUY!

[Jim85IROC]

I wouldn't recommend running bar lights from ESC power unless you've got a dedicated BEC for your servo. Some of those light bars can suck enough current that you can end up with brown outs in situations where you wouldn't otherwise get them.

Running light bars directly off the battery via their own BEC is almost always a better way to go. There are controllers that will still allow you to switch your lights via the controller while getting power via a direct battery connection or a direct connection through a BEC.

[RC'n OLD GUY!]

Originally Posted by Jim85IROC

I wouldn't recommend running bar lights from ESC power unless you've got a dedicated BEC for your servo. Some of those light bars can suck enough current that you can end up with brown outs in situations where you wouldn't otherwise get them.

Running light bars directly off the battery via their own BEC is almost always a better way to go. There are controllers that will still allow you to switch your lights via the controller while getting power via a direct battery connection or a direct connection through a BEC.

Thanks for the reply Jim85. At this time, I'm operating my front O/R lights, tail lights and bar lights, with a HeyOk light controller, but all lights are plugged into the receiver (Spektrum 4210). When I have everything turned "on", I have no "brown outs" that I have noticed, but I have not "bashed" with this rig, I just "crawl" with it. I just noticed that the bar lights d/n get bright at all, but the other lights seem to be bright enough. I just wanted to have a way to brighten the bar lights without having a bunch of extra wiring "noodling" around the frame work of the truck and making it look "cluttered". Looks like I'm going to have to wire a BEC from the main batt. lead to the bar lights and run it that way until my ESC craps out and then replace it with a higher output (Mamba X?) one. Thanks again. OLD GUY!