Our custom-made, high-efficiency 5V booster to extend your VTX voltage range on 1S builds
2025-01-12: DJI O4 Air Unit lite Note:
I’ve tested the Boostybaby at 9W (1.8A @ 5V output) and it handled the load fine down to 2.8V
I will perform further testing once I get my hands on a unit to confirm it, but as it stands the Boostybaby should be totally suitable on lipo, and get you mostly there on li-ion.
I’ve also completed design of a new booster capable of handling such massive load down to actual li-ion discharge level, stay tuned for more.
Radically extend your flight time and improve your video reliability on 1S Li-ion builds with this 5V voltage booster
One of the major challenges with digital or longer-range 1S builds is supplying enough power to the video transmitter, along the whole discharge curve of the battery.
In most cases, Li-po batteries can be discharged down to 3.5 or even 3.3v.
That is already edging the limit of the HDZero Whoop Lite VTX (which tends to completely brownout below 2.8V and will not restart unless power-cycled)
But even more so on Li-ion builds whose batteries can be discharged down to 2.5v – All while showing higher voltage sag under load, which can turn off your video under the slightest punchout past mid-battery capacity
That is why I use a voltage booster on my digital and discrete analog VTX Wingman BNF builds.
I’ve tested quite a mouthful of modules of various sizes and specs, and thought I had found the best one at a time,
But it had its quirks and when I started noticing the quality going down over the batches I thought it was time to make my own.
I then went on to select the best-suited power IC for our specific 1S need and found this outstanding chip, boasting impressive specs that fit exactly our use case.
Then designed the circuit around it from the most reputable component manufacturers,
And out came this remarkably capable piece of gear that I can definitely trust to supply consistent, reliable power all the way through our 1S batteries.
Successor of the Boostyboi, the Boostybaby retains all of the performance in a now much smaller footprint, less than half the size and weight, at not even 0.4g!
Making it a viable option to add reliable video to any 1S digital or high power video build, from nano long range to tiny whoops.
Why would you need one:
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It will power your HDZero Whoop lite or Walksnail VTX all the way down to 2.5V and below, even at full output power.
It also retains the remote disable pad added in the BB Rev-02, allowing you to switch off the output from the FC when pulled to ground.
That will allow you to turn off the connected VTX remotely, from your radio, whether be it to save battery, cool it down or simply reboot it in the event it got wonky
To use it, I suggest remapping vtx power resource in Quicksilver to your Buzzer pad, and wire it to the /EN pad.
How to wire:
How to setup /enable:
Quicksilver:
- From the configurator, save the target
- Choose an available pad you want to use on your FC and find it on the target file (buzzer recommended, but most would do)
- Note the pin used by that function and remap it to a new one called “fpv“
- Back in the configurator, upload your edited target and in the receiver tab, select the channel you want to assign to “AUX_FPV_SWITCH“
- And you’re done! test by flipping the channel to make sure it’s commutating the booster on/off and you’re good to go.
Betaflight:
- In CLI, type
resource
- Find the pad you want to use (can be a uart, led, buzzer, pinio pad…)
- For instance if we want to use the buzzer then we can find it is assigned to resource C13
Keep note of that resource ID.
resource BEEPER 1 C13
- Next we will free up that pad by assigning it to resource NONE
resource BEEPER 1 NONE
- Next we can set the custom mode switch, using these commands:
set pinio_box = 40,41,42,43
aux 2 40 2 1600 2100 0 - Then we can finally assign our earlier resource ID to the custom more switch, like so:
resource PINIO 1 C13
- That’s it for the CLI part! don’t forget to enter SAVE in CLI and let your FC reboot
- Finally you can go to the Modes tab and assign an aux to the USER1 mode.
- And you’re all set! You should be able to flip the boostyboi on/off with the flick of your switch.
Features:
- Module Properties: non-isolated step-up module (BOOST)
- Input voltage: 1.8-5V
- Output voltage: 5V
- Output Current: Rated 2.1A
- Conversion efficiency: up to 96%
- Switching Frequency: 500KHz
- Output ripple: 60mV (p-p, input 3.6V, Output 5V 1A)
- Operating temperature: Industrial grade (-40 Celsius to +85 Celsius )
- Quiescent Current: 90uA
- Load regulation: ± 1.5%
- Voltage regulation: ± 3%
- Short circuit protection: Output only
- Input Reverse Polarity Protection: None
- Output over-voltage protection
Content:
1x Voltage Booster Module
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