Power distribution board vs. Cable harness

When I started with the Multicopters in the late 2012, I used cable harness/power breakout cable  for the power distribution from the battery to the ESCs in my first quadrocopter. Until last month I always used my self-made cable harness in my copters. There were no problems during the flights and everything was just great.

Last month I decided to buy one from these so called power distribution boards. Just because of the weight and it looks a bit better when there are not so many cables. My goal was to safe some grams and optimize the overall weight of my SG Adventure quadcopter. It is a small quad and every gram matters.

Soldering was a bit tricky, because I left the ESCs mounted on the quad and I am not so good at soldering. In general there is no difference, but it looks better for me now. The quadcopter flies great, as it was with the cable harness.

How many grams do I saved?

Cable harness and the 3.5mm gold connectors, that I cut from the ESCs wires: 28g + 12g = 40g.       Power distribution board + 4mm gold connectors to the battery + some tin-alloy: 3.5g + 10g = about 15g. So I saved about 25g, which is not much, but for small copters every saved gram means more flight time.

Another cool feature on this flyingfolk board is, that it is possible to solder other low current components such as LED or Voltage-Sensor on the corners.

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