UBEC for Droid #2

Today I finally got around to installing the Universal Battery Elimination Circuit (UBEC) on the electronics panel of droid #2. I had installed one of these way back in 2019 on droid #1. This being my last day of vacation, I wanted to check this off my to-do list.



The first step is to remove the LM7805 voltage regulator. This worked fine, but can only deliver up to 1 amp of current (vs. the 3 with the UBEC), and runs very inefficiently.



Next, remove the shrink tubing in order to do some unsoldering. I only need to unsolder the +12 wire on the left pin, and the ground wire on the center pin.



With the old wiring and regulator disconnected, I can solder the input lines on the UBEC to +12 and ground.



After that, get the new shrink tubing in place.



Time to test! The power light is on, that's good.



And the output voltage reads a little over 5 volts, which is fine.



I secured the UBEC onto the electronics panel with some Velcro



I verified that it powers up the receiver fine. So it looks like it's good to go.