In small drones it is not always possible to provide power via different wiring harness, additional devices like UBEC or further voltage regulators. Instead, in such cases a space-saving component is used, known as Power Distribution Board (PDB) which takes care of distributing the energy from the battery to all other parts of a copter.
This device is specifically designed to operate in small drones because of its small form factor and variety of connectivity options. First and most important is the battery connection, which is where the flight battery is connected and the power is distributed. The second important connection is to the ESCs. These connections are soldered to the PDB. Depending on its specification level, a PDB has further connections for FPV sender and LEDs, which partly operate on different voltage levels. Therefore, PDBs exhibit different voltage outputs such as 5 volt and 12 volt.
When selecting a PDB the highest possible current load has to be respected. During a FPV race often high currents are flowing which can be above 100 A. In case a PDB tolerates only 80 A it will heat up during a race which can damage the PDB and then lead to a crash. Therefore keep the maximum current draw of the motors in mind and that the selected PDB can handle it.
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