Almost every BEC unit fitted to ESCs (and most separate ones) intended to power the RX and other items plugged into the RX give a closely regulated 5 volts, this being handily the de facto world wide industry standard for data chips which has resulted in such regulators being just about the most common chip on the planet.

If you hook the RX direct to a 9 volt supply, yes it will die, as will everything else plugged into it. Pretty much anything designed for 6 volts will perform happily on a regulated 5 volts, not least because batteries lose voltage as they discharge. However, not all devices designed with 5 volts in mind will survive 6 volts, but there will usually be a mention of this in the instructions.

Hi Douglas,

Receivers should ideally all be on 4.8 to 5 Volts. Yes they can tolerate 6V, but make sure that is a stable regulated supply, as a 6V battery can give near 7V when newly charged up. Small cheap voltage regulators can be bought from Action via Component Shop for example.

Check the instructions on the ESC you are using for the voltage it is supplying (I've just looked and most do not actually tell you what the voltage is, just that it's a BEC @ 1.2A), AND remember, if you are powering the receiver via a BEC, that BEC link is also powering every other servo connected to the receiver, the rudder, switches, winches, sail arms etc. If the BEC fails (if the ESC overheats for instance) everything else goes too. That's why I "belt and braces" and either use a power board with a separate regulated receiver supply, or use another small 5 – 6V battery via a voltage regulator to supply the receiver. In that case you need to take the red lead out from the BEC plug and tape up.

So saying, I do know some IOM yachters over here that use 7.2V small packs to their receivers and hence their winches because the winch servo [RMG] can take this voltage. They ignore the fact that the receiver might not!!!

Kimosubby