2200 mah setting?

Joined
Dec 26, 2013
Messages
112
Reaction score
0
When I first got the phantom v1, 2200 mah, 20c battery, I got ~8 min flying time.
Now I get ~2:30 with red flashes.
1st level protection is at 11.55, 2nd level at 11.1v, with 12.55v showing on multimeter.
I'm waiting on lipo battery meter from china, but in the meantime, what would be safe settings to set the protection, to get better flying time?
I use the phantom v1, gopro3 in case, stock pops.
Any help would be appreciated.
 
Marc70 said:
When I first got the phantom v1, 2200 mah, 20c battery, I got ~8 min flying time.
Now I get ~2:30 with red flashes.
1st level protection is at 11.55, 2nd level at 11.1v, with 12.55v showing on multimeter.
I'm waiting on lipo battery meter from china, but in the meantime, what would be safe settings to set the protection, to get better flying time?
I use the phantom v1, gopro3 in case, stock pops.
Any help would be appreciated.

12.55v is a full battery.

Is your first level the "loaded" value, which includes the "line loss?" With line loss, the default level one should be 10.7v, and level 2 should be 10.6v. That'll fix your problem. No idea why it would suddenly set to 11.55/11.1.
 
Ok, so what should the 3 first level protection be at? No load, loss, and loaded.
And same question for second level protection?
 
Marc70 said:
Ok, so what should the 3 first level protection be at? No load, loss, and loaded.
And same question for second level protection?

The whole "no loss" thing is kind of useless, NAZA doesn't use it. For instance, the following are all equivalent:

No load: 10.7 Line loss: 0.0 Loaded: 10.7
No load: 100.3 Line loss: 89.6 Loaded: 10.7

The NAZA only uses the "loaded" figure when tripping the low voltage alarm. If you're interested in knowing your line loss (it's good to know for battery health reasons) you can follow the directions in the tooltip of the Assistant and figure it out. Typical line loss is about 0.4 to 0.6, and as it increases, it's an indication that your battery is getting older.
 
The whole "no loss" thing is kind of useless, NAZA doesn't use it. For instance, the following are all equivalent:

No load: 10.7 Line loss: 0.0 Loaded: 10.7
No load: 100.3 Line loss: 89.6 Loaded: 10.7

Ok, so the first line makes sense, but :
No load: 100.3 Line loss: 89.6 Loaded: 10.7
Seems like high numbers. Those aren't typos by chance?
 
Marc70 said:
The whole "no loss" thing is kind of useless, NAZA doesn't use it. For instance, the following are all equivalent:

No load: 10.7 Line loss: 0.0 Loaded: 10.7
No load: 100.3 Line loss: 89.6 Loaded: 10.7

Ok, so the first line makes sense, but :
No load: 100.3 Line loss: 89.6 Loaded: 10.7
Seems like high numbers. Those aren't typos by chance?

I was just going to extremes to demonstrate that NAZA doesn't care what your no-load numbers are. Sorry if it confusing! More likely you'll see something in the 0.5 range, so a typical value would be:

No load: 11.2, Line Loss: 0.5, Loaded: 10.7

I skip the whole thing because I track my battery health independently so mine is:

No load: 10.7, Line Loss: 0.0, Loaded: 10.7
 
Just took it out, flew ~6 min, then red flashing lights.
First level protection 10.7, loss:0.00v, loaded: 10.7v
Second level protection: no load: 10.6v, loss:0.00v, loaded:10.6v
Yet my battery shows 11.3 v on software and multimeter.
Is this right?
I was hoping to get my ~8 min flying time back. Those 8 min were with a gopro hero with case, this 6 min is with hero3 with case, which should be lighter.
Thanks to all who can help me here.
 
Marc70 said:
Just took it out, flew ~6 min, then red flashing lights.
First level protection 10.7, loss:0.00v, loaded: 10.7v
Second level protection: no load: 10.6v, loss:0.00v, loaded:10.6v
Yet my battery shows 11.3 v on software and multimeter.
Is this right?
I was hoping to get my ~8 min flying time back. Those 8 min were with a gopro hero with case, this 6 min is with hero3 with case, which should be lighter.
Thanks to all who can help me here.

A couple of things could be at play here:

1. What is the full weight of your Phantom with everything attached, as you would take off (the "all-up weight")?
2. You mentioned it was snowy. Are you flying in extremely low temps? Batteries don't do cold very well.

Are you measuring 11.3v on the multimeter IMMEDIATELY after the flight, or 5-10 minutes afterwards? If immediate, then that indicates that either 1) your NAZA voltage reading may be off, load up the Assistant and calibrate the voltage to what is being read by your multimeter, or 2) you've legitimately got a 0.6v line loss, which isn't out of the ordinary, depending on battery health and how you fly (and again, temperature affects it). If you're flying balls to the wall, and landing immediately when you see the red flashing, you'll definitely have more power left as the battery drops voltage more quickly when you're heavily loading the motors (but it springs back when you're unloaded).

We've been talking about the Assistant a lot, but the way I gauge my battery usage and health is to finish my flights with 10.9v showing up on the multimeter immediately after landing. If that's the case, my charger puts back the recommended 80% back into the battery. If you've done everything above and are still ending flights at 11.3v unloaded, you could consider throwing the low voltage alarm to the back of your mind, fly via timer, and check the voltage after every flight to make sure you're in the right range.
 
ElGuano said:
Marc70 said:
Just took it out, flew ~6 min, then red flashing lights.
First level protection 10.7, loss:0.00v, loaded: 10.7v
Second level protection: no load: 10.6v, loss:0.00v, loaded:10.6v
Yet my battery shows 11.3 v on software and multimeter.
Is this right?
I was hoping to get my ~8 min flying time back. Those 8 min were with a gopro hero with case, this 6 min is with hero3 with case, which should be lighter.
Thanks to all who can help me here.

A couple of things could be at play here:

1. What is the full weight of your Phantom with everything attached, as you would take off (the "all-up weight")?
2. You mentioned it was snowy. Are you flying in extremely low temps? Batteries don't do cold very well.

Are you measuring 11.3v on the multimeter IMMEDIATELY after the flight, or 5-10 minutes afterwards? If immediate, then that indicates that either 1) your NAZA voltage reading may be off, load up the Assistant and calibrate the voltage to what is being read by your multimeter, or 2) you've legitimately got a 0.6v line loss, which isn't out of the ordinary, depending on battery health and how you fly (and again, temperature affects it). If you're flying balls to the wall, and landing immediately when you see the red flashing, you'll definitely have more power left as the battery drops voltage more quickly when you're heavily loading the motors (but it springs back when you're unloaded).

We've been talking about the Assistant a lot, but the way I gauge my battery usage and health is to finish my flights with 10.9v showing up on the multimeter immediately after landing. If that's the case, my charger puts back the recommended 80% back into the battery. If you've done everything above and are still ending flights at 11.3v unloaded, you could consider throwing the low voltage alarm to the back of your mind, fly via timer, and check the voltage after every flight to make sure you're in the right range.

It's 0C, 32F, very light wet snow.
Flying light, nothing crazy, zoomed up to get a bit of height, but wanted to keep the phantom in sight to watch the lights.
Read the V after ~5 or so min.
The flight was closer to 7 min, so I'm not overly concerned, but do want to maximize my flight time.
 
The cold weather is the most likely culprit there. I wouldn't mess with too much right now, or if you do, make it a habit to check frequently and make adjustments as needed, like when the weather warms up.

I'd say it's probably save to drop your level 1 to 10.6, and run a few more flight tests, and only if you're absolutely sure you're still ending with a healthy voltage, try 10.5.

My rule of thumb - if the multimeter reads 10.9 or higher immediately after the flight, and 11.1 or higher after 5 minutes, you're doing things right by your battery.
 
After flying for nearly a year, I've finally grasped what's going on with the failsafes and such.
the most important thing is indeed what the numbers are in the "loaded" section. when it hits those numbers in 1st level it will blink red, and then it will go into power reduction/auto land in the 2nd failsafe.

First level is merely a warning, which is a bit irrelevant if you're flying FPV, as you can't see the light anyhow.
and 2nd level, well you technically want to be on the ground or nearly on the ground just before that kicks in

Here's what my settings are, I found that setting 2nd level to a loaded value of 10.5 will ensure that I don't sap too much power out of the batteries., if I land right around when failsafe kicks in, it will take roughly 1800mah in my charger to recharge my lipo.
and all the cells will read about 3.70+ prior to recharging.
 

Attachments

  • Failsafe.jpg
    Failsafe.jpg
    170.2 KB · Views: 293
ELGuano, and Gizmo, thanks for your help. I'm now getting a good 10.5min flying out of my 2200mah DJI battery. It's warmish when I take it out, but I'll be checking it out better as soon as I get my battery meter(?) in. :mrgreen:
 

Recent Posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,352
Members
104,933
Latest member
mactechnic