4000 mAh from UK

Hi Mikey,

You HAVE to get a multi meter and get some voltage readings. They are vital in seeing if a battery is okay or not.

We are stuffed till you do that.

Pete
 
deltamike said:
Hi Mikey,

You HAVE to get a multi meter and get some voltage readings. They are vital in seeing if a battery is okay or not.

We are stuffed till you do that.

Pete
You're right. I'm going to get right on it. My suspicions are that my original battery has been damaged somehow with charging cycles and will only fly the 5 min or so.. and that the new 4000's will fly longer with a few more charge cycles? But you're right, I'm just stabbing in the dark until I get a meter to tell exactly what's going on.

Also I am ready to change my low voltage settings to the ones you figured best in your testing.
 
Update 2 Sep 14


4000 mAh. Flight trials.

The following test flights are in similar weather conditions.
Hovering in ATTI mode which requires constant stick input.
(Right Hand switch 1 in middle position)
NO PAYLOAD (Camera removed) – Prop guards fitted.
Initial Battery voltages measured with a meter.
Core UAC-50 charger.

First Flight
I shall be keeping the first and second warning levels as they are for all test flights.
1st. Naza voltage level warning set at 10.58v. (83%)
2nd. Naza voltage level warning set at 10.45v. (82%)
Battery start voltage 12.57v.
1st level warning at 14m 51s.
1m. 22s. to auto-land.
Duration at ‘auto-land’ 16m. 13s.
15 min rest voltage 11.21v.

Second flight
Battery start voltage 12.64v.
1st level warning at 15m. 22s.
1m. 19s. seconds to auto-land.
Duration at ‘auto-land’ 16m. 41s.
15 min rest voltage 11.22v.

Third flight
For this flight I removed the propeller guards.
Exactly three minutes longer duration as flight two – bar one second.
As first flight voltage settings on Nasa assistant.
Battery start voltage 12.56v.
1st. level warning at 18m. 21s.
1 minute to auto-land.
Duration at ‘auto-land’ 19m. 21s.
15 min rest voltage – 11.14v.

Fourth Flight
Phantom 2 propeller blades fitted.
I bought mine from :- http://www.heliguy.com/Quadcopter/DJI-P ... -Style%29/
They were the cheapest genuine Phantom blades I could find.
As first flight voltage settings on Nasa assistant.
Battery start voltage 12.59v.
1st. level warning at 22m. 17s.
50 sec. to auto-land.
Duration at ‘auto-land’ 23m. 04s
15 min rest voltage – 11.27v.
 
Thanks for the update! 22+ minutes is great.
I believe my Phantom 2 props are knock offs...looks like I should go ahead and buy some real ones like you did.
 
deltamike, how did it fly with the p2 props and did you make any gain adjustments(if so how much)
 
GOKU1972 said:
deltamike, how did it fly with the p2 props and did you make any gain adjustments(if so how much)

Hi GOKU,

Initially I felt the a/c was a bit twitchy - but I put that down to wind. (Last nights curry)

No real difference in handling at all.

The only changes I did were with the voltages, not gains.
 
timmy80 said:
Data from my flight with multistar 4.0

Please note I was not flying with the camera and had carbon 9" props.

http://www.flytrex.com/mission/quadcopt ... st_comment


Nice one - my durations were hovering in Atti, and it might be a different story when I really start to wander about.

One comment - your on your way to being a second Picasso :lol:

Pete
 
PHANTOM FC40 Naza assistant software voltage settings.



FINAL CALIBRATION FLIGHT RESULT


4000 mAh Battery – Phantom FC40

4000 mAh. FINAL TRIAL.

The following test flights are in similar weather conditions.
Hovering in ATTI mode which requires constant stick input.
(Right Hand switch 1 in middle position)
NO PAYLOAD (Camera removed)
Propeller guards removed – Phantom 2 Propellers fitted.

Initial Battery voltages measured with a meter.
Core UAC-50 charger.

After four trial flights (For the analytical types among you, see the details earlier on in this thread – but its a bit boring)

THE BOTTOM LINE

I have not any figures for the 1st. level warning minimum that will harm the batteries, so its trial and error. Will I knacker the batteries or not? I reckon that taking them down to a maximum of 82% will not and I reckon these settings should be good for all my batteries.

Battery start voltage 12.66v.
1st. Naza voltage level warning set at 10.36v.(82.5%)
2nd. Naza voltage level warning set at 10.30v. (81.5%)
1st. level warning at 22m. 47s.

24 seconds to ‘auto-land’.
Duration at ‘auto-land’ 23m. 11s.
15 min rest voltage 11.03v.

I am a very happy bunny with the duration and now to start bolting things on.

This wraps the whole thread up nicely and until I start to trial something else – that’s me done – unless someone would like me to do something else.

Happy flying

Pete
 
I have to pass this on to you all.

Having had no data to the actual discharge allowable on a given 3S battery I have had more help from a more knowledgeable friend.

He has said :-

A full cell is 4.2v/cell and a discharged cell voltage under nominal load is 3.6 volts these still remain as the established and de-facto values to use. So for a 3S battery/system: -

1st level protection voltage (under load, not a recovered voltage) would be 3 x 3.60 = 10.80v.
2nd level protection voltage (under load, again not the voltage from recovery) would be a nominal 0.1volts less, so 3 x 3.5 = 10.5 volts, more usually 10.6v. to give a slightly increased margin.

This gives you a system that will not destroy your batteries and when you get into trouble, have sufficient power reserve to undertake an RTH or safe landing from altitude, noting how long it takes to undertake a controlled descent, which of course consumes power in doing so.

Reminder that battery voltage is a very rough estimate / measure of capacity. You could pick-up a used recovered battery and think it is at say 50% charge using the voltage method and find (the hard way=crash) that it has perhaps 5% charge left, many people have done this, myself included, this is why I now segregate used batteries from charged batteries so then can never be mixed and used again.

So, I have to advise you all that to consider battery longevity a base line of 85.5% (10.80 v.) for the first level warning, and approx. 83.52% (10.6v.) for second level warning.

This will, of course, give a slightly shorter duration than my final flight trial but will save the battery.

However, I am going to keep the settings as per my final trial flight and see just how long the batteries last - just out of curiosity. I may be sometime ...........

Pete
 
Battery start voltage 12.66v.
1st. Naza voltage level warning set at 10.36v. (82.5%)
2nd. Naza voltage level warning set at 10.30v. (81.5%)
1st level warning at 22m. 47s.
24 seconds to ‘auto-land’.
Duration at ‘auto-land’ 23m. 11s.
15 min rest voltage 11.03v.

After 16 flights with the same battery the before and rest voltages are pretty constant. Now that I have found the optimum duration I set my timer for a maximum of 18 minutes operational time, which will give me a minute to land and not harm the battery by going below the recommended 20% battery discharge. Taking shots I rarely fly further than 300 feet but you may have to allow more time to land.
 
The battery compartment after modification with a small cutting disc and careful filing accepts the 4000 battery with room to spare with the leads outside of the aircraft.






 
If you connect the battery cable to the phantom first and then carefully insert the cables first followed by the battery, then it one should be able to close the battery door without problems.
 
sohail99 said:
If you connect the battery cable to the phantom first and then carefully insert the cables first followed by the battery, then it one should be able to close the battery door without problems.

Indeed you can. Its how I use mine though deltamike feels this strains the cables too much. Frankly its not an issue I've seen as yet.
 
Yes, it is possible but so much quicker and less fiddling with the cables outside and the quickness for me is important when on location taking action shots. The action will not stop for me when changing batteries so the quicker the changeover is - the better and an added bonus is to insert battery-close door and connect without moving the a/c whereas you cannot easily do all your fiddling without moving the a/c AND connecting quickly. ;)


Just my view - each to his own purpose.
 
lostkiwi said:
sohail99 said:
If you connect the battery cable to the phantom first and then carefully insert the cables first followed by the battery, then it one should be able to close the battery door without problems.

Indeed you can. Its how I use mine though deltamike feels this COULD strain the cables too much. Frankly its not an issue I've seen as yet.
 
Just thought I would update you on the battery condition after 26 flights.

I limit myself to a maximum of 18 minutes flight time and the 4000 mAh battery is still going strong.

The next thing to do is remove the FC40 camera and fit a Tarot Gimbal and the GoPro camera.

If anyone is interested I will let you know of the reduced flight time to the 2nd. (Auto Land) level warning.

Pete
 
deltamike said:
If anyone is interested I will let you know of the reduced flight time to the 2nd. (Auto Land) level warning.
Pete

Yes, please. I've got a Tarot and I'm currently getting 6 minutes from the standard 2200 mAh battery.
 

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