Any way to know exactly how much battery is left while flying?

[Miggs]

Hi guys and girls,

I'm new to flying and just recently bought a FC40 to start off. I had seen that the phantom 3's come with technology that tells you how much battery you have left while flying so that you can safely return home. I was wondering if there is anything available (either from dji or aftermarket) that would do something similar for the FC40. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[PTCX]

There are low cost battery monitors available that just sound a beep when the battery gets low but you have to be near enough to here it.
Otherwise it would cost quite a bit to upgrade your bird to use the DJI PMU and iOSDMini (I think you can do that with F40 as you can with P1) plus adding an FPV system or by buying an expensive aftermarket transmitter with a receiver that has telemetry that includes a battery monitor.

The easiest way to do it would be to use the timer/stopwatch app in a smart phone.Most phones have timers with alarms.
You will need to take a flight,staying close enough to see the LED so you can see it turn to red flashing at the first battery warning.Call that your maximum flight time and set an alarm for two minutes before that time.That will give you plenty of time to return to launch point before the Phantom starts to self land.
This works well until your batteries get old and run out of power four minutes earlier than the previous flight,lol.
I did it this way for about a year with my P1 before I went to a Futaba transmitter and now I use the timers in the TX.
This will get you by until you are richer and a more confident flyer and decide to upgrade to a newer model with more bells and whistles.

 

[Ti22]

I haven’t used it on my Phantom yet but the thought crosses my mind every once in a while…

iCELL - Battery Cell Monitor - Flytron

Otherwise, a timer and knowing the health of my battery packs is how I roll.