Battery disconnection tool - from the FC40 & the charger

[IflyinWY]

My fingers are tired of fighting with the little plug as I try to remove it from the charger. Who's got a better idea?

My flying machine is getting tired of me banging it around while I'm trying to unplug the battery. Who's got a better idea for that?

In both cases I am sure the yanking and banging is not good and I am already causing enough damage to the bird just by running it into stuff.

Whatcha got?

 

[4wd]

It's helpful if you get a short extension lead.
You don't need push it fully home either.

Example:
( http://www.amazon.co.uk/10pcs-JST-XH-Li ... B008TKMC86 )

 

[Lonewolf]

My fingers are tired of fighting with the little plug as I try to remove it from the charger. Who's got a better idea?

My flying machine is getting tired of me banging it around while I'm trying to unplug the battery. Who's got a better idea for that?

I've made reference to this problem before in another posting. Use needle nose pliers and gently squeeze the leads from the connector together until you can easily remove the battery, but NOT so it can come apart with little to no effort.

See the youtube vid on how to do this before trying it on your own...

Goto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT-Slb-zE2U

 

[IflyinWY]

Thanks for the link.

He has some good videos but I had not seen that one before.

 

[lake_flyer]

Use needle nose pliers and gently squeeze the leads from the connector together until you can easily remove the battery, but NOT so it can come apart with little to no effort.

That would work but be very careful with this exercise.

If the leads are squeezed only a little too much, the battery connection becomes unreliable. I had a DJI battery that was very easy to connect and disconnect. But in mid air it lost connection several times and caused my FC40 to loose it's startup data (engines kept running fortunately) and it was about to 'fly away' (at least, it didn't know where to go or what was up or down). This was on the second day I had it. Nearly lost it in the lake. The startup tune sometimes sounded twice instead of once after connecting the battery. That's how I found out. Wiggling the leads exposed the problem. With the tiny amount of vibration in the quad the connection can just drop for a millisecond, but that's enough to get your Phantom in trouble. It really acts weird if you encounter this. After a few seconds you realise it flies in full manual, without home point or nose direction. Not even Atti mode. If you manage to keep it long enough in the air it will probably go back into Atti, once it settles again with barometric and compass data but the first couple of very long seconds it is totally uncontrolled, except by you.

I have a short video of this fly away and if you look at it you see what i mean. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyL9CTMJwMs

I had to do the opposite trick and widen the leads just to have it make better contact. The connectors are now as they should be, firm and quite difficult to pull from another. But I never had a problem again.

All I'm saying is: don't mess too much with this, there's a reason why the connectors don't pull apart that easy.

I ended up using dual 2200 lipos. I never trust only one battery again. And since I have both connections on the outside (used a T cable and made notches in the side of the battery door). It is easy to connect and disconnect. My battery door is always closed now and haven't opened it for months. If one battery or it's connection would fail I wouldn't even notice it while flying, other than that my Lipo alarm would sound sooner than expected.

 

[lake_flyer]

What you could try is to spray just a little contact spray in the connector. That cleans it and it seems to lubricate it also a little.

 

[mb_guy]

There was a video some time ago were a fellow had drilled a small hole in each connector and was using snap ring pliers to separate. I cannot locate it now.

 

[lake_flyer]

if I would have to use a tool to get my batteries disconnected i would certainly get me a couple of new connectors. It's just that they can get dirty or corroded over time. A cleaning spray for electronics works quite well. I have a contact spray specially for mixer faders. It cleans and lubricates to a point that it's even a bit slippery at first. After a couple of goes it connects snugly but smooth. The lubricant is conductive so the connection is very safe.

 

[Ozzyguy]

Im with lake flyer here. I did this "fix" a while back and while the connection seemed good THe plug got very hot. It's lucky I felt it mid air and noticed it was way to hot and landed or I've no doubt it would have caught fire.

 

[IflyinWY]

This is turning into a great thread. Thanks folks.

Connecting to the FC40:
I did what lake flyer said not to do... but fixed it before my flight.
I had squished the connections just a bit too much. I was flying at a lake and my heart skipped a beat when I plugged the battery in and it made 2 starting sounds.

I'm really liking the snap ring pliers idea.
The thought of connections getting hot or coming loose, even for a fraction of a second, in flight are not something I wish to deal with.


Connecting to the charger:
I think the extension leads will help a great deal.
I can also use them to power some led strip lights on the front of my bird. I was not impressed with the headlight when the wires started disconnecting.
http://www.amazon.com/10pcs-JST-XH-Lipo ... nsion+Lead

Good stuff, who's next?

 

[fly-catchers]

I have found despite carefully fitting and removing the battery- both the lead from the charger and the lead from the Phantom has become detached from the XL60 socket! Have ordered a soldering station and helping hands and need to practice my rusty soldering skills.
Before the lead became detached from the Phantom I have been getting some strange behaviour from my gimbal where it kept on resetting itself in flight or on the ground. But its leds did not go out. It should only calibrate itself once on power up, so wonder if it was getting a tiny break in its power. But the Phantom itself was flying fine so not sure!

 

[dtitus6297]

Use a fuse puller from a car for the balance plug. Outa options for the charge plug tho

 

[syotr]

My fingers are tired of fighting with the little plug as I try to remove it from the charger. Who's got a better idea?

My flying machine is getting tired of me banging it around while I'm trying to unplug the battery. Who's got a better idea for that?

In both cases I am sure the yanking and banging is not good and I am already causing enough damage to the bird just by running it into stuff.

Whatcha got?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-EasyOff-Plu ... 1268014580

 

[IflyinWY]

Great idea,

Less than half the price at https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/sto ... _pcs_.html

 

[Mandrake]

Brilliant - bought one straightaway .. Thanks Fly-catchers ..