Battery Heater

Raptorman0909 · Feb 1, 2017

I just posted a video detailing the construction of a battery heater for both my Inspire 1 Pro and P4P batteries. This is a bit crude looking but does the job and can operate inside my apartment using a re-purposed laptop power supply or it can operate from my cars 12VDC.

Brian

Mr. Salty · Feb 1, 2017

Nice. I just toss a $25 rechargeable electric handwarmer into a cooler with my Phantom 3 batteries. That seems to do the trick. Plus I can recharge my controller with the handwarmer if need be.

Raptorman0909 · Feb 1, 2017

Mr. Salty said:
Nice. I just toss a $25 rechargeable electric handwarmer into a cooler with my Phantom 3 batteries. That seems to do the trick. Plus I can recharge my controller with the handwarmer if need be.

I also have a hand warmer, but the power/energy needed is not there. I've measured the steady state power required to maintain temp at about 2C/W or trwo degrees Celsius for every watt of power so if the the temp difference between heater/batteries and the outside air is 20C the unit will need to provide 10W and that's not counting the power/energy needed to bring the batteries up to that temp. My handwarmer has about 32WHrs of energy and would be capable of maybe 3 hours but the temp of some batteries would be higher and others lower. I keep my handwarmer for my hands -- 20-40 minutes of flying when it's -10C will freeze my hands even with gloves.

Brian

Traveler · Feb 1, 2017

I use a small 12vdc personal cooler/warmer. I went with this so that I could keep my batteries cool or warm as needed. Perfect for the cold temps where I live and the hot temp where I visit.

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bkushner · Feb 2, 2017

This might be a stupid question but doesn't the battery start to heat immediately when flying?

trickys · Feb 2, 2017

Yes it will but I've found that unless my battery are warm it won't let me take off or gives me a cold battery warning, better safe than sorry, I use a cheap cool box with a hand warmer inside, simple but works..

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bkushner · Feb 2, 2017

I've never had an issue with take off because of battery yet.

Techcop50 · Feb 2, 2017

My wife got this as a "Secret Santa" gift:
DRYGUY AC/DC Boot/Shoe Warmer and Dryer

Haven't tried it yet, but the price was right!

Only time I get the issues is occasionally when I leave the Phantom in the car overnight.

Raptorman0909 · Feb 2, 2017

Traveler said:
I use a small 12vdc personal cooler/warmer. I went with this so that I could keep my batteries cool or warm as needed. Perfect for the cold temps where I live and the hot temp where I visit.

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Yeah, that was an option but I already had the cooler. The other thing is that my heater only draws about 2A at max and averages less than 1A so I can run the heater and still have power to charge a battery or other items from the cars 12V outlets. The larger units that use peltier devices are actually pretty power hungry and would pretty much take all the power the cars outlet can provide.

I also made a car charging system for my drone batteries so I can charge up to 3 at a time. At the back of my car on the left side of the hatch area is the rear circuit breaker panel and I tied into that to provide a higher power circuit than the cigarette lighter outlet can provide. I added a small box with a power switch and fuse and that ties into a 500W inverter that power my multi-battery charger.

So, on the road I can heat the batteries and charge them at the same time. What I do is charge the batteries I plan to use the night before but only up to about 80% charge. I then put them in the heater and heat them overnight using the laptop adapter, then take things to the car the next day and as I'm driving to where I plan to fly I keep them heated in the heater and charge the batteries the rest of the way. This way the batteries are at full charge for only a few hours and often just a few minutes.

Brian

Traveler · Feb 2, 2017

Raptorman0909 said:
Yeah, that was an option but I already had the cooler. The other thing is that my heater only draws about 2A at max and averages less than 1A so I can run the heater and still have power to charge a battery or other items from the cars 12V outlets. The larger units that use peltier devices are actually pretty power hungry and would pretty much take all the power the cars outlet can provide.

Brian

Hey Brian,
I can appreciate the lower power usage of your home built units, these little unit do like power. That said, I am often in my hybrid vehicle and I can operate for a longtime on the battery bank. I actually use it for cooling more than heat. I had a case where I left my P3 in my car near Vegas for a bit too long and the battery swelled inside the bird to the point I had to pry it free. Lesson learned for me. Anyway, good job on being inventive. Building is always fun.

Tim

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Raptorman0909 · Feb 2, 2017

Traveler said:
Hey Brian,
I can appreciate the lower power usage of your home built units, these little unit do like power. That said, I am often in my hybrid vehicle and I can operate for a longtime on the battery bank. I actually use it for cooling more than heat. I had a case where I left my P3 in my car near Vegas for a bit too long and the battery swelled inside the bird to the point I had to pry it free. Lesson learned for me. Anyway, good job on being inventive. Building is always fun.

Tim

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Thanks Tim...

Yeah, cooling is another aspect when flying in hot weather and for that a unit like you have is a nice thing to have. Cooling requires a lot more power and almost all units are going to use peltier modules and they eat power like crazy. It's not real practical to have a compressor based cooling unit and they would almost certainly eat a great deal of power too, particularly when starting up. Cooling is much harder than heating.

For heating the power required doesn't have to be all that much and in my case the heating element draws only about 20W when on and once the unit is up to setpoint the heating element is only on 20%-30% of the time so the average is typically less than 10W.

But, I may look into peltier cooling come next summer...

Brian