Battery temperature warning?

[GMack]

I started the P4 up today for a flight and saw this:

I would think 59 degrees would be okay to fly with, but warming it to 77 degrees? Seems they want a warm battery, warmer than my house and car?

This was with GO 3.1.1 and iOS 10.1.1. Battery was recently updated too with the P4 firmware.

 

[Mark The Droner]

I started the P4 up today for a flight and saw this:

View attachment 70376

I would think 59 degrees would be okay to fly with, but warming it to 77 degrees? Seems they want a warm battery, warmer than my house and car?

....

Yep. But it's not "they." It's your battery. It wants to be warmer than your house and car. And you don't want your battery to be unhappy.

 

[Erised]

My house is at 21c, I never had any warnings even at 17c (auto temp when we are not home). I place my 17c to 21c in the craft and go outside at about -10c and start the motors immediately and fly with no problems as the battery quickly warms up, I let it hover and start moving slowly for the first minute then cruise as usual. The warning must come on below 15c. There calling for -20c tomorrow and I will consider a short flight and -25c Sunday, I think I won't fly but then I may just try low in the yard for giggles and see how the battery does.

 

[tcope]

Motors will arm at 20C but thrust will be limited. Full power and flight is available at 25C.

 

[Erised]

I'm going to keep a closer eye on my battery temps because the temps are dropping fast here. At -10c outside it takes me over one minute once it's powered before I arm the motors up to check my maps and sensors camera settings and that gives a bit more time for the battery to gain a few btu's. It would be nice to have battery temp in GO besides the voltage.

 

[SteveNPhx]

I'm going to keep a closer eye on my battery temps because the temps are dropping fast here. At -10c outside it takes me over one minute once it's powered before I arm the motors up to check my maps and sensors camera settings and that gives a bit more time for the battery to gain a few btu's. It would be nice to have battery temp in GO besides the voltage.

Go does show you the battery temp.... Touch the battery icon and have a look..

 

[Erised]

Go does show you the battery temp.... Touch the battery icon and have a look..

I check there at times it's just it's getting very cold here and touch screens are not very cooperative and I would like to see it a a glance.

 

[SteveNPhx]

I check there at times it's just it's getting very cold here and touch screens are not very cooperative and I would like to see it a a glance.

You can assign one of your c buttons underneath the controller to go to that screen. It will toggle that screen on and off.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[Erised]

You can assign one of your c buttons underneath the controller to go to that screen. It will toggle that screen on and off.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

Good Idea Steve, I havn't thought of that, C1 it is. Thanks

 

[jwt873]

Yes, I've seen it too. The warning pops up when the battery is 15C and recommends warming it up to 25C before flying.

But the warning doesn't appear if the battery is between 16C and 25C (I've noted this). I think if it were critically important to fly with a battery temperature of 25C or greater, then the warning would pop up whenever the battery was below 25C.

Out of interest the cold weather finally hit here where I live and I took a flight today with an outside temperature of -21C (-5.8F).

No problems at all. There was no noticeable reduction in flight time. The battery was at 15C (59F) at takeoff. (I hovered a couple of minutes to get it up to 22C before I headed out). The battery continued getting warmer in flight and had reached 33C (91F) by the time I landed.