Longer Life Battery - 11.1V 3000mAh 30C LiPo Battery

[Thiago Pereira]

Hello folks--
I've got my DJI Phantom 1.1.1 from B&H when I was in New York and I had the pleasure to fly it a few times already. How addicting! :-D

The deal from B&H as you all might know was that you had 2 extra batteries (Watson) on the package which is great and give a good 35-40 minutes with the stock + the 2 extra non-stock batteries.

Since the non-stock batteries are working great, I was thinking about pulling the trigger on a higher mAh one that I saw here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/221712400288

What do you guys think? Will it fry up my dji 1.1.1?

Cheers from Brazil, guys! This forum is a great source of info.
Thiago Pereira

 

[jlummel]

...
Since the non-stock batteries are working great, I was thinking about pulling the trigger on a higher mAh one that I saw here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/221712400288

What do you guys think? Will it fry up my dji 1.1.1?
...

The battery pack might just fit! I've been using Turnigy 3S 2700mAh 20C batteries that are for the Cheerson CX-20/Quanum Nova and they fit well and give me 11-12min of flight time (the 2200mAh packs give me about 9min). The auction shows a size that is very close to the 2700mAh batteries that I know will fit, only a tiny bit longer.

But electrically the battery is a good fit for the Phantom. The actual C rating only matters if it's lower than the stock battery.

A higher C rating won't be a problem as long as the S rating is the same, the mAh rating is the same or higher, AND the battery is able to fit inside the battery compartment. As for frying the Phantom, only if the S rating is different than the DJI battery that came with the Phantom (which is a 3S battery, so stay away from 4S batteries).

James

BTW- I got the B+H deal on the Phantom, but it came with only 1 extra LiPo and a set of NiMH AA batteries with a charger for the transmitter. I would have preferred the extra LiPo like you got!

 

[Ti22]

You can carve out the P1 battery door a little if needed to slide in a larger battery. I personally stick with stock 2.2Ah capacity/size in my P1 but I’ve been using Turnigy 3S nano-tech 45-90C bricks and seeing 10 min mild flying with Hero2 & Gimbal before the 1st LV (low voltage) warning.

My concern about the OP eBay listing is this a decent brand pack/brick? I dunno? Never used this brand or seller.

I’ve used a LOT of RC Lipo (40qty Turingy 20C 4S 5Ah bricks in the past year) from Hobby King. The only way to really qualify battery packs like this is a 3 part test.

The 1st test of pack health involves something called IR or internal resistance. In layman terms this is the ability of the pack/brick to deliver current (Amps) through it’s main output leads instead of making heat internally. Pretty much a test of C rate.

It’s fairly easy to do IR test using power meter and taking voltage measurements resting and then with about 10s load applied. Ohm’s Law calculations and you’re good to see what C rate your bricks can really deliver. Several youtube videos about this and if there’s enough interest I can probably whip up some sort of poor man’s guide to IR and capacity testing?

2nd part of qualifying RC Lipo battery pack is Ah/Wh capacity. From a full balanced charge, discharge through a power meter using a suitable load (Carbon Pile, heater elements, lightbulbs) and record how much Ah/Wh the pack delivers before it reaches minimum voltage on any cell in the series string.

3rd test is to look for any “leaker” cells. Fully charged, nothing connected for a day or two - there shouldn’t be any significant drop in cell voltage. If you have a gradually self-discharging cell with nothing connected, that’s a leaker. Don’t use it for anything critical.

One thing I always try to do is buy whatever RC Lipo sells fast and in large volume. Besides quality manufacturing you want the freshest packs/bricks possible. Something oddball sitting on a shelf for a year or more is not gonna be as good as a pack/brick which arrived from the factory last week.

How do you tell? Try to identify what frequently sells out of stock from a busy, large volume supplier like Hobby King. Take some time to search and sort packs/bricks for purchase and see if you can identify some inventory trends over a period of time.

OMT - pack dimensions aren’t the most accurate spec in RC Lipo. Factories change and I always just assume an error of a few mm in any direction from published dimensions.

Considering the trouble to return bad or just plain wrong RC Lipo brick/pack, I prefer to buy from a large company and source them very carefully before putting them in my cart/bird.

 

[IflyinWY]

Welcome to the party Thiago Pereira.

There is a google link in my signature, use it to search for "Multistar 4000" and you will find many folks with the FC40 and P1 use it. I have 4 of them. There is a modification required, but not much.

The battery is rated at 10 C discharge rate, but I fly at 5 to 8000 feet above sea level and the only time I have issues is when I am flying fast for extended periods of time, or climbing quickly with a heavily loaded bird, >1100 grams.

Enjoy the show.

 

[Thiago Pereira]

Dear friends,
Thank you for all the responses above. I ended up getting a 4 pack deal while I was in the US last week during amazon prime day for a little over 60 bucks. This is the link for those who might be interested:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N5TZDXC?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01
(Just checked and it is over 75 bucks now... But it might come down again).

I have flown my DJI 1.1.1 with a Hero 3 attached last night for some "Pre-Blue Moon pictures" and the flight time of these new 4 batteries are the same as the stock one, a little over 10 minutes for me. (The video on the GoPro show 10 minutes and 37 seconds). Which is not bad I believe.

I have decided to go for more batteries rather than less batteries with more mAh. Some of the reviews on Amazon were not very good about the 3000mAh so that was my turning point.

Really appreciate the input, folks. Enjoy the weekend!
Thiago Pereira

P.S.: I am having a crazy idea for a FPV setup which I will post on a separate topic. Hopefully you folks have some insights there too.

 

[Stevoway]

The battery pack might just fit! I've been using Turnigy 3S 2700mAh 20C batteries that are for the Cheerson CX-20/Quanum Nova and they fit well and give me 11-12min of flight time (the 2200mAh packs give me about 9min). The auction shows a size that is very close to the 2700mAh batteries that I know will fit, only a tiny bit longer.

But electrically the battery is a good fit for the Phantom. The actual C rating only matters if it's lower than the stock battery.

A higher C rating won't be a problem as long as the S rating is the same, the mAh rating is the same or higher, AND the battery is able to fit inside the battery compartment. As for frying the Phantom, only if the S rating is different than the DJI battery that came with the Phantom (which is a 3S battery, so stay away from 4S batteries).

James

BTW- I got the B+H deal on the Phantom, but it came with only 1 extra LiPo and a set of NiMH AA batteries with a charger for the transmitter. I would have preferred the extra LiPo like you got!

Totally agree

 

[JKDSensei]

I just checked that battery deal and it's now $76.00

Still not a "bad" deal if they're good batteries. You got a real bargain.