Plug n play battery mod

[shockwave199]

No you don't need the charging cable and lipo checker, but it comes in real handy to check the balances before and after flight for the few pennies more[emoji41]

He's out of stock on that too. I'll grab when I can. Thanks for the details above. This really brings this whole thing to a very easy place for the non-tinker'r who just wants in on it. All I wanted was the benefit. I waited out the people who could get it to this place and now it looks like it's here. Thanks for the 'heavy lifting' guys!

This will enable me to fly these like this one I did last year, only double the length...and that's a very big deal for me.

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[GadgetGuy]

Not really knowing this new setup offered now, I'm not really sure how it all fits together and what connects to what but I'm sure it's self explanatory when I get it. I'm guessing all batteries hook up together for one charge with the DJI charger? Is the charging monitor really needed to monitor while charging, or does lights out on the smart battery indicate all three are done? I have the 100w charger so hopefully that will help cut down on some charge time.

It charges like two DJI P3 batteries in series, so 2+ hours to fully charge both with your 100W charger. Lights on the main are enough, but verification with the charging monitor is very useful to make sure the secondaries are fully topped off. Looks like DB got back to you before I did!

 

[dirtybum]

Please share your flight times on here Shockwave! Good or bad!

 

[shockwave199]

Will do. At well over 200 balloons, they had better be good flight times!

 

[dirtybum]

Couldn't resist a late night run after raining all day. Here's what I got with this plug-and-play! PIII standard 50°F down to 5%

HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters

 

[shockwave199]

Awesome! Man, if I can pull even 28-30 minutes I'll be all set. How do you break in these batteries? Do you put all three in line and bring down the percentage to 50% for a handful of flights? Can the modified smart battery be flown by itself like a normal battery and broken in? What's the best way to do a break in period with this setup?

 

[GadgetGuy]

Awesome! Man, if I can pull even 28-30 minutes I'll be all set. How do you break in these batteries? Do you put all three in line and bring down the percentage to 50% for a handful of flights? Can the modified smart battery be flown by itself like a normal battery and broken in? What's the best way to do a break in period with this setup?

Personally, I don't believe in any so called break-in period. Fly it as you will from the get go! DJI certainly has never recommended any break in period for their batteries, and I never used on on any of my externals. It certainly won't hurt, but it is a waste of time IMHO. YMMV.

 

[dirtybum]

Awesome! Man, if I can pull even 28-30 minutes I'll be all set. How do you break in these batteries? Do you put all three in line and bring down the percentage to 50% for a handful of flights? Can the modified smart battery be flown by itself like a normal battery and broken in? What's the best way to do a break in period with this setup?

Personally, I don't believe in any so called break-in period. Fly it as you will from the get go! DJI certainly has never recommended any break in period for their batteries, and I never used on on any of my externals. It certainly won't hurt, but it is a waste of time IMHO. YMMV.

First thing, yes you can fly the modded main bat solo just has a couple wires hanging, also you can use that modded bat to fly & charge other brand liHv externals of your choice, (as I said this is a great starter kit)

Second, I agree w/ gadget, I've never seen or found the purpose of a break in 50%/10 charge period. I fly ALL my bats down to 0-10% from day one. That being said they do give better performance after 10+ charge cycles[emoji41]

 

[GadgetGuy]

First thing, yes you can fly the modded main bat solo just has a couple wires hanging, also you can use that modded bat to fly & charge other brand liHv externals of your choice, (as I said this is a great starter kit)

Second, I agree w/ gadget, I've never seen or found the purpose of a break in 50%/10 charge period. I fly ALL my bats down to 0-10% from day one. That being said they do give better performance after 10+ charge cycles[emoji41]

Exactly! Treat 'em like you intend to use them from the get go, and they'll eventually love you back for your honesty!

 

[RedHotPoker]

I never heard any negatives from doing the first 10 ~ 50% flights, soft break in, of these quite expensive intelligent flight batteries. So I would rather err on the side of caution, with mine. No harm no foul... ;-) what ever makes you happy, go forth and enjoy. Ha

RedHotPoker

 

[GadgetGuy]

I never heard any negatives from doing the first 10 ~ 50% flights, soft break in, of these quite expensive intelligent flight batteries. So I would rather err on the side of caution, with mine. No harm no foul... ;-) what ever makes you happy, go forth and enjoy. Ha

RedHotPoker

That's correct. No negatives, other than not being able to fully use your new batteries for 10 flights each, to only 50%. I'm just not that patient, even if it did prolong the life. I'd be giving up early use, to extend it later, when I have already moved on to the next newest Phantom.

 

[dirtybum]

That's correct. No negatives, other than not being able to fully use your new batteries for 10 flights each, to only 50%. I'm just not that patient, even if it did prolong the life. I'd be giving up early use, to extend it later, when I have already moved on to the next newest Phantom.

Yep no negative at all! In fact if you're using these battery mods to do long-distance stuff, most long-distance guys like to take a short run first to check the wind, maybe just use your new batteries on your 50% run kill two birds with one stone[emoji41]

 

[shockwave199]

Thanks guys. I've never been one to do a break in period either. I fly until I want to land. At minimum I fly to 50% in case I won't get to fly for a while, so that always puts me at a good storage charge. More often I bring down batteries closer to 30%. This brings up another question. Since the split batteries get depleted first during a flight, are they essentially at 0% when the smart battery takes over? Or am I thinking of that wrong and they are all at the percentage remaining from the app during flight? I at least want to do right for storage levels even for the split pair too.

 

[dirtybum]

Thanks guys. I've never been one to do a break in period either. I fly until I want to land. At minimum I fly to 50% in case I won't get to fly for a while, so that always puts me at a good storage charge. More often I bring down batteries closer to 30%. This brings up another question. Since the split batteries get depleted first during a flight, are they essentially at 0% when the smart battery takes over? Or am I thinking of that wrong and they are all at the percentage remaining from the app during flight? I at least want to do right for storage levels even for the split pair too.

In most bat mod situations the external bats will have about 0.10v more than the main bat.
So you will run out the main first ( not by much. ) the app really only shows info from the main bat however, the externals are feeding juice into the main bat which means the % goes down slower in the app.
I've found that this plug n play bat mod burns down together real nice and evenly resulting in both ending near the same voltage.

 

[RedHotPoker]

That's correct. No negatives, other than not being able to fully use your new batteries for 10 flights each, to only 50%. I'm just not that patient, even if it did prolong the life. I'd be giving up early use, to extend it later, when I have already moved on to the next newest Phantom.

If you are an average like minded eager Canadian beaver, like moi, you could easily fly ten half battery packs in one day. I have four batteries and two 100w chargers, so for me, getting my first ten flights per battery took quite awhile. But it was sure a lot of fun doing it. Flying within the capital city, I often only fly a half pack and move to a new location. It's fun finding new and exciting places to view and film from high above.

I wish there was a definitive battery guide that told us, all of the intelligent flight battery pack possibilities, in full detail.

RedHotPoker

 

[flyNfrank]

In most bat mod situations the external bats will have about 0.10v more than the main bat.
So you will run out the main first ( not by much. ) the app really only shows info from the main bat however, the externals are feeding juice into the main bat which means the % goes down slower in the app.
I've found that this plug n play bat mod burns down together real nice and evenly resulting in both ending near the same voltage.

Hey Mike would you care to share your .txt flight log file to that run? If so you can attach it here the same as a image. Or send it to me in a PM if you prefer.

Btw, do you know the red flag limit on battery volts, and also what happens now with the P3 when that limit is reached?

 

[dirtybum]

Hey Mike would you care to share your .txt flight log file to that run? If so you can attach it here the same as a image. Or send it to me in a PM if you prefer.

Btw, do you know the red flag limit on battery volts, and also what happens now with the P3 when that limit is reached?

I'd be glad to share the .txt log although you'd have to guide me through it. Because other than healthy drones I've never dug that information up before!
I'm guessin once it gets down much lower than 3.33! I think most people would say don't go below 3.40 on your first cell.
And yes I'm all-too-familiar with what happens if you go below it[emoji41]

 

[dirtybum]

And yes I'm all-too-familiar with what happens if you go below it[emoji41]
View attachment 51480[/QUOTE]
And here's a couple more that ran out of juice! I've got more of those in storage those are just the ones that are on my phone[emoji41]
Very familiar!
Dropbox - crashes

 

[flyNfrank]

dirtybum

The .txt flight log files look similar to this: DJIFlightRecord_2016-27-03_[09-22-04].txt

If you have a android tablet - plug your tablet's USB cable into your PC and access it like a USB drive.
The .txt flight log files are located in folder "DJI/dji.pilot/FlightRecord". Once in the FlightRecord folder scroll to the bottom of the list which will be your most recent flights. Copy the file to your desktop or folder you access easily. Then just upload and attach here as you would a image.

Let me know if you have ios instead of android. You'll need different instructions for the process.

 

[dirtybum]

I flew that flight on iOS but I sync them cause I use android for healthy drones autosync! I'll plug it in the only issue I have is, the laptop I use is only for uploading pictures and stuff, I hotspot my phone's Internet to it so when I actually download that file to my laptop I guess I'll have to then maybe upload it to dropbox to post it here?