Is there any way to turn of the quadcopter other than disconnecting the battery? (sorry for the newbie question)
power off button?
- Thread starter dormaj
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dormaj said:
If you read the manual, it says to NEVER disconnect the battery while it's on and in your Phantom, or to turn on before putting in your Phantom!!!
You press the circular power button once, let off for half a second, and press again and hold down for two seconds.
This will turn the battery off.
Please, please, please! Do not be a reason the hobby gets banned! The only other outcome would be you wrecking your nearly $1000 drone because you didn't read the manual.
:ugeek:
He's asking about a FC40 which doesn't have a power button on the battery like the Phantom 2 has.
So no, no on/off button on the FC40! But it isn't difficult to install one. But you probably need a bulky automotive switch because of the high discharge of the lipo's.
So no, no on/off button on the FC40! But it isn't difficult to install one. But you probably need a bulky automotive switch because of the high discharge of the lipo's.
Can you please tell me where the power button is on the FC40? I found no mention anywhere. I saw one on the Vision 2.
Why do you need an on/off switch ? The control sticks shut down the motors then you unplug the battery ??
Because unplugging the battery is a pain. If I exhaust the batteries on each flight it's not a biggie. Of course, that's not always the case, hence the easy to use button the Vision 2 battery cover. 
I will probably install a power switch. It is just a lot easier and safer to be able to make all connections BEFORE you switch on everything. And to be able to switch the phantom off immediately when it doesn't respond to the transmitter. I had it once, it just wouldn't shut off after a battery low auto landing. The props kept on spinning no matter what I did with the transmitter. A firmware reinstall solved all my problems by the way. Highly recommend to fresh up the firmware now and then.
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Please, please, please! Do not be a reason the hobby gets banned! The only other outcome would be you wrecking your nearly $1000 drone because you didn't read the manual.Even if he had a phantom 2 that has a power button on the battery and even if he did pull the battery before shutting off the battery or even if putting the battery in when its already turned around I cant for the life of me figure out how that would in any way shape or form have any thing to do with being any reason the hobby gets banned! Even if it did do any harm to his phantom or was able to do some harm to his phantom. Which btw it don't do any harm and don't damage any thing at all. and even if it did which it don't i still don't see how someone wreaking there own phantom even if it was possible from inserting or removing the battery while its still on would hurt any one but them selves.
Tho it does seem like the OP read the manual cause he didnt see any thing mentioned about a power button on the fc40 cause they don't mention any thing about a power button in the manual or even say there isn't on. And they just leave it as an open assumption that there is not one.
In theory it would be a super easy mod to add a power switch to the fc40 so you didnt have to keep yanking on the power wires to turn it off and back on. But as the person a few posts above mentioned it would need to be a super heavy duty switch to handle the amperage. and you also would be adding in one more means of failure if the switch ever crapped out while flying.
But you dont really get much flight time out of the standard battery for the phantom 1s or FC40s to really need to turn it on or off all that much. Being you usually only get on short flight out of a full battery.
lake_flyer, please let me how your power switch install goes. if you could post a parts list and pictures that would be excellent. thanks!
I'm not there yet but once I am I will post details about the installation procedure and parts used. But do a search on the forum. I'm quite sure there are other forum users who already installed a power switch and have mentioned it. But it is simple: just cut the red wire from the battery connection (on the Phantom, not the battery of course) and solder a adequate 2 position switch (look for it at a car parts shop) to both wire ends. Be sure to insulate the connections and the switch itself with e.g. vulcanizing tape. If the red wire is too short simply use a longer wire of the same gauge instead. If you don't want to cut a big hole in he body for the switch, I would suggest you attach it to the landing gear or some spot like that. You could attach it with screws, a tie wrap, double sided tape or extra strong velcro (3M). The red wire could be fed out of your Phantom by making a small notch in the upper shell, feed the wire out to the switch and feed the other end, coming from the switch back in. It all depends on the chosen location for your switch. Make sure you choose a spot that you can safely reach while the props are spinning.
I would not use a switch with fuse or thermal breaker. The peaks are pretty steep sometimes with these motors and the Lipo's can discharge at a very high current so a fuse could blow and cause a crash.
If you attach and solder everything carefully and make sure everything is well insulated, I don't think adding a switch will introduce an extra single point of failure, as long as it is not fused or thermally protected, so the most simple (but high power) switch will do. Get a good one, pay a few bucks more for it. There is lots of choice.
I will post my findings once I start working on that.
I would not use a switch with fuse or thermal breaker. The peaks are pretty steep sometimes with these motors and the Lipo's can discharge at a very high current so a fuse could blow and cause a crash.
If you attach and solder everything carefully and make sure everything is well insulated, I don't think adding a switch will introduce an extra single point of failure, as long as it is not fused or thermally protected, so the most simple (but high power) switch will do. Get a good one, pay a few bucks more for it. There is lots of choice.
I will post my findings once I start working on that.
also make sure to try and have the wires to the battery anchored down some place so they dont put any stress on the soldered ends were it connects to the switch or the circuit board. In fact while you are in there soldering its a good ideal to also properly solder the existing connections to the board. Many of them have come off even when they look like they are soldered down right. My FC40 ended up doing a swan dive from 850 feet up and 1/2 mile away on the 4th of July when one of the solder joints on one of the battery wires decided to come off. even tho I had inspected it very closely a few days before when I had the shell open for some thing else. But after I got it back I could tell it was not soldered well at all considering there was no solder at all still stuck to the solder pad on the board.
I have thought about the best kind of switch to use for this for awhile and also use lots of switches in a few electronic applications. its not easy to find a good super high amp dc switch that also has a mission critical mean time between failure on how many times the switch can be thrown before the contacts fail except for some military spec ones. Cept some 0f the ones I have that would fit the bill perfect in all the other regards and never fail happen to weigh about a pound and are about the size of a cigarette pack. But one type of automotive switch that can carry a high inrush currant and carry a pretty high dc currant when its on as well as take many many on off cycles and don't weight a pound happens to be some of the old school style high beam light switches that used to be on the floor of old cars. They hardly ever wore out even when being stomped on 1000's of times. If you can get hold of one of them they are great on/off dc high amp switches.
I have thought about the best kind of switch to use for this for awhile and also use lots of switches in a few electronic applications. its not easy to find a good super high amp dc switch that also has a mission critical mean time between failure on how many times the switch can be thrown before the contacts fail except for some military spec ones. Cept some 0f the ones I have that would fit the bill perfect in all the other regards and never fail happen to weigh about a pound and are about the size of a cigarette pack. But one type of automotive switch that can carry a high inrush currant and carry a pretty high dc currant when its on as well as take many many on off cycles and don't weight a pound happens to be some of the old school style high beam light switches that used to be on the floor of old cars. They hardly ever wore out even when being stomped on 1000's of times. If you can get hold of one of them they are great on/off dc high amp switches.
I have a very good friend who's a certified electrics (not electronics per se) engineer, he's experienced in high current stuff and builds class A tube amps (very high peak currents occur at 50 Watts class A). I'll will ask him for advice.
But my take at it is that a switch is likely to fail at the moment the current starts to flow. And that is when you start the motors. As soon as the current is flowing, the switch is nothing less than an uninterrupted wire with little or no resistance, hence no reason to fail.
And it's like you said J.James. There's enough to worry about inside the Phantom. All connections to the main board or main power are points that can fail if not properly soldered. Adding a switch, when properly done, will not make this any worse. I think a standard metal toggle switch would be fine. I use these on my boat and Landrover.
http://www.polevolt.co.uk/acatalog/info_MTS50.html
But my take at it is that a switch is likely to fail at the moment the current starts to flow. And that is when you start the motors. As soon as the current is flowing, the switch is nothing less than an uninterrupted wire with little or no resistance, hence no reason to fail.
And it's like you said J.James. There's enough to worry about inside the Phantom. All connections to the main board or main power are points that can fail if not properly soldered. Adding a switch, when properly done, will not make this any worse. I think a standard metal toggle switch would be fine. I use these on my boat and Landrover.
http://www.polevolt.co.uk/acatalog/info_MTS50.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CInwaLBlPxY
This is why I would like a switch.
After a battery low auto landing or a crash, the props keep on spinning until de battery is depleted completely. Unless you stop them using the transmitter. In this video someone looses his Phantom and it is found by a friendly guy who doesn't have a clue how to turn off the motors. He's looking for a switch but can't find one. For minutes he's waking around with the quad buzzing madly and the rotors spinning like they want to chop off every finger he has. You can hear it still wants to remain it's current position. This guy was amazing, he called the owner while he had the quad in his hand, still running engines.
Now if that were a little child, old grandma, pet...........One should be able to find a clearly marked switch to power it off in such a case.
It was after seeing this video I made sure I had my email and cell phone number clearly visible on the quad. (as well as a warning that it is GPS and Wifi tracked, which it isn't, but maybe it helps to scare people from keeping it after finding it. People want to believe all sorts of things about 'drones' so why not). And it made me wonder about an ON/OFF switch.
This is why I would like a switch.
After a battery low auto landing or a crash, the props keep on spinning until de battery is depleted completely. Unless you stop them using the transmitter. In this video someone looses his Phantom and it is found by a friendly guy who doesn't have a clue how to turn off the motors. He's looking for a switch but can't find one. For minutes he's waking around with the quad buzzing madly and the rotors spinning like they want to chop off every finger he has. You can hear it still wants to remain it's current position. This guy was amazing, he called the owner while he had the quad in his hand, still running engines.
Now if that were a little child, old grandma, pet...........One should be able to find a clearly marked switch to power it off in such a case.
It was after seeing this video I made sure I had my email and cell phone number clearly visible on the quad. (as well as a warning that it is GPS and Wifi tracked, which it isn't, but maybe it helps to scare people from keeping it after finding it. People want to believe all sorts of things about 'drones' so why not). And it made me wonder about an ON/OFF switch.
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All connections to the main board or main power are points that can fail if not properly soldered. Adding a switch, when properly done, will not make this any worse. I think a standard metal toggle switch would be fine. I use these on my boat and Landrover.YA if you do the soldering your self you will actually more then likely have at least one spot were the work is done right. lol unlike the dji soldered stuff. For some reason 6 year olds just cant seem to solder well esp if using non lead solder.
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