Very short flight time

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Tasmania, Australia
Hi All
I have a phantom and 3 phantom batteries. The charger seems to work correctly but I only get 2 to 3 minutes before first warning red lights then about 30 seconds till second warning and then auto landing.
The phantom is fitted with a Tarot gimbal and weighs a bit less than 1200 grams.
I am new to this forum and some help would be much appreciated
Thanks in advance.
 
Lots of variables....Is this phantom new to you? Has it ever flown longer than 2-3 minutes? Are you using single 2200mah batteries and how old are they? What is the outside air temp? How sure are you about the weight? 1200g is fairly heavy for cold temps and a single 2200mah battery....so 2-3 minutes could be right in cold weather....and this time is when flying in "gps" mode I'm assuming?
 
Thanks for the replies.
My Phantom is fairly new to me in terms of flying time.
I only use 1 standard battery at a time.
Weight with gimbal and camera is 1165 grams
It is summer here so temps currently around 20 celcius
I am sure I got much longer time the first couple of times it was flown.
Total flights would be less than 10.
Thanks again for the help
 
I like phantasmic's idea ...then. Charge a battery full....fly it as long as you can...even if you have to hover it in front of you until it won't fly anymore....it will literally sink to the ground slowly...then quickly walk up and feel the motors...you might just have one bad motor winding. At that temp and that weight you should be able to get 5 or 6 minutes i'd think
 
well I ran it with a full battery and first stage warning came at 3.5 min (longest time for a while now) descent and landing came at just under 4 min. Motors were all the same temp. really hardly warm at all.
Battery voltage was 11.24 just after landing.
Maybe this is battery voltage calibration problem?
As i intend to use this mostly over water 30 sec or so is not long enough to get it back to the boat before it goes into failsafe.
Cheers
 
Did you at any time change from the default battery failsafe settings? (or calibration,.etc). or line-loss settings?

Also check to see what voltage is listed when you insert a freshly charged battery (it should read 12.5 or 12.6).

But before you start altering battery failsafe levels, I would definitely try to figure out why you're getting such short flights, as I get at least 6+ minutes with my similar setup (Tarot, 1183g auw)
 
Is it possible that I have 4 crook motors. How should the feel when you turn the props by hand?
Mine are very notch y and this could be the motor itself or the motor bearings?
 
Don't think it's your motors -- if all feel the same, you're probably fine there. (The "notchiness" is normal when rotating them by hand; that's just the magnets.)

Definitely suspect a voltage calibration issue. You say you have a voltmeter -- when your battery reads 12.5 or 12.6 on the meter, what does the voltage level say in the NAZA Assistant software? If it doesn't match, use the calibrate function in the software and enter the correct value.
 
Naza assistant software has same voltage value as multimeter. If i measure battery voltage a few hours after charging it has dropped to 12.4 from 12.6v . As I have 3 batteries and they all have the same values I suspect the battery charger is the culprit.
Have ordered a different charger so will see what happens.
Any thoughts about this?
Thanks for the help.
 
Perfectly normal to drop from 12.6V to 12.5V or 12.4V once off the charger, so I doubt the charger is the problem either. What are your first-level and second-level voltage alarm settings in the NAZA software?
 
rafaelrezende said:
Did you manage :ugeek: to solve the problem? I have the exact same problem here !

What problem? If the battery drops a tiny bit like that after coming off the charger, that doesn't indicate anything is wrong.
 
I mean the short flight time, I am getting 2 minutes before flashing lights and a total of 4 minutes of total flight time, and this is when I am only hovering.
 
So… how do I use a multimeter? This tutorial will show you how to use a digital multimeter (DMM), an indispensable tool that you can use to diagnose circuits, learn about other people’s electronic designs, and even test a battery. Hence the ‘multi’-‘meter’ (multiple measurement) name. We will be using the SparkFun VC830L throughout the tutorial but these methods should apply to most multimeters.
 

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