Y Connector

[phantomoftheopera]

My friend had this idea. Install the Y Connector but still only use 1 battery at a time. When that battery gets low you land it and connect the fresh battery before disconnecting the used battery. This way you avoid having to do the DJI dance all over again.

Would this work?

 

[OI Photography]

My friend had this idea. Install the Y Connector but still only use 1 battery at a time. When that battery gets low you land it and connect the fresh battery before disconnecting the used battery. This way you avoid having to do the DJI dance all over again.

Would this work?

As long as you do the switch before the second-level final voltage level is passed (the one that triggers auto-land)...I've found the NAZA won't let you take off again once that's triggered, even if the motors are stopped, until the power is cycled off and on again.

 

[Boozshey]

Yes it would work... I would only worry that the fresh battery send a quick charge through the board to the other battery since the cells won't be balanced.

I wouldn't do it, but I am patient and can wait a minute for it to get it's GPS lock. It seems to me that it locks on faster after it was already locked.

 

[Hiway]

what is this "DJI dance" you perform every battery change?

 

[Boozshey]

In my experience, the GPS lock after a battery change is only a few seconds. The initial one takes some time at times, but the second, third, fourth, fifth have always been quicker for me.

 

[ElGuano]

Yes it would work... I would only worry that the fresh battery send a quick charge through the board to the other battery since the cells won't be balanced.

This is why I wouldn't do it. The cells would be extremely unbalanced and you're introducing a low-resistance connection between the two.

The GPS has a small battery that stores the downloaded almanac and ephermis from the satellites. It takes a while when you first boot up because it has to redownload to sync time/position with the satellites. On subsequent boots that information is already updated.

 

[phantomoftheopera]

Yes it would work... I would only worry that the fresh battery send a quick charge through the board to the other battery since the cells won't be balanced.

This is why I wouldn't do it. The cells would be extremely unbalanced and you're introducing a low-resistance connection between the two.

The GPS has a small battery that stores the downloaded almanac and ephermis from the satellites. It takes a while when you first boot up because it has to redownload to sync time/position with the satellites. On subsequent boots that information is already updated.

All good to know. Thanks! I agree that finding satellites is much quicker on the second round. This leads me to another question. Do I have to calibrate the compass (DJI dance) before the second flight? I thought you were supposed to every time you power up the phantom.

 

[ElGuano]

Yes it would work... I would only worry that the fresh battery send a quick charge through the board to the other battery since the cells won't be balanced.

This is why I wouldn't do it. The cells would be extremely unbalanced and you're introducing a low-resistance connection between the two.

The GPS has a small battery that stores the downloaded almanac and ephermis from the satellites. It takes a while when you first boot up because it has to redownload to sync time/position with the satellites. On subsequent boots that information is already updated.

All good to know. Thanks! I agree that finding satellites is much quicker on the second round. This leads me to another question. Do I have to calibrate the compass (DJI dance) before the second flight? I thought you were supposed to every time you power up the phantom.

Technically, DJI says you only need to recalibrate the compass whenever you bring the Phantom to a different location/region to fly. But it's so easy to the compass cal that it's almost a best practice just to do it before each flight. Nothing bad will likely happen if you just do it once at the beginning of your flight session.

 

[phantomoftheopera]

Technically, DJI says you only need to recalibrate the compass whenever you bring the Phantom to a different location/region to fly. But it's so easy to the compass cal that it's almost a best practice just to do it before each flight. Nothing bad will likely happen if you just do it once at the beginning of your flight session.

Blast! Alright, thanks for the help!

 

[Hawkeye 1]

I have not recalibrated my compass since the initial flight....over 100 flights since.