Hi, how much flight time in minutes do you estimate we lose when idling the H on the ground for GPS lock, for let's say 5minutes, ofcourse w/o motors spinning.
Idling for GPS lock?
- Thread starter Photo
- Start date
From what I have been told, the H sitting idle doesn't affect the flight time much. How much is debatable.. Maybe 2 minutes?! Wind/temperature/etc will affect your run time also.
2 minutes of 15-17 minutes is 12%! thats alot!. But better than a flyway.caused by bad GPS lock.
Don't take my 2 minutes as definitive. Flight time is ~25 minutes, not 15-17. It could be a minute or less. No one knows, or can provide you an exact time.
There are too many variables while your H is powered on and idle.
There are too many variables while your H is powered on and idle.
I would say the current draw is MAXIMUM 1A, sitting for 5 minutes would be 120mAh, and the battery is 5600mAh, if not more. So overall I'd say about 10-20 seconds of flight time....
PatR
Premium Pilot
Doesn't work that way. There's very little loss of charge sitting on the ground if the motors have not been spun up. You can sit there for 5 minutes or more with very little loss.
See for yourself, charge a battery and let it sit in front of your house, watching the voltage level. Do not arm the motors. Better to know than think you know.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
See for yourself, charge a battery and let it sit in front of your house, watching the voltage level. Do not arm the motors. Better to know than think you know.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Agreed. I've messed with mine for 10-15 minutes or more before spinning the motors with maybe a couple tenths of a volt dropped. I'd be surprised if it draws anything close to an amp.
I must say I spend little time on the ground after powering on the Typhoon H. As soon as the camera connects and I get the "Ready To Fly", I'm off and flying, so very little flight time lost. I find the Typhoon H and ST16 acquire satellites very fast.
Sometimes I fully charge my batteries just to realize I wont be able to fly for a few more days for any given reason, so I like to discharge them to storage levels.
Not having any other charger than the standard H charger I have to drain them "manually" which normally means just casually flying until batteries are at 50ish percent.
Once I tried discharging them by just leaving the H idling on the room (along with the ST16 for monitoring) and keep doing my stuff... around 30 mins passed and ST16 was still showing full charge.
Proceeded to arm the motors and leave them running (with props). Close to 15 minutes and battery showed a minimal drop in voltage.
So I would say the battery consumption without arming the motors is negligible.
- I always leave the H until I reach a nice sat count (my lowest to be comfortable is usually 17, optimal 20) but the times vary a lot, sometimes it reaches 20 in 6 minutes, sometimes it stays in 17 after 10. (I really dont monitor GPS visibility)
Not having any other charger than the standard H charger I have to drain them "manually" which normally means just casually flying until batteries are at 50ish percent.
Once I tried discharging them by just leaving the H idling on the room (along with the ST16 for monitoring) and keep doing my stuff... around 30 mins passed and ST16 was still showing full charge.
Proceeded to arm the motors and leave them running (with props). Close to 15 minutes and battery showed a minimal drop in voltage.
So I would say the battery consumption without arming the motors is negligible.
- I always leave the H until I reach a nice sat count (my lowest to be comfortable is usually 17, optimal 20) but the times vary a lot, sometimes it reaches 20 in 6 minutes, sometimes it stays in 17 after 10. (I really dont monitor GPS visibility)
I believe this is relevant to this particular thread, so I just reviewed the histogram from todays "discharge session"; I discharged 3 batteries down to 15.0v (under load).
First one had longer idle time as it took longer for the GPS to lock up to 18 sats as I hadn't flown in about 2 weeks.
1st and 2nd battery had the exact same fly time (I recorded the full flight of the 3 batteries from take off to landing) I've been suspecting degraded performance on the 3rd, but I flew differently on each flight [last time you could say more "aggresively"] so I can't really tell)
Anyway, I added some color and text for clarity.
So in this case (ignoring the 3rd suspicious battery) Idling for 8 minutes vs 2 minutes gave the same flight time from 16.7v to 15.0v
First one had longer idle time as it took longer for the GPS to lock up to 18 sats as I hadn't flown in about 2 weeks.
1st and 2nd battery had the exact same fly time (I recorded the full flight of the 3 batteries from take off to landing) I've been suspecting degraded performance on the 3rd, but I flew differently on each flight [last time you could say more "aggresively"] so I can't really tell)
Anyway, I added some color and text for clarity.
So in this case (ignoring the 3rd suspicious battery) Idling for 8 minutes vs 2 minutes gave the same flight time from 16.7v to 15.0v
I believe this is relevant to this particular thread, so I just reviewed the histogram from todays "discharge session"; I discharged 3 batteries down to 15.0v (under load).
First one had longer idle time as it took longer for the GPS to lock up to 18 sats as I hadn't flown in about 2 weeks.
1st and 2nd battery had the exact same fly time (I recorded the full flight of the 3 batteries from take off to landing) I've been suspecting degraded performance on the 3rd, but I flew differently on each flight [last time you could say more "aggresively"] so I can't really tell)
Anyway, I added some color and text for clarity.
So in this case (ignoring the 3rd suspicious battery) Idling for 8 minutes vs 2 minutes gave the same flight time from 16.7v to 15.0v
Thanx alot for all info. I will for sure idle about 5min to get accurate GPS lock. I will also turn off the motor LEDs to save a few seconds of flight time.
FlushVision
Premium Pilot
Hi Capt.
I used to be the same as you. Launching the H as soon as I got video feed. Usually, by the time I had a camera connection I had anything between 17 & 20 sats appearing locked.
However, more recently my H has been dragging it's feet for the video feed, generally progressively longer and longer times to the point on the 2nd January it took something like half a hour. So, of course, it's sitting there while I'm waiting for the feed quietly acquiring the satellites but it still only gets the 17-20 sats, so no real discernible improvement on the satellites even after this prolonged time.
I've since done a firmware update and it appears that it has solved the video feed issue, but having read other posts on this web site I have decided to continue delaying my take-off for a while until i'm sure that those 17-20 satellites lock are truly genuine.
I gotta say, though, that a while ago when I was getting camera connection in a minute or so, I seemed to have no trouble with the satellites lock and the aircraft flew well after launching as soon as possible. So, who knows?
In future I'll just have myself a cigarette and a fool around with the camera settings before taking off
PatR
Premium Pilot
With what you describe you might consider giving Yuneec CS a call, something is not as it should be. With warranties being extended to a year that could end up saving you an H at no charge.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Not good, the H is allergic to second-hand smoke. Having a fool around...I could go for that idea. Keep up the good work.
I don't follow a set pattern at take-off, but wait for a minimum of 15 or so H Sats and 10+ ST16 Sats.
- Joined
- Aug 2, 2016
- Messages
- 991
- Reaction score
- 247
- Age
- 55
If you are really getting 25 minutes you have an exception to the norm. Most if not all i have ever talke dto are getting 15 to 19 minutes flight time.
Bill W.
Hi all, the real PROBLEM is that you NEVER know if and how many sats the H have locked! The ONLY you'll see is how many it has FOUND and TRY TO LOCK to: That is the real problem.
So don't let the "numbers" fool you!
FlushVision
Premium Pilot
Best I've ever got was 18 minutes at the second warning. Granted it was a new battery but I recon after bedding in I'd be lucky to get over 19 minutes. These days I'm back on the ground by 16 minutes to ensure I'm landed before the warning.
Similar threads
