Low battery warning

Mhjalilib · Apr 18, 2017

hi
Is there anyway to change the low batter warning time. When I get to the first allert. The warning comes to my screen every 5 seconds and it is realy iritating and I can't see the camera. And my ST16 vibrates constantly. I'm wondering if I can turn off this allerts

R12NDS · Apr 18, 2017

Mhjalilib said:
hi
Is there anyway to change the low batter warning time. When I get to the first allert. The warning comes to my screen every 5 seconds and it is realy iritating and I can't see the camera. And my ST16 vibrates constantly. I'm wondering if I can turn off this allerts

That is not my experience. The first warning is timely and by the time ive flown it back to the landing site in angle mode, i may just get a second warning.

Not sure if there are settings to adjust?...mine is default and most recent firmware.

Mhjalilib · Apr 18, 2017

R12NDS said:
That is not my experience. The first warning is timely and by the time ive flown it back to the landing site in angle mode, i may just get a second warning.

Not sure if there are settings to adjust?...mine is default and most recent firmware.

That's strange. I get the warning constantly.

Steve Carr · Apr 18, 2017

Mhjalilib said:
That's strange. I get the warning constantly.

What does it show for the battery voltage when you get the warning? How many flights do you think you might have on that battery?

Mhjalilib · Apr 18, 2017

Steve Carr said:
What does it show for the battery voltage when you get the warning? How many flights do you think you might have on that battery?

Hi steve
It says. Battery low. The max altitude is below 60 meters.

Steve Carr · Apr 18, 2017

Mhjalilib said:
Hi steve
It says. Battery low. The max altitude is below 60 meters.

There is a battery voltage level at the upper left side of the screen on the ST16. You need to watch that and see what it reads when you get the low bat warning. When you turn on the H it should read 12.6 volts before you start the motors.

ArnhemAnt · Apr 18, 2017

Steve Carr said:
. When you turn on the H it should read 12.6 volts before you start the motors.

I think you meant that it should read 16.2v.

Steve Carr · Apr 18, 2017

ArnhemAnt said:
I think you meant that it should read 16.2v.

Yes indeed. My brain was still on the Q500. Actually mine generally read 16.7-16.8 volts. Thanks for catching that.

PatR · Apr 18, 2017

Mine are normally 16.6-16.7. If they read 16.2 I would start thinking something was not as it should be.

Mhjalilib · Apr 19, 2017

Steve Carr said:
There is a battery voltage level at the upper left side of the screen on the ST16. You need to watch that and see what it reads when you get the low bat warning. When you turn on the H it should read 12.6 volts before you start the motors.

Yeah I get 16.8 at first. The warnings start when I stull have two out of four bara. It's around 14.7 I think

Shadowolf · Apr 19, 2017

That is normal. For when the low battery at 14.7.
With 2 bars left.

Rayray · Apr 19, 2017

Mhjalilib said:
hi
Is there anyway to change the low batter warning time. When I get to the first allert. The warning comes to my screen every 5 seconds and it is realy iritating and I can't see the camera. And my ST16 vibrates constantly. I'm wondering if I can turn off this allerts

The first alert should start the instant you see 14.3 on the left of the ST16 screen. You need to land as soon as possible (don't crash in haste).
If you started with a reading of 16.5 or more you should get more than 12 to 14 minutes of flying before the voltage drops to 14.3. What I do is keep an eye on the voltage and head closer when it reads 14.5 to 14.6.

As for the warning, tap the go-back symbol (bottom right) and it will clear the screen. If you do not land the warning will return.
If you let that voltage go below 14.0 you may ruin the battery.

Good luck.

PatR · Apr 19, 2017

Thanks Ray. Something some may not consider is the battery voltage to be cognizant of is the voltage when the aircraft is in flight with the battery under load. Those that use battery voltage with the aircraft sitting on the ground to establish battery state can run into problems if taking off with a battery level under 15v at rest. The load factor is what perplexes many when they see it suddenly drop from full voltage after take off.

K2BLS · Apr 22, 2017

PatR said:
Thanks Ray. Something some may not consider is the battery voltage to be cognizant of is the voltage when the aircraft is in flight with the battery under load. Those that use battery voltage with the aircraft sitting on the ground to establish battery state can run into problems if taking off with a battery level under 15v at rest. The load factor is what perplexes many when they see it suddenly drop from full voltage after take off.

True. Mine starts at 16.8, then usually drops rather quickly to around 15.3, then it takes a lot longer to get down to 14.6, which is about the time I start thinking about finding a landing spot. Last flight I had on a fairly windy day was ~19 minutes. On calm days it's usually around 20-23.

Aintright · Apr 27, 2017

My question dear fellow flyers is?Sometimes I don't get to fly My H as much as I like so I purchased a battery charger with a storage mode on it and I have used it but haven't flown it in at least a month is this a good idea?

PatR · Apr 27, 2017

Good idea indeed. Use the charger to discharge your batteries to storage voltage if you aren't using them.

Aintright · Apr 28, 2017

Thanks for the reply PatR.Have a Great Weekend!!

Jmf455 · Aug 4, 2017

Is storage voltage the same as the voltage on it after low voltage warning comes on then landing? What I mean is, If I just don't charge them after flight, is it ok just to leave them?

I would like to get a charger that does all this. Anyone recommend one? Preferably a duel one. I saw one that does 4 at once but not spending $230 for one, if I can help it.

kd4pbs · Aug 4, 2017

No. LiPo batteries need to be stored at 50-70% of full charge. Ideally, you'll want ~3.8V per cell. Since we have 4-cell packs in our H, that would be around 15.2 volts, without load of couse. Smart chargers will normally have a storage feature which will either charge or discharge a battery to this range. Unfortunately, the charger that comes with the H isn't all that smart.

kd4pbs · Aug 4, 2017

That being said, you might want to read this...
Lipo storage voltage - how much does it matter? - Propwashed

My own experiences pretty much align with that site. I have some LiPo packs that are close to 10 years old, and have had times of being unused for several weeks or months in various states of discharge, full charge, and storage charged. They still have about 80% capacity as compared to when new. I do try to perform storage charges on all of mine when I know I won't be using them for a while, but sometimes I forget for weeks at a time and leave it full charged. I have yet to have a battery failure, fire, or incident... (knock on my wooden head).