I've seen several threads where the telemetry shows a sudden loss of power which led to crashes. It was suggested that this was due to an improperly secured battery. I do know that unless the battery is fully seated the spring loaded rear latch cannot engage. I'm curious about the front latching mechanism; the one that makes the rather loud click when engaged and the pressure of which must be overcome to release the battery. I regret not having looked into this further when, after a recent crash, I had the top and bottom covers off. I did a little Googling to try to find some info on this and came across the Typhoon H Main frame and battery compartment available for less than $20 US which included shipping. Due to the crash, one of the main frame arm mounting holes was compromised. I backed it up with a small piece of aluminum but had the damage been more severe the frame would have needed to be replace3d. Now I'll have a spare on hand and hopefully, I'll be able to see what secures the battery. Here's the ebay link: NEW Yuneec Typhoon H Main Internal Frame with battery compartment | eBay
Abrupt power loss
- Thread starter jandjfrench
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PatR
Premium Pilot
Only two things secure the battery, and one of them is not a security device. Full engagement between the battery connectors and the board connectors provides a level of friction that helps restrain the battery but the primary security is established by the latching wedge at the top rear of the battery case. It is raised to engage the airframe when the battery is fully inserted or removed from the aircraft and only lowers when the battery latch tab is lifted. If the battery was not fully inserted the latching wedge can remain partially depressed, not far enough inside the airframe to fully elevtate to rest against the inside wall of the upper airframe shell.
With the battery properly inserted and the rear cover is lifted the rear catch is no longer restraining the battery. Quite a bit of additional force is necessary to release the battery from the fully seated position. Once sufficient force is applied it feels as though something that is preventing the battery from moving is suddenly removed and the battery is free to move. Of course it's friction, but I'm curious as to the source. I'm suspecting the small raised section at the rear of the flat area above the electrical connectors; It seems that this would serve no other purpose than as a restraint. The edges of the depressed areas that contain the labels are also of concern. I'm hoping that by examining the replacement battery compartment I'll gain some insight.
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I think it’s the friction of plugging it in to the connector inside the aircraft....the friction @PatR referred to. Feels the same to me when plugging in/unplugging from the charger leads.
Wow! You're right. Perhaps the raised section that I was concerned about along with the restraint by the grooves on the side of the connector area create that initial friction that has to be overcome.
Phaedrus
Premium Pilot
Part of my preflight is to tug on the battery after inserting it to ensure it is fully seated and locked in place. I became paranoid about batteries when I lost an RC plane when the pack came loose and flew out the bottom of the plane during a violent snap roll. Spectacular, but costly.
After reading many posts regarding sudden power loss, paranoia accurately describes my feeling also. It's too bad that the rear battery cover can be folded down without the battery being fully seated.
If you look very closely at the spade terminals in the battery compartment you can see there is a small leaf spring that helps hold the contacts in place. It also assures good contact with the battery slots.
The latch on the frame does an excellent job of retaining the battery. In fact it would have to break before the battery could be released. (Yes, @DCH, I have done a stress test on that as well.)
The latch on the frame does an excellent job of retaining the battery. In fact it would have to break before the battery could be released. (Yes, @DCH, I have done a stress test on that as well.)
I agree 100% with PatR Steve and jandjfrench. However, something that always weighs on me regarding these battery’s is the terminals. After repeated use, the “female “ terminals ( which are very common even in automotive) can become electrically loose. I have seen this countless times in automotive and obviously the smaller the terminal the easier it can become spread open. If you combine the two scenarios with the engagement and a connector with loose drag, it increases the chance of an open circuit. I’m wondering if anyone has checked these terminals on a bird with many many flights to see in fact if they do get compromised
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I have two original OEM batterries bought 03 2017.
5,100 minutes of flight with 12 batteries in rotation, the OEM's have approximately 425 minutes each. I see no issues at this time.
Thank you all for the replies. I think I have a pretty good handle on what's going on. I did a final bit of testing to verify my understanding. I pushed the battery in until I heard the first click. This was the sound of the rear latch clearing the outer edge of the upper shell but providing almost no resistance to the removal of the battery. I pressed the power switch but it didn't turn on. I pushed the battery in a bit further, now feeling the resistance previously mentioned, but not far enough for the rear latch to engage. Pushing the power switch turned on the H. I turned off the H and found that considerable effort was required to remove the battery. I had been considering that all the restraining friction had to be overcome for the electrical contact to be lost but that is not so. Relatively speaking, there's a long range from where the resistance to fully inserting the battery is felt until it's fully seated and the final click of the rear latch is heard. So it is possible to have a situation where friction is still holding the battery in the drone with the electrical connection lost.
I'm satisfied and once again, thank you all.
I'm satisfied and once again, thank you all.
Depends on quality. Some of the cheapies, can almost fall off, or you need a vice to pull it off!
There was a
There was a crash in UK recently which seemed to apportion blame to the battery falling out. The accident investigation was told by Yuneec that the battery could fall out if not correctly fitted, and the copter could operated until it fell out.
I had a problem last year with the battery compartment. Where the battery connect to the power board there is a piece of silicone/plastic around the board that can get stuck under the battery so there were less contact. I took the H apart and glued the silicone back in place again to prevent this to happend. Look at My pictures below.
Attachments
I received the unit referenced in this original post. It doesn't appear to have any problems. It came with the status LED module still attached. By looking at the light source it appears to contain 3 LEDs which would account for the various colors. The USB port for connecting to a PC is still there as well as a 6 conductor jumper cable trapped behind it. The 6 arm spring clips are still installed. The only thing that restrains the battery is the rear latch. There is no resistance equivalent to that experienced with either the complete drone or the charger. By looking into my H I see a module mounted above the battery connector end. I suspect that whatever it mounts to also provides the friction that prevents easy battery removal.
Does anyone recall seeing a post in which power was lost and the drone crashed but the battery was found to be properly secured? I'm sure no one would fly unless they believe it was secured. Does anyone recall seeing a post in which there was physical evidence that the battery restraints had failed in some way? I'm not overly concerned about this but I don't want to dismiss reasonable concern. And there's also the appeal of an unsolved mystery.
No. The only time I've seen the frame lock break is at the point of impact. Even that is rare. It's terribly difficult, if not impossible to break that piece without damaging the aircraft.
Remember what people say can be completely different, we are not there, sometimes the facts can be a little distorted, they can change how they want it to appear what happened.
The example below shows a broken frame lock. The break occurred when the aircraft landed on the battery. Since the snow was soft the weight and inertia of the battery broke the lock arm and the battery made a hole in the snow seen at the arrow. Notice the lock broke at the point of attachment to the base frame. This clearly shows just how rugged that piece really is. I can assure you this part will not break randomly. Also, the latch on the battery was intact. It still operates.
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