Batteries

[Stephen1988]

A discussion that has been had many times before but now after several years has anyone experienced damage due to this. The low battery warning or different charger type is of no concern as I always land with 50 percent battery remaining. I use either h480 batteries on h plus h520 or vice versa depending on what’s charged. Yuneec don’t recommend h480 batteries for the h plus or h520 but there also the ones trying to sell u the more expensive batteries. Any opinion welcome

 

[DoomMeister]

I use both in the H480 and have flown the H+ with both.

The only issue I have seen using the H480 LiPo packs with the H+ is that the low battery warning will be reached prematurely and you have to keep aborting the low battery RTH while there is plenty power left in the pack.

The opposite issue occurs when using H+ (LiHV) packs on the H480. You can cause damage to the packs if you fly them to the 2nd low battery warning on the H480.

With your very conservative approach of flying to 50% you should never encounter any issues.

 

[Stephen1988]

I use both in the H480 and have flown the H+ with both.

The only issue I have seen using the H480 LiPo packs with the H+ is that the low battery warning will be reached prematurely and you have to keep aborting the low battery RTH while there is plenty power left in the pack.

The opposite issue occurs when using H+ (LiHV) packs on the H480. You can cause damage to the packs if you fly them to the 2nd low battery warning on the H480.

With your very conservative approach of flying to 50% you should never encounter any issues.

Much appreciated for the input , my storage charger takes them the 50 percent, that’s the dy3 or dy5 yuneec dule charger. Stopping at 50 still gives plenty of flying and if u charge 5 or 6 batteries b4 flying it’s more than adequate for a bit of fun. Also saves reattaching them to the charger for storage when they are so simple to swap out . Maybe the storage charger would still be beneficial to balance the cells

 

[DoomMeister]

Much appreciated for the input , my storage charger takes them the 50 percent, that’s the dy3 or dy5 yuneec dule charger. Stopping at 50 still gives plenty of flying and if u charge 5 or 6 batteries b4 flying it’s more than adequate for a bit of fun. Also saves reattaching them to the charger for storage when they are so simple to swap out . Maybe the storage charger would still be beneficial to balance the cells

I’m not sure if those chargers balance charge when set to do a storage charge. I have seen very few chargers that do. Most require you to do a full charge with balancing. That is part of the reason for having a fully charged pack when starting a flight. It is also good to have a charger that can do a reliable internal resistance check and monitor each pack over time.

Using fully charged packs and flying to approximately 50% puts minimum stress on the packs and makes storage charging fast as they are near that point already.

 

[Stephen1988]

I’m not sure if those chargers balance charge when set to do a storage charge. I have seen very few chargers that do. Most require you to do a full charge with balancing. That is part of the reason for having a fully charged pack when starting a flight. It is also good to have a charger that can do a reliable internal resistance check and monitor each pack over time.

Using fully charged packs and flying to approximately 50% puts minimum stress on the packs and makes storage charging fast as they are near that point already.
I didn’t realise this, I must have just assumed it balanced the cells to storage charge. Cheers for info

 

[larsesilen]

I have a H480 that I recently crashed into the top of a fairly high tree. Together with some friends we succeeded to get it down. There was some obvious damage after a fall from 22 meters. I tested the battery that had been drained until the drone shut off and I was able to charge it without any problem. First using Yuneec's dumb charger to start charging and then switching to an intelligent charger to charge to storage. Slightly later I realized that the locking mechanism of the battery had been damaged in the fall.

The solution was to discharge a scrap battery showing some swelling down to zero for disposal (using a 10 ohm power resistor --> battery drain ca. 1.5 A). I then cut the old battery pack open with a small Dremel cutter and took the necessary parts from the bad battery and successfully repaired the damaged fairly new battery. So far so good.

I now had an opened battery with full access to the actual battery cells. I was able to exactly measure the battery cell package enabling me to search for a replacement pack. I found a 4s6500mAh XT60 battery (Aliexpress PYLFPV Hobby Store) that size wise should fit the yuneec H battery enclosure. Because I took spare parts from the opened, to be scrapped, battery pack I need now need a new battery lock if I want to replace the battery pack. I designed a simple lock that I could easily 3d-print. The required piece is flat and very simple to print. I then use a hot air blower to heat the narrow latch part to enable me to bend it into correct shape. So far the latch mechanism looks promising.

I ordered new cells that should arrive in a few weeks. Installing the new pack will require some soldering but nothing fancy. Obviously soldering the Yuneec H-type connector requires the use of proper heat shrink tubing for all solder joints. I will report back later when the battery pack arrives. The price for the battery pack was 47 e compared to 100 - 120 e for a completely new Chinese battery. The price difference is not a big deal but a good reason to play around . The lock uses the existing axle for the normal Yuneec battery lock to keep the piece securely locked in place. I have a strong feeling that it would be very easy to modify the empty battery case to take a longer battery. Some slight modification to the body of the craft would then be needed to for example use a locking strap instead of the ordinary locking tongue.

... while waiting for the battery pack I will return to repairs needed to get the drone flying again the landing, at least, bent the curved neck of the camera, damaged both landing gears and broke three propellers. It will be interesting to see if some mosfets on the main board are gone too. Fortunately the drone landed on its back not on the camera. My guess is that what happened was GPS disturbances caused by the Russians. The location is some 20 km to the west of Helsinki in the Baltic Sea archipelago 60 deg. N.

I'll report back later regarding how well the battery pack fits.

 

[DoomMeister]

Looking forward to seeing the results of your work.

 

[larsesilen]

I got a LiPo battery from Aliexpress the type is Teranty 4s 6500mah 60C. The physical dimensions of the battery is 136x43x42 mm which just fits the original battery case. Finding a battery pack 134x43x42 would be optimal. I emptied the broken battery through a 10 ohm resistor before carefully cutting one side of the battery case with a Dremel. Emptying the battery properly allows me to get rid of it as normal garbage without special treatment. Having the battery empty before opening the case should make the battery essentially fire proof if I by mistake cut into a cell. It wasn't necessary to cut both long sides because turning the upper side broke the uncut side cleanly.



Take a picture of how the wires are connected for later reference. Carefully cut the wires between the battery and the connector. We want to save the connector so don't damage it. don't short any wires to each other. The new battery is shown in the picture. We are going to solder the original battery connector to the battery and we want to do that correctly to ensure that we are able to balance charge the refurbished battery.



The old connector has been cut free from the old battery pack. The thick left hand connector (RED) is the positive pole. The thin red is also connected to the positive pole but it is used to measure the voltage accurately. After the thin red wire we have four black wires going to the cells in the pack allowing us to balance single cells. The big last connector is ground (MINUS) and to this connector goes two wires, one thin and a thick black.

I started by cutting the ground (minus) and soldering it to the right hand side big connector. Cut only one wire at a time and carefully solder it to the connector. The battery pack is a very tight fit which requires that we don't want any extra length of the two thick wires from the battery to fit the new battery into the case. I had to add soldering one thin black wire after having shrinked the shrink tube on the thick black wire forcing me to cut of the shrink tube. Leaving one single connector uncovered seems safe enough so I didn't re-do the hole joint.



I used clamps to compress the casing to allow me to super glue the side joints. The cut side was glued with super glue after filling the joint with baking soda (Natron). The broken up side was glued using super glue only. After gluing it is a good idea to scrape both joints to ensure that the battery fits into the drone. Please be careful when clamping. I want to keep the joints closed NOT compressing the new battery pack. The fit of the battery pack is very tight, be careful! Use Gel-type super glue near the rear lid to avoid getting glue into the locking mechanism.

The new battery pack cost ca. 45 Euros which is roughly half the price of a replacement battery for example GiFi Power. I am looking forward to try the same on a Q500 battery. All my batteries seem OK at present so no hurry at this time. I think the battery I used can be found by googling the name given above on Aliexpress.

I have so far tested to balance charge the new battery without any problems. I don't expect to see any problems with the pack. If the weather allows I will fly test the battery the next few days.

 

[h-elsner]

If you remove the protection circuit you should never use the Yuneec stock charger any more.

Without this thing you have to use an intelligent charger only.

 

[larsesilen]

The battery seems to work perfectly. I think h-elsner's comment is very important! I haven't used Yuneec's own charger for years always using an intelligent charger for charging, balancing and storage. I will mark the repaired battery accordingly to remember never to charge with Yuneec's charger! The reason for not using Yuneec's charger is simply that it lacks functionality to handle storage after flights, which I think is an important reason for the problem with swelling batteries some users experience. Leaving batteries fully charged isn't a good idea.
Unfortunately I think I trashed the component, it would have been interesting to have a look at it now.