With the underwhelming response to this thread I was sorely tempted to let it lay and go fly, but in the interest of finishing what I started some data was captured from today's first flight of the new battery arrangement.
First and foremost, it works, and works just fine. Secondly, I'm calling B.S. to Yuneec's 5400mA labeling on their factory H battery Ain't no way, not possible, no how, and there's only one three letter word I have for their mA labeling practices. It's simply not possible for a 5400mA, low C rated battery to provide more flight time than a 6000mA, 35C rated battery, even allowing the 6000mA equipped aircraft weighed 70g more than stock. For the record, my usual flight time for a 6300mA factory shell battery runs between 13 and 15 minutes, landing at 14.4V. The first flight of the 6000mA battery, flying aggressively for half the flight and hovering the other half, provided 0:13:37 minutes to the first low V (14.3V) warning, landing at 0:14:09. Total power on time for the battery was 0:17:47
Since most are primarily concerned with "how much flight time?" I can say the first flight with the 6000mA battery was about average for what I normally obtain from a 6300mA battery. I'll be doing a flight with a 7000mA battery shortly just to see the difference, if any.
For those that like numbers, the following.
Aircraft weight for the flight was 2018 grams
Stock aircraft weight is ~1948 grams
Aircraft Test Weight Delta: +70 grams
Amount of battery extending aft of the battery well: 10mm
Power On Battery Voltage: 16.74V
Power On voltage drop: 16.74V down to 16.71V, or 0.03V
Power On Amps: 0.88
Motors On Amps: 3.06 initial spike, falling to 2.91A
Camera Recording Amps: 0.88 climbing to 0.91V, or 0.03V
Hover Amps: 19.5A variable to 20.8A
Voltage at Landing: 14.3V
Voltage Rebound, Motors Off: 14.68V
Gear Swing: ~1A Hover voltage at 19.5A, gear swing increases current to 20.69A
Peak current, entire flight: 44.64A
Peak Watts: 677.1
The aircraft was flown in Angle mode at "Rabbit" speed for the entire flight. GPS was turned off for a portion of the flight to obtain maximum speed and climb rates. Full power climbs combined with maximum forward flight and maximum roll maneuvering were performed to maximize current demand. Absolutely no negative flight performance was experienced in any part of the flight. Hover was stable. maneuvering was normal. Braking was crisp. Take off and landings were both what I would call normal, with zero issues landing in an 8mph cross wind. Landing was "full stop", upright on the ground, without any thought of using the arming button to assist. General weather was clear, dry, and ~82*F.
The test aircraft carried a Watts Up ammeter affixed to the back of the camera gimbal that weighs 71.5 grams. If we deduct for the Watts Up the test weight aircraft and a stock aircraft are within a gram or so of each other, ready to fly. The only performance question I have after the flight is how the test aircraft CG compares to the CG of a stock aircraft.
Fore and aft Center of gravity was checked by balancing the aircraft on balance beams perpendicular to the two arms on each side of the aircraft. Lateral CG was not checked. As someone mentioned in another thread, the Typhoon H has an aft CG when in stock form. As I have yet to check balance of a stock aircraft I do not know if the CG condition is the same or worse with the test aircraft. What I can say for certain is that it required 155 grams of ballast to move the CG forward enough to balance the aircraft on the side to side arms. We might want to note the aircraft body is roughly 195mm long and the side to side arms are positioned ~95mm aft of the front of the aircraft, ~100mm forward of the back of the aircraft. They are not at frame center.
Edit: boom location revised a couple posts later. Correct boom location is 103mm aft of the nose.
The next flight will use a 7000mA battery that weighs just a little more than the 6000mA battery but is 8 grams less in weight than a stock Yuneec "5400mA" battery, and does not extend past the end of the battery well at all. BTW, I'm calling their battery 6300mA from this point forward unless and until they prove to the contrary.
First flight impressions? It works just fine and I could not see or "feel" any difference between the test aircraft and a stock aircraft. I won't ever be buying another factory shell Typhoon H battery. After the 7000mA test flights, I'll be changing out the temporary adapter for the permanent version. It's lighter, eliminates an intermediate pair of connectors, and opens up a few mm of space in the battery well. I'm considering obtaining a more forward gimbal mount to better offset the aft CG to see how it affects flight performance and time.
