Battery and cleaning questions.

[SeekInShadows]

I'm having horrible luck with the extra batteries I've bought from best buy. I returned the first because I first noticed a white powder substance in the edges of the battery and then it started to puff up. I never even used it. Now the replacement for that one is puffing up as well. Not extremely so but there's is clearly gas building up under the "Power 4" label and the caution label underneath. Back to Best Buy. I'm sure it's rough shipping causing the problem. The two that came with the Yuneec are fine.

That led me to wonder about third party batteries that are a bit cheaper. Has anyone had any experience with them? Yay or nay on using them?

2nd question. I live in Colorado and fly mostly in the plains....dry and dusty! Are there any cleaning procedures to stop dust build up in the motors, etc? I'm hesitant on using canned air because that and electronic components rarely mix well.

 

[Murray Martz]

I'm having horrible luck with the extra batteries I've bought from best buy. I returned the first because I first noticed a white powder substance in the edges of the battery and then it started to puff up. I never even used it. Now the replacement for that one is puffing up as well. Not extremely so but there's is clearly gas building up under the "Power 4" label and the caution label underneath. Back to Best Buy. I'm sure it's rough shipping causing the problem. The two that came with the Yuneec are fine.

That led me to wonder about third party batteries that are a bit cheaper. Has anyone had any experience with them? Yay or nay on using them?

2nd question. I live in Colorado and fly mostly in the plains....dry and dusty! Are there any cleaning procedures to stop dust build up in the motors, etc? I'm hesitant on using canned air because that and electronic components rarely mix well.

Sometimes batteries can be a hit or miss. I'm in Canada and bought my two extra through a supplier here as it turned out to be cheaper than getting a few US ones, and they are working better than my Yuneec one. It has less charges on it and has signs of swelling.

As I am in the prairies dust is everywhere for me. I use a small compressor with an inline water filter and blow it clean when I'm home. Part of the problem with canned air is that the propellant it very cold and it can sometimes wreak havoc on the plastic and boards of the motors.

 

[FlushVision]

I use one of my dog's old squeaky toys with the 'squeak' removed to clean around the motors, etc. That way I'm using blown air at room temperature with the same moisture content as that surrounding the TH. Where I am, though, is not generally noted as a dusty area.

 

[Rayray]

I live in Colorado and fly mostly in the plains....dry and dusty!

Dry is good, but dust will kill the TH and the camera. Use a landing pad, piece of carpet remnant, whatever, to take off from and land on. Not much you can do about dust in the air, try to fly in calmer conditions.

Tipping over when landing: the sticks are soft, and it is all too easy to have the left stick slightly left or right when landing, which usually causes a flip. Land slow, in Angle and Turtle modes. When a foot or two high, bump the right stick if necessary to recenter the drone. Then, leaving the right stick alone, slowly pull the left stick all the way back and hold it there as the drone touches down and you hear the props slow down. Now gently move the left stick back to center, reach up and depress the Red button until the props stop.

Do not be afraid to try the Red button "jogging method" to land. As above, but when you get two or three feet above your landing spot, bump the right stick if necessary to recenter the drone. Now, leaving the right stick alone, bump the Red button. Do not hold it down, just jog it. The drone will descend slightly. Bump it again as necessary until the drone is less than a foot high then hold it down. The drone will land and the motors will shut down, then release the Red button. Another Mod and I have personally tested this method a number of times. We have the latest firmware updates.

Members have not reported many new battery problems. There is a lot of forum info about batteries, use the Search (Magnifying Glass).
Good luck. I love CO in the summer.

 

[AH-1G]

I purchased 8 Yuneec Typhoon H LiPo Batteries 6700 mAh from venompower.com. I can get 25 minutes flight time with camera running none windy day.
most of the time flying 22 minutes. If more aggressive then 19 minutes. I haven't had any issues.

 

[jferdon]

Got my H on Friday. Flew Saturday after updating firmware and doing full calibrations. Base elevation was approximately 6200', about 75 F ambient, little to no wind. First flight on the 5400 mAh battery was 17:50 to the first warning (16.4 to 14.6) and landing. Second flight on another 5400 mAh battery was 16:41 to the first warning (16.6 to 14.7) and landing. Haven't tried distance out from me yet as I was testing vertical limits (yup, just where they should be - right under 400' AGL) and the camera.

I picked up a couple 6300 mAh batteries from Morpilot and will do some testing with them soon to see how it goes. I wanted to get the 6700 mAh batteries, but couldn't afford them at the time.

More fun to be had!

 

[ArnhemAnt]

Are there any cleaning procedures to stop dust build up in the motors, etc?

I live in a remote part of Australia. We have two distinct seasons. The 'wet' and the 'dry'. The 'wet' speaks for itself. During the 'dry' season, things get pretty dusty. There is also a lot of tiny magnetic filings in some of the areas up here. I learnt very quickly to always have a landing pad for take off, and landing. This helps a lot to reduce the amount of dust being thrown up, and also stops the metallic filings from being sucked into the magnets on the motors. Given the local environment, the best course of action is to try and prevent cleaning dirt and dust from the UAV or the radio. Keep things in cases until you are going to use them, and then put them straight back into those containers/cases after you have finished.
I used to use compressed air, but I found that, quite often, it would blow the dirt and dust further into things - around the sticks on the radio, etc.

 

[Windluv]

I'm having horrible luck with the extra batteries I've bought from best buy. I returned the first because I first noticed a white powder substance in the edges of the battery and then it started to puff up. I never even used it. Now the replacement for that one is puffing up as well. Not extremely so but there's is clearly gas building up under the "Power 4" label and the caution label underneath. Back to Best Buy. I'm sure it's rough shipping causing the problem. The two that came with the Yuneec are fine.

If you where to open up a lithium based cell you would see the 'white powder' most typically around the inside sealing edges, as this may be performed as an autopsy of the cell to see it's failure mechanism. As the battery looses it's capacity it is essentially loosing the actual lithium matrix and structure (which is a soft metal and flexes more then say nickel or lead) which will collect around the sealing edges as this is where the ionic flow of the cell is impeded the most due to manufacturing issues. The white powder or decomposing lithium may appear in other areas of the cell depending on the 'slurry' and coating efficiency of process and actual material. Lithium cells have many 'micro-climates' inside them such as around the edges, the spot welds of the casing, the thickness variation of the material slurry being laid down on the material. There may be hundreds of small differences in the actual cell that cause different effective rates of ionic movement. However, the white powder should never ever never be leaking out. The puffing up of the cell is a definite sign of out-gassing of the cell, which causes additional lithium structure loss which typically is the white powder seen in a cell autopsy, but not visible outside the cell.

Definitely return these to Best Buy as it sounds you have. I have many cells that have puffed up over the years, and one original H cell that is severely underperforming, but I have not seen the lithium white powder residue outside of manufactured consumer cells. I would assume it was severely damaged in shipping and opened the internal seals on the battery cells. The outgassing may assist in pressuring the seal to leak.

 

[SeekInShadows]

I use one of my dog's old squeaky toys with the 'squeak' removed to clean around the motors, etc. That way I'm using blown air at room temperature with the same moisture content as that surrounding the TH. Where I am, though, is not generally noted as a dusty area.

LOL. I couldn't do that with my dogs' toys. Too much slobber.

 

[SeekInShadows]

....However, the white powder should never ever never be leaking out. The puffing up of the cell is a definite sign of out-gassing of the cell, which causes additional lithium structure loss which typically is the white powder seen in a cell autopsy, but not visible outside the cell.

Definitely return these to Best Buy as it sounds you have. I have many cells that have puffed up over the years, and one original H cell that is severely underperforming, but I have not seen the lithium white powder residue outside of manufactured consumer cells. I would assume it was severely damaged in shipping and opened the internal seals on the battery cells. The outgassing may assist in pressuring the seal to leak.

I had figured the white powder was something from inside the battery. It seemed like it was from underneath the labels. I will be returning it. Hopefully third time is a charm.

 

[SeekInShadows]

Got my H on Friday. Flew Saturday after updating firmware and doing full calibrations. Base elevation was approximately 6200', about 75 F ambient, little to no wind. First flight on the 5400 mAh battery was 17:50 to the first warning (16.4 to 14.6) and landing. Second flight on another 5400 mAh battery was 16:41 to the first warning (16.6 to 14.7) and landing. Haven't tried distance out from me yet as I was testing vertical limits (yup, just where they should be - right under 400' AGL) and the camera.

I picked up a couple 6300 mAh batteries from Morpilot and will do some testing with them soon to see how it goes. I wanted to get the 6700 mAh batteries, but couldn't afford them at the time.

More fun to be had!

Let me know how those batteries work out for you. I would like to get a couple of more as I have 3 already. I figure 5 is good for always having one on the charger when I'm out and about.

 

[SeekInShadows]

Dry is good, but dust will kill the TH and the camera. Use a landing pad, piece of carpet remnant, whatever, to take off from and land on. Not much you can do about dust in the air, try to fly in calmer conditions.

Tipping over when landing: the sticks are soft, and it is all too easy to have the left stick slightly left or right when landing, which usually causes a flip. Land slow, in Angle and Turtle modes. When a foot or two high, bump the right stick if necessary to recenter the drone. Then, leaving the right stick alone, slowly pull the left stick all the way back and hold it there as the drone touches down and you hear the props slow down. Now gently move the left stick back to center, reach up and depress the Red button until the props stop.

Do not be afraid to try the Red button "jogging method" to land. As above, but when you get two or three feet above your landing spot, bump the right stick if necessary to recenter the drone. Now, leaving the right stick alone, bump the Red button. Do not hold it down, just jog it. The drone will descend slightly. Bump it again as necessary until the drone is less than a foot high then hold it down. The drone will land and the motors will shut down, then release the Red button. Another Mod and I have personally tested this method a number of times. We have the latest firmware updates.

Members have not reported many new battery problems. There is a lot of forum info about batteries, use the Search (Magnifying Glass).
Good luck. I love CO in the summer.

Thanks! I've been hitting the red button when the H is a foot or two off the ground so the engines kill just as it's touching down. That has worked so far since I started trying it. Although one day, I hit it too late and it slightly tipped to the left but then came back down when the engines stopped. I normally land it really slow because for some reason, my H just comes down slow usually. When it's in smart mode...it won't even land so I have to use angle mode. It also gets jerky when I have it in turtle mode so I always have it in rabbit mode.

 

[Eagle's Eye Video]

Let me know how those batteries work out for you. I would like to get a couple of more as I have 3 already. I figure 5 is good for always having one on the charger when I'm out and about.

I would not recommend charging when you are out... you don't have to sit and watch them,
but I would at least stay in the house or in the yard.

 

[SeekInShadows]

I would not recommend charging when you are out... you don't have to sit and watch them,
but I would at least stay in the house or in the yard.

I meant charging them in the car when I'm out of the house so that I can fly longer.

 

[PatR]

Charge them on the outside of the car The number of times a battery has decided to give up all the energy while being charged inside a car are too numerous to list, and usually caused considerable damage to the car in the process. Charger and battery sitting on the ground, cables long enough to reach the car's battery, and few concerns about a battery charging while your flying.

 

[SeekInShadows]

Charge them on the outside of the car The number of times a battery has decided to give up all the energy while being charged inside a car are too numerous to list, and usually caused considerable damage to the car in the process. Charger and battery sitting on the ground, cables long enough to reach the car's battery, and few concerns about a battery charging while your flying.

Good point. I'm sure my insurance agent would take issue with "well my car caught fire because I was charging my drone battery and it exploded".

 

[Eagle's Eye Video]

Good point. I'm sure my insurance agent would take issue with "well my car caught fire because I was charging my drone battery and it exploded".

Naw that should be fine... it's not like it was an act of God, or some such...