Battery level guide
- Thread starter Paladin
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- battery level voltage
If you charge it in the charger fully and put it in the H, what voltage does the ST16 report? i
iTrust me you are not charging your battery fully in the supplied charger to 14.8 and you are not flying your H at 14.8 volts. At least for very long. i
i14.8V (3.7/cell) is the nominal charge.
I copied this from the web, said it way better than I could have. i
i
Not sure WHY they put that on the label. Very misleading.
In the very first post of this thread, Paladin came up with a very good guide
I even printed it out.
Suncoast in post #41 also posted a great guide.
@ 14.8 volts you will be down to just a few minutes flying time.
The supplied Yuneec charger will charge your batteries up to the 16.8 volts which is the maximum. Only thing the Yuneec charger will not do is charge/discharge your batteries to 15.2 volts (storage mode) if you will not be flying for some time.
We are finding several misleading labels on many of the Yuneec things.
In the very first post of this thread, Paladin came up with a very good guide
I even printed it out.
Suncoast in post #41 also posted a great guide.
@ 14.8 volts you will be down to just a few minutes flying time.
The supplied Yuneec charger will charge your batteries up to the 16.8 volts which is the maximum. Only thing the Yuneec charger will not do is charge/discharge your batteries to 15.2 volts (storage mode) if you will not be flying for some time.
We are finding several misleading labels on many of the Yuneec things.
That is not Yuneec mislabeling, that is how they label Lipo batteries in general. The nominal voltage is the voltage used for labeling. They don't use the max charge.
For example if you go to buy any generic lipo 3 cell battery they label it as 11.1V but they charge to 12.6V.
My LHS owner helped me out today a lot. He pointed out that ALL, again, all LiPO batteries are charged to max at 4.2V per cell.
I also give credit to Paladin for the knowledge. I am relatively new to LiPO batteries.
I was wondering why I was getting like 5 minutes of flight time and then the first warning signal would come up. I know he explained the voltage thing to me before and I believe my charger was set correctly at some point. I think I changed the volts per cell when I was using the charger to discharge the batteries for cycling purposes. I didnt even think anything about the charge the voltage because when I did the math for the battery it was correct according to what is on the label.
Again thanks to all that replied.
I also give credit to Paladin for the knowledge. I am relatively new to LiPO batteries.
I was wondering why I was getting like 5 minutes of flight time and then the first warning signal would come up. I know he explained the voltage thing to me before and I believe my charger was set correctly at some point. I think I changed the volts per cell when I was using the charger to discharge the batteries for cycling purposes. I didnt even think anything about the charge the voltage because when I did the math for the battery it was correct according to what is on the label.
Again thanks to all that replied.
Okay I have to ask, how are you charging it to a specific voltage? Are you using an adapter and charging it on a non stock charger? You must be because the stock charger basically just charges it to full and that is it. No options for anything else really.
Also remember the 10/10 rule. Charge them fully and only fly for about 10 minutes, or 50-55% of the battery's capacity, which is about 10 min on the H. Do this for the first 10 times you use the battery. This will condition them for maximum performance.
It's a chemistry thing. ii
You may be hurting your batteries charging them to 14.8 and flying it a few minutes.
Also I am no expert by any means but I have already learned a lot in the past month or so. I learn fast when I get into things so that is always a good thing. ii
Also remember the 10/10 rule. Charge them fully and only fly for about 10 minutes, or 50-55% of the battery's capacity, which is about 10 min on the H. Do this for the first 10 times you use the battery. This will condition them for maximum performance.
It's a chemistry thing. i
iYou may be hurting your batteries charging them to 14.8 and flying it a few minutes.
Also I am no expert by any means but I have already learned a lot in the past month or so. I learn fast when I get into things so that is always a good thing. i
i
Yes, because the stock charger only charges to full capacity, if left to completion and does not discharge batteries at all? curious if you are using a after market charger?
I had my LHS owner help me with the modification posted in this forum and am using my Dynamite Passport Ultra 220W LCD AC/DC Multichemistry battery charger. It works very well. It will discharge the batteries so I can condition them as well as allow me some freedom to up the charging amps a bit to help reduce the charging time. I fully charge a battery from 25% in under an hour at 5.4 amps(1C), at 6.0 amps the charge takes right around 50 minutes. Somewhere in this forum there are higher charging amps reported in another thread. I believe the numbers 8.0 and/or 10.0 amps have been tossed around without any heating of the batteries.
As far as learning fast, having reached my golden years there are just some things I dont absorb and electronic goboldy gook is one of them. Its all a foreign language to me, always has been. Ask me about mechanical things...being a manufacturing/process engineer I'm all on top of that.
Here is my charging station.
I was able to charge 4 Typhoon Q500 batteries at the same time in about 75 minutes.
As far as learning fast, having reached my golden years there are just some things I dont absorb and electronic goboldy gook is one of them. Its all a foreign language to me, always has been. Ask me about mechanical things...being a manufacturing/process engineer I'm all on top of that.
Here is my charging station.
Last edited:
Nice set up, so you charge one in the doc and other three with a wire harness? Did you mod the stock charger yourself? Good job!
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I couldn't find an answer to my question in this thread although I sure learned a lot of other things.
I just bought a dual-battery EV-PEAK charger after a few folks recommended it. I have 3 OEM batteries & one brand new Ultrax. I'm seeing 4.2V x 4 on all of the batteries but the mAH numbers are confusing. All of the OEM batteries have charged to 100% but one shows 18 mAH, another 15 mAH, a 3rd shows 37 mAH & the Ultrax (6300 mAH) showed 3482 mAH when fully charged.
Thinking maybe the charger was iffy I swapped the Ultrax into the other side and it read 100% charges but 12 mAH. I just plugged the first two batteries back in and at 100% they show 16 mAH & 59 mAH. (I'm going to label them as soon as I'm done with this post). I bought the drone used and the seller said it hadn't been flown much and considering it's in pristine condition I'm inclined to believe him. Everything has been stored in my closet so temp changes aren't an issue.
Another curiosity is after the batteries are fully charged I'll put them back into the charger & they'll show the charge has dropped a couple of percentage points. Just now one of them took 13 seconds to go back to 100% and it shows 1 mAH while the other took 3:15 & shows 50 mAH.
Needless to say I'm a bit confused. None of the batteries were installed in the drone after charging - they just sat on the counter for a few minutes.
I just bought a dual-battery EV-PEAK charger after a few folks recommended it. I have 3 OEM batteries & one brand new Ultrax. I'm seeing 4.2V x 4 on all of the batteries but the mAH numbers are confusing. All of the OEM batteries have charged to 100% but one shows 18 mAH, another 15 mAH, a 3rd shows 37 mAH & the Ultrax (6300 mAH) showed 3482 mAH when fully charged.
Thinking maybe the charger was iffy I swapped the Ultrax into the other side and it read 100% charges but 12 mAH. I just plugged the first two batteries back in and at 100% they show 16 mAH & 59 mAH. (I'm going to label them as soon as I'm done with this post). I bought the drone used and the seller said it hadn't been flown much and considering it's in pristine condition I'm inclined to believe him. Everything has been stored in my closet so temp changes aren't an issue.
Another curiosity is after the batteries are fully charged I'll put them back into the charger & they'll show the charge has dropped a couple of percentage points. Just now one of them took 13 seconds to go back to 100% and it shows 1 mAH while the other took 3:15 & shows 50 mAH.
Needless to say I'm a bit confused. None of the batteries were installed in the drone after charging - they just sat on the counter for a few minutes.
thanks! great info! I wish they would just make it simpler.
I spent several hours over the weekend reading threads and watching videos on Lipo batteries and took notes etc.. This is the guide I came up with and I think it is pretty accurate. I am not an expert in any way but this information is from various sources and seems to be the best overall advice.
I hope it is okay to post this, I am just trying to help. i
I wanted a nice easy to search guide that new users could reference. If that exists, my apologies, I can delete this.
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Recommended Voltages for the Typhoon H.
13.2V (3.3V/cell) Lowest voltage the battery should EVER be at. Below this the battery will most likely die. NEVER EVER let it get this low. If it is even possible on the H.
14.0V (3.5V/cell ) ABSOLUTE lowest level your voltage should ever be at to land for Lipo's in general. Below 14V is too low for good battery health, It is not recommend letting the H get this low. The warning will kick in before this so I don't think you can even run it this low thankfully.
14.3V Warning kicks in at this level but land BEFORE you ever see this warning!
Some guys report that they just land when the warning comes on at 14.3V. Feel free to do this but it is not the advice from everyone. This would be the absolute minimum voltage you should ever land at with the H IMHO. Hence the warning. i
14.4V (3.6V/cell) Reported Lipo lowest safe level for a slow speed (not pushing the motors if far away) return and landing. Consensus is to land before you even reach this level to be safe. This is the "oops I was not paying attention and need to bring it home now" level if you forgot. You can drain the battery down to this and probably be okay but with variations in batteries and other factors you may or may not have issues over time.
14.8V (3.7V/cell) SAFE landing. The recommended voltage to start landing at. This takes into account battery differences, the accuracy of the reported voltage and reading the voltages under load. Usual advice is your battery will last the longest not letting it get too much below this level. This is having about 15% remaining on the battery. Some say you can run it even lower if you want to get max flight time but I would land no lower than 14.6V or maybe 14.5V. This is more for battery health than running out of power.
15.0V (3.75V/cell) If your drone is far away from you, but still in LOS, start thinking about bringing it home at 15V, or just below, to allow enough time to bring it home safe at whatever speed you want.
15.2V (3.8V/cell ) For storage. Keep it at this voltage when not using the battery for any length of time like over the winter. For us unlucky people that have to deal with winter. i
16.8V (4.2V/cell ) Highest voltage the battery can hold or fully charged.
PatR
Premium Pilot
I don't believe the table in the first post is accurate. 3.27v is not zero. 3.2v is the lowest level a lipo cell should ever be discharged to, but even that is not zero capacity remaining.
It actually is pretty simple. It was established long ago not to discharge your batteries below 30% of capacity for best longevity. For general purposes not dipping below 3.4v- 3.6v v/cell always works. Nothing has changed in lithium polymer chemistry to alter that. So multiply the "s" number (3s, 4s, 6s, etc.) times 3.4 and don't discharge below that total. I use 3.6v/cell and my batteries remain functional for well over a year and many charge cycles.
Manufacturers that use smart batteries and proprietary battery cells make money from the sale of new batteries. They sell an aircraft only once to a customer but they can sell batteries many times to the same customer. Do you think they are more interested in protecting the consumer or in generating a profit? Bear in mind that voltage warnings used in systems are minimums.
It actually is pretty simple. It was established long ago not to discharge your batteries below 30% of capacity for best longevity. For general purposes not dipping below 3.4v- 3.6v v/cell always works. Nothing has changed in lithium polymer chemistry to alter that. So multiply the "s" number (3s, 4s, 6s, etc.) times 3.4 and don't discharge below that total. I use 3.6v/cell and my batteries remain functional for well over a year and many charge cycles.
Manufacturers that use smart batteries and proprietary battery cells make money from the sale of new batteries. They sell an aircraft only once to a customer but they can sell batteries many times to the same customer. Do you think they are more interested in protecting the consumer or in generating a profit? Bear in mind that voltage warnings used in systems are minimums.
"Manufacturers that use smart batteries and proprietary battery cells make money from the sale of new batteries."
DJI comes to mind. I have two Phantoms but there are non OEM intelligent batteries that are just as good. I have an OEM (4-cell) with one cell barely under the allowable percentage differential of the other 3 but the control displays "Bad battery" although it works just fine. I've discharged them to safe storage levels & hope a recharge will allow the one cell to "catch up" with the others.
DJI comes to mind. I have two Phantoms but there are non OEM intelligent batteries that are just as good. I have an OEM (4-cell) with one cell barely under the allowable percentage differential of the other 3 but the control displays "Bad battery" although it works just fine. I've discharged them to safe storage levels & hope a recharge will allow the one cell to "catch up" with the others.
Hello @PDX1953 I believe I might help you with your confusion. Although I've performed my own research on Lipo batteries, I'm not an expert, so any other insight from other users would be appreciated.
I think I understand what your confusion is, but please correct me if I'm wrong. I believe you're getting confused by the milliamp counter on your charger. I don't own the same charger as you do, but I believe most smart chargers display the same basic information. My charger for example displays the following info when charging:
(excuse the low-res photo)
On the lower half of the screen (channel B) the display is as follows:
LP4s 0.1A 16.76V
BAL 086:56 01632
Meaning:
LP4s - Lithium-polymer battery, 4 cells in Series
0.1A - Current charging Amperage
16.76V - Current battery total Voltage
BAL - Charge mode (balance charge in this case)
086:56 - Elapsed charging time
01632 - Charged capacity
The last one might be the one you're having issues with. This number is also a sort-of counter, it is not a measurement from the battery. (The manual labels it as Charged Capacity, but I dont know if there's a better term to be used). It basically displays how many milliamps have been "injected" into the battery during your current charge.
A discharged battery that has finished charging to it's max voltage will display a very high ammount of "injected" milliamps since it required all that current to reach the max. voltage. However, an already fully charged battery will still take a few amps while holding the max. voltage until your charger decides it's done. (actually, the last stage of charge on lithium batteries, is holding the max. voltage while still injecting current, they don't just pop-out when voltage is maxed)
This is why when you charged your Ultrax battery you saw a high number, but when you removed it and switched back showed a very small number; it is just displaying those few milliamps that still went into the battery.
Also, a small drop in voltage after a full charge is normal, unless it is a significant drop in voltage (meaning the battery is no longer holding its charge) then everything is OK.
Anyway, as I said I'm not an expert but this is how I understand it. I hope you find this helpful.
Greetings!
Hello @PDX1953 I believe I might help you with your confusion. Although I've performed my own research on Lipo batteries, I'm not an expert, so any other insight from other users would be appreciated.
I think I understand what your confusion is, but please correct me if I'm wrong. I believe you're getting confused by the milliamp counter on your charger. I don't own the same charger as you do, but I believe most smart chargers display the same basic information. My charger for example displays the following info when charging:
(excuse the low-res photo)
On the lower half of the screen (channel B) the display is as follows:
LP4s 0.1A 16.76V
BAL 086:56 01632
Meaning:
LP4s - Lithium-polymer battery, 4 cells in Series
0.1A - Current charging Amperage
16.76V - Current battery total Voltage
BAL - Charge mode (balance charge in this case)
086:56 - Elapsed charging time
01632 - Charged capacity
The last one might be the one you're having issues with. This number is also a sort-of counter, it is not a measurement from the battery. (The manual labels it as Charged Capacity, but I dont know if there's a better term to be used). It basically displays how many milliamps have been "injected" into the battery during your current charge.
A discharged battery that has finished charging to it's max voltage will display a very high ammount of "injected" milliamps since it required all that current to reach the max. voltage. However, an already fully charged battery will still take a few amps while holding the max. voltage until your charger decides it's done. (actually, the last stage of charge on lithium batteries, is holding the max. voltage while still injecting current, they don't just pop-out when voltage is maxed)
This is why when you charged your Ultrax battery you saw a high number, but when you removed it and switched back showed a very small number; it is just displaying those few milliamps that still went into the battery.
Also, a small drop in voltage after a full charge is normal, unless it is a significant drop in voltage (meaning the battery is no longer holding its charge) then everything is OK.
Anyway, as I said I'm not an expert but this is how I understand it. I hope you find this helpful.
Greetings!
Thank you - that makes total sense! I guess an analogy would be gassing up the car. If you shut off the pump when it first clicked off & then started to fill it again it'd only take a few quarts or even less.
Speaking of gas pumps - I live in OR and OR & NJ are the only two states where drivers can't fill their own cars (exception - diesel). When I lived in CT I could usually squeeze a gallon or more into the tank but here, as soon as the pump clicks off you're done. It's annoying but then again, when it's raining, cold and the wind is blowing I'm in the comfort of my car.
Thanks again.
PatR
Premium Pilot
Oregon passed an anti spill law a few years back to minimize fuel spills and environmental damage. The first shut off terminates the filling process and minimizes overflow. Banning self fueling is a type of entitlement program. It provides jobs to many that would be otherwise unemployable. What’s interesting is Oregon’s fuel prices are substantially lower that the state to the south where everyone has to pump their own gas.
I was born in Portland 64 years ago & have had a license since I was 16. No person other than a gas station employee has ever been allowed to pump fuel at a retail station with the exception of diesel, which I believe is a relatively new development. If you have a commercial account you can pump your own gas and diesel at a 'card lock' station but there aren't any attendants, 7-11's or bathrooms. There's a Bill in the OR Senate that could change things in small towns b/c they don't get many customers at night. If passed, motorists will be allowed to pump their own when the station is closed.
I moved to CA in '82 & while here on vacation one time I automatically started to pump my own gas. The owner politely told me I couldn't, which I'd forgotten about so I asked why nearly every other state allowed self service. His explanation? "So people won't blow up their cars." I had to laugh out loud because if people in other states were routinely blowing up their cars it'd probably be on the news. I believe Hawaii changed to self service in the late '80 - early '90's and the only two holdouts are OR & NJ.
The Federal tax on gasoline is $0.184/gallon and the OR tax is $0.30/gallon. Some local jurisdictions add additional tax but fuel in Florence, a small town on the Oregon coast doesn't tax gasoline so it's less expensive there even though it's trucked a minimum of 90 miles.
The Federal gasoline tax is the same in all states but California's current states tax is $0.417/gallon plus $0.014 / gallon "other" tax and like Oregon some jurisdictions impose additional tax so that's a quick & dirty answer as to why their fuel is more expensive.
The lowest state gas tax is GA with $0.075 / gallon and the highest is PA with $0.58 / gallon. If you travel much Gas Buddy is a great free app. When I visit family in Sacramento I start off with a full tank, fill up again in Medford, OR (255 miles) & then it's another 310 miles to Sacramento.
Wow - we sure got off topic so I'll just say the next time I go to Sacramento I'm taking my drones. The weather in OR sucks right now & it was clear & 64 there today. Great flying weather.
