Battery News

[AveryBadman96]

I bought a powerxtra 6300mah battery anď so far approx 2 to 3 minutes on average longer flight time than my stock ones. I was a little scared at first flight as I charged it fully and it ran out of juice and auto landing in around 12 minutes. That was the very first charge and never did that again. I now get around 18 to 20 minutes of regular flying. I usually take off quick, get to height and area i want to record fast, then putter around getting my shot angles. I also spend my time and fly back quickly making sure I'm within a certain distance from me for my 1st, and second warning. I hand catch shortly before or after my 2nd warning.

 

[klattu]

Oh boy....fun stuff today from the FedEx man !

 

[PatR]

Avery,

Your batteries will have a longer life if you don’t fly past the first warning.

 

[NorWiscPilot]

I bought a powerxtra 6300mah battery anď so far approx 2 to 3 minutes on average longer flight time than my stock ones. I was a little scared at first flight as I charged it fully and it ran out of juice and auto landing in around 12 minutes. That was the very first charge and never did that again. I now get around 18 to 20 minutes of regular flying. I usually take off quick, get to height and area i want to record fast, then putter around getting my shot angles. I also spend my time and fly back quickly making sure I'm within a certain distance from me for my 1st, and second warning. I hand catch shortly before or after my 2nd warning.

Avery,

Glad to hear you are satisfied with your Powerextra battery.

I bought two over the summer (June/July). They were not and still are not any better than my original Yuneec batteries, which have exhibited shorter durations. (The reduced flight times of the originals could easily be a result of the then “new to LiPo” author of this reply.)

Since then any follow-up acquisitions have been treated with kindness, such as PatR preaches. Their endurance is proof if that old saying “be good to your batteries; they will be good to you.”

I did pick up a couple of GensTatu batteries. They are great so far. Hopefully will continue to be.

Jeff

P.S. those Powerextra batteries still have not “broken in” for me as it seems they did for you. Guess we know where I will go when the need arises for more bullets. [emoji256][emoji573]

 

[PatR]

There will be times we encounter suppliers with low product turn over that will sell old batteries. In general a lipo has a two year life span if left in a constant storage charge state. If we receive a battery of this age it won’t last long regardless of how well we care for it. It’s not often this happens but buying from locations that turn a lot of product helps assure a fresh battery supply.

When we obtain new batteries how we treat them is the difference between good flight times and long lives or a constantly decreasing flight time and short life cycle. Don’t deep discharge a lipo. Doing so is a death sentence for them.

 

[Windluv]

Got my GiFi 8050 today; the case was not properly glued and the battery fell out when I opened the package. A small crack as well on the plastic case that is not visible. Epoxy fixed, but not a good sign.

Cycling the battery now to determine the actual capacity. Initially seems very good.

 

[PatR]

Time to contact the seller about quality control. My way of thinking has that one a defective product. Hopefully you took pictures of it showing condition before the case came apart.

 

[TimboSlice]

Sorry, but this battery thing is a bit over the top for me. It seems a lot of people can't be satisfied with any amount of flight time they can obtain from a battery and are on a life long quest for the "magical" 2 hour flight time battery. Whether the stock Yuneec battery is a 5400mA or 6300mA really doesn't matter. We might presume it's 6300mA as the flight time it provides pretty much equates across the board with what all the other 6300mA batteries provide in flight time. Sure, there are minor difference of a couple minutes either way on an average but the conditions and the way those batteries were flown established the flight time they delivered. I sort of look at it like the gas tank in my car. I hasn't mattered a twit which brand of gas I've used, that tank provides ~400 miles of range, with some variation dependent on how I was driving, regardless of the brand or grade used.

So we have the Yuneec batteries that deliver "X" flight time, with that amount of time a variable impacted by weather conditions and how aggressive the operator flew their H. We have the Tattu batteries that deliver almost exactly the same flight, and re-charge times and mA inputs for virtually the same about of flight time for ~$70.00 to $80.00 less than the Yuneec batteries. Both the Tattu/UltraX and Yuneec batteries for the most part hold up for a long time if they are treated as they should be treated. All of mine are now over a year old and the only ones that have gone bad were all over discharged. We see the Venom batteries listed as having 400mA more capacity than the Tattu.Ultrax but at $60.00 higher price per battery. Then we have the exalted 8000mA GiFi battery that some have tried, and found not to their liking. Graphene batteries have worked for a few more minutes of flight but some have reported relatively short battery life spans. How much is a couple extra minutes of flight time worth to you?

There's no reason to be tense while flying because of battery state. It's too easy to periodically look at the battery level while flying. It doesn't take all that many flights to determine what your average flight time will be, and there's no reason to fly to the other end of the earth during the period of time you are learning how much flight time you might expect. Those that use a little bit of intelligence invest in better chargers and monitor battery conditions, noting voltages before and after charging and recording mA inputs for each battery. Other buy better charges and log their flight time, along with end of flight battery voltages and track all of that and compare mA input for longer flights in order to establish the lowest safe voltage they can fly to. They understand that lithium batteries should not be flown down to more than 70% capacity, with capacity being the charge state in mA. A 6300mA battery should not be drawn down more than ~4410ma, and at that level the battery will be at a specific voltage. This is where the Yuneec battery is a bit of a quandary because it states it's a 5400 mA battery, but if you treat it like a 6300mA battery it still keeps on ticking like it's a 6300mA battery. A 5400mA battery would have died an early death if treated like a 6300mA battery. Those that fly like a bat out of **** learn that doing so causes the battery to generate low voltage warnings fairly soon because the load on the battery can exceed the burst discharge ability and cause voltage to temporarily drop below the warning level. Reducing the electrical load permits the voltage to creep up again after a few moments, but that doesn't mean flight time just got extended. All the current used in that wild flying is gone and it's not coming back after you relax thumb pressure. None of this stuff is rocket science.

My first Pro level camera rig was a Cinestar 1000mm 8 with a FreeFly Radian Gimbal fitted with Canon and Nikon cameras, and could carry a Red. It required a pair of 6s batteries, generally of 7,000mA to 12,000mA capacities. On a good day with the lighter Canon or Nikon and 14,000mA of batteries it could fly for 7 minutes. If the wind was blowing pretty good that reduced. The rule was to always be on the ground, or on the way to the ground by the 5 minute mark. With heavier cameras and the 20,000mA of battery capacity the flight time was pretty much the same. We got used to it and planned our flights around that flight time. People would have just about killed for 10 minutes of flight time back then. Since then flight times have gotten better because of more efficient components and lower aircraft/camera weights. There have not been any earth shattering breakthroughs in battery technology, and energy density has not improved all that much in the chemistries available to us. Battery prices have gotten a lot better though.

I guess is to simply accept what is. Plan the flight, fly the plan. if you need 1/2 and hour of flight time you're either flying much too far away or flitting about trying to figure out what to do. Buy a few extra batteries. You really didn't go into this stuff because it was cheap, right?

And that my friends, it that. Well said Pat

 

[glider]

That info about the 3.5v drop off knee was pure gold. Thanks!

I bought that battery only to test and really put it through the ringer; couldn't kill it. It was the only batter that I've used that can take deeper discharges without harming it. However, like I said, once at 3.5v you'd better land quickly because it goes to 3.2 like crap through a goose. Best battery for endurance in a MR I ever tried. GiFi so far has been the worst.

 

[PatR]

Your tip about the graphene is what caused me to try one in the 920. The factory 920 batteries are crap. The graphene worked out great, providing 21 minutes of flight for the test. As the graphene battery cost $112 and required only one it was quite successful. It takes three Yuneec batteries at $279 per pair ($400+ for three) for 23-25 minutes...

I’ll be buying a few more 8000mA graphenes[emoji4]

 

[John Hennessy]

Hi All,
I wish that we had this much choice in batteries to buy and try. Firstly the cost of shipping to a Australia is over the top, let alone trying to get one that will ship is another problem. I learnt early to look after your batteries and have a Ev-Peak 4x100 water separate out let charger that does all the battery types and with the adapter Balance Cables from Carolina Drones I achieve very good balance chargeing and look after my batteries as they are hard to get. I learnt not to discharge your batteries down to the first warning as they will not last too long before getting puffy and only good for calibrating . You should be landed well before the first warning if you Ewan to have your batteries for any length of time and durability. That's my two bobs worth, hope that I haven't upset anybody, but nothing worse than a battery going the fritz when just up over the middle of a house and it may decide not to go on with the job,that chance I or my business will never take and my licence requires that we log all starting and finishing battery voltages for possible negligent claims incase of an accident. Johnno Hennessy.
Keep flying on the green side of the grass.

 

[glider]

Your tip about the graphene is what caused me to try one in the 920. The factory 920 batteries are crap. The graphene worked out great, providing 21 minutes of flight for the test. As the graphene battery cost $112 and required only one it was quite successful. It takes three Yuneec batteries at $279 per pair ($400+ for three) for 23-25 minutes...

I’ll be buying a few more 8000mA graphenes[emoji4]

WOW! Holy MAH batman!

I can't justify spending that much for a drone, but the 920 is my kind of bird, except for the batteries of course

 

[PatR]

As the few left have come down to $3200 it pencils out. Being able to dispense with three 4000mA, 6S, 8C batteries for a single 8000mA has a nice impact on operating costs. I’m still researching other battery options, and there are several that hint at even longer flight times at a cost lower than the graphene.