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Cold Weather Strange Battery Behavior Poss. Issues Typhoon H

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Hello, Went flying last weekend with my newly repaired typhoon H while the temperature here in the northeast was over 50 at that time. All went well with 2 flights and two batteries normal flight time. No issues with H . I charged batteries up when I returned home the same day 1/11. The batteries sat charged for a week. I went flying today the temperature was 39 degrees I pull temp off of my Airmap flight log. Upon takeoff, batteries appeared to have 16 v but as soon as I reached 80 feet at full power I got the low battery signal W-T-Heck I looked at the charge it was 14.4ish. Brought her down immediately but then charge wet up to 14.9. This happened with 2 batteries exactly the same scenario. The bottom line I could not fly much flight lasted about 5 minutes as batteries voltage was fluctuating. Any thoughts. I'm thinking batteries were really not fully charged and with the colder temps, it caused problems. Anxious to hear what you think. Thanks
 
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Most likely cause: batteries not fully charged, ghosting as having 16v. If voltage does not read as 16.5 or higher, battery is not full.

Example: ever fly to say 14.8v, land, shut off motors, and see voltage bounce to 15.2v or higher? Then try taking off again. Voltage drops immediately, maybe even first low voltage warning.

As for temperature, 39 degrees, Celsius or Fahrenheit, is not too cold. Should not cut down flight times that much.

One opinion for ya!

Jeff
 
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Batteries must be fully charged,even after sitting,which is not good at full charge,also most important the batteries need to be warm before flying. Transport in a foam cooler with a heated medium inside. I use a corn neck warmerfor transporting inside a small styro cooler. Keith
 
Most likely cause: batteries not fully charged, ghosting as having 16v. If voltage does not read as 16.5 or higher, battery is not full.

Example: ever fly to say 14.8v, land, shut off motors, and see voltage bounce to 15.2v or higher? Then try taking off again. Voltage drops immediately, maybe even first low voltage warning.

As for temperature, 39 degrees, Celsius or Fahrenheit, is not too cold. Should not cut down flight times that much.

One opinion for ya!

Jeff
Thanks, Jeff I'm thinking the same thing, big mistake on my part not charging those batteries the night before.
 
Batteries must be fully charged,even after sitting,which is not good at full charge,also most important the batteries need to be warm before flying. Transport in a foam cooler with a heated medium inside. I use a corn neck warmerfor transporting inside a small styro cooler. Keith
Between the 30-minute car ride with h in the back seat and the 20-minute hike up a steep hill to get to the location, the batteries were cold when I put them in. What is a corn neck warmer?
 
Pick up a couple of chemical hand warmers at the hardware store. Put one in your pocket with the batteries when hiking about in sub 50* weather. Battery performance starts t degrade when temp falls below 60*, with performance falling off rapidly below 40*. The lower the temp gets the faster voltage performance degrades.

Don’t store them fully charged for a week at a time. You’re destroying your batteries by doing so. Read the Lipo Battery Care thread in the H How To forum.
 
Ha,Sorry. A corn neck warmer is a horseshoe shaped cloth bag filled with corn kernels,or you can use rice. I microwave for 2-3 minutes Keith? usually used for sore neck! Keith
 
Hello, Went flying last weekend with my newly repaired typhoon H while the temperature here in the northeast was over 50 at that time. All went well with 2 flights and two batteries normal flight time. No issues with H . I charged batteries up when I returned home the same day 1/11. The batteries sat charged for a week. I went flying today the temperature was 39 degrees I pull temp off of my Airmap flight log. Upon takeoff, batteries appeared to have 16 v but as soon as I reached 80 feet at full power I got the low battery signal W-T-Heck I looked at the charge it was 14.4ish. Brought her down immediately but then charge wet up to 14.9. This happened with 2 batteries exactly the same scenario. The bottom line I could not fly much flight lasted about 5 minutes as batteries voltage was fluctuating. Any thoughts. I'm thinking batteries were really not fully charged and with the colder temps, it caused problems. Anxious to hear what you think. Thanks


I can relate.i will now read
What the other members say.
I have my own theories.
Keith Kuhn
 
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Hello, Went flying last weekend with my newly repaired typhoon H while the temperature here in the northeast was over 50 at that time. All went well with 2 flights and two batteries normal flight time. No issues with H . I charged batteries up when I returned home the same day 1/11. The batteries sat charged for a week. I went flying today the temperature was 39 degrees I pull temp off of my Airmap flight log. Upon takeoff, batteries appeared to have 16 v but as soon as I reached 80 feet at full power I got the low battery signal W-T-Heck I looked at the charge it was 14.4ish. Brought her down immediately but then charge wet up to 14.9. This happened with 2 batteries exactly the same scenario. The bottom line I could not fly much flight lasted about 5 minutes as batteries voltage was fluctuating. Any thoughts. I'm thinking batteries were really not fully charged and with the colder temps, it caused problems. Anxious to hear what you think. Thanks
I had the same problem with my batteries on my q500 k5 till I got some battery warmer bags to get the battery temp up to 90 degrees before I fly problem solved.
 
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Hello, Went flying last weekend with my newly repaired typhoon H while the temperature here in the northeast was over 50 at that time. All went well with 2 flights and two batteries normal flight time. No issues with H . I charged batteries up when I returned home the same day 1/11. The batteries sat charged for a week. I went flying today the temperature was 39 degrees I pull temp off of my Airmap flight log. Upon takeoff, batteries appeared to have 16 v but as soon as I reached 80 feet at full power I got the low battery signal W-T-Heck I looked at the charge it was 14.4ish. Brought her down immediately but then charge wet up to 14.9. This happened with 2 batteries exactly the same scenario. The bottom line I could not fly much flight lasted about 5 minutes as batteries voltage was fluctuating. Any thoughts. I'm thinking batteries were really not fully charged and with the colder temps, it caused problems. Anxious to hear what you think. Thanks
How many times have you charged to full and left for a long period say more than two days? Do you have a function on your charger to measure internal resistance? Does the battery slide easily in and out of the copter?
Any puffiness/bloated appearance on the outside on the written part of the battery?
Not fully charged may not of helped, if it's rapidly depleting then you may have issues, bit like others have said try to bring the temperature up.
 
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They have a page about charging in different temperatures as well. In fact, anyone that took the time to peruse the entire website would come away with considerable battery knowledge.

People that truly want to learn go to the sources that specialize in developing and providing information specific to the topic.
 
There on social media too. Facebook etc, this is a good reference/ website which has been posted on the forum many times, I've always had the analogy of voltage/ resistance in the cold has water through a pipe, the colder it gets slower/ thicker it flows, hotter it gets the quicker/thinner it flows.
 
For some, using oil instead of water might improve visualization, but your comparison with viscosity is a good analogy.
 
There on social media too. Facebook etc, this is a good reference/ website which has been posted on the forum many times, I've always had the analogy of voltage/ resistance in the cold has water through a pipe, the colder it gets slower/ thicker it flows, hotter it gets the quicker/thinner it flows.

Mrgs1,

For your analogy, perhaps oil, molasses, syrup, etc. may draw a better picture.

But... Unless I am reading its intention incorrectly, I respectfully submit the analogy may be backward regarding temperature vs resistance. Note I am only stating resistance.

Here is what the encyclopedia Google just confirmed as to what my teachers taught me long ago as being the correct correlation, with respect to conductors:

"Resistance of a conductor is directly proportional to temperature. ... With the increase in temperature, vibrational motion of the atoms of conductor increases. Due to increase in vibration, probability of collision between atoms and electrons increases."

Where voltage is concerned, your analogy is correct. As temperature rises, so does resistance. Therefore, a voltage increase is necessary to overcome the increase in resistance in order to get the same amperage through the conductor.

When we get to semiconductors, we see the opposite, as stated here:

"When temperature is increases in semiconductor, its resistance is decrease. The resistivity (and resistance) of a metal (conductor) increases as the temperature is increased. The resistance of a semiconductor decreases, and its conductivity increases, as the temperature is increased. Mar 9, 2017"

This leads to the question: Is a LiPo battery a conductor, a semiconductor, or a combination?

Interesting conversation, nonetheless.

Jeff
 
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With heating systems the colder the water is the slower it flows, to get to extremes of buildings we've increased the temperature to make the water flow quicker, and not lose so much heat to those extremities, it was more of a visualisation really,
 
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How many times have you charged to full and left for a long period say more than two days? Do you have a function on your charger to measure internal resistance? Does the battery slide easily in and out of the copter?
Any puffiness/bloated appearance on the outside on the written part of the battery?
Not fully charged may not of helped, if it's rapidly depleting then you may have issues, bit like others have said try to bring the temperature up.
I've done this more than a few times, no puffiness or problems with batteries previously. Always good flight time in mild temps. The battery fits nicely into H and snaps in.
 
They have a page about charging in different temperatures as well. In fact, anyone that took the time to peruse the entire website would come away with considerable battery knowledge.

People that truly want to learn go to the sources that specialize in developing and providing information specific to the topic.
Thanks for the information
 

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