Pat,
Great recommendation in a neat precis as to 'what to buy' - thank you. Also Kudos to Ron for linking to an excellent article on batteries.
I had a Q500 and recently (5 weeks?) upgraded to the H Pro - totally different animal! I'm trying to vacuum up as much knowledge and flight time as possible so I can sit for my PfCO (UK CAA) exam.
Every page, every vlogger, every book I've read has reiterated the importance of looking after your batteries, and getting a good charger. I came on here to ask the question, and it's already been asked and answered! I'm going to try to find the Hitec X2, if not they have the X4 on Amazon.
Two quick questions if I may, and my sincere apologies if these have been asked an answered - I did have a read through first!
1) How long is it 'Ok' to leave a battery fully charged in the box/bag? Couple of days? Week?
2) Is what I've been told correct that it's best to leave your battery at about 50% charge in your bag/box?
3) Does the Hitec X2/4 come with all the cables etc that I'll need, or am I going to have to buy some more gear to go with?
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience - up until a year ago I was a photographer, and I'm still like a kid in a candy store when it comes to being an (as yet unqualifed) pilot as well!
I will suggest to all that when they want to know specifics about accessory inclusions they should visit the manufacturer's website to establish how a product is accessorized. Normally they provide only the basics as manufacturer's have no possible way of knowing what battery types we will be using or what balance taps those batteries will be fitted with. Products that I may have purchased 2 or more years ago may have experienced changes to their accessory inclusions, for better or for worse. To be in any way accurate I would have to go out and buy new stuff every couple months to be only partially up to date with what they contain. That ain't gonna happen[emoji6] However, I will help you to help yourself by providing a link to their site
Chargers and Charging Accessories | HITEC RCD USA Note they have a charging accessory section so if it's in accessories it likely won't be included with a charger.
Plan on buying balance boards and charge plug adapters specific to your battery type. You'll see a great example of a balance board with different balance plug types on the Hitec site. If all you'll ever use is one type of balance plug you woun't need all the different options and could buy a single tap board for less money. I think over time you might end up wishing you bought the board that provided options though. The most common charger "power out" connections are banana plugs, with connector intended to mate with the battery on the other end. The most common ends for the battery side are XT30, XT60, XT90, EC3, EC5, Deans, Tamiya, Anderson/Sermos 15A, and JST. As you'll need to buy a Yuneec adapter from somewhere, find out what connector it has to link to the charger and select your charger adapter from there. Should you visit a good hobby shop and perform some online research you will come across "gang" adapters that have most all of them as a single assembly. For a quick visual example go here:
10 in 1 Multi Charge Plug Adapter Set (1pc) Understand there are arrangements with more or less connector options and that quality levels vary. They can be found at Amazon, eBay, and local hobby shops that specialize in the radio controlled hobby. One important caveat with this type of gang adapter is that most all of them use
very small gauge wires (cheaper to make that way) to branch off the main lead and small gauge wires generate more resistance and heat, which impacts charging time and the accuracy for the battery state feedback to the charger. Personally, I make most of my own adapters in order to provide me more length flexibility, so my adapters tends to use "over sized) gauge wires (12AWG usually)to minimize resistance. Although it costs me more my adapters are plug specific for the type of plug employed on the battery. If you aren't into making your own stuff, this type of charge adapter is a better option:
https://www.amazon.com/XT60-Male-Ba...&keywords=XT60+lipo+battery+charging+adapters There are many different makers that provide numerous mating plug options.
How long to leave a battery charged? No more than 1 week, preferably less. At two or three weeks cell damage becomes evident if left fully charged.
Storage level; Most of the better chargers handle that for you when you select the "Storage" setting in the menu. Around 3.7V/cell is where they end up. Using a "percentage" makes things confusing for most people. 50% of the rated voltage or 50% of the milliamp capacity? What should they use to measure milliamp level during or after discharging? Those that
really get into batteries and how much of one they use in flight,
do get into percentages, using milliamp and voltage combined to establish a discharge "floor" for their in flight or race track operations. They might employ some pretty sophisticated current tracking telemetry devices when their batteries are in use and use very high end chargers like stuff from AstroFlight to nail down every aspect of battery care. 99% of the people using this forum will never need to go to such expense and detail. The casual multirotor operator should strive to be conservative and never try to use up a battery to the last possible 1/10 or 1/100 volt. Leave yourself a safety buffer! If you are a commercial operator your government authority may have battery use limitations in place. Learn what they are. Typically they will place maximum discharge limits of ~50% on battery depletion.
Those that try to max out flight time from each battery are the same people that write posts about their aircraft falling from the sky. They’ll buy gas for their car when the gauge gets to 1/4 or so but they’ll run a battery down to where they are praying to make it back. The car can be parked at the curb when it runs out of gas...
The link Ron provided about understanding Lipos is a good "starter" article and it, or articles like it should be made mandatory reading for everyone getting into electric powered fight. As our batteries are pretty complex energy storage devices they are not easy to "simplify", but the Roger's Hobby article does a pretty good job of it. It's easy to do things
very wrong when you don't understand what you are working with.
