Lots posted on batteries - but I decided to look into this a bit more. My Breeze is 3 days old (young) and has about 15 flights on it - me learning about RTH and the like. I'm not pleased with the lack of flight time, which I did not know exact until tonight. A few interesting things:
I used a Kill-a-Watt meter in series with the charger. No battery plugged in, 20ma into the charger - which is basically a transformer of similar (LED) drawing a bit of current. Plug in a battery, the charge current goes to 270ma - a low charge for the batteries, but OK. As the charge nears the end (before the light turns green) the current drops a bit, and fluctuates down to 10 to 7, back up to 100.. but it's in the process of shutting off the charge current. When the green light comes on, the current is again at 20ma, the starting point, telling me there is very little charge going back into the battery when the charge is done.
Now here's something interesting. I have one battery that shows 100% charge, the other 2 start at 89-99% and drop from there quickly. On the battery that started at 100%, the indicator STAYED AT 100% throughout the complete flight! Did not drop - always showed 100% EVEN when I got the LOW BATTERY warning on the cell phone screen! I has no way of knowing what the state of the battery was, as the cell phone always read 100%! This total flight time, in my basement, no wind, but no GPS on as I was indoors, lasted 8 minutes. Far short of a 12 minute flight.
The next battery, taken right off the charger, charge completed, started at 98% and went down quickly. This battery lasted 6:30 until the low battery warning flashed on the screen. Much short of the 12 minute flight I'd hope to get. Again, no GPS so this is the BEST condition I can get, no wind, no GPS (takes a fair amount of current to power).
I don't really have any conclusions from the above, but I need to check that one battery that always reads 100% and perhaps return it for another. I also think, for me, I will not worry about leaving the battery on "charge" as the current into the battery is almost none when the green light comes on. You need to be concerned about a charger failure, perhaps charging with more current should something internally fail.
I think the flight times of 8 minutes and 6:39 are not very good. LiPo batteries do not take "conditioning" like in the old days, they are good to go from charge 1.
I have read a few posts about the Breeze just dropping out of the air when the battery condition read 'fine', so I'm not sure what to think of this - but perhaps some batteries (clearly) register differently on the display, and I can't explain why - some telemetry in the system sends a signal to the transmitter (controller) telling the controller how much charge if left, and perhaps on some batteries this does not work. I'll know after I charge my one battery again and test it. In fact, I'll pull it off charge now and see what it reads, it's for sure not charged to 100% yet. ** Just checked it, it read 89% charged, which seems high as it's only been on charge about 15 minutes. But it was not reading 100% which is puzzling to me.
I used a Kill-a-Watt meter in series with the charger. No battery plugged in, 20ma into the charger - which is basically a transformer of similar (LED) drawing a bit of current. Plug in a battery, the charge current goes to 270ma - a low charge for the batteries, but OK. As the charge nears the end (before the light turns green) the current drops a bit, and fluctuates down to 10 to 7, back up to 100.. but it's in the process of shutting off the charge current. When the green light comes on, the current is again at 20ma, the starting point, telling me there is very little charge going back into the battery when the charge is done.
Now here's something interesting. I have one battery that shows 100% charge, the other 2 start at 89-99% and drop from there quickly. On the battery that started at 100%, the indicator STAYED AT 100% throughout the complete flight! Did not drop - always showed 100% EVEN when I got the LOW BATTERY warning on the cell phone screen! I has no way of knowing what the state of the battery was, as the cell phone always read 100%! This total flight time, in my basement, no wind, but no GPS on as I was indoors, lasted 8 minutes. Far short of a 12 minute flight.
The next battery, taken right off the charger, charge completed, started at 98% and went down quickly. This battery lasted 6:30 until the low battery warning flashed on the screen. Much short of the 12 minute flight I'd hope to get. Again, no GPS so this is the BEST condition I can get, no wind, no GPS (takes a fair amount of current to power).
I don't really have any conclusions from the above, but I need to check that one battery that always reads 100% and perhaps return it for another. I also think, for me, I will not worry about leaving the battery on "charge" as the current into the battery is almost none when the green light comes on. You need to be concerned about a charger failure, perhaps charging with more current should something internally fail.
I think the flight times of 8 minutes and 6:39 are not very good. LiPo batteries do not take "conditioning" like in the old days, they are good to go from charge 1.
I have read a few posts about the Breeze just dropping out of the air when the battery condition read 'fine', so I'm not sure what to think of this - but perhaps some batteries (clearly) register differently on the display, and I can't explain why - some telemetry in the system sends a signal to the transmitter (controller) telling the controller how much charge if left, and perhaps on some batteries this does not work. I'll know after I charge my one battery again and test it. In fact, I'll pull it off charge now and see what it reads, it's for sure not charged to 100% yet. ** Just checked it, it read 89% charged, which seems high as it's only been on charge about 15 minutes. But it was not reading 100% which is puzzling to me.
