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st16 series controller running voltage

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question what is the voltage range for the st16 series I know the controller works with 3.8volts which reads 55 percent on the st16pro h480 version and 4.0 volts which is about full charge of the st16p battery but the usb charging port runs from a usb battery jump pack or other 5 volt usb source to use it though the battery must be in the controller. question is would it work to connect 5 volt directly to the main power connector of st16p for h480. I am using this as a test subject before I use the same methods for first genh520 and finally second gen h520e. end game is to make a tether power system for the controller so I have options for power sources for the controller.
 
It takes a bit of courage to do something like this. 5V is a bit too much. The LiIon battery can have up to 4.1V. This should be accepted by the ST16, maybe a bit more. I would add a diode in the plus rail. A common Si-diode will reduce the voltage by ~0,7V depending on current maybe a bit more. Additional to the voltage reduction you have protection against polarity reversal which may be a good idea if something comes from outside from whatever source.

A 1N5400 in the plus rail should do the job, cathode to ST16. Or two in serial. Battery inside the ST16 must be removed!

br HE
 
Another alternative you might consider is using an external rechargeable battery pack connected to the controller via the micro-USB charging port. The current is not sufficient to power the unit fully with the external battery alone, but when I am flying multiple battery surveys, the external battery substantially prolongs the time you can use the ST-16s. With a long micro-USB cord, you can stick the battery back in your back pocket for convenience and even change out the external battery without interrupting the ST-16s power.
 
it alive third party power adaptor for the st16s and e is fully functional. now I can use any stable 12 volt source or h520e and h3 flight battery to power the st16s and e. or any yuneec flight battery so long as you have the adapter for it. yes it works with the flight battery and it works good. parts used 24 to 12 volt to 5volt converter 5 amp fuse 2 torn down st16 batteries for circuit board that drops voltage by .2volts first board drop the voltage to 4.8 next board in series droped the voltage to 4.5 final board connected in series came from a converted st16s to use st16 h480 battery. the battery adapter dropped the voltage to 4.04v well with in target. multi full boots into data pilot made. no side effects.
 
That's awesome. Once you get the whole set-up completed, would you please provide some photos and a schematic to see exactly how you did it?
 
It is in alpha stage right now. ran into a limitation got the voltage figured now working on the amps. for that I am waiting on a part. first stage is using 24 to 12 v input to 5 volt out put 10 amps running though 5 st16 battery protection circuits that drop the voltage to 4 volts and stable amps to run flight battery full charge 4 hours. There is side effect the circuits I am using to drop voltage and amps are overheating 2 of the board closest to the power converter. 2nd stage used a different buck power supply that I can dial the voltage down to 4.1v which is max charge of a st16 battery however that is very unstable with the st16 protection circuit board. when running it would increase the voltage reading which I had to dial the board back .2 volts to bring it back to base line 4.1 when running little bit more stable but still ended killing the st16 protection board no damage to the controller. using a spare first gen h520 st16s that the sticks need replaced. I was using between 1.5 to 4 amps had a 5 amp fuse inline that never blew. on the label of the st16 it mentions input 5 volts 2 amps but the battery is less than 5 volts. reverting to first stage to take a amp reading because that one ran until it hit low voltage percent of 7 from 61 percent on a flight battery that was in storage and dropped the flight battery to 20 percent after that run. in 3 hours 50 min. with idle running controller. the part I am waiting on the part that will let me set the amp output to where it will run on the st16s and st16e controller and not damage the st16 battery protection circuit board nor the controller.
 
specs for each cell in the st16 battery.

PANASONIC LI-ION BATTERY SPECIFICATIONS:

TypeHybrid 18650
BrandPanasonic
ModelNCR18650PF
ChemicalLi-ion
Capacity2900mAh
Max Discharge Rate10A
Minimum Capacity2750mAh (0.54A discharge at 20°C)
Typical Capacity2900mAh (0.54A discharge at 20°C)
Nominal Voltage3.6V Unprotected
Discharge End Voltage 2.5V
Standard Charging Current 1.35A
Charging Voltage 4.20±0.03V
Standard Charging Time 4.0hours
Internal Resistance less than 35mΩ
Weight less than 47.0g/pcs
Size 18.2 x 65.09mm

3 in parallel ranges 8250 mAh to 8700 mAh. 2.28 amps to 2.17amps used in 3h 50min idle
 
new part in and may have hit the sweet spot finally amps for boot up need to be 2.23 to 2.3 amps peak running amps 1.28 amps to 1.32 amps. currently doing a idle draw down test.
 
next phase completed removal of st16 battery protection circuit board that comes with st16 battery and added deans connector head to the battery. unit works fully no negative side effects using flight battery at 50 percent.
 
okay there seems to be a max runt time of 4 hours despite actual battery level. on full charge unit went to low voltage of 7 percent when battery went down to 86 percent. running a second pass to see where the battery will end to
 
second pass done run time to from 91 percent which is the best it can do with the battery capacity to 7 percent level is 4 hours but on charger battery is down to 58 percent about storage level. after that only one more 4 hour run can made before battery needs to be charged backup or placed back in storage. The flight battery can be used up to 12 hours total but the controller needs to be restarted every 4 hours.
 
on house 12 volt ac to dc adapter and buck converter set to 4.1 volts running at 1.3 amps. the st16s unit percent of charge is still running down. thing is it not running from a battery but from the constant residential power grid. it's like yuneec placed a timer in the st16s firmware for max defined uptime making unlimited uptime not doable.
 
on house 12 volt ac to dc adapter and buck converter set to 4.1 volts running at 1.3 amps. the st16s unit percent of charge is still running down. thing is it not running from a battery but from the constant residential power grid. it's like yuneec placed a timer in the st16s firmware for max defined uptime making unlimited uptime not doable.
Sounds like another one for the Yuneec engineers and software/firmware programmers to sink their teeth into.
 
seems that the st16s and st16e have a max limit operation of 4h idle. using data pilot I suspect 1.5 to 2 hours of operation time which limits the size and scale of multi battery missions which if setup just right could cover a huge area if there was not a up time limitation on the ground station..
 
Do you know of the "regular" ST-16 has the same up-time limitation? If not you can load the ST-16S firmware/software on it and use it to run DataPilot at least for the H520 without timing out.
 

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