Hello Fellow Yuneec Pilot!
Join our free Yuneec community and remove this annoying banner!
Sign up

The 'H' Battery - ! Land at '14.8 Volts' !

Gotcha! Are you flying much yet?
Not yet. Finally received all my gear yesterday afternoon while at work in the winery (FPVLR antennas, Typhoon-H, the works). I'm so exhausted from the week that I haven't opened the box until today. I'm still so tired that all I'm going to do is go over the papers, check out all the hardware and charge some batteries including spares. If I can I'll give her a try tomorrow (Sunday), but then all next week it's back to the grindstone and I don't think I'll get back to her until the following weekend. Very frustrating!
 
Not yet. Finally received all my gear yesterday afternoon while at work in the winery (FPVLR antennas, Typhoon-H, the works). I'm so exhausted from the week that I haven't opened the box until today. I'm still so tired that all I'm going to do is go over the papers, check out all the hardware and charge some batteries including spares. If I can I'll give her a try tomorrow (Sunday), but then all next week it's back to the grindstone and I don't think I'll get back to her until the following weekend. Very frustrating!
I am in the same shoes as you ! If it ain't work, it's iffy weather ! Fly Safely My Friend!
 
So the first thing I did was to remove the Battery Connector in the Yuneec Charger and make my own Fast Charge lead. 2 and 1/2 Hours to charge a Battery with the stock charger is just too long. I can now charge my Batteries in 40 minutes. Next, I decided to check the Battery indication on the ST16, to see if it was accurate. It is fairly accurate but the Battery alarms are set WAY TOO LOW and Can NOT be changed in the GUI. If I fly my ‘H’ until I see ‘14.6 Volts’ on the ST16, this represents Less than 10% remaining in the Battery and the 1st alarm has still not sounded. If I then Land and switch Off, the Battery Voltage jumps to ‘14.8 Volts’ (Normal, NO Load) and this is just 15% Battery Power Remaining - This is Borderline and the 1st Battery Alarm should have already ‘Sounded’. I don’t like running the Battery that Low, I think it’s dangerous as there is not enough reserve to get you out of a problem, it’s also Bad for the Battery. Now, I always bring the ‘H’ down at ‘14.8 Volts’. After it’s landed and switched off, the Battery Voltage recovers to ‘15 Volts’, that’s a nice 25% Reserve and a lot better for the overall Life of the Battery. I Charge at about 7.8 Amps with a 120 Watt Charger. This is about 2 Amps over ‘1C’ (5400ma). Homemade Charge Lead Shown Below.

View media item 51

Are you sure about this? I land at the first low voltage warning which is 14.3. Why would Yuneec pre-set that as the warning on every Typhoon H they sell if it's going to damage the battery. This gives me about 18 minutes of flying. I know my H drops to 15 and under pretty quick so if I land at 14.8 I might get 12-13 minute flights. That is not going to work for me. I'm going to call Yuneec Monday and see what they say then follow up here.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Goh
All good information but way more than I need. I just watch my 3.85 per cell and I can continue to fly. Keep it up and not in the ground.
 
There is nothing special about this battery and from what is said above it probably is more than the advertised mah as the numbers don't make sense. This is quite a common tactic to get the c rating up BTW.

Land at 3.5x4 and be happy, you won't hurt it.
 
It isnt a magic number no, it is simple lipo rules. Never go below 3.2v and storage charge to 3.7v per cell. I would aim to be on the ground at absolutely no less than 3.5 whilst flying, that should recover to 3.7 off load nicely.

Plenty of info on google if you wish to do your own digging on the subject.
 
OK, here are some numbers for you to play with......Just been out and used a Battery down to '15.2 Volts', as shown on the ST16. By the time I got home the Battery had recovered to '15.4 Volts' (each Cell was showing about '3.85 Volts') I put the Battery on the Fast Charger and it took '3063ma' (32 minutes) to fully charge.
Thanks for the info, Andy! Sounds like 14v - 14.4v should be a safe value (3.5v-3.6v per cell under load)
 
  • Like
Reactions: JohnL
When I took some measurements, the ST-16 was reading 0.18V less than the battery measured by a DVM, but then you are under a light load (LED lights and camera/vTx). In hover, the ST-16 dropped another 0.2V. So, in reality, one could assume that the difference in the ST-16's battery voltage when in light flight is 0.4V less than the battery's true resting level (less any losses due to battery temp). I'm running a discharge curve on my Hyperion EOS0720i Duo and will post early next week. This will show the true capacity of the battery and where the knee is in the curve.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JohnL
guys n gals, you are making assumptions the MAH is as advertised, i would bet it is more than they claim which is VERY common trick to get a higher C rating on lipos.

If you are landing at 15v you have a LOT left in the tank so won't be any issues. However as long as you are on the ground before 14v you will not damage the battery.

i have just modified my own charger so i can charge with my powerlab 8 so will report back on how many MAH's 3.5v per cell is equal to.
 
guys n gals, you are making assumptions the MAH is as advertised, i would bet it is more than they claim which is VERY common trick to get a higher C rating on lipos.

If you are landing at 15v you have a LOT left in the tank so won't be any issues. However as long as you are on the ground before 14v you will not damage the battery.

i have just modified my own charger so i can charge with my powerlab 8 so will report back on how many MAH's 3.5v per cell is equal to.

I modified my charger also by soldering charge and balance leads on the bottom.
But charging at 1C is not much faster than the stock charger.
And they don't recommend charging at higher amp rating.
How are they reducing these charge times?
 
if you are charging correctly then 1C= 1 hour ish plus balancing.

i do not know what charger you have but i was putting 10amps into mine briefly (5 mins) yesterday when i tested the soldered leads worked okay.

not all chargers are created equal as most balance down to the lowest cell, only the powerlab and i believe the latest I charger balance up the way. I.E most chargers charge the strongest cell until it reaches circa 4.2v then it dumps that charge into the other cells to bring them all to X volts and then start again. The powerlab charges the weak to the highest cell.

i am not advocating multi C charging is for everyone, it isn't. I have been doing parallel multi C 6x 5000mah 6s packs for years on my powerlab 8's and i am very comfortable with what i am doing, i would suggest people not clued up on lipos to tread carefully.

with the above said, the lipo in this hex will probably be the cheapest they could get so i will need to get an IR reading, that will tell me how good the cells are. If the IR is too high then fast charging it won't make much difference due to the resistance. it is unlikely to be too high though as even the cheap HK cells these days are circa 8 IR, good ones are about 1.5-2....but i will report back.
 
Last edited:
if you are charging correctly then 1C= 1 hour ish plus balancing.

i do not know what charger you have but i was putting 10amps into mine briefly (5 mins) yesterday when i tested the soldered leads worked okay.

not all chargers are created equal as most balance down to the lowest cell, only the powerlab and i believe the latest I charger balance up the way. I.E most chargers charge the strongest cell until it reaches circa 4.2v then it dumps that charge into the other cells to bring them all to X volts and then start again. The powerlab charges the weak to the highest cell.

i am not advocating multi C charging is for everyone, it isn't. I have been doing parallel multi C 6x 5000mah 6s packs for years on my powerlab 8's and i am very comfortable with what i am doing, i would suggest people not clued up on lipos to tread carefully.

with the above said, the lipo in this hex will probably be the cheapest they could get so i will need to get an IR reading, that will tell me how good the cells are. If the IR is too high then fast charging it won't make much difference due to the resistance. it is unlikely to be too high though as even the cheap HK cells these days are circa 8 IR, good ones are about 1.5-2....but i will report back.


I have a HiTec multi charger X1/AC plus that goes to 6amp.
I use it on my RC cars and it charges those lipo's in about an hour

I thought it would do the same for the H battery.

I set it to 5amp, 4S, but it took about two hours.

I think I read the H stock charger is 4amp.

What am I doing wrong?
 
the stock charger is 4amps at 12v, you are charging a 14.8v nominal battery so it isn't actually 4amp going into the battery. we also do not know what the power is while balancing, which is why more expensive chargers exist!

as a test i plugged one of my yuneec packs into 3 chargers i have handy, 1x powerlab 8, 1x Reaktor 1000kw and 1x Reaktor 300w chargers and i set all of them to 10 amps. they all sat charging at 10amps for a few minutes no problem. i didn't do a full charge yet as i don't intend to use the H for a couple of weeks.

i also took the IR and it is very respectable (see piccy), will need to see what it is like after maybe 20 cycles though.

i never charge at a C rating as that relies on the inbuilt charging tables to calculate what the C should actually be, i set it to actual amps and be done with it.

sorry for poor pictures, if flash is on you can't see screens well but you get idea.

Disclaimer: I say again, people not clued up on lipos should tread carefully here and yuneec advise against fast charging remember. Just because i put them to 10amps briefly as a test doesn't mean you should treat that as the "normal". Please use the stock charger if in any doubt and you won't go wrong.
 

Attachments

  • 20160611_213119.jpg
    20160611_213119.jpg
    1,007.3 KB · Views: 23
  • 20160611_213316.jpg
    20160611_213316.jpg
    1.2 MB · Views: 17
  • 20160611_214049.jpg
    20160611_214049.jpg
    1.4 MB · Views: 19
  • 20160611_214112.jpg
    20160611_214112.jpg
    1.1 MB · Views: 17
Last edited:
the stock charger is 4amps at 12v, you are charging a 14.8v nominal battery so it isn't actually 4amp going into the battery. we also do not know what the power is while balancing, which is why more expensive chargers exist!

as a test i plugged one of my yuneec packs into 3 chargers i have handy, 1x powerlab 8, 1x Reaktor 1000kw and 1x Reaktor 300w chargers and i set all of them to 10 amps. they all sat charging at 10amps for a few minutes no problem. i didn't do a full charge yet as i don't intend to use the H for a couple of weeks.

i also took the IR and it is very respectable (see piccy), will need to see what it is like after maybe 20 cycles though.

i never charge at a C rating as that relies on the inbuilt charging tables to calculate what the C should actually be, i set it to actual amps and be done with it.

sorry for poor pictures, if flash is on you can't see screens well but you get idea.

Disclaimer: I say again, people not clued up on lipos should tread carefully here and yuneec advise against fast charging remember. Just because i put them to 10amps briefly as a test doesn't mean you should treat that as the "normal". Please use the stock charger if in any doubt and you won't go wrong.

What I find odd is when I charge the H battery with my HiTec charger even though I have it set to 5 amp the most it charges at is 3.4 amp.

Is this limited by my cheap charger or what? My rc batteries go to 5 amp when charging.
 
What I find odd is when I charge the H battery with my HiTec charger even though I have it set to 5 amp the most it charges at is 3.4 amp.

Is this limited by my cheap charger or what? My rc batteries go to 5 amp when charging.
Jimmy, what till they get a hi-tech for the H batteries and enjoy your bird, not your batteries ! LOL !:D
 
Jimmy, what till they get a hi-tech for the H batteries and enjoy your bird, not your batteries ! LOL !:D

haha I here ya DC, but I am a tinkerer at heart and I'm going to get the most out of this ONE battery
that I have. Let just say fly or bust! ;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: DroneClone
I plan on landing at 15V. Easy to remember. I figure when it hits 15 this is when I start the return home so that should give enough time to bring it back and land.

Nice job on the connectors. Keep us informed if the battery seems okay charging it that fast. Who knows the quality of it.
The optimum landing what I think should be 14.5V (3.62x4)
 
The optimum landing what I think should be 14.5V (3.62x4)

What is driving me crazy is I have seen numbers from 14.3 to 14.5 to 14.8 to 15. There seems to be no real definitive answer to this. I intend to start bringing it in from wherever at 15V and land no lower than 14.8.

At least until I learn differently. i:)i
 
  • Like
Reactions: DroneClone

New Posts

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
20,952
Messages
241,578
Members
27,284
Latest member
csandoval