Typhoon H with Real Sense Battery time?
- Thread starter RBC
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Interested in this but I've never timed my flights, and I tend to land straight after the first battery warning. I've read on here that realsense affects battery life - I guess it's partly due to the extra weight, but also drawing current.
Does it affect performance when installed regardless, or only when obstacle avoidance is switched on (I tend to leave mine off unless required).
Does it affect performance when installed regardless, or only when obstacle avoidance is switched on (I tend to leave mine off unless required).
I am getting 15 min max out my batteries. Start them at 16.8 and as soon as I take off they go to 15.9 or abouts. I have Real Sense but I have never used it. I usually stop the flight as soon as I get a 14.6 reading on the battery though. Never did go to the warning phase. What is the threshold to get the first warning vibration on the st16?
FlushVision
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CraigCam
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You can count on a warning at anywhere below 14.5 if you give it high rev. It will start the warning, you can go back to turtle, clear the warning, and get another couple minutes depending on wind. I've got some batteries on the edge and I'm keeping an eye on those more closely. On Saturday, it was crazy windy here so I opted for an indoor test. With my H in my studio and no camera with GPS off, I tried to hold steady altitude for till the first LVC. If you've ever done this you can almost "feel" the battery draining.
For the first 5 mins it's relatively easy to hold steady and not apply much stick. After that, it will sag in power with each passing minute and drop down and need fresh stick input to raise and hold to the same position. The longer it goes, the more you have to pilot.
This behavior is observable in any drone I've owned as LiPo batteries seem to release power in stages. There are some who will keep flying until it can't actually hold up and basically come down in a low power crash landing. Anything past ten minutes on the batteries for the H is in the "take it easy zone" as it can drain down quickly from there in high winds or fast flights or long CCC missions which fortunately will abort (or not so on a critical shot) once the first LVC activates.
The pursuit of mythical long flight times is like expecting your car to suddenly become more efficient in gas consumption because you used a different brand of gas. It's not worth all the anxiety as it's just easier to own more batteries and plan your flights accordingly.
That being said, if someone knows of the magic 20 minute TH battery that will give me that fourth complete 5 min video burst I'm all in. [emoji857]
For the first 5 mins it's relatively easy to hold steady and not apply much stick. After that, it will sag in power with each passing minute and drop down and need fresh stick input to raise and hold to the same position. The longer it goes, the more you have to pilot.
This behavior is observable in any drone I've owned as LiPo batteries seem to release power in stages. There are some who will keep flying until it can't actually hold up and basically come down in a low power crash landing. Anything past ten minutes on the batteries for the H is in the "take it easy zone" as it can drain down quickly from there in high winds or fast flights or long CCC missions which fortunately will abort (or not so on a critical shot) once the first LVC activates.
The pursuit of mythical long flight times is like expecting your car to suddenly become more efficient in gas consumption because you used a different brand of gas. It's not worth all the anxiety as it's just easier to own more batteries and plan your flights accordingly.
That being said, if someone knows of the magic 20 minute TH battery that will give me that fourth complete 5 min video burst I'm all in. [emoji857]
FlushVision
Premium Pilot
FlushVision
Premium Pilot
After many flights on my oldest battery I've not seen a noticeable decline in it's performance...yet. It's the original one that came with the aircraft when it was delivered to me at the beginning of June last year...and It's the one that I managed to get an 18 minute flight to first warning.
I wish wish wish I had that. I just do not. Just got a new battery and flew for second time and got warning at 15 minutes. I am on the sticks constantly - basically never hover per se. Not fast, just typically always trying to get the '10 second' shot for video or trying to dance with the waves.
Maybe charger? Using an Electrify 12v. 12amp power supply with the Hitec X1 charger.
Ordered this week the Venom battery and the 4 slot Venom charger. Will update on how that works.
PatR
Premium Pilot
If a battery is being charged correctly there is no charger that will magically do something that would provide more flight time.
CraigCam hit it on the head, all lipo's discharge in stages. There's an initial drop in voltage, the voltage drop then reduces for a period of time with a gradual voltage drop, where after reaching a given voltage it drops quickly and sharply,almost vertically when seen on a graph, until the battery is depleted.
The only thing that changes the amount of flight time is how the battery is treated. Run aggressively they give less flight time. Windy days provide less time. Over discharging induces more heat, damaging a battery over time where each flight will provide a little less time with each flight until the battery is no longer useful. It works the same way in all phases of electric RC using lipo's. Sure, cell quality has an impact where better cells provide a bit more time but with proprietary battery shells we're stuck with whatever is inside them. Personally, I trade flight time for longer battery useful life and land when the battery reaches between 14.8v and 14.6v. Depending on conditions and how I'm flying it works out to between 9 and 12 minutes.
CraigCam hit it on the head, all lipo's discharge in stages. There's an initial drop in voltage, the voltage drop then reduces for a period of time with a gradual voltage drop, where after reaching a given voltage it drops quickly and sharply,almost vertically when seen on a graph, until the battery is depleted.
The only thing that changes the amount of flight time is how the battery is treated. Run aggressively they give less flight time. Windy days provide less time. Over discharging induces more heat, damaging a battery over time where each flight will provide a little less time with each flight until the battery is no longer useful. It works the same way in all phases of electric RC using lipo's. Sure, cell quality has an impact where better cells provide a bit more time but with proprietary battery shells we're stuck with whatever is inside them. Personally, I trade flight time for longer battery useful life and land when the battery reaches between 14.8v and 14.6v. Depending on conditions and how I'm flying it works out to between 9 and 12 minutes.
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PatR
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You make great observations! Take a look at that graph again and note how use time decreases as discharge rate increases. Although the data was developed with a lower voltage battery the principle is the same for all lipo's. The more aggressively we fly the shorter the flight will be. BTW, that graph is not an endorsement to fly a battery down to 3v/cell. That's bad ju-ju for a battery.
CraigCam
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What sucks is you can get new ones that were not properly handled or shipped and have been overheated already. I've found the power 4 to be a good battery and getting a year out of my two original is pretty great.
