Yuneec Typhoon G--Battery

[Fiberman66]

Hi fellow pilots, I got a couple questions here. Just getting my Yuneec Typhoon G drone going again. Nothing was wrong with it before I shelved due to work and life. I'm new to LIPO powered toys and I just want to get anyone's opinion regarding 5400mAh LiPo 4K 3S 11.1V 3C LiPo batteries. I have a IMAX B6 battery charging device for my battery. Today I got this message after trying to charge/discharge the battery. Also is it worth buying the 7500mah battery for $67? Any tips and proper battery maintenance ideas? THANKS!

 

[airborne]

Have you set the charger to 1.) "LiPO" 2.) "Bal-Chg" 3.) "3S" 4.) "5.4A" ?
Tip for maintenance: Have the Battery never stored at either fully charged or completely discharged for any time longer than 48 hrs. Try to store the LiPO at a voltage of 3.8V per cell, so with a 3S that might be 11.4V. With your charger that setting might be called "STORAGE". Avoid discharging below 3.2V per cell. A battery temperature of 30 deg C / 86 deg F will give best performance in flight capacitywise. Average room temperature is best for long term storage (50% charged). Don't expect the usable capacity of your battery be as labelled (usually manufacturers exaggerate by 10%), so replacing a 5400 with a 7400 might be worth considering.
HTH, greetings
airborne

 

[DoomMeister]

With the balance leads plugged into the charger, can you measure the individual cell voltages? If not on the charger do you have a multimeter you can use to do the same?

 

[Panther6834]

It looks like your batteries might be at, or below, 3.0V/cell...in other words, "dead". As airborne said, never leave batteries fully charged, or below 3.2V/cell, for now then 48hrs. Also, NEVER let your batteries get blow 3.0V/cell, period. If you're not going to use them for more than a couple days, ALWAYS charge/discharge them to "storage level" (ie. 3.75-3.8V/cell, or approx 60%).

If your batteries are "dead" (ie. 3.0V/cell, or below), it is possible to "bring them back to life", but you have to do it SLOWLY, and VERY CAREFULLY. If you follow the directions I'm about to give you, it's not difficult to do...but, until you reach step #5, you'll NEED to keep an eye on them. Do the following, and do it EXACTLY as stated:

1) First, use a LiPo checker, be to determine the voltage/cell. If the battery is at 3.2V/cell, or above, chances are something else is wrong with the battery, and do NOT proceed. If between 3.0 & 3.2V/cell, honestly, I don't know. In either of these cases, have your LHS check the batteries for you. If 3.0V/cell, them proceed to step 2.
2) Set your charger to NiMH...NOT LiPo...and set it to charge at NO HIGHER than 0.5C (0.2C is best...the slower, the better).
3) Set the capacity to the proper mAh level, and connect the battery, but DO NOT CONNECT the balance port.
4) Start charging the battery, and, once the battery starts charging, then connect the balance leads to the charger, and switch the display screen to show the per-cell voltage.
4) Pay EXTREME attention to the charger, constantly monitoring the per-cell voltage. Once the battery reaches 3.20V/cell (NOT 3.19V/cell, and NOT 3.21V/cell), IMMEDIATELY stop the charger, and disconnect the battery & balance leads.
5) Reconnect the battery, change the charging to LiPo, change the charging level to 1C (and NO higher), and start charging the battery.
6) Once the battery reaches full capacity, can the charger should automatically stop. Disconnect the battery from the charger, connect it to a LiPo checker, and confirm that it's at/around 4.2V/cell. If there's any large deviation between the per-cell voltage, something is wrong, and have your LHS check the battery. As long as the per-cell voltage is within 0.05V of each other, them proceed to the next step.
7) FULLY cycle the battery (discharge > charge), and check the per-cell voltage again. All cells should, again, be within 0.05V of each other.
8) Use the battery in the drone, until you get the "return to home" low-voltage warning.
9) Attempt to charge the battery as you normally would. If it charges, all is good...and, if you run into the same problem that lead you to creating this thread, replace the battery immediately.

I've followed this procedure, and brought two of my Typhoon H batteries, as well as a few if my car/truck/buggy batteries, back to life...and, I've never had any further problems work them. Is this process safe? Maybe..and, maybe not. But, as long as you charge the battery as slow as possible (that's why I recommend 0.2C) when you're charging it as a NiMH, there shouldn't be any worry. Although I first did this a couple years ago, RC Review (one of the YouTube channels), about a month ago, uploaded a video describing the same process. Just remember...BE SAFE, and do NOT charge it (under NiMH) any higher than 0.5C (but I still recommend 0.2C...it might take longer, but, it's also safer).

 

[John Hennessy]

It looks like your batteries might be at, or below, 3.0V/cell...in other words, "dead". As airborne said, never leave batteries fully charged, or below 3.2V/cell, for now then 48hrs. Also, NEVER let your batteries get blow 3.0V/cell, period. If you're not going to use them for more than a couple days, ALWAYS charge/discharge them to "storage level" (ie. 3.75-3.8V/cell, or approx 60%).

If your batteries are "dead" (ie. 3.0V/cell, or below), it is possible to "bring them back to life", but you have to do it SLOWLY, and VERY CAREFULLY. If you follow the directions I'm about to give you, it's not difficult to do...but, until you reach step #5, you'll NEED to keep an eye on them. Do the following, and do it EXACTLY as stated:

1) First, use a LiPo checker, be to determine the voltage/cell. If the battery is at 3.2V/cell, or above, chances are something else is wrong with the battery, and do NOT proceed. If between 3.0 & 3.2V/cell, honestly, I don't know. In either of these cases, have your LHS check the batteries for you. If 3.0V/cell, them proceed to step 2.
2) Set your charger to NiMH...NOT LiPo...and set it to charge at NO HIGHER than 0.5C (0.2C is best...the slower, the better).
3) Set the capacity to the proper mAh level, and connect the battery, but DO NOT CONNECT the balance port.
4) Start charging the battery, and, once the battery starts charging, then connect the balance leads to the charger, and switch the display screen to show the per-cell voltage.
4) Pay EXTREME attention to the charger, constantly monitoring the per-cell voltage. Once the battery reaches 3.20V/cell (NOT 3.19V/cell, and NOT 3.21V/cell), IMMEDIATELY stop the charger, and disconnect the battery & balance leads.
5) Reconnect the battery, change the charging to LiPo, change the charging level to 1C (and NO higher), and start charging the battery.
6) Once the battery reaches full capacity, can the charger should automatically stop. Disconnect the battery from the charger, connect it to a LiPo checker, and confirm that it's at/around 4.2V/cell. If there's any large deviation between the per-cell voltage, something is wrong, and have your LHS check the battery. As long as the per-cell voltage is within 0.05V of each other, them proceed to the next step.
7) FULLY cycle the battery (discharge > charge), and check the per-cell voltage again. All cells should, again, be within 0.05V of each other.
8) Use the battery in the drone, until you get the "return to home" low-voltage warning.
9) Attempt to charge the battery as you normally would. If it charges, all is good...and, if you run into the same problem that lead you to creating this thread, replace the battery immediately.

I've followed this procedure, and brought two of my Typhoon H batteries, as well as a few if my car/truck/buggy batteries, back to life...and, I've never had any further problems work them. Is this process safe? Maybe..and, maybe not. But, as long as you charge the battery as slow as possible (that's why I recommend 0.2C) when you're charging it as a NiMH, there shouldn't be any worry. Although I first did this a couple years ago, RC Review (one of the YouTube channels), about a month ago, uploaded a video describing the same process. Just remember...BE SAFE, and do NOT charge it (under NiMH) any higher than 0.5C (but I still recommend 0.2C...it might take longer, but, it's also safer).

Panther 6834,
I have had to use that method several times, it works and don't walk away from the battery and charger. If you do it exactly as you describe it is safe , with the full knowledge of how lipo batteries work. Johnno Hennessy. Keep flying on the green side of the grass.