Elev-8 Battery Life

tranger

I'm getting about 6 to 6-1/2 minutes on my Parallax 3200 mAh battery. The battery is a little less than a year old. I'm estimating 100-120 charges on it, using the Tenergy unit that Parallax sells. Running 4 motors, a receiver, led strips and a FlyCamOne camera (sometimes). No servo's or other devices onboard.

Just recently started using a timer on my radio (HiTech Aurora) that triggers off of the throttle and so started paying more attention.

DJI advertises 25mins max on the Phantom 2 Vision +. I have flight time envy. :frown:

Thought about a higher capacity battery like this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FLOUREON-11-1V-5500mAh-3S-35C-Lipo-RC-Battery-for-RC-Helicopter-Airplane-Hobby-/191097206124?pt=Radio_Control_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2c7e47f56c

What's everybody else getting?


-Russ

Duane Degn

As I'm sure you know, as you increase the battery size, the motors will have to pull more current to keep the extra weight in the air.

I've read Parallax thinks 4,000mAh is about right capacity for an ELEV-8 pack.

I personally use 5,000mAh packs. I chose 5,000mAh packs since I use 6S 5,000mAh packs with my helicopter and I figured I could double up the 3S I purchased to use with the ELEV-8 and use them with my helicopter.

I got 15 minutes of flight time with the 5Ah packs.

Here's a thread where batteries were discussed a little. In the thread I link to this 5Ah pack. I usually try to find packs at HobbyKing's USA warehouse since the shipping is faster.

With a larger capacity pack, the C rating can be a bit lower than when using smaller packs. I'm not sure if everyone will agree, but I think a 20C 5Ah pack would work fine with the ELEV-8 if the ELEV-8 isn't flown very aggressively.

dmagnus

I have a friend with a DJI Phantom 2 Vision+. The 25 min claim for the Phantom is "sort of" true. You can set your limit for battery warning and most will be at about the equivalent of 15 minutes or so. You can push it past that, but, eventually, when the battery gets down to about 20% the quad will go into fail safe mode and land itself. (Hopefully, you are over somewhere landable.) Last Saturday night, at our marina for the fireworks show, he flew up to about 300' in a 20 knot wind and hovered for 15 minutes until the lights started blinking warning him of the battery reaching it's limits. He then flew back into the wind about 1/8 mile and landed in the parking lot. (he had permission from the marina to do all of this). Obviously, holding perfect hover in that wind was using a lot more battery. The quad also has a motor driven gimbal setup for the camera and the camera itself is powered by the battery (5200 mah) as well as the FPV) He says he has flown it up to about 20 minutes before he "chickens out" and lands it. He has never taken it to where it lands itself because of battery life. It does have an auto return home and land if connection with the transmitter is lost.

tranger

dmagnus wrote: »

I have a friend with a DJI Phantom 2 Vision+. The 25 min claim for the Phantom is "sort of" true. You can set your limit for battery warning and most will be at about the equivalent of 15 minutes or so. You can push it past that, but, eventually, when the battery gets down to about 20% the quad will go into fail safe mode and land itself. (Hopefully, you are over somewhere landable.) Last Saturday night, at our marina for the fireworks show, he flew up to about 300' in a 20 knot wind and hovered for 15 minutes until the lights started blinking warning him of the battery reaching it's limits. He then flew back into the wind about 1/8 mile and landed in the parking lot. (he had permission from the marina to do all of this). Obviously, holding perfect hover in that wind was using a lot more battery. The quad also has a motor driven gimbal setup for the camera and the camera itself is powered by the battery (5200 mah) as well as the FPV) He says he has flown it up to about 20 minutes before he "chickens out" and lands it. He has never taken it to where it lands itself because of battery life. It does have an auto return home and land if connection with the transmitter is lost.

Wondered about how they handled tx / rx loss. They quote 800m range, which isn't a lot (~ 1/2 mile). 5200 mAh has to be fairly heavy ~ 400-500 grams.

I have a low battery indicator on my radio - just can't remember where it is set right now. It seems to be reasonably accurate because the ESC's start to get soft at that point also.

I'm looking for a good 15 min's of flight under "normal" conditions.

-Russ

Duane Degn

tranger wrote: »

Wondered about how they handled tx / rx loss. They quote 800m range, which isn't a lot (~ 1/2 mile).

I used to fly my airplanes 1/4 mile away so I could take a line of photos over a 1/2 mile stretch (I'd fly 1/4 mile the other direction). It was awfully hard to see my 8' wingspan airplane that far away. I sure wouldn't want to try to fly a quadcopter that far.

I suppose with a FPV setup, the range issue becomes more important. I'd think they'd have a return to home feature with a lose of radio signal. Lots of control boards will log transmission losses so you can get a better idea of a safe distance.

tranger

Duane Degn wrote: »

I used to fly my airplanes 1/4 mile away so I could take a line of photos over a 1/2 mile stretch (I'd fly 1/4 mile the other direction). It was awfully hard to see my 8' wingspan airplane that far away. I sure wouldn't want to try to fly a quadcopter that far.

I suppose with a FPV setup, the range issue becomes more important. I'd think they'd have a return to home feature with a lose of radio signal. Lots of control boards will log transmission losses so you can get a better idea of a safe distance.

Yeah, I understand the visibility issue. I have a hard enough time at 100' elev and 100 yards downrange. I was thinking about FPV in the context of the fireworks guy - 800m just doesn't seem like a lot of margin in that case. Of course, if it just gracefully flies back home I suppose it's ok. Somewhere I've seen a 7mile range reported for my radio setup. That sounds plenty safe.