Current flight times are getting very low (3 - 3.5 min on a single QC 8000mAh) so its time to purchase new batteries. I 'd like to make an informed purchased through your input/experiences/recommendations and was hoping forum members would be willing to share what batteries your using, single or running in parallel and what flight times your achieving. My bird: CS8, 2-axis, flying 5DMKII & CX760V Cheers!
A good read by Andy http://rathergoodguides.com/RGG_doc...ng Certain LiPo Batteries 1-04 2013-04-12.pdf
Brad, Isn't 65C overkill for the multirotor? Real 25C would be enough for the most multirotor crafts. Freefly Lipo's are also capable of 25C constant discharge, as far as I know.
I've been quite satisfied with the Zippy 8000 4SP1 batts I've been using. 100% solid, just have to change to the EC5 connectors (a bit of a pain, but if you're good with a soldering iron, should be a snap). They're less than 1/2 the price of the Quadropowers. See if you can get them from Hobby King's US warehouse, and it'll be a lot faster/cheaper. (looks like they're in stock at $61.65 each: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...lightmax_8000mAh_4S1P_30C_USA_Warehouse_.html)
Overkill? Yes, but they are over a year old and no signs of slowing down. They are also still the same size as the day I got them.
The freeflys have been great for me and the price is very good considering the time to switch others over to ec5.
I've been running both the Aerobot branded 10400mah packs and the Freefly 9000mah packs. So far I am happy with both, but the FF packs have a form factor that makes it easy to mount two of them.
I've had a difficult time finding lipos. At a recent Huckfest here in East Tennessee, a bunch of people were flying Glaciers. http://www.buddyrc.com/battery/glacier-lipo-battery/4s-glacier-lipo.html They're the same exact size as the GenAce hard case. The price was good and the delivery was fast.
Joe what were they flying? Multi-rotor or regular aircraft? Looks like their largest is only 5000mah.
95% were flying regular RC planes. I retired 5 batteries (5500s) and needed a couple of quick replacements for a photo assignment. That's how I found the Glaciers. A few weeks ago all of my other sources (HobbyPartz, Hobby King, etc.) were "not in stock" - When i bought my RTF from Quadrocopter I started with their 5500s...but I didn't know how to take care of batteries (no discharging, etc) and they didn't last too long. So I stayed with the 5000's and 5500s. I just upgraded to EC5's and just flew my first parallel batteries (5500 mAh). Still just got 5 minutes. I desperately need reliability and more time in the air with my CS8. What would the 8000's in parallel get me?
Joe the demands on batteries vary between airplane, helicopter, RC cars and multirotors. Give us some more information about your setup. What flight control system, motors, props, all up weight of the CS. Also if you are flying the MK flight stack then attach a copy of a recent GPX log file from the system. Depending on those answers we might be able to pin point the issue.
I fly exclusively dual 8000s (Quadropowers and Zippys) in matched pairs using a parallel EC5 connector into my stock MK stack. My AUW varies between 13 and 15+ pounds (more or less). I get 14-15 minutes max flight time at the light end, and 8-10 minutes at the heavy end. But I rarely push it to the edge. With my GH3 on board I'm at 14.4 pounds AUW, and I get almost exactly 1000 mA per minute, so when I bring her back at 8 minutes, for example, I've used up about 50% of the theoretical capacity. I say "theoretical" because I've never pushed these all the way flat. I think the farthest I've gone is 12,000 mA of current consumed, and that was in a precarious semi-failed state of some of the hardware, and it was kind of an emergency situation.
i am using zippy 8000mAh 4s and 5s (in the process of switching over to 5s for a more reactive copter especially on windy days) most of the time i fly my cs 8 with a nikon d-800 and i can say: i am happy with the zippys.
I have 20 QC6200 batteries (10 pairs) that have served me very well. I get on average 7-8 minutes of fly time with 2 6200's and a flightweight of 15 pounds with a 7D and 9-11 minutes with a flying weight of 13.5 pounds with the Sony 760.