Hello, I just built a cinestar 8 kit with the following setup: - cinestar 8 450mm booms with 3 axis gimbal - FC HW:2.1 SW:2.06e - NC HW:2.0 SW:2.06i - BL HW:V2 SW:0.31 - QC-3328 motors - APC 14 x 4,7 slow flyers - PCB Extension Board for LED low voltage warning - AUW 5,37kg (without camera) - AUW 6,92kg (with 5DmkII + 24L) Battery pack used for testing: 2X Hyperion 4S 35C 5000mAh in paralell My problem: As soon as take off with the copter loaded with camera setup, I get the blinking low voltage alarm. At the MK tools the low voltage warning is set to 36 (14.4). I landed and repeated take off for about four times, checking battery voltage with a battery meter to make sure I had good battery still. All of cells are in good shape. When I fly with the copter unloaded (no camera), the blinking appears when I make a fast throttle up stick movement, then returns to normal when just hovering. When loaded with camera, the blinking never stops. Attached is the GPX file related to the flight mentioned with the camera attached. As this is my first setup, I would appreciate if any one could chime in and help me with your experience. Do you think this is related with my battery packs? By the way, I plugged a regulated power supply to test the low voltage warning and it seems working fine, with a 0,1V voltage gap (the blinking starts with 0,1V difference from what is setup at MKtools). Any thoughts? Thanks for your help. Marcelo.
Marcelo: Either your batteries are defective or they are not fully charged. The maximum voltage shown in the GPS file is 14.9 volts -- you may see higher than that if you test them without the motors spinning. You should see a maximum voltage on a fully charged battery under load of around 16.8 volts -- although it drops from that fairly quickly. Andy.
Hi Andy, the LIPOs are brand new (but they were sitting at the shelf for one year, closed at original packaging), and show 16.58V without the motors spinning (and yes, they were fully charged). Those readings come from a Hyperion EOS Sentry tester. I just used a second Sentry tester that shows the exact same readings. I will try another pack tomorrow, I have a Quadropower 4S 6200 laying around, but fully charged, without spinning it shows 16.47V. It was barely used, but also has more than an year of lifetime. They do get tired over time, right? The best thing will be testing with new packs. As soon as I get them (next week) I will be able to gather more info. Do you mind if I get back to you with these results? Thanks for your help. Best Regards, Marcelo.
Marcelo those 2X Hyperion 4S 35C 5000mAh batterys might not have enough power if they been sitting around charged? I flew some packs similar to those the other day for a shoot. (could not take more bigger batterys on the plane) Brand new batterys I have the same AUW 6,92kg (with 5DmkII + 24L) as yours. I got about 3mins pushing 4mins max out them. It was pretty much take off and land lol. Yes Batterys do get tired overtime i change my batterys about every 6-8months and when the internal resistance gets high
Jason, those battery packs were never used before, and never charged. As I got them out of the box, they had 30% charge, as out of the factory. What battery packs do you normally use? Have you ever tried the Gens Ace 12000mAh?
HMM interesting you did not charge them before flying???? So they where 30% charged before take-off? At the moment I am using a 2x freefly 9000mah 4s packs. have not tried any others
About 14-15mins new! Those packs are getting old now so i have had them for about 8 months 200+ flights. Now get about 8-10mins
I would try better batteries like Tattu or Pulse. Hyperions are pretty cheap and may not be delivering what the labels say. That happened to me with Zippys. They sag badly under stress.
Steve, I will try one of those Gens Ace (I think they are the same make of Tattu). After the tests I will post the results. Thanks for your comment.