Hey folks. I'll make this short and sweet. I'm looking to move away from lipo batteries altogether for the rig and remote focus and camera power. I've been wiring up some 7.4v 2200mah canon LP-E6 batteries in series and parallel etc to match the 14.8v that powers the rig already. I was wondering if there's a reason this hasn't been done before? My reasoning behind it is that I despise lipos.. Too volatile, can't be left unattended while charging, NIGHTMARE in airports and the cable and chargers are just too fiddly. It it works with the rig. I'll be powering my epic off a number of these as well and the remote focus and wireless TX. Just mounting them will be the problem!. Please share your thoughts and advice. All welcome! Cheers, Sam CineCopters
Sam try to find the 'C' rating for the battery. That is the amount of current flow that it can sustain. The Canon is still a Lithium Ion battery but I couldn't find the second part of the battery type but it might be cobalt-oxide, at least after a quick glance at the MSDS sheet I found. You may find that it doesn't have the same 'oomph' of a LiPo. The Canon batteries have the same restrictions on airline travel as any other LiOn battery.
Thanks Gary, I'll have a look at the specs on the back of the battery tomorrow. In all honesty if the stock movi batteries will power the rig for 3-4 hours I'm not gonna cry over a 5-10min difference between the lipos and canons. Batteries are a pain in the ass at airports full stop you're right I just think a little black batter with no cables hanging out is easier to pass than a rectangular with two sets of cables coming out of it. Can you see any reason why it wouldn't work though?
Hey Sam, 5D batteries won't handle the peak current draw from the M10 very well unless you parallel up QUITE a few of them! I think you will see reduced performance unless you wire up a pack with ~14 5D batteries Tabb
Hey Tabb, I was afraid of that.. How many to you think it would take? Reason being, I've just had to baby sit my rig batteries before tomorrows shoot and it's a real time killer. That's why I want to move away from them. Sam
The reason everybody’s using LiPo batteries is that there’s nothing commercially available that can touch their power/weight ratio. And don’t be spooked by the horror stories. Most of us have LiPo procedures baked into our psyche by now, and accidents are extremely rare. I’ve been doing LiPo/RC stuff for over a year now, and I have about 30 batteries of various sizes and ratings, and the only one I ever had go bad on me was a tiny 500mAh 3S battery, and even that one I managed to resuscitate. No exploding, no puffing, no drama. But I’m also very diligent about charging and storage procedures. Just take the time to learn how this all works.
do you mind sharing a few major do's and don'ts? it's hard to distinquish the real dangers form the legal disclaimer BS.
My best advice is to invest in a very good charger. Many of us use the EOS 720 I. And buy a couple of small LED battery monitors. I have several of them, including a couple that have audible alarms. There are dangers inherent in both overcharging and over discharging these batteries. A good charger and good practices will save you from both
Here are some headlines: 1. Don't over charge them -- that is, charge them faster than they're intended be charged. If in doubt, look at their capacity in Amp Hours (if it's stated in milliAmp Hours, divide by 1,000) and do not charge them at a higher current than that. E.g. an 8,000 mAH battery is 8 Amp Hours. Do not charge it at more than 8 Amps. (Note: some batteries nowadays can handle high charge current -- I'm just sayin' what will always work -- a general truth). 2. Don't over discharge them -- LiPo are made up of individual battery cells. These cells are fully charged at 4.2 volts, and must never drop below 3.0 volts (otherwise they will not hold their charge in future). 3. Batteries are designated in a way that tells you how many cells they have. Typically batteries you will encounter in the MōVI and copter world have designations like 4S1P, 5S1P, or 6S1P. That meant four, five, or six cells in series (so you add the voltage of each cell). The 1P is redundant because no cells are in parallel (but you occasionally might encounter a 4S2P, say, so it's useful to know this and impress people at cocktail parties). Thus a fully charged 4S has a voltage of 16.8 volts, a 5S has 21 volts, a 6S has 25.2. (Why use different S batteries? Mo' volts means mo' power but requires motor control electronics that can handle the higher voltages). 4. Don't store LiPo's for long periods fully charged. The optimal storage voltage seems to be around 3.8v but those chargers that have a "Storage" charge option seem to vary slightly. "Long period" means different things to different people. For me, it means 48 hours. For the MoVI charger, which does not have a storage charge option, just power on the MoVI and leave it powered on until you see one LED on solid, one flashing. That's close enough to storage voltage for government work. A reasonably storage voltage for the MoVI LiP is 15.4volts, so at the end of a shoot, test the LiPo voltage (this is a good little tester/alarm). If it's lower than 15.4v volts connect it up to the charger for a while and test again. If it's higher, then use the MoVI itself to drain the battery -- or connect up a 24 volt automotive light bulb as a dummy load on the main leads and keep the LiPo voltage tester connected to the balance leads (see next point). 5. Keep all the cells within 0.1 volts of each other otherwise there is an internal current flow. That's what the plug with several wires does, it's the balance lead and allows the charger to "top up" individual cells to balance the charge. 6. Don't subject LiPos to physical abuse, heat, mechanical abuse, or talk about them behind their backs. 7. Buy some metal ammo cases, drill a 1/4" hole in the side or the lid to allow gases to vent, and store the LiPos in those cases. Is this necessary? I don't know, but I sleep better. More info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_polymer_battery As I said on another post: Think of the LiPos as being your pet tiger. Feed Kitty what she needs, how she needs it, and be nice to Kitty at all times. Otherwise Kitty will become pissed off and burn your house down. Do a YouTube search for "LiPo fire" -- you'll notice that almost all of them are induced by overcharging or mechanical abuse. One or two are spontaneous -- just enough to require the Kitty metaphor and a metal ammo box. Hope this helps. Andy.
Wow, thanks very much. With all due respect to the RC folks out there, this post re-enforces the urge to move away from these little toxic devices and power the whole rig with a Anton Buaer dionic 90 in a belt pack. That serves the dual purpose of moving the weight off the rig. Most of my work is on the road, and i don't fancy the idea of sleeping in a hotel room with these things charging, or having to monitor them that closely.
Again, the power properties of different types of batteries are often dramatically different. The power requirements of most cameras are pretty simple. A RED Epic pulls a pretty consistent level of power, regardless of what it’s doing. A MōVI, on the other hand, can have dramatically different power requirements depending on how it’s moving, and most traditional batteries can’t meed its requirements.
According to http://www.antonbauer.com/products/dionic90, that battery can supply 90-95W at 14.4V. That means 6 amps or so. Which is nowhere near the amount of power that most RC gear requires. That’s what the ‘C’ ratings are on LiPo batteries. According to The MōVI website at http://freeflysystems.myshopify.com/collections/movi-accessory/products/freefly-movi-battery its batteries need to be able to supply 13A. But here’s the critical part: the LiPo that the MōVI uses weighs 1/4 that of an AB battery (200g vs. 800g) yet outputs twice the current.
So I understand the AB is lithium but i am told it is partitioned in a way that makes is safer, and the charger is interactive. I have never heard of a puncture or overcharge resulting in a problem. question is: will the MoVi handle the AB? i refer you to the post by Erich Roland, bad idea? http://forum.freeflysystems.com/index.php?threads/powering-option-when-weight-becomes-an-issue.2921/
Thanks Steve, you posted before i replied. I totally get the weight issue, especially for RC, but i also need to power a monitor, camera and a wireless mic reciever, all of which i can do from a belt pack with an AB.
Cd welcome to the forums. Would you be kind enough to change your user name to your real first name and last name, please? The reasons for this (and how to do it) are explained here: http://forum.freeflysystems.com/index.php?threads/real-names.497/.