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One Battery or Two?

Discussion in 'Cinestar Misc' started by Andrew Goodwin, Sep 25, 2012.

  1. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Do you have the microSD card in your Navi-Control board, Josh? I'd really like to see the GPX file for your flight to compare it to mine.
    The GPX file from my flight is attached....hmmm, well it would be but Safari's not letting me attach any GPX files. I can see I need to reboot my machine. I'll attach it to another post if I can get it to attach!

    Andy.
     
  2. Josh Lambeth

    Josh Lambeth Well-Known Member

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    Yes mine is working. i will post.
     
  3. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Oh. You cannot upload GPX files to this forum! Let me check with the authorities....
    For now, I've spoofed the system by adding .txt -- you'll need to remove that before MK_GPX will be able to process the file.

    Andy.
     

    Attached Files:

  4. SteveWilson

    SteveWilson Member

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    Thanks. That is about what I did in the photo except I put the batteries a little closer to the PDB. In PH and AH, she was a little jerky in very heavy winds - I think fighting the inertia you mentioned. I'll make a final decision on keeping it after we get some calmer air to fly in.
     
  5. SteveWilson

    SteveWilson Member

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    Parallel. While we balance every time, we don't bother balancing them all together. Our oldest batteries are 2+ years old with a least 100 cycles each and they are still holding on. They've lost a little off the top, but not bad. Hyperions have been our work horse. If we're damaging them I haven't seen it.
     
  6. Josh Lambeth

    Josh Lambeth Well-Known Member

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  7. Nick Kolias

    Nick Kolias Moderator
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    Andy, I was wrong about the 12000mAh packs. It was those 11000 packs I had a promotional email for. For some reason I thought it was 11999 or similar. My mind is weak. :oops:

    nick
     
  8. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Nick: Nahh....we're all dreaming of 12000 packs with 100C discharge. Hope springs eternal...
    I'm going to talk to Clint at Maxamps on Monday when he's back in the office and see what he can suggest....

    Andy.
     
  9. Richard Dobson

    Richard Dobson New Member

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    Looking for a thread about batteries, what is everyone using, cost, best value, charging equipment, process of charging, flight times. D4U did a nice video series and am just wondering what everyone else is doing, especially where to get the best deal on batteries.
     
  10. Mark Melville

    Mark Melville Member

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    Looks like I'm spending a lot of money on both kinds of birds. Hopefully the flying one will give me more satisfaction.
     
  11. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    I read what you're not writing, Mark. :)

    Andy.
     
  12. Joe Azzarelli

    Joe Azzarelli Active Member

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    They are the same. Moderate amounts of regular frustration with occasional immense satisfaction.
     
  13. Pavlos Antoniou

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    Guys what you think is better to place the lipos one near the other OR one upt to the other?? whats better for CG etc??
     
  14. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    I think side by side is better -- as you say, it will keep the CoG lower.

    Andy.
     
  15. Pavlos Antoniou

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    Yeap BUt the thing is that side by side the cog might be too low because of the gimbal+cam..!!!

    For instance the best for the copterwithout gimbal will be side by side..! but now with 2.5kggimbal isnt it better to put one on top of the other???
     
  16. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    With that load on the gimbal, you may be right, Pavlos.
    It would probably be a good idea to fly with batteries side-by-side and also one on top of the other and see whether you detect any difference in flight characteristics.

    Andy.
     
  17. Dave King

    Dave King Well-Known Member

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    If you run two batteries does it matter if the voltage is exactly the same? I would imagine that the crutical element is that all 4 cells in a battery need to be the same? But I would think that if one battery charges at 16.9 and one at 16.7, since they are in parallel it would just give a battery voltage of 16.8? NO big deal right? But what if the batteries discharge at different rates? Has anyone tested the Quadropower 8000 batteries? It seems like the popular choice is 2 6200's but I don't see many people running 2 8000's. Also can anyone tell me how how I can look at the GPX data to determine battery efficiency? I see many people referring to their GPX files for battery efficiency but I'm not quite sure on what data you are looking at?
     
  18. Enrique Rubio

    Enrique Rubio Member

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    I'm happy with 1 battery of 11000 maxamps
     
  19. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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    I've started running dual batteries, but I have very little experience. What I will tell you is that I run QP8000 and Zippy 8000 pairs, but I won't mix them, and I only use fully-charged batteries.

    The standard config (a 'Y' cable) is reflected as one battery in the GPX file, as the FC only knows there's one power source out there. You can certainly tally up the mA draw throughout a flight (I have) and make sure you're getting your money's worth, but it's not going to tell you if you have an imbalance. I'm sure there's a way you could do that separately from the MK Flight Controller, but you'd need to separately monitor each battery, and that would be tricky because they're paralleled together.
     
  20. Josh Lambeth

    Josh Lambeth Well-Known Member

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    We are flying with 2 8000mAh 5s batteries with our new setup and we can get almost 19 minutes with our 5dMKII. We also have 2 sets of 5000mAh 5s which we get about 11 minutes with.

    I always run the same two batteries together and I charge the same two batteries at the same time. This way I make sure they are all even. I have a new power supply (the eFuel 1200w) and the cables so I can charge multiple batteries at the same time on the same charge port (paracharging). Im anxious to see how this works.

    Josh
     
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