Battery Life / Flashing Red Led

N

NotSoNoob

Member
Guys, I really need your help here.
I have a new hex dji550 build.
I am running (6 NTM Prop Drive Series 28-26A 1200kv / 250w) motors
and 6 Turnigy Plush ESC's 30a and a couple 25a
I also have the NAZA M GPS.
The battery I am using is a 3s 4000 30-40c
If I get 3 minutes of hover time it's a miracle! FLASHING RED LED
What am I doing wrong?

Also, I have calibrated the NAZA gps and the lights tell me its calibrated however during 1 of my hovers it was drifting all over the place.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. First time around!



-I use a Turnigy 4 button charger which pushes 12.60 v into the LiPo
-The Prop size is 8x5
-NAZA FW is 3.10 (the latest)

I take a voltage reading and there is well over 50% left? I also tried (2) 2200 s in parallel which are lipos that I know work very well and again same thing 3 minutes red flashing. I took a reading and had well over 50% left in the lipo. Obviously this red flashing has nothing to do with the lipo voltage there has got to be something wrong can anyone please help!

When the LED start flashing RED the copter starts to get weak and lands itslef even though I am at full throttle? I take voltage and again 58% left in Lipo (3 minutes is not right something is def wrong.)

Any Help would be greatly appreciated!:upset:

Thank you.

Josell


 

H

helloman1976

Ziptie Relocation Expert
NotSoNoob said:
Guys, I really need your help here.
I have a new hex dji550 build.
I am running (6 NTM Prop Drive Series 28-26A 1200kv / 250w) motors
and 6 Turnigy Plush ESC's 30a and a couple 25a
I also have the NAZA M GPS.
The battery I am using is a 3s 4000 30-40c
If I get 3 minutes of hover time it's a miracle! FLASHING RED LED
What am I doing wrong?

Also, I have calibrated the NAZA gps and the lights tell me its calibrated however during 1 of my hovers it was drifting all over the place.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. First time around!



-I use a Turnigy 4 button charger which pushes 12.60 v into the LiPo
-The Prop size is 8x5
-NAZA FW is 3.10 (the latest)

I take a voltage reading and there is well over 50% left? I also tried (2) 2200 s in parallel which are lipos that I know work very well and again same thing 3 minutes red flashing. I took a reading and had well over 50% left in the lipo. Obviously this red flashing has nothing to do with the lipo voltage there has got to be something wrong can anyone please help!

When the LED start flashing RED the copter starts to get weak and lands itslef even though I am at full throttle? I take voltage and again 58% left in Lipo (3 minutes is not right something is def wrong.)

Any Help would be greatly appreciated!:upset:

Thank you.

Josell
Click to expand...

You need to go into your Naza setup and into the voltage section. There are 2 areas in there, yellow and red. The yellow area is what gives you a warning, the red area is where the Naza forces the craft to land. Let's say you set the yellow area to 11V, you'll get a warning on the Naza LED when you hit 11V. If you set your red area to 11V then your craft will try to land by design.

In GPS mode is it drifting or is it circling around a center point and trying to find center? Also, what is your LED doing when you are in GPS mode? It should be a single green light flashing, anything else and you don't have a solid lock.
 

N

NotSoNoob

Member
Thank you for your answer. I am attaching a screen shot of the voltage area of my software. Are you saying that these numbers should be changes and that this is the reason why I am only getting 3 minutes flight time?

As far as the leds. I get the green in GPS mode. But when I take off in the air seems like it will blink red at times, then maybe go back to green. It doesn't seem to stay green while in flight. Then of course after a few seconds here comes the flashing red and it's time to land again. :livid: I really hope you can help me!

View attachment 11954
 

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Hartz

Hartz

Herpaderpinator
Those loaded values are much higher than what I use.

I have 10.5v loaded first level, second level 9.5v loaded for my 3S batteries. I am not saying you should use what I use as everyone seems to have a different opinion of what they should be. Here is how I came about my values...

You should never let a cell drop below 3v. Most people will say that you shouldn't let them drop below 3.3v or 80% or whatever. At the end of the day it's up to you depending on how expensive your batteries are and how often you are willing to replace them.

So using the above as a guide I worked out 3v per cell, times that by 3 cells giving me 9v, add .5v for margin giving 9.5v, this is the loaded second level protection that I wanted to use and do not want my battery to get any lower than this. So in Naza Assistant I use second level no load = 10v, loss = .5v, giving me 9.5v loaded. If you want to be cautious with your batteries use 3.3v * 3 + margin = loaded.

For first level protection I added 1v. So 11v no load, .5v line loss, 10.5v loaded. Play with this all you want, at the end of the day this is just the warning LED telling you that juice is running low. You want to give yourself enough time to return home and land.


These settings have been working well for me so far. I am interested to see if anyone thinks my values are a bad idea actually.
 

N

NotSoNoob

Member
I will definitely try these settings and get back to you to see what I've found!. Can you tell me about how much flight time should I get roughly with a 4000 pack with these settings?
 

N

NotSoNoob

Member
I went ahead and set them to;
10.5v - 1st level
9.5 v - 2nd level

However it still hovered for 2 minutes then the red light was flashing again.
I took a reading of my 4000 lipo and noticed the following;

Voltage 11.45
1st cell 54%
2nd cell 54%
3rd cell 18%

I have discharge the battery once and have balanced it a few times which has taken me hours. Do you think this is a bad cell in this battery? Could this be in, in your opinion the cause of the problem?

I am going to parallel (2) 2200's tomorrow and try again.

Seems like I am seeing this pattern of it dying after 3 minutes.

Please let me know what you think.

Thank you.
 


Hartz

Hartz

Herpaderpinator
Maybe you do have a dodgy cell. Give it a balance charge and check what they go up to, run it for a minute or two and check again. I balance charge my batteries every time, which with a 3S 2200mAh battery takes between 30-45 minutes, sometimes longer.

Can't say what kind of flight times you should get sorry as every bird is different and I am not really familiar with your hardware. Maybe hop on eCalc http://www.ecalc.ch/ and input your hardware to get an idea.
 

Olemil

Olemil

Member
I have to agree with Hartz, looks like you have a bad pack since the 3rd cell is way low compared to the other two. Also I didn't see anyone mention anything about checking the calibration of your battery voltage in the assistant software. Mine was off enough to cause a premature low battery flashing light on the VU. I checked the voltage in the software and compared it to the actual battery voltage and they differed by quite a bit. You have to go into "calibrate battery voltage" in the software and input the actual voltage of your battery. Good luck.
 

PeteDee

PeteDee

Mr take no prisoners!
Hartz said:
Those loaded values are much higher than what I use.

I have 10.5v loaded first level, second level 9.5v loaded for my 3S batteries. I am not saying you should use what I use as everyone seems to have a different opinion of what they should be. Here is how I came about my values...

You should never let a cell drop below 3v. Most people will say that you shouldn't let them drop below 3.3v or 80% or whatever. At the end of the day it's up to you depending on how expensive your batteries are and how often you are willing to replace them.

So using the above as a guide I worked out 3v per cell, times that by 3 cells giving me 9v, add .5v for margin giving 9.5v, this is the loaded second level protection that I wanted to use and do not want my battery to get any lower than this. So in Naza Assistant I use second level no load = 10v, loss = .5v, giving me 9.5v loaded. If you want to be cautious with your batteries use 3.3v * 3 + margin = loaded.

For first level protection I added 1v. So 11v no load, .5v line loss, 10.5v loaded. Play with this all you want, at the end of the day this is just the warning LED telling you that juice is running low. You want to give yourself enough time to return home and land.


These settings have been working well for me so far. I am interested to see if anyone thinks my values are a bad idea actually.
Click to expand...

The settings you suggest cannot be set for second level on V3.12 firmware, the lowest it will allow is 9.8V.

I have just reset mine to 10.6 and 10.1 with 0.5 for load and went out for a test and after hovering for about 5 seconds it flipped over, no damage but looks like a motor decided to let the smoke out at that specific time. Gaaaaarh!!!

Pete
 



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