DJI F550 Dual Lipos - What are my options?

bucker

Member
Hi guys,

I've got an F550 (among others) which I find great for FPVing and general aerial filming as it's nice and stable, but I'm finding my flight times are ridiculously short, ~7 minutes on a steady flight. It's running off a NanoTech 3S 6000mAh(!) LiPo, which to be fair I wouldn't really want to upsize to a larger battery as they're fairly hench LiPos.

I was wondering though about the possibilities of carrying two LiPos at once and the best way to do it? Also with the extra 500g LiPo whehter or not I would actually gain any flight time?

I've currently got the Battery mounted on the top of the hex (which goes against my physics based mind regarding C of G) but I'd be a bit worried about mounting two on top as it might make the Hex a bit top heavy??

Anybody else had any experience doing this or know if this is a safe option?

I've also seen a few other quads of other brands where the batteries are mounted on the landing legs, sort of at an angle either side. I can't find anything even similar to this for DJI crafts and was wondering if anyone could help me.

Any input would be muchly welcomed ;)
 

Tahoe Ed

Active Member
Why don't you try 4S. You will get a performance improvement and your flight times should be longer. I fly 2x4S 4000mAh and get 11-12 minutes.
 

bucker

Member
If I hadn't bought three 3S 6000s then I'd probably take your advice, but at £40 a pop thats gonna take a bit of saving up.

I'm still trying to get my head around why a higher voltage causes better performance. Also I thought the 4-cell Lipos were for crafts with larger props?
 


bucker

Member
Do you guys mount both lipos on top though? just worried that might make things a bit unstable.
I trying to find side-mounts for lipos for the F550 but not getting very far.
 

Tahoe Ed

Active Member
Do you guys mount both lipos on top though? just worried that might make things a bit unstable.
I trying to find side-mounts for lipos for the F550 but not getting very far.

AeroXcraft landing gear with an H3-3D up front and two lipos hanging from the rear. The mount is adjustable so you can balance everything out.
 

FJJ

Member
AeroXcraft landing gear with an H3-3D up front and two lipos hanging from the rear. The mount is adjustable so you can balance everything out.

+1 on the gear, however I am now using a multistar 10C 8000mA battery 4s which makes a huge difference
 

Acill

Member
+1 on the gear, however I am now using a multistar 10C 8000mA battery 4s which makes a huge difference

Yup! The 10C scared me at first, but I am getting 20 minutes fully loaded with these packs!!! Well worth it!
 

Its all very well making statements like getting 20 minutes with 8ah 10C but on what platform are you flying (detail is important as a comparison).
@bucker if like me you have full fpv, gimbal with camera, landing gear on your F550, you very quickly reach the maximum recommended weight for this copter and in fact you exceed it. Mine ended up around and slightly over 3kg AUW with 10" graupner and two 2.7 ah 4s lipos, flight time was also around 7 to 8 minutes. For me the only way to increase efficiency and flight times was to use larger props and lower KV motors, the only way is to go bigger in arm length, it was either spend lots of money buying longer arms and motors for the F550 or spend $125 to $150 on a new larger frame (plus motors and props of course) and transfer my gimbal FPV gear and still have a now much lighter F550 for fun flying, so I did the latter. Now have a Tarot with 15" props.
By the way it really does not matter that much where you put your batteries "as long as your craft remains well balanced", the flight controller will take care of it.

regards - bruce
 
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Acill

Member
I fly a fully loaded F550 with extended skids, gimbal, gopro and full FPV system on a 6600Mah 4S pack and get an easy 14 minutes but usually return home at 12. If I want I can push 18 and my pack will be at what I feel is the absolute limit, returning 5900Mah to it at that point. I dont like doing it and have mine set to alert me at 9 minutes.
 

On my 550 with longer arms and 770KV motors I run 2x 4200mah 4S batteries. I mount mine on top and it is well balanced and flies very well. Flight time is around 8-10min.
 

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