Extremely low flight times on FPV quad

[John Doecliff]

If your charger has a "Charge till" function then yes set it at 12.6 but I have never heard of that kind of charger. Thinking maybe you should post a pic of the charger and not the quad. LOL

 

[ThePenguinNich]

This is the charger. I'm charging my battery right now just to confirm that it's only going to 11.1v

 

[John Doecliff]

Looks like a typical 4 button charger.
lipo/Balance/ 1.3 amps/ 3S (11.1v)
That's what you want
12.6v when fully charged

 

[ThePenguinNich]

12.6v when fully charged

Unfortunately, it's not. I just finished charging a bat (LiPo Balance, 1.3A, 11.1v 3s) and it charged until 11.18v. I'll stick it on again as long as that's not too dangerous.

Edit: I popped it in again, and it's measuring 11.21v now. Would this be causing these poor flight times? I guess it's a contributor, but a difference of 1.5v is that huge of an issue?

 

[John Doecliff]

Yes that's probably your whole problem right there. That .5 v per cell or 1.5v overall makes a world of difference.It needs to be 12.6 vdc fully charged for a 3S lipo. Hopefully you didn't damage it by drawing it down too low when you had those other flights. Lipo's don't like getting drawn down too low. Is it puffed? does it feel like it has gas in it when you gently squeeze it?

 

[John Doecliff]

Read the section on lithium polymer battery's at the top of the beginners forum. There's a lot to know and understand. I would recommend staying with that battery as it charges. it sounds questionable. Hopefully its just a charger misunderstanding and it's not badly puffed.

 

[ThePenguinNich]

It's not puffed at all. I'm assuming this means I need a new charger?

 

[John Doecliff]

That's good. I think you just need to figure out how to work that one. maybe hunt around youtube?

 

[ThePenguinNich]

So, when the battery is charging, if I tab over it says that the end voltage will be 12.6. However, it doesn't ever get there. I've charged it from 10.2 to 11.1, from 11.1 to 11.21, and now from 11.21 to 11.3v.

 

[fengshuidrone]

So, when the battery is charging, if I tab over it says that the end voltage will be 12.6. However, it doesn't ever get there. I've charged it from 10.2 to 11.1, from 11.1 to 11.21, and now from 11.21 to 11.3v.

You need to let each cell charge to 4.20v. That will be 12.6 at full charge. You need to start off your flights with a full charge. Your charger if it is a good one will have different charging rates. The charging rate is how many amps you are putting in to your battery per hour. More amps = less charging time. Sounds like yours might be set at a real low rate. When it is set to charge slow, that is exactly what it will do....charge slow.
Now, if you have one cell dead and the other two damaged or some combination of bad stuff happening you could experience charging difficulties even if you are doing things right with the charger.
You really need to check your voltage on a cell by cell basis at the balance plug to make sure all three cells are above 3v. If you have done that and know the cells are all taking a charge, then it will be safe to proceed with turning up the charge rate. The recommended charge rate for your battery is 1.3A. As others have already said, when the battery reaches a full balanced charge, the charger will/should sound an alarm and have a full charge indication somewhere with an automatic stop charging at full feature to keep from overcharging. It really sounds to me like the charger might be set at the default charge rate from the factory, which is usually the lowest rate (0.1A). You need to find the menu on the charger that lets you set the charge rate. These things are usually explained in the owners manual.

 

[Bartman]

some of the more advanced chargers have a safety feature where the charger will automatically shut off once it has put a certain amount of mah back into the battery. check to see if your charger has that feature, it's probably called capacity limiting or something like that. if the charger is set to shut off after replenishing maybe 500mah of capacity but you're charging a 2000 mah pack then you can see it will shut off well before the pack has been fully charged.

 

[John Doecliff]

All good advice.keep eliminating possibilitys untill your sure your doing it right. In the end it could very well be that your charger is not operating properly. Another route would be to get another battery and see it you get the same results. If there is a hobby store in your area maybe you could bring the battery to them and explain the situation. I would like to think they would offer to see if it takes a charge with their equipment.

 

[ThePenguinNich]

Thanks for the help, guys. I just did a couple flights and felt for temperatures, and nothing is out of the ordinary. Even the motor that's pulling more Amps than the others is about the same temp. As for the charger, I'm still working on it; I'll let your guys know when I've made any developments. The closest hobby store is about 40 min away, I might take a trip down there to see if my battery is broken or if my charger is (of course the charger might just need some settings to be tweaked).

 

[ThePenguinNich]

Just to let you guys know, I have not abandoned this thread or my quad. I was unable to figure out why my charger is only charging to 11.1v, so this weekend I'm taking it, my quad, and my batteries to a hobby shop to get them tested as per one of you guy's suggestion.

 

[ThePenguinNich]

Okay, so a bit of an update. I took my stuff to the hobby store and it turns out my charger was just not working properly. I bought a new charger and another battery, and both are charging to 12.6.

This all happened a week or two ago, but I have not been able to test it because I lost one of the nuts that goes on my CCW motor, so I couldn't put the prop on.

Luckily, some CCW nuts just came in the mail yesterday, so I should be good to fly. I'll update you guys with the new times.

 

[John Doecliff]

Good to hear.

 

[ThePenguinNich]

Okay. so it works! I got a solid 9 min of hovering in my garage, and I flew it up and down my street for a bit. It definitely was the battery. Thanks to everyone who stuck with me and helped me get this quad working.

 

[Bartman]

all's well that ends well.

what's next?

 

[ThePenguinNich]

I gotta learn to control it. The closest thing I've flown are the tiny Hubsan quads. This one has a lot more power to it.