Diven
Member
When it comes to racing quadcopters, flight time is not as important as it is in the case of cruising drones. More important is the take-off weight and you need to keep it as low as possible. More weight means less agility and lower speed.
By comparison, the Tattu 4s 1800mah 75c has 193 grams and the Tattu R-Line 4s 1300 mAh has only 165 grams. I’m very curious to find out if the extra capacity (500 mAh) will counteract the increased weight.
Battery comes well packed with charging plug protector and safety instruction. At first look it seems very well made with good quality terminals.
Battery pack measures around 90 x 33 x 30 mm (L, W, H).
Due to the the aluminium envelope, the Tattu 1800 mAh weights a bit more than other 4s Li-Po batteries with same capacity.
After a bit of research I found out that this producing technique provides not just better heat dissipation and impact resistance, but also compression, in order to minimize puffing during high discharge.
Tattu 4s 1800 mAh 75C battery technical specs
- Suitable for FPV racing drones;
- Minimum of 1800 mAh storage capacity;
- 4 cells of 3.7v. Total voltage of 14.8V;
- Total power of ~ 26.64 Wh;
- Up to 5C charging rate (do not exceed this value!);
- High discharge rate (75C);
- Max Cont Current of 135 A;
- Maximum burst discharge rate of 150C;
- Max Burst Current of 270 A;
- JST-XH charging plug;
- XT60 discharge (drone) plug;
- Net Weight: 198 grams;
- Dimensions: 90.30 x 33.27 x 29.90 mm (L W H).
Is it worth to upgrade from 1300mAh to 1800mAh?
In order to make a fair compassion I used same charger (SkyRC iMAX B6 Mini) with same settings. Both batteries I used for the test had less than 10 charging cycles.
Firstly, I fully discharged both batteries, rest them for 1 hour, then charged them up at 0.5 A. As you can see in the comparison table bellow, the R-Line 95C finished the discharge process more balanced. At the end of charging, both batteries were well balanced. The two batteries remained cold during the charge.
In order to test how these two behave in the real world I used my Kopis 1 racing drone. I tried to fly them with similar amount of throttle in order to get the most accurate results.
As I’m not a Pro racing pilot, I haven’t noticed significant performance dropping from 95C to 75C while flying at top speed. Also, the extra weight doesn’t seem to be an issue for the 2450KV brush-less motors. Frankly, it’s hard to get an objective measurement of true “C” rating without professional tools.
I ended my test flights when OSD shown 14 volts (~ 3.5V/cell). While my flight with the 1300 mAh LiPo lasted about 5 minutes, the one with the Tattu 4s 1800 mah ended after almost 7 minutes. Unfortunately, I forgot home my infrared thermometer and I can’t confirm if motors and ESCs became hotter after the longer flight.
Conclusions
Unless your are a pouch-out fanatic, the “only” 75C should be just fine. Personally, I found the battery powerful enough for most flight maneuvers, including repeated flips and rolls. Compared to the 1300 mAh LiPo, this Tattu 1800 mAh offered more than 1 minute of extra flight time.
IMHO, for practicing, the extra capacity/flight time is welcomed, but if top speed and agility really matters, you should stay on the lowest capacity that you need to finish your race.
Pros
- Well packed, with included plug protector;
- Aluminium envelope for good heat dissipation;
- Longer flight time over 1300 mAh batteries.
- Suitable only for larger FPV drones (210 mm and up).