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Best Battery for Arducopter Quad-C frame

Posted by Shyam Balasubramanian on February 11, 2013 at 11:42am

Hi All,

I am looking for best performance LIPO battery for the 3D Robotics Quad-C frame kit (I bought the unassembled version - gonna assemble it this weekend).

My Configuration is (Default 3DR):

4X 10" propellors

4X 850kV Burshless Motors

4X 20A ESCs

Standard 3DR Quad-C Arducopter Kit

I would like to know the best LIPO battery to use for this combination. 2200mAh, 3S OR 3000mAh 3S OR something else? I want it to fly 15min without any camera/ camera mount. I am confused about the combination with 2S, 3S OR 4S also.. any suggestions?

Regards..

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Replies

Michael February 17, 2013 at 8:20am

Don't go for the minimum C rating you can get away with. The lower the C rating the hotter your battery will get. And I'm sure you are already aware that when your battery gets hot you are wasting energy heating up the battery! So the problem is actually more complex than you have described it. A higher C rated battery is more efficient (heats up less) but is heavier. You can use less of your stored energy to heat the batter but you will need to carry more weight to gain that efficiency. Higher C rated batteries are heavier.

Mike
Frank Olaf Sem-Jacobsen February 17, 2013 at 6:53am

Have you had a look at this? I quess it is built around some of the theory you are quoting, and is a great place for thought experiments...

http://www.ecalc.ch/xcoptercalc_e.htm
T3

Richard Boyhan February 11, 2013 at 1:34pm

You can only fly with either a 3S or 4S. The 'S' means the number of cells. Each cell holds 3.7 volts, so a 3S has 11.1 volts and a 4S has 14.8 volts. The other number 2200 or 3000 are the amps or how long they can run. I recommend 3S and 5000mAh, which should get you 15 minutes of flight. Your copters APM is also configured for the 3S. If you go with the 4S you will need to adjust the PIDs. Also the 4S will make your copter fly faster, but not necessarily longer.
Remember to start slow and fly low for the first few flights. Keep your controls in stabilize mode and learn how to fly.
Have fun and fly safe.
Richard