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3DR Iris and battery problems

Posted by Joe Krolla on March 22, 2014 at 9:46am

Greetings,

I got my Iris about 4 weeks ago and the weather does not cooperate. So  I have only a few flight hours thus far.

Since the last flight the Iris does not recognize the full batteries any more:

I got two original batteries. They are both fully charged. One shows 12.59V, the other one 12.63V.

When plugging the batteries in, the Iris immediately after the boot process is giving acoustic and visual "low battery" alarm, whether its connected to the PC or radio or not.

When turning on the radio, it shows 10.5V or less (which should be the original low batt threshold?).

Connecting to Mission Planner, I followed the procedure as outlined in the APM community and as directed by 3DR support (http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-measuring-battery-voltage-and-current-consumption-with-apm/#Setup_through_mission_planner). Still the same problem.

I opened the Iris and checked all contacts on the Pixhawk and the other boards. Everything is tight.

With the weekend, 3DR support is not available. Does anybody have any ideas how to further narrow down the problem?

Thanks

Joe

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Tags: 3dr, iris, battery, low, power
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Replies

  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson March 23, 2014 at 8:27pm

    If you're referring to the voltage shown on the RC transmitter, that's showing the voltage of its own battery pack, not the Iris batteries. If the voltage there is low, just put in new AAs

    • Joe Krolla > Chris Anderson March 23, 2014 at 9:25pm

      Chris

      The batteries in the TX are the original ones and have been operating for less than a couple of hrs.on the battery tester they are still showing good. But I will make sure that I replace them.

      However, the Iris is giving low battery alarm despite the batteries being fully charged

      Joe

      • Pete > Joe Krolla May 4, 2014 at 2:00pm

        Joe,

        I'm a brand new (and very inexperienced) 3DR IRIS owner. I had this issue on the 2nd day, it turns out I accidentally changed the Voltage Monitor type in the APM Planner software whilst fiddling around. AFAIK, you can get different Voltage Monitor units and these report differently. After changing it around a few times I got my IRIS to boot up normally (and report the expected battery voltage). Screenie below shows the correct screen, though not necessarily the correct settings!

        CalibrateVoltage.png

        Hope that help

        • SkyRover > Pete July 2, 2014 at 1:29am

          You are correct, for an octo I have that takes 6s bats I had to use a different sensor from what the pixhawk comes standard with to be able to read the higher voltages and amperage

  • Brian March 23, 2014 at 5:14pm

    I may have a bad power module just a guess but I had the same issue with my x8. I you look in MP can you check the parameters that is set up for the iris? 

    • Joe Krolla > Brian March 23, 2014 at 8:03pm

      Brian,

      I checked the settings in MP... as also outlined by 3DR support.... to no success.

      Thanks for the hint.

      I keep digging

      Joe

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