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Battery Issue???

Posted by mark bellncula on June 22, 2016 at 8:36am

I have a 2250mAh 11.1v 3 cell battery that I'm using for my 450 kit build, motors are 1000Kv motors. 

Using a Pixhawk with the PX4v1.3.3 flight stack, loaded via QGC.

And I'm using an Imax B6 charger for the battery. Battery is brand new.

This is the issue; I will plug the battery in, with the props off, as a system check. I can throttle it up all the way, no problem. QGC says batteries are at 100%. External voltage meter says all 12.1, no1 4.03, no2 4.03, no3 4.06. 

System check looks good, so I put the props on.

I get the UAV up and within seconds, QGC tells me that the battery has dropped to 33% and the Pixhawk battery alarms go off. The external voltage meter, that is set at 3.6, does not go off. 

I keep it up for a few more seconds and the battery level drops to 17% and the alarms go nuts. I set the UAV down, for a flight time of mere seconds. 

I will then unplug the UAV from the battery, wait a second, plug it back in and reboot. QGC will say the battery is still at 100%. External voltage meter hasn't changed. 

So with the props off I have no issue, but as soon as I put the props on, the battery can't seem to handle it.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks you for any insight.

Cheers!

_M

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Replies

          • mark bellncula > D Ohlarik June 27, 2016 at 1:49pm

            You adjusted the setting in QGC, right?

            Do you mind sharing what those are? If it solves my issues as well, then we'll know that those settings are proper.

            Cheers!

            _M

            • D Ohlarik > mark bellncula June 27, 2016 at 3:24pm

              Yes - I am not in front of QGC right now.  But the main things were setting the battery size to 5200mAh, and the scaling offsets were set to -1.0, which I changed to just 0.  I really don't know what to set them to, so just guessed.

              I don't know why documentation is so hard to find for these things.  Maybe its out there somewhere, but I can't find anything on battery.

              • Alasdair > D Ohlarik June 29, 2016 at 3:53am

                Have you tried load testing the battery? Even just connect a multimeter and tether the quad down, run it up and watch the voltage. Chances are it is a dud battery, the low 'fully charged' terminal voltage is pointing that way as well, it has either been over discharged below 3v/cell or is very old stock, or it's a zippy/fluoreon battery.

                • D Ohlarik > Alasdair June 29, 2016 at 4:13am

                  It's a 3 month old Turnigy Graphene battery.  But yes, shortly after I started having issues, I lost 1 of the 3 cells.  Seems like it may have been going South, which caused the false readings and red LED.  New battery coming Thursday, so I will see.  

  • D Ohlarik June 23, 2016 at 10:59am

    For what it's worth, I have the same issue.  All is good on the ground with a 100% charged battery, but then after 10 seconds in the air, I get a RED main LED and a constant beep.  SD card has some log files showing 'Battery Low' and Battery Critical', even though its not.

    This just started happening recently.  It wasn't a problem last month.  I did load new firmware, the latest, and this is now happening.

    No idea what to do.

  • CNTurbo June 22, 2016 at 9:27pm
    How about use another new battery? And the 2200mAh battery usually can be used about 10-15mins ,so choose or borrow a large and new battery. maybe that's ok.
  • CNTurbo June 22, 2016 at 9:23pm
    That means two platforms tell that your battery is fully charged at first,but when you start your flight,the battery is used up so quickly
  • CNTurbo June 22, 2016 at 8:49am
    I think you'd better change your battery fully ,which the B6 tells you it's fully . Then go on your flight.
    • mark bellncula > CNTurbo June 22, 2016 at 9:03am

      I indeed do that. 

      The setting on the B6 for LiPo Charge is 2.2A 11.1V(3S)

      And the B6 tells me that is is charged. 

      In fact I've replicated this issue twice. Before this last test I took the props off and drained the battery, to around 3.4v per cell. then I did a full charge before today's failed flight.

      _M

  • CNTurbo June 22, 2016 at 8:49am
    I think you'd better change your battery fully ,which the B6 tells you it's fully . Then go on your flight.
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