I was sitting for quite some time last night playing with APM settings while running my quad off of battery power. I wasn't running motors or anything like that, just the APM and telemetry radio. In retrospect, that was silly. I should have just plugged it up via USB.Everything was fine until Mission Planner suddenly lost connection with the aircraft. It took me a little while to realize what happened, but when I did realize it, I got a sinking feeling and decided to just walk away for the night.Tonight, I measured my battery and it came in at 8.8V. Ugh. It's on the charger now, but I'm wondering if it's a lost cause? I'd hate to lose one of the three brand new batteries that I bought for my quad project. I knew going in to this project that my newby status would bite me in some way. Hopefully this is the worst that happens. ;)So what do you think? Is my battery toast?
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I glanced at the manual for the Accucel-6 - it indicated something about a temp/USB port, but I couldn't figure out if you could get data from it via USB or not. Even if you can't, you should still run a few charge and discharge cycles on the battery and watch the total capacity reported on the LCD as well as individual cell voltages. If you have reduced the capacity of your pack, or of any of the individual cells, that is something you will want to know.
And this is speculation, but it's also possible that you might see a larger voltage drop under load from a damaged pack. If so, that is something else to at least be aware of.
OK. I threw my battery on the charger in LiPo mode. My Accucel-6 measured the battery before charging and recognized it as a 2S. I let it charge for a bit, then accidentally hit the stop button when I was checking on it. I re-initiated the charge and it picked it up as a 3S that time and charged it to 12.6V and cut off.
I'm not sure what I'm looking for or how I will determine if the battery is any good or not, but it doesn't seem to show any "puffiness" at this time. If it charged, am I probably OK, or is there something specific that I need to look for or keep and eye on for this battery going forward?
Maybe. I did the same thing messing around with my kk2 board when I first got it. Try to charge your battery(I assume a lipo) for a very short time on the NiMH setting on your charger, just to get the voltage high enough so it will charge as a lipo. I got my battery back in service.
Good luck, puffy batteries are not good. Remember the whole fire hazard thing!
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I glanced at the manual for the Accucel-6 - it indicated something about a temp/USB port, but I couldn't figure out if you could get data from it via USB or not. Even if you can't, you should still run a few charge and discharge cycles on the battery and watch the total capacity reported on the LCD as well as individual cell voltages. If you have reduced the capacity of your pack, or of any of the individual cells, that is something you will want to know.
And this is speculation, but it's also possible that you might see a larger voltage drop under load from a damaged pack. If so, that is something else to at least be aware of.
I'm not sure what I'm looking for or how I will determine if the battery is any good or not, but it doesn't seem to show any "puffiness" at this time. If it charged, am I probably OK, or is there something specific that I need to look for or keep and eye on for this battery going forward?
Maybe. I did the same thing messing around with my kk2 board when I first got it. Try to charge your battery(I assume a lipo) for a very short time on the NiMH setting on your charger, just to get the voltage high enough so it will charge as a lipo. I got my battery back in service.
Good luck, puffy batteries are not good. Remember the whole fire hazard thing!