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  • Put it in a cup of water with table salt stirred in (table spoon) overnight to discharge it completely.

    Check for signs of voltage with a voltmeter.
    It should be discharged by now.

    Then put a piece of tape over the tabs, masking tape or anything will do, just for backup.

    Then you can trash it safely without setting the trash truck on fire when they compact it. It's safe for disposal, no heavy metals.
  • Hello All!

     I have this battery left over from my last crash... it still gives hint of life and powers basic lights up on my ardupilot but isnt enough to power the whole set. Im worried about recharging it. Can anyone advise what is the best thing to do at this moment? Thank you!3691234341?profile=original

  • Great info here, thanks.

    Chim or anyone else, do you adjust any parameters when swapping dissimilar batteries on the same craft? With my IRIS+ upgrade I now have three battery types I can use:

    new stock 5100 11.1V 3S 8C (x2) - primary

    Zippy 4000 11.1V 3S 25C (x2) - backup

    old stock 3500 11.1V 3S 30C (x2) - emergency backup

    I noticed that the BATT_VOLT parameter is updated in the IRIS+ parameter file to match the new stock battery and wonder if it's a good idea to change that or other params when swapping capacities or C ratings. I never had a problem going from the old stock up to the Zippy without changes, but maybe swapping down from the 5100 to the 3500 is not advisable?

  • I am using thunder power 4400mAh 25C G8 pro lite, getting 12 mins on a plain iris (no loads, only telemetry radio)

    • Paul: Thunder Power batteries were an early player in the LiPo game and were at one time clearly superior in build quality etc. to the early "Brand X" batteries coming directly out of China. But things are different now. Your Thunder Power 3S 4400 25C sells for around $90 and weighs 306 grams. Turnigy's new Multistar series 5200 costs about $28 and weighs 325 grams, so 25% more capacity at one-third the price with less than an ounce of weight increase. Now, the Multistar is 10C, but that's more than adequate for any ordinary multicopter flying, as opposed to sustained aerobatics or such. The C ratings game is driven by 3D traditional helicopter flying, which does require high discharge rates; for everyone else it's marketing hype, like a 500 hp Hemi in a sh*tbox SUV. Anyway, I'm using these Multistars (in a 4S 5200 version) in a custom 550 frame driving 13 inch props via KDE motors and am real happy with them. They run nearly cold, no puffing etc., the wires and connectors are nice, and they come  in a couple of different form factors.

      • Chim, thank you for sharing your knowledge, I am quite new in all this, but I have also just last week ordered 6 of those multistar batteries. What I would like to add is that IMHO normally cheaper often relates to lower quality:

        out of 5 batteries from 3dr 2 where dead (puffy) on arrival by fedex...

        regarding the multistar I cannot tell myself, but based on web comments there are quite a few duds (one out of four?) among them, and that will correlate with the 3dr batteries I had so far (must say in their defence that they replaced and offer to replace the dud ones, so I have a lot of respect to 3dr because of their customer service).

        Still, as the people from birdeyes where saying, for that price of $28 we may overlook the dead ones

        PS I am living in africa where batteries price is multiplied by almost four because of airfreight and custom charges.......

        • 2 out of 5 batteries were dead? Did 3dr do anything to help you out with that? That seems like an extraordinary failure rate, even the cheapest lipos I've seen don't have that sort of failure rate.

          Also which batteries were they? The 5100mAh? The earlier ones?

          • the earlier Iris one, 3500 mAh,  the first 1 + 2 spares supplied with the original iris where ok, I reordered 2, out of the 2 one was DOA, they replaced it, and it was also DOA. To their credit they offered to replace it but because of the heavy duty in my country I told them to forget about it.

            • It's good to hear they offered, in some cases (not talking about 3DR here) RC hobby shops or companies are highly resistant to replacing or allowing returns on any of their products.

              • me too somehow i was shocked when they offered to replace the batteries, and that WITHOUT asking me to ship them back or supply any proof or anything, so again hat off to 3dr for their customer relationship

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