to start out i am fairly new. i have had my quadcopter for about 6 months now with mixed results. ultimately it is up and running. it is tuned and flying stable however i loose altitude easily.
getting to the point
What i am using
turnigy 9x transmitter/receiver
TOTAL WEIGHT 1124g 1.24kg
sk450 frame
kk2 control board
30 amp mystery esc's
4x 286w 1200kv motors not much info on thrust capacity but i'm looking for 600-800g thrust per motor.
wired 200 amp power distribution(power dongle)---now directly soldered
NEW:now moved to the ntm 300watt 800kv
50watt 6a charger for charging the batteries power sourced from a 12v computer power source
started with 8045 props(awaiting 11 and 1245 for testing) now thinking the 9inch will be best
battery 2200 30-40c.
now have a 5000 30-40c
immediately displeased with flight time less than 1 minutes, charge enough to tune the kk2 board and get off the ground maybe 6 times for a few sec.
1st. maiden flight time is terrible, i see others with similar problem and little resolution. however control is pristine with 2200 3s lipo, should i increase battery size? and increase the prop size. i notice the motors where fighting each other until i tuned the board.
bought a 2 cell 5000mah on accident, ran it anyways guess it was overcharged because it was 11.68v when i received it and first flight was almost 15 min then down to 3-5 after normal charge.
2nd. am i overlooking the draw on the battery? can someone clarify the equation to get the flight time
i thought it was 60/1* (mah/max)
solved problem 1, kk2 with turnigy 9x arming, both sticks down left
Solved problem 2 prop adapter flew off a few times. lock screw reinforced with screw with slip guard
no longer an issue Problem 3 turnigy 9x mode 2 controller need to mod to mode 1, also do people prefer having the rudder along with the same stick as the throttle or with the elevator.
problem 4 overall flight time is terrible, i cant figure out which compoment is producing the most waste of energy, probably the motors but now that i changed them it should still be better than it is.
so with my 1200kv motors i cant get anything close in the Ecalc it has plenty off thrust and a shit tone or draw im assuming it is level at about 50 % but sadly i don't think the motors are cut out for this quad
im just at a point where i think the only thing i could do is buy another higher capacity battery or pair another 2200
or just drop some cash and upgrade the motors to something around half the kv
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update 1
so i bout 800 kv motors, things have improved a little bit, just removed the power harness and directly soldered all the wiring, cut down 80 grams, so now my quad with the 800 kv motors is 900 grams with out a battery or camera, (just aquired a cheap go pro black )
ecalc presently says i can get 7 minutes out of this i am getting 2
the flight time has definitely improved to a solid 2 min on 10in props 2200mah 3 cell 30-40c, going to change my limits and have pictures and videos up for the next update hopefully within a week
thinking of purchasing a name brand battery next, after that i think its going to have to be the esc's
simon k anyone?
beyond that i have no idea what to do next, i really like working with the kk2, the fame seems to be holding up well i replaced two arms and they seem of good quality no sever. bending or twisting
i would like to solicit a poll for your quadcopter build with flight time and maybe links.
Replies
I have an SK450 build with 2200 mah 3s lipo and get about 11 minutes flying time, no issues with ability to climb. I have 25A Turnigy plush ESC's and Turnigy Multistar 2216-800Kv 14Pole Multi-Rotor Outrunner motors with 10x4.5 props. Weight is similar to or higher than your build. My build is covered in my blog: www.blogodrone.com.
Your battery seems to be about 250 mah effective capacity according to what you reported below, or am I misinterpreting 46 secs @ 21.4 amps to empty the battery?
well 46 seconds for low battery alarm which is set to 3.4, i know my charger is off by .42Mah when charging.so most of these numbers will have a error or like .9-.4. so to get the estimated 10% for cutoff so should be at 250 mah of use, which seems accurate to what i am getting out of it. i dunno im just lost. it seems to me that i should just dial in my controller's throttle curve to keep those spikes down. because even 70% is more than i need.
i think the battery is just f**'d really. i am putting some time into reattempting some of the actual numbers,
should i expect these batteriesto just suck and spend some money on decent ones
these are the ones i bought
ZIPPY Flightmax 5000mAh 3S1P 45C unused waiting for good weather, not for tests use.
5000 mah 2s1p(mixed results from this one)
2200 3s 30c (battery i use for all the time)
ok so i bought a watt meter to see what is going on, pluged it into my quad, so my full setup with 4 motors and selected props secured with a vice
x4 motor ntm2830 800kv 300watt with a 2200 30-40c lipo battery
test 1 8x4.5 1.16 minutes @100%
50%power gave me 55watts @5amps
100% 213 @ 21.4 amps
test 2 9x4.5 46sec @100%
50% 67watts @4.5 Amps
70% 76watts @8 Amps
100% 180watts @17 AMps
these setups are giving me between 1.5-3 minutes of flight time changing the blades to 9 inch increased fight time by 30 seconds.
thinking that 1 motor is a little faulty and the battery has been misused alot.
heres a video of the 8x4.5 and the power consumption
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhs0ahjHbbk&feature=youtu.be
i dunno, maybe after i finish tuning the motors and props ill do it all over again. 4 more weeks of school then i can dedicate some real time.
any suggestions maybe on esc motor combo that would just blow me away
looking for fun fly, fpv not on this build but might throw a go pro on it at some point.
YES but what are your motors pulling. the charger i bought is good for up to 6 cell lipoly, li-ion, and NIMh, NICd...and has good support from the internet and i have more or less checked the voltages with multi meter to check accuracy of the charger compared to what is actually in the battery (which it is off by like.02 v). i said that it flew great on the 2200 3s lipo. what kinda flight time do you get. i get off the ground fly to 15 ft and before i can get back the battery is drained. i did include links for the motors and charger in the description if that helps. il fly first thing in the morning to get good conditions and i will give actual flight times