Solo smart battery % at end of flight

Posted by RPM on July 9, 2015 at 10:28am

How low are you guys draining your battery per flight?

I have been testing it slowly, 20%...8% etc...

What I am wondering is if this smart drone will leave enough juice to return home based on how far away it is from that location?

I have been hitting the 20 min mark when I land below 10%

Next flight I will hover 1-2 feet off the ground above home and see how low will it go.

3691223996?profile=original

You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!

Join diydrones

Email me when people reply –
Follow

Replies

  • MICHAEL MORGAN July 24, 2015 at 5:00pm

    Hey everyone, new to the site!  Hope to spend some time soon and really get into everything.

    I have a question regarding the voltage of the Solo batteries:  How is everyone tracking their voltage?  For my Dromida Ominus, I just used one of the little lipo 1-8s testers.  But those obviously don't work with Solo.  Their customer support solution was to look at the LEDs, but didn't offer any conversion to voltage.  Any help here would be appreciated.  I'm new to this, so play nice!

    • MICHAEL MORGAN > MICHAEL MORGAN August 17, 2015 at 7:53pm
      Thanks so much!
    • RPM > MICHAEL MORGAN July 24, 2015 at 5:11pm
      DMM = digital multi-meter

      Get yourself one they are used often in this business. I don't trust offset voltage readings or cheap sensors but I can always trust the multi.
      Welcome to DIY!
    • MICHAEL MORGAN > RPM July 24, 2015 at 5:57pm

      Thanks so much!  Is it safe to assume that I won't be able to test the individual cells, just the battery voltage as a whole?  And has anyone done a conversion chart for voltage to battery percentage?

    • MICHAEL MORGAN > MICHAEL MORGAN July 25, 2015 at 6:20am

      So I went and bought a digital multimeter, but I'm thinking that I need a different attachment maybe?  The probes don't fit into the slots on the battery, and I'm pretty sure it's not a good idea to jam them in there.  Anyone have any advice?

  • Chris Moore July 19, 2015 at 8:22pm

    It will automatically RTH at 5%

  • Marc Dornan July 18, 2015 at 9:59am
    That is an expensive battery to be be taking down to 10% and under. Surely you can test this without pushing your battery so hard.
  • Richard Kennedy July 15, 2015 at 4:47pm

    I would be interested to know if it's possible to replace the actual battery inside the hard case of the smart battery??  I would also like to know if the smart battery renders itself un-flyable after a certain number of charge cycles and or notices a large drop in capacity? If so can this be re-set to allow a new lipo to be installed. Obviously what I'm getting at is they are very expensive so it would great if those able and willing have the option to replace the lipo itself. DJI goes out of it's way to make sure this can't happen for $$ reasons only. Hope 3dr doesn't. Sorry hope I'm not OT too much on your thread RPM. 

    • Richard Kennedy > Richard Kennedy July 17, 2015 at 7:58am

      To me this is a deal breaker. If I can't install my own batteries and use my own charger I won't be buying a solo no way am I paying $400-$600 a year on batteries. My homeowners insurance is about that!! Would I get the same level of coverage from a smart battery? Lol nope.

    • Marc Dornan > Richard Kennedy July 18, 2015 at 10:14am
      I could live with the smart batteries. I think that is the way all UAVs will go and it should come with real benefits that justify paying $$ to 3DR for probably fairly so so lipos. The Solo looks very promising. I still think it is bit of a beta device. Let's see how the gimbal behaves. I really do not understand why the marketing got so far ahead of the engineering. Launching without a gimbal is odd. I also have concerns about wifi control and its ability to deal with noisy environments.

      When all of that has been proved or improved and fixed I will happily buy one. I have often thought of just breaking down and buying a Phantom 3. I love my fleet of DIY arducopters. They are just so much work to do aerial videography with. Something that packs into a case and is a proven system would make life easier.
This reply was deleted.