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.

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Replies

  • Developer
    Randy July 9, 2015 at 5:58pm

    I'm pretty sure the feature to reserve enough juice to come how is coming in a future release.  It's hanging around in a dev branch already but I suspect it needs more testing.

    nice pic by the way.

    • Erik Graham > Randy July 11, 2015 at 6:12am
      I'm not so sure I'd want that feature. id probably just disable that and keep track myself. I suppose a verbal warning would be helpful, something like: "You no longer have enough battery to make it home you idiot. Please find an alternative landing site"
    • DG > Erik Graham July 11, 2015 at 11:08pm

      I'd rather see something like "you still have enough battery to make it home if done within the next 30 seconds. After that, you're on your own".

      Seriously, I really need to study the manual more thoroughly for these issues. Thus far I haven't landed with less than 30%.

  • Developer
    Bill Bonney July 9, 2015 at 10:33am

    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?

    The short answer is... no it won't. 

    You will need to make sure you have enough power left to RTL all the way back to home. If the power becomes critical, it will land. Which normally happens anyway as the power drops so much that there is not enough to create enough lift and the copter will descend

    • RPM > Bill Bonney July 9, 2015 at 11:09am

      Thanks Bill!

      So the smart part would be the LED indicators and the fact that it cuts off when fully charged I guess...

      Looks like I would need 6 batteries to keep a constant survey/land cycle going.

    • Developer
      Bill Bonney > RPM July 10, 2015 at 11:09pm

      The smart part is that it not that it only protects against overcharging, it should also protect against over-current, over discharge. Count the number of charge cycles and the amount of mAh discharged to how much charge was added to full charge. This gives battery health statistics.

      I don't have a solo to play with, so I don't know the details for sure, but that's what other SMB batteries can do.

      This is all done automatically. You can with RC LiPo charges measure how much charge you put into them etc... but it's all extra manual work.

    • Moderator
      Gary Mortimer > RPM July 9, 2015 at 11:19am

      You will destroy your batteries if you play with low power too much. If 20 minutes were my expected or published platform flight time I would not fly for more than 15 minutes. 

    • RPM > Gary Mortimer July 9, 2015 at 11:30am

      My thinking was that 0% on these batteries would represent 3.4-3.5v per cell so that someone picking these things up at best buy with no lipo knowledge would be in the clear, or at least have to try hard to ruin them from flight.

      Next flight I will note the voltage and verify with the multi.

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