8000mAh Battery...

[RolandS888]

Good question. Aren't some DJI Phantom guys doing that... hook up a second/third little battery to the main pack?

I dont see why, after disabling the mAh and voltage failsafes, you couldnt add battery capacity (eg another battery in parallel) and stay in the air until the voltage level runs down to what ever level you are happy with. I imagine (I hope) that flight battery voltage would still be reported on the controller.

Solo is the only craft I own that has these active failsafes, on the other craft it is up to me to decide when is a good time to land based on mAh usage or voltage alarms or alerts I have set for those (and people have their own views on mAh Vs voltage end point - Im not going there)

Would be a good experiment, disable the failsafes and add some flying time

 

[Soloing]

Just checked and can confirm, that all three my batteries are holding charge at about 50% for about 40 days. I left them at that level for storage (because still waiting for replacement motor pods to arrive and cannot fly) and they are not discharging further.

If this right here doesn't mean that there is an "active" discharge/storage function, I don't know what does.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Soloing]

I dont see why, after disabling the mAh and voltage failsafes, you couldnt add battery capacity (eg another battery in parallel) and stay in the air until the voltage level runs down to what ever level you are happy with. I imagine (I hope) that flight battery voltage would still be reported on the controller.

Solo is the only craft I own that has these active failsafes, on the other craft it is up to me to decide when is a good time to land based on mAh usage or voltage alarms or alerts I have set for those (and people have their own views on mAh Vs voltage end point - Im not going there)

Would be a good experiment, disable the failsafes and add some flying time

Before I do any further experimenting with the battery capacity, I am going to try the original Lipo again, using the original smart battery board. This way I should be able to see if my board is working properly or not...

Thanks.

 

[Soloing]

Well, I just tested the original Lipo on the original circuit board and I still get that crazy beeping. I guess my board is not working right!? Maybe I take another battery apart...

Thanks.

 

[Adimuzio513]

Just checked and can confirm, that all three my batteries are holding charge at about 50% for about 40 days. I left them at that level for storage (because still waiting for replacement motor pods to arrive and cannot fly) and they are not discharging further.

That's good to know than at least this drain or discharge stops, apparently they are smart.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

Getting back to the topic....

If I'm reading this right, the battery's little brain is doing all the thinking, reporting the battery's MAH capacity, MAH used, etc to the Solo FC? This as opposed to the traditional Pixhawk where the FC does all the metering based on the shunt readings from a power module?

 

[PdxSteve]

I believe that is correct: Smart Battery | Copter

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

So the general theory when putting in higher capacity cells is as follows:

• Voltage readings would be correct, since voltage is what it is.
  
• MAH used readings would be correct since it also is what it is.
  
• MAH remaining would be incorrect, since the capacity is part of the smart battery circuit.
• Battery % remaining would be incorrect, since it is based on MAH remaining.
• Low voltage fail-safe will work properly, and should be left on.
• MAH remaining fail-safe will not work properly, and should be turned off, since it relies on MAH remaining.
• Therefore, in flight you will need to monitor the battery voltage as your only reference to how much juice you have left.
• In theory, recharging should work since voltage is voltage. BUT if the smart circuit has a maximum MAH cut-off, you may need to unplug it and plug it back in to restart the charging and top it off? I didn't read that here, I just made that up because it seems logical. Thoughts?

 

[pat-love]

This thread made me dig out my original Solo battery. I had totally forgotten about it. Anyhow, I found it and right away checked the voltage as I was going to use it with the Solo's battery circuit board. That is when I remembered that one cell has gone bad. 0.9V. However, all other cells were at around 4.12V. Man, I don't even remember when I charged this battery the last time?! A few weeks ago? A month ago? No idea. All I know is that it was a long time ago. Somehow the battery did not go as far down in voltage, as the Solo batteries that are still in stock condition [in the case, hooked up to the battery board, whereas this is JUST the LiPo part of the Solo's battery].

Having said this, I have plenty of LiPo batteries, and I have never ever had a battery deplete as much as my Solo batteries do. NEVER. Not even close. I don't even know how many times I planned on going flying, charged my batteries and forgot about them... Never ever did I find a battery at Storage Voltage. Actually, if you think about it, why would they make you discharge batteries and store them at 3.5V - 3.8V if they get there on their own within a week? Makes no sense.

I have a feeling we are not going to agree on this one. I know how my batteries have acted in the past.

Thanks.

agree with you on the batteries....
as a hobbist myself... my lipos dont deplete as fast as those from 3dr. it is not comparable !
i really think they did put a self discharge unit inside...to avoid ''full-batteries'' to puff when left fully charged over time...!
thats it

 

[divemasterphil]

Any thoughts on a 4s2p setup of 18650 batteries?

 

[pat-love]

Any thoughts on a 4s2p setup of 18650 batteries?

not a good idea...if you mean 18650 ultrafire batteries... they do not provide enough C amp. they will heat up rapidly and PUFF !
my opinion...

 

[K Hodel]

For what it is worth, I got my solo out last night and checked the battery levels. I put them away December 26,2015 fully charged, all four batteries showed 5/8 charged.

 

[stanordave]

I had a single flashing led on the pack's 2nd flight after running it down to 29% !! When placed on the charger, the light kept blinking and the green light on the charged stayed on so it wouldn't charge up. I took it a part and put another battery in. Same problem Its the circuit board. The battery checks out. So.. I'm planning on running the battery right into Solo wo smbus or the circuit board. I thing that I can just change BATT_MONITOR and maybe a couple of other settings to allow it to work wo/smbus, maybe have to change the arming also - will find out soon enough..

 

[Frank Foster]

My poor old eyes are tired. but after briefly going over the spec sheet, (Smart Battery Data Specification) it appears to me that the Solo charger also has some "smart" functions that work with the "smart" board in the battery. Just sayin.......