3DR Solo with LiIon 9000mAh battery | up to 30min flight time

I have a power module that came with my green cube, however the power module mod you have to solder in to some pins off of where the pixhawk seats in... Is there an easier way?
Unfortunately no. I dont see one. Not with 3DR Solo
 
Will it talk SMBus to the Solo and can you use it with more than one battery? $150 is acceptable if I can hook any battery to it. Right now if you tear a bad battery apart for the electronics, you can calibrate it to work with one other battery. It will be good only on that battery, if you add another you have to calibrate it to work. If this worked so that out in the field I could disconnect one battery and lay in another that would be what I am looking for.

The link to the BMS you posted will not communicate with flight controller it will not work as you expect.
 
First off nice work!! The effort you have put into this is helping extend the life of the Solo platform quite a bit! Thank you for doing this! Really!

I wonder if @Kelly could add these custom battery parameter's as a configurable in a future version of Solex?

[USER=10613 said:
@rmasci[/USER] You can do it with the Solo BMS. But after changing the battery before the next flight you will need to set the capacity in parameters. Then it should work. But what I think would work best for you is with a power module.
 
Actually...just reading through the docs on Solex and it looks like the battery mod might be able to be performed using the "remote commands" feature, no? Or is this interacting with the wrong computer?

Sorry...I'm a total n00b to all of this (and Solo and Drones for that matter...)
 
@all I did a bit of rewriting the mod / experience / how-to. I hope it is better understandable and less confusing now. If not let me know I will try to correct it.

@dmulk Thanks! I read on fb that kelly will do eventually a feature in Solex that allows to change parameters directly in Solex. That would be perfect, lets see what he brings. I did it with a python script here that I trigger from Solex with the remote commands. I don't know how to do it solely from the remote commands if it would be possible this way.
 
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@all I did a bit of rewriting the mod / experience / how-to. I hope it is better understandable and less confusing now. If not let me know I will try to correct it.

@dmulk Thanks! I read on fb that kelly will do eventually a feature in Solex that allows to change parameters directly in Solex. That would be perfect, lets see what he brings. I did it with a python script here that I trigger from Solex with the remote commands. I don't know how to do it solely from the remote commands if it would be possible this way.[/QUOTE


Really fantastic! We really do have a great community. Happy I found this place and this drone.
 
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a) Don‘t have telemetry: Solder the battery connectors directly to the Solo board. You need then to use a LiPo alarm and/or timer. It works but it is not what we want.
So, to be clear, it IS possible to just strap another battery onto the solo even if it doesn't have the SMBus connectors? The Solo software won't downright reject it?
 
So, to be clear, it IS possible to just strap another battery onto the solo even if it doesn't have the SMBus connectors? The Solo software won't downright reject it?
I did not test this to be honest. But according to other users it is possible. I think it is similar to that it is possible to take off with 0% battery.
 
So, to be clear, it IS possible to just strap another battery onto the solo even if it doesn't have the SMBus connectors? The Solo software won't downright reject it?

You will have no telemetry it will show 0% and you will have to do the override stick motions to be able to arm SOLO and takeoff
 
@jerryn questions:

- Do you fly a stock Solo with stock propellers in hover?
- Do you have logs of your 26min-flights?
 
Nope . I have the gimbal and my hero 4 black mounted. For 26 minutes of flight you just need to turn the PIDs down

If you have a log file of a flight for 26 mins I'm interested in seeing it also explain your tuning process (PID'S) to achieve this 26 mins which I have to admit seems impossible, I've seen 16 mins in the best conditions with 3 axis gimbal and GPHERO4BLK but 26 seems out of this world, but then again anything is possible but a log file would be great.....This is not to test our patience but I've had a few others on Facebook forums promise me 20 min flights with that setup and when I ask for a log they disappear, POOF, into thin air to never be seen again or just say, well I don't have the time and you just need to trust me.......This is not to test you this is a situation where hard evidence goes a long way based on many other peoples claims.....
 
I fly at my r/c club's airfield.
I adjusted my PIDs so I fly out of the field, fpv over the Small River, over the bridge, Bay, along the coast of Loyds and back.
26 minute flight with 18% after landing. I have 4 batteries, each with @ 7 flights on them.
My parrot Disco has a flight time of 40 minutes and my Bebop 2 28 minutes.
The trick is how you tune the PIDs. With PIDs at 80% the Solo gets 18 minutes any my bebop2 in sport mode 80% pids 20 minutes. I can't fly the bebop2 in video mode in 25 mph gusts. It has to be sport mode. The Solo is very stable even in gusts.
A 9000ma battery is going to weigh twice as much as stock.
More weight.

And the other answer is I use stock props on Solo 1 and master airscrew on Solo 2
 
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I fly at my r/c club's airfield.
I adjusted my PIDs so I fly out of the field, fpv over the Small River, over the bridge, Bay, along the coast of Loyds and back.
26 minute flight with 18% after landing. I have 4 batteries, each with @ 7 flights on them.
My parrot Disco has a flight time of 40 minutes and my Bebop 2 28 minutes.
The trick is how you tune the PIDs. With PIDs at 80% the Solo gets 18 minutes any my bebop2 in sport mode 80% pids 20 minutes. I can't fly the bebop2 in video mode in 25 mph gusts. It has to be sport mode. The Solo is very stable even in gusts.
A 9000ma battery is going to weigh twice as much as stock.
More weight.

And the other answer is I use stock props on Solo 1 and master airscrew on Solo 2

With Solo turned down to turtle, for lack of a better term, without tunning PID's and 3 Axis Gimbal with GOPRO4BLK recording 2.7k can only get 15 to 16 mins......any video or log my friend on a stock 5200 mAh battery 26 minutes is unbelieveable.....at 18 to 20 amps draw constantly in slow mode with a 5200 mah capacity the math doesn't even work out.....
 
My PIDs are not set to "turtle"
I am at 30%

Maybe you have issues with your stock batteries ? Motors ?
I have videos posted on YouTube.
There are many factors that contribute to flight time.
I fly over a huge farm field next to the ocean there is a strong thermal updraft predominantly out of the south east. When I fly my HK cloud Surfer and the thermals are strong I can fly over an hour. For quads an updraft helps too.. not as much but it helps.
I have been. a member here for over a year. I don't have time for a pissing contest.

I am saying a 9amp battery for a 30 minute flight time is not worth the effort.

If you really need full PIDs available for 30 minutes then a fuel cell is the answer. 2 amp lipo with PEM. It's not worth the money to me. I have 4 chargers and four batteries. My club's airfield is 30 minutes from my house. I drive out there with my Solo, bebop2, parrot Disco and HK CloudSurfer . And one of my sons.
 
@jerryn The 30min were flown with no ground effect, no translational lift and not upwinds. Just hovering in position hold. If you want us to believe lets not discuss, show us your logs instead.
 
I don't fly just hovering.
If the flight is just hovering of course it would be a shorter flight time.

If I wanted something to just hovering I attach to a tether for power.

9000mah battery weighs way too. much.
 

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