Any one working on a battery mod?

[Bart]

I like the idea of shedding weight. The solo body does seem a bit over engineered. I think DJI nailed it with the shape of the phantom. It's very strong. I built my current project around a phantom 2 body and battery and a pixhawk lite as the FC. I smacked a oak tree with it the other day and it fell 20 feet on its back with no damage (i'm still learning to fly sport mode! I really can't think of any shape that could be as light without adding material.

I haven't opened up my solo yet (only had it for 2 days), but maybe there will be an opportunity for a frame transplant down the road.

I did see an encouraging post a few pages back about a larger battery from 3DR. Has there been any more information about that? I think if were just as easy as adding a larger battery they would have already done it.

 

[bdorub]

Solo uses standard smbus from what I have read

Check this out: Smart Battery Systems (SBS) with SmBus V1.1 support for 7.4V / 11.1V / 14.8V Li-Ion battery packs


So a board like that and some regular 4s lipos = smart battery fully working

 

[cryhavoc38]

lets hope, from the increased popularity of the Solo due to the Best Buy closeout, that third party manufactures will take note of the increased Solo population and think about creating a new battery pack.
The reason I say this is due to the fact that Master Airscrew now has a notice posted that they are experiencing a very high demand for their Solo prop kit and that BB sold out of the battery packs.

There is a market out there for a higher cap pack, say in the 6000mAh range sporting a much higher C rating.
The first one to come out with a tested pack that gives a solid 25minute or longer flight time with a gimbal wins

 

[User Name]

There is a market out there for a higher cap pack, say in the 6000mAh range sporting a much higher C rating.
The first one to come out with a tested pack that gives a solid 25minute or longer flight time with a gimbal wins

Adding more capacity would be wasted when the rest of the power system doesn't demand it, and higher C packs typically weigh more than lower ones, meaning you'd likely get LESS flight time with just a higher C pack.

Someone did a test a year or so ago adding secondary packs in parallel with the stock Solo battery. The improvement was negligible, from what I recall, something along the lines of a minute or two increase from adding another 5000 mah. What happens is that the majority of the extra capacity is eaten up by the power system having to lift the extra weight of the pack. The only ways we're going to see a solid 25 minutes of flight time are 1- putting Solo's guts on a much lighter, custom frame, or 2- some new battery technology with a better power to weight ratio, which isn't likely any time reasonably soon.

 

[Ddub]

I use a DBS antenna boosted and I'm using the Sunhans 2.4 boosters with a battery pack I can email you pics if you want (to big to post here) I got the antenna at dbsmods.com the boosters from amazon and the battery pack from FPVLR.com

I would be grateful if you could email me the setup you have. [email protected]

 

[SARDG]

...There is a market out there for a higher cap pack, say in the 6000mAh range sporting a much higher C rating.
The first one to come out with a tested pack that gives a solid 25minute or longer flight time with a gimbal wins

When Solo was first introduced, 3DR mentioned that an increased capacity battery would be available. I suppose the platform fell flat before R & D got a round tuit.

 

[cryhavoc38]

If they hadn't sealed the battery pack so tightly, it wouldn't be much of an issue trying out various 4s packs of a higher capacity with newer construction techniques to see if a 6000+ mah pack could be squeezed in there.

 

[SARDG]

If they hadn't sealed the battery pack so tightly, it wouldn't be much of an issue trying out various 4s packs of a higher capacity with newer construction techniques to see if a 6000+ mah pack could be squeezed in there.

Probably need more than 6K to make any real difference. I wonder what 3DR was initially planning for their extended pac...

 

[cryhavoc38]

Probably need more than 6K to make any real difference. I wonder what 3DR was initially planning for their extended pac...

Its a question that begs to be asked. Given the pack sizes out there, either it was going to be a custom pack or they were looking at least a 6000mAh pack with a higher C rating so that the cell voltages held up a bit longer under load. Or they were going to create a pack that had a taller footprint to shoehorn something in the 7000 or 8000mAH range..Thing is, I've not seen a 7 or 8000mAh 4s pack for general RC use. Wonder if they were also thinking the newer 4.35v per cell HV packs could be a viable solution.

Anyone have the average Amp draw in a hover for the solo with a gimbal and a GP in place?

 

[SARDG]

...Anyone have the average Amp draw in a hover for the solo with a gimbal and a GP in place?

One of the brainiacs here probably knows, but here's a guesstimate:
A 5AH bat (5.2 actually) lasts 15 minutes, so 20A draw. Does that compute?

 

[Frank Foster]

A taller battery pack will probably interfere with the GPS, unless the GPS is moved up.

 

[xaser66]

...I wonder about that case with high capacity supplement battery (5000,6000,etc) the extra power is eat by raising and maintaining extra weight on air... I wonder about a smaller size like 2500mah in parallel with smart battery connected at the copper terminals as a supplement battery...something that not exceed the max payload capacity of solo...

 

[RichWest]

Someone did a test a year or so ago adding secondary packs in parallel with the stock Solo battery.

Just for the reference and much can be learned from the exchange - Added 2nd 5200mah battery in parallel, gained a whopping 3.5 minutes

 

[User Name]

...I wonder about that case with high capacity supplement battery (5000,6000,etc) the extra power is eat by raising and maintaining extra weight on air... I wonder about a smaller size like 2500mah in parallel with smart battery connected at the copper terminals as a supplement battery...something that not exceed the max payload capacity of solo...

Couple problems with that:

First, the smaller you go, obviously, the less increase in flight time it'll provide. Solo hovers at about 15 to 17 amps. Now this is a big generalization and not really how it works, but if your battery can supply 2.5 amps over an hour, it could do 5 amps for 30 minutes, 10 amps for 15 minutes and 15 amps for 7.5 minutes (assuming it can discharge at those rates). Again, just a general picture to illustrate. Now it'll still be lifting the extra weight of the battery, so probably cut that 7.5 minutes in half. And since you never run a battery down to completely empty, subtract another minute or two. Just as with the 5000mah battery, you end up with another two or so minutes at best.

Second problem specifically with using different capacities - it'll draw more or less the same from all batteries, so your 2500mah battery is going to be depleted long before your main pack will, which means you'll end up damaging the 2500 pack by discharging it below it's safe voltage.

I think it comes down to this - the people who designed the Solo were pretty smart. If there was an easy way to make it fly longer, especially just by a different batter configuration, they would have designed it that way from the start.

 

[XeroPhane]

Rueben, I am also interested in your mod [email protected] (Thank you! Years later, I know)

The thing with these batteries is there are a lot of other factors besides capacity. There's the weight issue that's been discussed before. There is also the C-rating, which basically controls the rate of discharge. So, the higher the C-rating the higher performing the machine will be but the battery also depletes faster. By contrast, a lower C-rating may not deliver adequate power when needed. Next would be serial vs. parallel (the "s" in "4s"... in case you're wondering, the "4" represents the number of batteries in the series).

Anyway, *can* something be done?... probably, and I definitely encourage any types of R&D! I just wanted to add my 2 cents in that there's a lot more to it than weight and capacity.

 

[Frank Foster]

One thing I've noticed, and I have around 30 quads of all sorts/builds, and a ton of different li-po's. So far, all my solo batteries are performing the same, no problems. Can't say the same for quite a few other batteries I have.

 

[AOtarolaR]

greetings...
I am not an "electric" guy so i don´t know nothing about amps and voltage etc etc etc...
but is there anyway to "attach" another (more little) battery -lets say- on the "accesory bay" wich feeds only the gimbal, so the "lipo" will feed only the drone (as if there´s no gimbal)...?
(and obviously disconnect the gimbal from the "main" power)

 

[andrew.baker.142]

greetings...
I am not an "electric" guy so i don´t know nothing about amps and voltage etc etc etc...
but is there anyway to "attach" another (more little) battery -lets say- on the "accesory bay" wich feeds only the gimbal, so the "lipo" will feed only the drone (as if there´s no gimbal)...?
(and obviously disconnect the gimbal from the "main" power)

To what end? The gimbal and motherboard only use about 1 amp ( you can see this while powered and connected but not armed). whereas the motors are pulling about 16 amps in flight. Adding another battery dedicated to powering the gimbal (which only is using about 6% of the power) to try and extend time of flight is not going to be successful due to the weight penalty.

 

[AOtarolaR]

To what end? The gimbal and motherboard only use about 1 amp ( you can see this while powered and connected but not armed). whereas the motors are pulling about 16 amps in flight. Adding another battery dedicated to powering the gimbal (which only is using about 6% of the power) to try and extend time of flight is not going to be successful due to the weight penalty.

everybody said that without the gimbal the flight time is about 20 min... with the gimbal the flight time is abuot 14-16 minutes... so.. the gimbal is the cause of that flight time lost...
and that´s why I "said" a little battery just enough for the gimbal... not another 3dr "lipo" battery

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

It's the WEIGHT of the gimbal reducing flight time. Not the miniscule amount of power it uses. The weight of an auxiliary battery would negate the miniscule amount of power the gimbal no longer uses.