Battery Duration

[Clint57]

First....I am blown away with the amount of knowledge on this forum and I appreciate the involvement. I am about to purchase this platform, but it appears our largest hurdle at this point is the abysmal battery life. I plan to fly commercially in the near future; however, it would be difficult to do on 13 minutes flight time. Any improvements in the making?

 

[Ed Beck]

Are you experiencing short battery times every time you fly? Battery time is very dependent on winds. If you have Solo programmed to fly a certain ground speed over a certain track you're going to see shorter battery times in strong winds than if the winds are light and variable.

If you're experiencing 13 minute flight times in light and variable winds then there are others on the thread who are very knowledgeable about battery life.

 

[fpvsteve]

I hit easily 19 -20 min flight time with a GP4B and gimbal when flying at around 4m/sec constant speed at sea level and no winds until I hit battery failsafe at about 8% battery remaining.
Flying faster, hovering, flying under windy conditions, at high altitudes, etc requires more power and thus reduces flight times.

You can further improve flight time by ~5% by using other, more efficient props. I can recommend the Graupner Eprops 11x5".

 

[Clint57]

Thanks Ed.
I haven't purchased the Solo yet, but was about to pull the trigger. The short battery life has been spoken of in several other threads, with 2 stating 13 minutes under load. I'm also a little concerned that 3 DR has changed their business plan towards the commercial software side of the business and even downsized their US operations. I'm not sure where that leaves the Solo Drone end of the corporation, including future upgrades.

 

[Ed Beck]

I hit easily 19 -20 min flight time with a GP4B and gimbal when flying at around 4m/sec constant speed at sea level and no winds until I hit battery failsafe at about 8% battery remaining.
Flying faster, hovering, flying under windy conditions, at high altitudes, etc requires more power and thus reduces flight times.

You can further improve flight time by ~5% by using other, more efficient props. I can recommend the Graupner Eprops 11x5".

How do you do in a frictionless vacuum?

 

[Clint57]

Thanks fpvsteve. As I stated before,...very knowledgeable and helpful forum.

 

[Ed Beck]

How do you do in a frictionless vacuum?

xkcd: Experiment

 

[Clint57]

Frictionless vacuum...lol...no resistance equals true mechanical battery life, I assume. Hard to breath though...

 

[Mr GruntHunter]

How do you do in a frictionless vacuum?

Vacuum = no air = no fly

 

[Ed Beck]

Yeah I know. I was making a joke about how physics professors like to talk about frictionless vacuums. It makes it easier to describe concepts when you can eliminate variables.

 

[Ed Beck]

First....I am blown away with the amount of knowledge on this forum and I appreciate the involvement. I am about to purchase this platform, but it appears our largest hurdle at this point is the abysmal battery life. I plan to fly commercially in the near future; however, it would be difficult to do on 13 minutes flight time. Any improvements in the making?

Clint - I usually plan my flights for 20 minutes. If the winds are heavy I usually have enough power to complete the flight and land with 20% battery power.

I plan flights to end close to where I take off. It doesn't change the fact that I have to fly the same distance but I do get a better idea of if I can finish the flight or if I should abort and land.

 

[Clint57]

Thanks Ed.

 

[peppys]

My batteries are almost a year old and I can see significant drop in the flight times. 10-13 minutes flight without any fast movements,etc.

 

[PdxSteve]

Flight times without knowing the battery percentage when you land is pretty meaningless. I can say I only get 3 mins (but I land at 90% )

 

[Ed Beck]

Flight times without knowing the battery percentage when you land is pretty meaningless. I can say I only get 3 mins (but I land at 90% )

Hey @PdxSteve I have 8 batteries and most of the time I only need 3 for a mission. Am I better off rotating all of them or using the same ones over and over?

BTW I'm in Lincoln City for the day. Heading back north tomorrow.

 

[PdxSteve]

Personally I rotate all my batteries so they have about the same wear/charge cycles. It also makes it easier when you know your batteries are all pretty much consistent instead of "this one gets about 15 minutes, this one gets about 12 minutes (older/more cycles)", etc. Also, if you are really only using 3 of the 8, it will make them all last longer by spreading the load. Like after 3 missions of 3 batteries, you've basically only used each battery once instead of 3 batteries 3x.

Love Lincoln City! I was there and Newport Bay this last weekend. I hope it's clear for you and have some awesome flights!

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

Flight times without knowing the battery percentage when you land is pretty meaningless. I can say I only get 3 mins (but I land at 90% )

^^^^ This ^^^^

Especially when people insist on calling it quits at 20-25% remaining for no logical reason.

 

[bluesgeek]

^^^^ This ^^^^

Especially when people insist on calling it quits at 20-25% remaining for no logical reason.

I can't remember where, but I know I've read that you should land with 30%.

 

[PdxSteve]

I fly to 10%, so do a lot of people who designed the solo. You can get several more minutes. Best be in your landing zone though. Percentage/voltage drops a lot faster the last 15%.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

I can't remember where, but I know I've read that you should land with 30%.

I'm sure you did read that somewhere. But I can assure you whoever wrote it doesn't know what they're talking about. They're either repeating bad information they read somewhere. Or making up best practices that aren't grounded in reality.