Dual Battery Mod

Digdat0; excellent summarizing info for a newbe in this game. Now I know what to do and what to avoid. If possible, the first post should be edited with this "best solution so far".
 
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modding a battery is pretty easy to be honest. if you have a soldering iron and a dremel, its way easy. Some vendors are also coming out with "power adapters" which you may wanna check out. Here's a link: DJI phantom 3 Phantom 2 Easy battery mods adaptor on Strikingly

but what i found is, once i got batteries, i wanted MORE MORE MORE .. so my recommendation is, get another and get a power adapter, no need to mod batteries or the aircraft.

My adapter like the one you mentioned is working great after 10 flights...I use it on any battery and easy to change between them...Between that and the dual lock under the vps i can very quickly change batteries...Now getting 40min flight time...
 
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My adapter like the one you mentioned is working great after 10 flights...I use it on any battery and easy to change between them...Between that and the dual lock under the vps i can very quickly change batteries...Now getting 40min flight time...

Hi there chazz. We will like to see pictures of your P3. 40 min, is crazy. Please give us the secret battery you are using.;)
 
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My adapter like the one you mentioned is working great after 10 flights...I use it on any battery and easy to change between them...Between that and the dual lock under the vps i can very quickly change batteries...Now getting 40min flight time...
is yours from DBS? I know he has some, but cant find for sale on his site yet. Do keep us posted :)
 
Digdat0; excellent summarizing info for a newbe in this game. Now I know what to do and what to avoid. If possible, the first post should be edited with this "best solution so far".

So one thing i noticed about the 'drone community' is that they don't always like to give away info to "newbies" easily. You gotta pay your dues, do the research and then come back with some 'better' questions or what you ran into to add value. The community has made alot of mistakes (costly ones) and have done alot of trial/error and troubleshooting. Largely, the community wants folks to learn, test and learn. Goldbloom in Jurassic Park stated it best:

"Ian Malcolm: I’ll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you’re using here: it didn’t require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn’t earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don’t take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could and before you even knew what you had you patented it and packaged it and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you’re selling it, you want to sell it."

That analogy is perfect here, and its representative of the community IMO. I'm not saying its right or wrong .. it is what it is. That said, i try my best to help .. while encouraging folks to read the thread. There is some AMAZING info in here, with a lot of trial and error. If you read it, you will learn more than if I just tell you what batteries to use, but its a balance.

1120-teach-a-man-to-fish.jpg
 
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Hi there chazz. We will like to see pictures of your P3. 40 min, is crazy. Please give us the secret battery you are using.;)


Sorry no pics, you just have to trust a stranger…

Here's what I'm testing...no secrets...


5200 split from Horizon barely made 30min…It sucks and wish I didn’t buy it…

MS 5200 LIHV 418g I get a little over 30 min maybe 32 to 10% (I didn’t keep good records but it was a little better than the horizon split)

MS 6600 LIHV 532g - No sure what I’ll get on this one I only ran it to 50% twice

MS 8000LIHV 639g - got to 40min and a few s first and second flight to 10% or around there… I’m hoping it gets better after “break in”… Rear motors were just a little warm to the touch from lifting the back end continuously (full throttle) for 40min to test...

MS 4000 LIHV 345g x 2 = 690g – is my Next purchase to run Dual and spread the load instead of running the 8000 under the VPS

What pisses me off a little is I have no good place to get real distance…I only made it to a little over 31000 because of the mountains around me…I wish there was more flat land or the ocean near me to really go for distance....I don’t care much about taking video and flying around… If I’m not trying to do time or distance I wouldn’t fly….

Hoping I don’t have an issue with my 8000…Last flight I took it to 10% and checked the Voltage and one Cell was quite a bit lower than the rest (don’t remember what the voltage was)…I charged it back to storage voltage w/balance and all were at either 3.90 or 3.89…But I don’t have high hopes…with my luck its toast…if it happens again I’m going to attempt to return it for another…It was shipped from china Hobbyking and return shipping may not be worth it….
 
Come on chazz! You peeked our curiosity too much. How long does it take to strap the battery on and snap a pic[emoji41] I got to see how this 8.0 fits on there. Hell the 6.6 almost made my aircraft do backflips


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
 
Come on chazz! You peeked our curiosity too much. How long does it take to strap the battery on and snap a pic[emoji41] I got to see how this 8.0 fits on there. Hell the 6.6 almost made my aircraft do backflips


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

For the master I'll post a pic ;)...But I thought he wanted a pic of proof of the 40min flight and I don't have that...Sorry to maxwell if I misunderstood....

It takes me longer to take the battery off then put it on because of how good that dual lock stuff is...

I learned after the first time I stopped and the camera was looking straight up at the sky to let off slowly....

IMG_2184.JPG
IMG_2180.JPG
 
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Sorry no pics, you just have to trust a stranger…

Here's what I'm testing...no secrets...


5200 split from Horizon barely made 30min…It sucks and wish I didn’t buy it…

MS 5200 LIHV 418g I get a little over 30 min maybe 32 to 10% (I didn’t keep good records but it was a little better than the horizon split)

MS 6600 LIHV 532g - No sure what I’ll get on this one I only ran it to 50% twice

MS 8000LIHV 639g - got to 40min and a few s first and second flight to 10% or around there… I’m hoping it gets better after “break in”… Rear motors were just a little warm to the touch from lifting the back end continuously (full throttle) for 40min to test...

MS 4000 LIHV 345g x 2 = 690g – is my Next purchase to run Dual and spread the load instead of running the 8000 under the VPS

What pisses me off a little is I have no good place to get real distance…I only made it to a little over 31000 because of the mountains around me…I wish there was more flat land or the ocean near me to really go for distance....I don’t care much about taking video and flying around… If I’m not trying to do time or distance I wouldn’t fly….

Hoping I don’t have an issue with my 8000…Last flight I took it to 10% and checked the Voltage and one Cell was quite a bit lower than the rest (don’t remember what the voltage was)…I charged it back to storage voltage w/balance and all were at either 3.90 or 3.89…But I don’t have high hopes…with my luck its toast…if it happens again I’m going to attempt to return it for another…It was shipped from china Hobbyking and return shipping may not be worth it….


My "next purchase" just turned into my most recent purchase...Online shopping is my addiction, it's way too easy...I'll let you guys know how the dual 4000's do....
 
Yep that's a big squeeze chazz! I thought for sure you was squeezin that big battery on there without a camera. I can imagine get some good flight time out of it, but I can't imagine getting good distance out of it, just from an aerodynamic standpoint. But you won't know till you try right. Little word of warning to you, i've tried (2) MS 4.0's and they do balance OK, you'll probably get 37 minutes or so, but one thing I found out the hard way carrying that kind of weight for distance runs is that it eventually burns up an ESC/mainboard! And it's really not even a matter of if only win both of mine happened around the 12th flight area. So while I do like to experiment with different battery combos and heavier than most will try, lately I found to try and keep it between the 5 to 600 g area with camera and just fly on calm days for distance. I tried the thunder power HV 4500s because they're a little lighter, but both pairs I tested were complete junk and not worth the money. After the main bat runs to zero the external still have 30% which means you're not utilizing all the resource you can or you can try to fight autoland for 20,000 feet. Writing zero for that long is not very comfortable[emoji41]


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
 
For the master I'll post a pic ;)...But I thought he wanted a pic of proof of the 40min flight and I don't have that...Sorry to maxwell if I misunderstood....

It takes me longer to take the battery off then put it on because of how good that dual lock stuff is...

I learned after the first time I stopped and the camera was looking straight up at the sky to let off slowly....

View attachment 67047 View attachment 67048
Thanks for sharing chazz. My last house had that EXACT same carpet!!

How does the aircraft fly with the 8k? If you go from full throttle to stop, any issues in balance coming to a stop, or issues turning? I noticed with my 6600 that braking was hard and kinda wanted to flip the bird, so I lowered the sensitivity to 70% and that really helped.
 
I can echo DB's sentiment... I ran 2x MS4.0s 34min to 17%. For me, nothing beats the 5.2...41min flight time.
 
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Come to think of it, I don't know of any time where the minuscule weight difference between a 14.8v pack vs a 15.2v pack has made any positive results. Usually, the LiHV variants are similar weight. And that little extra bit of voltage makes the biggest impact.
 
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I have the duel DJI battery mount, and I had to dial the braking back to keep the flip from happening . I like the MS 4000 Hv. It is a good cheap battery to throw on for a little more time. I get about the same as running two DJI battery's.
With the active braking backed down it takes some feet to stop. And in a good wind it can drift some to.

I am sure I can make that same battery connector that was posted by chazz, for about 3 dollars.
It looks so simple. Once one of the members here comes up with a cheap way to do things that are over priced ,the other seller will lower there price. This what happen with the CCP and I think some other company's realized they aren't going to get 200 dollars for an antenna.
Happy flying to all. I love this stuff.
 
Is it a problem that the cells in the extra battery could be discharged too much before the flight is over? Or will the standard battery + extra battery effectively operate as one battery where charge is equalized between the two as they are discharged?

I agree that the battery adapter seems hugely overpriced. I brought some copper sheat home from work, to try and make the adapter myself. I already have plenty of XT60 connectors from previous projects.
 
For the master I'll post a pic ;)...But I thought he wanted a pic of proof of the 40min flight and I don't have that...Sorry to maxwell if I misunderstood....

It takes me longer to take the battery off then put it on because of how good that dual lock stuff is...

I learned after the first time I stopped and the camera was looking straight up at the sky to let off slowly....

View attachment 67047 View attachment 67048
That one heavy bird my flight times I currently get is 5200mah Lihv 33.45 to 10% battery
The 6600mah Lihv I get is 37.45 to 10% battery
Anything heavier hurts flight times or risk burning up your ESC.
 
Is it a problem that the cells in the extra battery could be discharged too much before the flight is over? Or will the standard battery + extra battery effectively operate as one battery where charge is equalized between the two as they are discharged?

I agree that the battery adapter seems hugely overpriced. I brought some copper sheat home from work, to try and make the adapter myself. I already have plenty of XT60 connectors from previous projects.

I was thinking the same thing. I got XT60 connectors lienaround. My bird is to heavy for long distance flytes , I keep it under 3 miles.
 
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