First Impressions of the Zippy 2800mAh Lipo

[ipatry]

The battery itself looks very nice, larger and heaver then the DJI 2200mAh. I had to cut grooves in the battery door for the connections to run outside because it is a ton easier then cramming them inside.

Pros: Slightly longer flight times
Charges and discharges better then stock batteries
Very good price

Cons: Heavier
Bigger
Have to cut to get it to fit

The reason I bought these batteries is because the Mad Dogs were on backorder. So far they have been OK. I am running a gimbal and stock props on my phantom. I got 8:30 of flying steady before I got the first red light. Then I flew to 9:30 and safely landed. I could have gone longer. I just ordered 9 inch carbon fiber props from DSLRpros.com.... Those should increase my flight time i would think.

 

[amrflyingdude]

I have 2 of these, they are great! a little heavier than normal 2700/2800lipos but they are great!

I am getting 4 MadDog 2700 and I am very interested on comparing them side by side

 

[Hiway]

For the record- my Mad Dogs just showed up... I ordered them 2 weeks ago or less.

I am looking at these also... to round out the spares... the stock battery is shyte- the Dronefly is ok for 2200... the Zippy 2200's are no better than Dronefly's, and the Mad Dogs are supposed to be the bomb. I will not be flying duals... my recent tests were very telling... with gimbal, fpv, and 2 zippy 2200's which are very light I was up 5 minutes and then a fast drain and drop... glad I was sort of prepared for it as I only had a low altitude drop... and only lost a video cable and 3 props (oxxo vison knockoffs so no biggie)

The Mad Dog fits snug in the battery compartment- with wires bunched and very tight. Maybe I will move it external like the shapeways rig.

 

[ipatry]

I ordered these well over a month ago, havnt had much time but I have flow 4 flights with them. Mad dogs were out of stock when I checked. I would be interested in seeing a good test between these and the mad dogs.

 

[ipatry]

Ohh and another thing, the connectors are wicked hard to connect and disconnect. I feel like I'm gonna break the wires I'm pulling so hard... Any thoughts?

 

[OI Photography]

Btw the maddog 2700's are back in stock now, and once you get some you'll quickly move those zippy's to your emergency backup stock

I have a couple of the 3000mAh version of the ones you got, and haven't used them once since I switched. The maddog 2700 I have actually delivers more usable capacity than the Zippy's did.

 

[joeflyer]

Has anyone cycled these to get a true capacity reading? My experience with Zippys is that they deliver only about 80-85% of rated capacity.

Likewise has anyone cycled the Maddogs? If they're truely 2700 mah they should outperform the Zippy 2800's.

 

[ElGuano]

Has anyone cycled these to get a true capacity reading? My experience with Zippys is that they deliver only about 80-85% of rated capacity.

Likewise has anyone cycled the Maddogs? If they're truely 2700 mah they should outperform the Zippy 2800's.

i haven't personally but know people how have. The report was they rated to a bit north of [email protected].

 

[joeflyer]

Ohh and another thing, the connectors are wicked hard to connect and disconnect. I feel like I'm gonna break the wires I'm pulling so hard... Any thoughts?

Try some silicone spray.

 

[OI Photography]

Has anyone cycled these to get a true capacity reading? My experience with Zippys is that they deliver only about 80-85% of rated capacity.

Likewise has anyone cycled the Maddogs? If they're truely 2700 mah they should outperform the Zippy 2800's.

My Zippy 3000mAh's delivered right at 90% of rated capacity (2700 when fully cycled to 3.3v).

The one maddog I tested took back almost 2900mAh. Flying it down to 11.1v usually consumes ~2400mAh.

 

[ipatry]

Ohh and another thing, the connectors are wicked hard to connect and disconnect. I feel like I'm gonna break the wires I'm pulling so hard... Any thoughts?

Try some silicone spray.

Will it hurt the connection? If I spray it inside the xt60 connector?

 

[MILLER4PRESIDENT2020]

so whats the final verdict in Zippy's vs Maddogs?

 

[joeflyer]

Try some silicone spray.

Will it hurt the connection? If I spray it inside the xt60 connector?

No.

 

[amrflyingdude]

so whats the final verdict in Zippy's vs Maddogs?

I have both. Will publish results this week.

The Zippy 2800 works good but they is heavy (231g). When I used to fly with only my go pro and clear case I was getting 12- 14 mins. now with Gimbal, FPV, GOpro, etc I'm getting 8:30.

Maddog's in theory should outperform these, 1) they are lighter and 2) they are about 2900mah in practice

 

[amrflyingdude]

Forgot to meniton, I have my Low Level Warnings set lower than stock. I got a couple of minutes more air time and I'm still landing at 11.1v

 

[amrflyingdude]

Well, as promised I am reporting back on Zippy 2800 vs mad dog 2700

I flew my maddogs 3 times already (lipos fully learn their capacity after 3 to 5 flights) and here is some data:

My phantom weighs (apron) 1250+gms (gimbal, gopro, EZOSD w/ current sensor, vtx, carbon fiber mount for FPV and OSD) + p2 props. I have my low voltage alarms set right at the bare minimum. ( I do at times overfly my batteries but never more than 85%)

Conservative flying in GPS mode. These are Maximum times (Auto-land kicking in)

- Zippy 2800 Flight time 8 1/2 minutes
- Maddog 2700 flight times 10:30
- Stock 220 battery 8 minutes

Now here is the logic I have learned after a month testing batteries and trying to maximize flight times.

When my phantom was lighter, the Zippy was giving me almost 13 minutes while the stock battery was giving me 10 minutes. I think this is where the Maddogs shine, they are 2700 but weight 30grams less than the zippy, (that alone is about half a minute advantage) in addition, it has been mentioned that the Maddgos true capacity is at around 3000mah. I do not know how the mad dogs perform on lighter phantoms, I know the zippy gave me once 14 minutes flying conservatively with my go pro and clear case only but I can tell you for sure that if you have a loaded phantom Maddogs are the way to go.

Although the Stock battery and the Zippy 2800 are great batteries I can tell you I will not be buying anything else other than Maddog 2700. My goal with a loaded phantom was 10 minutes flight time and Maddog 2700 is giving me that and a little extra.

 

[OI Photography]

Now here is the logic I have learned after a month testing batteries and trying to maximize flight times.

When my phantom was lighter, the Zippy was giving me almost 13 minutes while the stock battery was giving me 10 minutes. I think this is where the Maddogs shine, they are 2700 but weight 30grams less than the zippy, (that alone is about half a minute advantage) in addition, it has been mentioned that the Maddgos true capacity is at around 3000mah. I do not know how the mad dogs perform on lighter phantoms, I know the zippy gave me once 14 minutes flying conservatively with my go pro and clear case only but I can tell you for sure that if you have a loaded phantom Maddogs are the way to go.

Weight/capacity ratio is one of the magic numbers to consider when evaluating what battery to buy. It's not an absolute indicator but it's the number that will point to exactly what you just demonstrated. It's probably safe to say that even if the Zippy 2800's weighed exactly the same as the maddog 2700's the latter would probably still outperform them in real-world flight time, just due to differences in the exact chemistries, materials, and processes each manufacturer uses. Zippy's are known to be "you get what you pay for" in general, although they do hit the value/performance sweet spot with a few of their models here and there. I have several of theirs, and they've all been relegated now to bench work (which lets me cycle my flight batteries separately).

Oh, and thanks for the feedback on that, more data = good data.

 

[amrflyingdude]

Now here is the logic I have learned after a month testing batteries and trying to maximize flight times.

When my phantom was lighter, the Zippy was giving me almost 13 minutes while the stock battery was giving me 10 minutes. I think this is where the Maddogs shine, they are 2700 but weight 30grams less than the zippy, (that alone is about half a minute advantage) in addition, it has been mentioned that the Maddgos true capacity is at around 3000mah. I do not know how the mad dogs perform on lighter phantoms, I know the zippy gave me once 14 minutes flying conservatively with my go pro and clear case only but I can tell you for sure that if you have a loaded phantom Maddogs are the way to go.

Weight/capacity ratio is one of the magic numbers to consider when evaluating what battery to buy. It's not an absolute indicator but it's the number that will point to exactly what you just demonstrated. It's probably safe to say that even if the Zippy 2800's weighed exactly the same as the maddog 2700's the latter would probably still outperform them in real-world flight time, just due to differences in the exact chemistries, materials, and processes each manufacturer uses. Zippy's are known to be "you get what you pay for" in general, although they do hit the value/performance sweet spot with a few of their models here and there. I have several of theirs, and they've all been relegated now to bench work (which lets me cycle my flight batteries separately).

+1

Even at the same weight Maddogs will outperform Zippy. I am absolutely impressed by Maddogs.

 

[ElGuano]

Great results, thanks for sharing. A couple of comments:

1. I would be careful about attributing much of the difference to underrating of the mad dog capacity. 2dogsrc tested the maddogs to 2700 on the nose. I do think they hold a bit more, but 300mah is a big jump. My 2200mah Zippies on the other hand constantly underdeliver on their promised capacity.

2. Battery performance at load and motor efficiency at load are both non-linear, which makes it hard to draw straight-line comparisons. Very generally, as you get heavier the differences compound, so going from 1100 to 1200g is less of a difference than 1300 to 1400g. So it can be hard to draw really tight comparisons of different batteries at different weights.

But your tests seem to be in line with what others have found, so I'd say they're definitely instructive!

 

[amrflyingdude]

Great results, thanks for sharing. A couple of comments:

1. I would be careful about attributing much of the difference to underrating of the mad dog capacity. 2dogsrc tested the maddogs to 2700 on the nose. I do think they hold a bit more, but 300mah is a big jump. My 2200mah Zippies on the other hand constantly underdeliver on their promised voltage.

2. Battery performance at load and motor efficiency at load are both non-linear, which makes it hard to draw straight-line comparisons. Very generally, as you get heavier the differences compound, so going from 1100 to 1200g is less of a difference than 1300 to 1400g. So it can be hard to draw really tight comparisons of different batteries at different weights.

+1