Flight time penalty with FPV

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Hi, I was wondering how much flight time folks are losing when using FPV? I've got a new Phantom 2 with the H3-2D gimbal and I'm flying a Boscam TS-353 400mW transmitter. I'm getting maybe 12-14 minutes flight time on average before it's time to land. I'm not surprised by the decreased fight times, given the power consumption of the transmitter, but curious if this is along the lines of what others are seeing as well?

Thanks!
 
The gimbal and transmitter really don't use much power. The decrease in flight time is mainly due to the added weight. The rule of thumb is that you loose one second for every gram of added weight. I'd guess that the gimbal, camera and Tx weigh about 300 gms. That translates to 5 minutes less flight time.

If you have any doubts concerning the power consumption do back to back flights; one with power to the gimbal & Tx, and one with them unplugged. My guess is that the extra power consumption is costing you about 30 seconds.

Joe
 
joeflyer said:
The gimbal and transmitter really don't use much power. The decrease in flight time is mainly due to the added weight. The rule of thumb is that you loose one second for every gram of added weight. I'd guess that the gimbal, camera and Tx weigh about 300 gms. That translates to 5 minutes less flight time.

If you have any doubts concerning the power consumption do back to back flights; one with power to the gimbal & Tx, and one with them unplugged. My guess is that the extra power consumption is costing you about 30 seconds.

Joe
My guess is that you've got more difference between battery's than between with or without power to the gimbal and tx. Testing it would never be a valid test if you use 2 different batteries or 1 battery and recharge (because of small differences in charge capacity) :lol:

It is probably the weight that matters most, indeed.
 
I recently added that exact same transmitter PLUS an iOSD to my F550 and it did not decrease flight times at all. 400 milli-watts ain't nuthin' power wise.

U.M.
 
It's absolutely the weight that matters the most. A 150ma vtx and 200ma gimbal are reducing flight time by a few seconds, whereas the 200-250g of those components' weight are taking 3-4 minutes off.

Add a 100g secondary battery to power these components and you can see how disparate the results are. You'll get back those few seconds from the power drain, but suddenly you're down 5-6 minutes because of the extra weight.
 
Thanks for the feedback, guys! I'll need to run more exact flight time tests, but I'm getting no more than 15 minutes at best. I just got a second battery in the mail today, so a can compare those.

Sounds like weight is the biggy though. I'll have to take my cat of the top next time I fly... ;-)

Joe
 
fwiw,. I ran a very non-scientific test to see how much juice my Tarot gimbal + 250mw consumed.
I plugged a fresh battery into my Phantom 1, then turned on the devices and then simulated flying around in my living room, hand-tilting my phantom so that the gimbal would do it's thing.
after 2 minutes I stopped, and recharged my battery. - and found it took in about 60mah total. (which means it would cut my flight time by perhaps 8 to 10% off my 2200mah battery). I don't think the NAZA consumes much energy tho.
*I'd be very curious if anyone else has run a similar test to see how many Mah their FPV+gimbal consumed.

but naturally, the additional weight of the FPV gear would also decrease flight time a bit as well.
 

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