How do you know when your battery is low?

Ohary · May 16, 2014

I tend to fly high and far, but usually just within sight. I've on occasion "lost" my FC40 (panic and dread setting in) only to put it in home Lock and brought it back into view, but last night I realized I had pushed the quad's batteries to their limits and had a rather rapid final decent. Is there any warnings (other than the flashing LED on the quad) I am not aware of?

Uncle Meat · May 16, 2014

Ohary said:
I tend to fly high and far, but usually just within sight. I've on occasion "lost" my FC40 (panic and dread setting in) only to put it in home Lock and brought it back into view, but last night I realized I had pushed the quad's batteries to their limits and had a rather rapid final decent. Is there any warnings (other than the flashing LED on the quad) I am not aware of?

No, not on a stock Phantom as far as I know.

Many of us just record flight times with our current batteries and then start a watch or timer at take off. I have a Futaba radio with a built in timer which beeps every minute and then provides a warning at a preset time.

U.M.

jetdust · May 18, 2014

Pick this up it's one of the best purchases that I have ever made as far as flying and knowing when to come home because of a low battery!!

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... duct=40033

ElGuano · May 18, 2014

I use a $5 kitchen timer, and it works flawlessly. Time a few normal flights to get a sense of when your low voltage alarm kicks in, and then whenever you fly, make sure you're back home with a minute or so to spare.

You can also get a (very loud) low voltage alarm that runs off the balance port of the battery or one of those fancy voltage transmitters.

Ohary · May 19, 2014

Thanks guys!

I like the hobby king method. I'll have to look into it. Right now I've been using my phone and basically bringing her back home after about 8 minutes. But I'm upgrading the battery to a 2700mA which may complicate things if I'm switching out batteries.

J.James · May 19, 2014

I use both a timer so I can know how long I have been going and when to know I better start bringing her in close to the landing zone. and picked up on of them cheap alarm buzzers ( picked on up on bay $4.50 shipped which lets me know I had better land her before it does a falling brick act. and its supper loud too when its in the air and going off. When I first got it I set it so it would go off right away and flew it as high as I could get and still can hear it very well. I was really surprised how the tiny piazo churpers on it are. it sounds like a car alarm going off actually more like a truck is backing up some were. and now I leave the phantoms low battery thing off so it dont ever try to auto land its self any place. I also put a pcs of tape on each of my battery's and gave them all a number and the average time I get from each one rounded down to the nearest minute of the shortest time I have gotten out of each one. Then I know what to set my timer for on each one. Like one of my 4 2700mah battery's I only get about 13.5 mins on for some reason and the others I get about 14 to 14.5mins so battery 1 I set shoot for no more then 13mins and the rest I set the clock to 14.

Its one of the best options so far that I have added and is a great piece of mind and also great to know what your voltage is before you take off so I cant ever by mistake try and put a battery in thats already flown and drained. I almost did that yesterday when I was distracted from some one talking to me and I unhooked and took out a battery then picked up the same one and tried to put it back in again. and the battery thingy let me catch my mistake as soon as I plugged it in.

terrycagg · May 19, 2014

Could you please tell me the name, model number of the low batterysstart?
Thanks, Terry.

db4570 · May 26, 2014

J.James-

I'd really like to know what type of buzzer this is. It sounds like exactly what I am looking for.

David

4wd · May 26, 2014

I thought this app looked useful, incorporates a timer and other stuff of some merit
But I haven't used it.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... .app302747

This one looks simpler, similar idea.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... antomtimer

battman2036 · Sep 11, 2014

jetdust said:
Pick this up it's one of the best purchases that I have ever made as far as flying and knowing when to come home because of a low battery!!

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... duct=40033

What voltage do you set for warning?

Ohary · Sep 11, 2014

Wow, this is coincidental seeing this thread alive.
I lost my FC40 due to low battery My mistake was likely not pulling the battery from a full charge state and assuming it was fully charged. I flew for about 6 or 7 minutes to distances about 1000' away, brought her home and around for a bit when I noticed she wasn't responding to my throttle up vertical and saw the red lights flashing. So I let her land in the woods somewhere about 500 or so feet away never to have seen her since. I ended up getting a P2 on Craigslist with zenmuse gimbal ($500) and I love the fact that the P2 has about double flight time AND a battery meter. As soon as the leaves are off the trees I'll be doing a search and rescue for her.

Learn from my mistake. On the positive side, I upgraded, lol.