New Sunhans 3 watt amps with DBS Itelite panel on P3P

[dsd317]

Most of the info I've found regarding sunhans on phantoms pertain to Phantom 2's or Standards, and are using older amps. My questions pertain to the newer amps (shown below) on Phantom 3 Professionals.

I'm not into breaking distance records. I just live in a wifi congested area where the homes are close together. There is a large river surrounded by lots of trees approx. 1000ft away. I can make there with only the DBS ITelite antenna but depending on the day and time of day, my controller will drop a bar or two of RC and Video signal.

1) The instructions for sunhans amps say the blue light should be blinking. Mine stayed on solid (everything connected: battery to amps / radio to amp / amp to DBS antenna).

2) I purchased amps with blue battery ( I think it's from Sunhans ), Model DC12480 (shown above). I connected to charger with switch in "ON" position (suggested by others), but the green light on charger stays solid green the whole time, even after leaving on for a few hours. Was the battery fully charged already? Is there any indicator to tell me when it's time to recharge the battery (other than it not powering on)? I measured the battery voltage and it was 12.5 Vdc.

Thanks in advance!

 

[dtokez]

Those battery packs are junk. No cell balancing is done at all. The charger is just set to the total charged voltage of the pack and just pumps out the voltage till it starts current limiting. I'd much rather use a standard 3cell rc pack.

 

[Mark The Droner]

1) The blue light blinks when it is working - meaning a signal is moving through it. It's not a steady blink. It's a very rapid and intermittent flashing.

2) This is not a "smart" battery. A green light on the battery indicates it has a full charge. A red light indicates less than a full charge. Using both leads, you should get two half-hour flights with the battery, assuming your using amps in the 2000-2500 mwatt range. Then recharge.

If you have a higher watt amp, I suppose your time would be reduced somewhat.

Hope this helps.

 

[dsd317]

Those battery packs are junk. No cell balancing is done at all. The charger is just set to the total charged voltage of the pack and just pumps out the voltage till it starts current limiting. I'd much rather use a standard 3cell rc pack.

Is that what you're using? How do you attach it to your controller?

I'm always open to suggestions as long as it's coming from experience, not just from "I heard this is better". In that case, I've heard a lot of people say good things about these batteries and that they can last up to 10 hours without having to recharge (of course, based on how often you use it).

 

[dsd317]

1) The blue light blinks when it is working - meaning a signal is moving through it. It's not a steady blink. It's a very rapid and intermittent flashing.

2) This is not a "smart" battery. A green light on the battery indicates it has a full charge. A red light indicates less than a full charge. Using both leads, you should get two half-hour flights with the battery, assuming your using amps in the 2000-2500 watt range. Then recharge.

If you have a higher watt amp, I suppose your time would be reduced somewhat.

Hope this helps.

1) Mine looks like a steady, solid blue light. Maybe it's just blinking super fast. I'll check it again when I get home from work.

2) Are you talking about the green light on the charger or battery? Because the only green light I see is on the charger itself. I saw somewhere someone saying that the charger light starts off with green, then turns off when fully charged. Or maybe I got it backwards. It starts off with no light, then turns green with fully charged. Either way, I'm getting a steady green light on the charger, no matter how long it's connected to the battery.

 

[dtokez]

Is that what you're using? How do you attach it to your controller?

I'm always open to suggestions as long as it's coming from experience, not just from "I heard this is better". In that case, I've heard a lot of people say good things about these batteries and that they can last up to 10 hours without having to recharge (of course, based on how often you use it).

No I don't have this system, but I have come across that type of battery pack and they are not good. ALL lithium packs with multiple cells HAVE to be balanced, this type of pack does not allow for any balancing. I would use standard packs (with a balance charger of course) and just fit the connector that you require on the output.

Cell Balancing and Battery Equalisation

 

[Mark The Droner]

1) Mine looks like a steady, solid blue light. Maybe it's just blinking super fast. I'll check it again when I get home from work.

2) Are you talking about the green light on the charger or battery? Because the only green light I see is on the charger itself. I saw somewhere someone saying that the charger light starts off with green, then turns off when fully charged. Or maybe I got it backwards. It starts off with no light, then turns green with fully charged. Either way, I'm getting a steady green light on the charger, no matter how long it's connected to the battery.

1) The amp has two lights. One is a green light which is steady and is a power lamp. The other is a blue light. It will be steady for the first few seconds, and then it will become intermittent flashing. But, of course, everything must be hooked up. You need the transmitter and antennas connected. The intermittent flashing is telling you the signal is moving through the amp.

2) I'm sorry - I mis-stated above. Plus the instructions are horribly written in broken Chinese-English. Let's try this again. For the record, the instructions say the battery switch should be on (l) when charging but from what I can tell, it doesn't seem to matter. But turn it on anyway. See the battery lamp light up. You're right about the battery light. It is red. I believe it's always red. I am pretty sure it doesn't change. Now let's talk about the charger. It has one lamp and it is multi-colored. If you plug the battery into the charger and you don't plug the charger into the wall, the color on the charger is green which indicates there is at least some charge in the battery. Now plug the charger into the wall outlet. The color of the lamp will normally change. The color of the lamp tells you the state of the charge of the battery. A deep red means a low charge. Orange indicates a stronger charge. Yellow indicates it's almost fully charged. Green is a full charge. If the lamp is not green, keep the charger plugged into the wall outlet to charge the battery. The color of the lamp will eventually move to red/orange/yellow/green. At that point, it's charged and you should unplug the charger from the wall. You definitely do not want to leave it plugged into the outlet with a full charge. This means no casual charging. You should monitor it closely while it's charging and unplug it when it turns green. Otherwise you could shorten the life of the battery.

Hope this helps.

 

[dsd317]

No I don't have this system, but I have come across that type of battery pack and they are not good. ALL lithium packs with multiple cells HAVE to be balanced, this type of pack does not allow for any balancing. I would use standard packs (with a balance charger of course) and just fit the connector that you require on the output.

Cell Balancing and Battery Equalisation

Thanks for the info.

 

[dsd317]

1) The amp has two lights. One is a green light which is steady and is a power lamp. The other is a blue light. It will be steady for the first few seconds, and then it will become intermittent flashing. But, of course, everything must be hooked up. You need the transmitter and antennas connected. The intermittent flashing is telling you the signal is moving through the amp.

2) I'm sorry - I mis-stated above. Plus the instructions are horribly written in broken Chinese-English. Let's try this again. For the record, the instructions say the battery switch should be on (l) when charging but from what I can tell, it doesn't seem to matter. But turn it on anyway. See the battery lamp light up. You're right about the battery light. It is red. I believe it's always red. I am pretty sure it doesn't change. Now let's talk about the charger. It has one lamp and it is multi-colored. If you plug the battery into the charger and you don't plug the charger into the wall, the color on the charger is green which indicates there is at least some charge in the battery. Now plug the charger into the wall outlet. The color of the lamp will normally change. The color of the lamp tells you the state of the charge of the battery. A deep red means a low charge. Orange indicates a stronger charge. Yellow indicates it's almost fully charged. Green is a full charge. If the lamp is not green, keep the charger plugged into the wall outlet to charge the battery. The color of the lamp will eventually move to red/orange/yellow/green. At that point, it's charged and you should unplug the charger from the wall. You definitely do not want to leave it plugged into the outlet with a full charge. This means no casual charging. You should monitor it closely while it's charging and unplug it when it turns green. Otherwise you could shorten the life of the battery.

Hope this helps.

Thank you.
1) You must be talking about a different amp. Mine has a white light and a blue. See attached file:


2) I've been trying to drain the battery by leaving it on and also by flying my P3P, but the battery still reading 12.1V. Last night it was 12.5V. Seems to hold it's charge quite well. I'm trying to drain the battery to see if the color on the charger changes to any other color other than green. I'm just surprised that the battery out of the box appears to be fully charged.

Thanks again.