Phantom 2 Battery Flight time

[mikegentile]

Hi Guys. I'm a newbie. Here's what I have and was wondering my flight time should be
Phantom 2
zenmuse h3 3d gimbal
gopro hero 3+ black
Fly sight fpv tx5812

am I missing some other important piece of info?

 

[HarryT]

Flight time depends what you're doing. Eg, hovering uses a lot more power than forward flight. For a fully-loaded Phantom, flight times of around 12-15m on a battery charge are typical.

 

[witold]

Have a look at this video description for a log of different flights with different payloads. It will give you a rough idea of how long you have.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg5RhK-fLuM[/youtube]

But the obvious answer is that you should fly it a bunch and you will know exactly how much time you have till first battery warning. It depends on altitude, how aggressively you fly, life left in battery, and of course, total weight. Each gram you're hauling up there reduces your flight time a bit.

 

[HarryT]

But the obvious answer is that you should fly it a bunch and you will know exactly how much time you have till first battery warning. It depends on altitude, how aggressively you fly, life left in battery, and of course, total weight. Each gram you're hauling up there reduces your flight time a bit.

Your video is an excellent illustration of that fact. Your P2 with nothing on it is getting 18m flights, whereas with a gimbal, camera, video transmitter, etc, it'll be much less than that.

 

[sijbren]

I get around 18 minutes of flight time with H3 3D and GoPro installed. Without Zenmuse around 25 minutes.

 

[FlyingHigh]

I also have a battery question. When people report and early auto land, the first question seems to be "what was the voltage on the FPV?" I've been looking around but can't find what is low voltage? What number corresponds to the 30% first level warning?

Thanks

 

[witold]

But the obvious answer is that you should fly it a bunch and you will know exactly how much time you have till first battery warning. It depends on altitude, how aggressively you fly, life left in battery, and of course, total weight. Each gram you're hauling up there reduces your flight time a bit.

Your video is an excellent illustration of that fact. Your P2 with nothing on it is getting 18m flights, whereas with a gimbal, camera, video transmitter, etc, it'll be much less than that.

Yup... But at the same time, it's not so bad as it may seem.

This is because when I'm flying 'naked', I usually try to fly fast and aggressive. That eats up a lot of battery. But when I fly FPV/camera, it's more about being smooth and gentle.

 

[RobertMfromLI]

Hi Guys. I'm a newbie. Here's what I have and was wondering my flight time should be
Phantom 2
zenmuse h3 3d gimbal
gopro hero 3+ black
Fly sight fpv tx5812

am I missing some other important piece of info?

I get a full 19-20 minutes, with a little to spare, with the following caveats and/or differences:

• Stock remote in standard P2 mode
• Kumbacam FPV TX (uses P2 battery, not separate battery)
• WITH DJI anti-interference board mounted (some P2's didn't come with them???)
• No to moderate winds (up to 20mph gusts)
• VERY limited speed burts (maybe 1 or 2 "full out runs" that last no more than 5-10 seconds each, per flight).
• Rear multi-LED flashing marker light (10 LED)
• Full body wrap solid marker lights (66 LED)

I suspect I could push to 21-22 minutes, but we usually limit to 17-20. Flight time is slightly less (about 2 minutes) in the higher end of that wind range. Additionally, when we hit about 19 minutes, it's trying to land, and takes stick compensation to prevent it from slowly drifting down.

 

[freefall101]

Hi Guys. I'm a newbie. Here's what I have and was wondering my flight time should be
Phantom 2
zenmuse h3 3d gimbal
gopro hero 3+ black
Fly sight fpv tx5812

am I missing some other important piece of info?

I get a full 19-20 minutes, with a little to spare, with the following caveats and/or differences:

• Stock remote in standard P2 mode
• Kumbacam FPV TX (uses P2 battery, not separate battery)
• WITH DJI anti-interference board mounted (some P2's didn't come with them???)
• No to moderate winds (up to 20mph gusts)
• VERY limited speed burts (maybe 1 or 2 "full out runs" that last no more than 5-10 seconds each, per flight).
• Rear multi-LED flashing marker light (10 LED)
• Full body wrap solid marker lights (66 LED)

I suspect I could push to 21-22 minutes, but we usually limit to 17-20. Flight time is slightly less (about 2 minutes) in the higher end of that wind range. Additionally, when we hit about 19 minutes, it's trying to land, and takes stick compensation to prevent it from slowly drifting down.

Wow, 19-20 mins with all that AND a Zenmuse h33d and GoPro? incredible

 

[RobertMfromLI]

Hi Guys. I'm a newbie. Here's what I have and was wondering my flight time should be
Phantom 2
zenmuse h3 3d gimbal
gopro hero 3+ black
Fly sight fpv tx5812

am I missing some other important piece of info?

I get a full 19-20 minutes, with a little to spare...

...I suspect I could push to 21-22 minutes, but we usually limit to 17-20...

Wow, 19-20 mins with all that AND a Zenmuse h33d and GoPro? incredible

I know... yet amazingly true... we can probably manage another minute or two... betcha we could scratch 23 minutes even.

Check out this post for details on this 19:33 flight (and two minute idle):
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=24067&p=224092#p224092

 

[freefall101]

So why are my flight times like 6 or 7 minutes less than yours, what makes my setup so different with an ImmersionRC 600mw tx, dji iOSD mini, and Spironnet v2 antenna, along with zenmuse h33d and GoPro Hero3+ hooked up? I hardly have my P2 running full out at speed, most of the time I'm pretty easy on it...

Is something draining the batteries more than it should be, as both new batteries get about 11-12 mins down to the first red warning signal of 30%, at which point I bring her down promptly to land?

 

[isky172]

Hi Guys. I'm a newbie. Here's what I have and was wondering my flight time should be
Phantom 2
zenmuse h3 3d gimbal
gopro hero 3+ black
Fly sight fpv tx5812

am I missing some other important piece of info?

My P2 is well overloaded and I get 18 mins, 34 secs before the motors cut-off.

My setup is as follows:
- Standard propellers
- H3-3D gimbal
- GoPro Hero 3+ Black
- Neutral Density lens filter on GoPro w/lead tape on the gimbal to help balance the extra weight of the lens filter
- 2.4 GHz Data Link
- T-Motors Anti-Gravity upgrades
- Flytrex Live (uncased, installed inside shell)
- Some "liquid tape" covering battery leads (on main board) and ESC connections

Actual battery characteristics pre-flight - along with LED warnings / max flight - are in the graphic below.

 

[RobertMfromLI]

So why are my flight times like 6 or 7 minutes less than yours, what makes my setup so different with an ImmersionRC 600mw tx, dji iOSD mini...

One correction on my setup. I was running the 200mW FPV transmitter back then. I've since replaced it with the Kumbacam 400mW and added the iOSD mini, and it doesn't seem to have done much to the flight time, but I haven't had a chance to fly a full battery yet. I did twelve minutes yesterday on a tiny bit more than half though. Sorry no scientific data on yesterday's flight. Next time.

Also, on the long flights, I always land on or before the second red warning ⚠. I never push past that, but am guessing I could by a tiny bit.

Best,
Rob

 

[RobertMfromLI]

So, I have performed the following upgrades, and my flight time has decreased (but is still pretty high). All firmware has been upgraded on all DJI components.

Flight Times:

• 17m 20s with original battery (7 charges so far) - copter auto-landed at exactly 20% ("fly up, move to home, land" maneuver)
• 17m 00s with new battery (only initial charge) - copter "emergeny" landed at 20% (did the "land exactly where it's hovering/flying" thing)

Current Setup:
RED is changed from stock (ie: stock removed and replaced with _____)
GREEN is added/subtracted since my 19-20 minute flights (ie: wasn't there in earlier flights)

• Phantom 2 with Zenmuse H3-3D gimbal
• wider, taller "stock like" landing gear
• iOSD Mini
• Carbon fiber gimbal extension mount and FPV trays (extends gimbal forward, adds rear FPV TX tray)
• Kumbacam 400mW transmitter (was Kumbacam 200mw)
• GoPro Hero 3+ Black Edition
• Underside disk light (NOT powered on recent flights)

All in all, I guess that's still not bad flight times.

Best,
Rob

 

[isky172]

RobertMfromLI -

Strange behavior on the 20% - one battery did the return-to-home thing, whereas the other battery just landed where it was? That's not reassuring at all. I haven't upgraded to 3.06 for this exact reason.

Regarding the actual flight times, are the 17 mins 20 secs/17 mins figures the flight time you had at which point the 20% RTH or Auto-land kicked in? I would say - from my experience - that you could get another 4 or 5 mins out of the flight before the propellers stopped. I hover at about 2 feet over a cushy grass-laden area to push the limits and find out how much flight time I get till an absolutely empty battery (i.e., the motors stop). My times to an event such as "cut-off"/"dead-propellers" on a relatively new battery (5 cycles) is about 19mins, 30 secs. My P2 is quite overloaded from a weight perspective too. See my post a few above this one.

 

[RobertMfromLI]

RobertMfromLI -

Strange behavior on the 20% - one battery did the return-to-home thing, whereas the other battery just landed where it was? That's not reassuring at all. I haven't upgraded to 3.06 for this exact reason.

Regarding the actual flight times, are the 17 mins 20 secs/17 mins figures the flight time you had at which point the 20% RTH or Auto-land kicked in? I would say - from my experience - that you could get another 4 or 5 mins out of the flight before the propellers stopped. I hover at about 2 feet over a cushy grass-laden area to push the limits and find out how much flight time I get till an absolutely empty battery (i.e., the motors stop). My times to an event such as "cut-off"/"dead-propellers" on a relatively new battery (5 cycles) is about 19mins, 30 secs. My P2 is quite overloaded from a weight perspective too. See my post a few above this one.

That's total flight time to landing is complete - landing was triggered at 20%, and landing was completed at 20%. I leave it in "P2 mode" and just let it do its thing. We were very close to the home point, so, landing was rather quick, even with its leisurely landing.

And yeah, in "P2 mode" (GPS mode? Is that the correct term?), it now will force a landing at 20% - I am sure I've flown to 13%-15% before (before the firmware upgrade that imposes that limit), which accounts for much of the missing time (the other 2-3 minutes).

As for the "land where I am" scenario, I thought I read someplace that it will do that if a certain set of circumstances are met. I have been giving that some thought, and I flew in that *exact* same area on another battery (and landed before exhausting the battery), and I noticed it kept losing GPS signal. We were in the courtyard of a massive abandoned power plant...

So, I think that weird landing can be explained by the copter not knowing where it was, and thus not being able to find home - and thus landing where it was hovering.

What I can confirm is that my current setup (a week old iOSD Mini, newest firmware) doesn't seem to have the massive battery drain some owners had been experiencing. I don't know if the iOSD has been updated, or it's just the software/firmware that was the cause for others' battery drain though. Don't have an older one to compare board revisions with.

Best,
Rob

 

[isky172]

Thanks for the info Rob.

Here's my take on things with 3.06, if you're interested, and why I won't update to the new firmware. If the P2 "calculates" that it doesn't have the battery time to get back "home" - or that it doesn't know where "home" is (despite have launched with good GPS locks in GPS mode) - it will land automatically where it is. That's the way I understand it. Now again...if one reaches that 20% and the "calculation" is that it won't have enough energy to get back home, it will land itself. Seems like a good thing, until that time comes when you're over the water or some really bad landing spot. I hear you can throttle up (waaaay up) to get it to stop the landing, but it sounds like - from what I've read - that you're not going to be doing much besides halting the automated landing. Via their product materials, FAQs, etc., DJI says they set these battery parameters and logic decisions to keep the battery in good shape. That is to say, and I think I quote their exact words, they want to prevent the battery from having any decrease in its lifespan.

Well...that's fine logic, except for when it comes to this non-configurable RTH or "Auto-land" feature while you're over a place you really-really don't want to land in/on. I say "Give us the option to determine where we land" when we hit 20% through a simple notification. Screw the predicted lifespan of the battery, we're worried about the $3,000 set of equipment to which it's attached! When you get down to the core of the issue, who cares whether or not the battery may never fly again? At least you still have the more expensive equipment which CAN be saved. A new battery is chump change compared to the rest of the unit. So if that means you fly your Phantom down to 8% in order to safely land your aircraft - and in the process your battery is destroyed, so be it! You'll still have the quad and live to fly another day.

The latest update should have been a fix for the magnetic declination issue - and that is all. They throw in this other tweak and pissed off a lot of people in the process. It reminds me of Apple and their forced eco-system. "Thou shalt live by our rules and do what your eco-system says you can do...and that is all thou shalt do" - and lock down everything. There's no need for this garbage, IMO. Give us the options to take advantage of such "features" when and where we'd like.

Enough venting....ha!

Regards,

Jeff

 

[digibrain]

I have Ph2 + H3-3D + GP4 black + iosd mini + avl58 - and I have 12minutes - just hover indoor...

17 minutes it's a must, but impossible for me. What's wrong ?

Thank you !

 

[Adrifttiss]

Hey guys! I've been flying for a fews weeks now with the following set up:

- Phantom 2 with a Zenmuse H3-3D gimbal

- Gopro Hero 3 Black

- Flysight Black Pearl 7" 5.8ghz Diversity Monitor w/ HDMI input + Charger

- DJI iOSD Mini (displays flight data on the screen)

- 25mw 5.8G Video Downlink Transmitter (Compliant with Australian Regulations)

- Cloverleaf Trasmitter and Receiver Antennas

I've found that I usually get 20minutes of flight times and maxed 24 minutes.

I know these times because I run my gopro the whole time and that's how long it films for.

Saying that though I have had some shocking runs that last 16 minutes.

Hope the flyings going well!!

 

[ianwood]

Flight times are only useful if you include the voltage and percent remaining just prior to touchdown. It's important to record both of those while the Phantom is still in the air. Your voltage will likely go up a little just after you land.

I get about 14 minutes consistently when I run it down to 25% and about 10.8v. That's on two setups:

P2 v1, H3-3D with AIB, H3+B, PolarPro ND with counter balance, OSD Mark II hardwired, Fatshark 250mW vTX, Flytron strobes.
P2 v1+, H3-3D with AIB, H4B (no battery), SRP ND8 with counter balance, OSD mini hardwired, Boscam 600mW vTX.