Multirotor, multicopter and quadcopter discussion - The Drone thread

Just a quick 'Thank You' to everyone posting here - I'd known about quadcopters for a few years, but like most RC gear (foolishly) been put off by the short flight time.

Anyway, having watched too many videos over Christmas, I bought an X4 this week, and I haven't stopped playing with it :D:D:D

I'll be getting the hang of flying for a while, but I already have a self-build in planning now.

So much fun.
 
That said, the x4 prop cover (even though only weighs 3 grams) will hammer the battery life...

without 3 gram prop cover

~30 throttle - starts to move around on floor
~50 throttle to lift

with 3g prop cover

~65 throttle - starts to move around
~75 throttle to lift

That said, I get ~6 minutes of flight time with the cover and it has had a number of crashes with the cover on that would have otherwise destroyed the props/body/other parts
 
rishy said:
Is a ZIPPY Compact 2200mAh 3S 35C Lipo Pack to small battery for my quadcopter as the battery doesnt last long at all ???
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How much does your quad weigh and what motors/prop sizes are you using?

How long are you getting? around 15 minutes is a good target to aim for and about average I reckon.

Mine weighs around 640g and I get over 15 minutes with 8x4.5 props on 1740kv motors!
 
motors are D2830-11 1000kv
Props are 10*4.5

have to weigh the quad not done it

but on basic hoving inside the house (as it hasnt stopped raining) getting about 7/8 mins but that is a fair few take off as i am new to this
 
7-8 minutes doesn't sound horrific considering you have a relatively heavy quad and a fairly low capacity battery.

For comparison, mine weighs around 900g including the battery and I use a 3000mah battery. With 1200kv motors and 8045 motors I get 12-13 minutes.

It might be that the battery is slightly under performing too, is it brand new? How low do you drain the battery when flying it (voltage?) and after draining it down how many mah do you put into it when charging it? (presuming your Balance Charger tells you)
 
PinkFloyd said:
7-8 minutes doesn't sound horrific considering you have a relatively heavy quad and a fairly low capacity battery.

For comparison, mine weighs around 900g including the battery and I use a 3000mah battery. With 1200kv motors and 8045 motors I get 12-13 minutes.

It might be that the battery is slightly under performing too, is it brand new? How low do you drain the battery when flying it (voltage?) and after draining it down how many mah do you put into it when charging it? (presuming your Balance Charger tells you)
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The battery is brand new, and ive been flying the two flights till the battery was about 10.6v

When i charged the battery, the charger if i remember correctly charges it to 4.2v/cell - the first charge was a balance charge the second and third charge was no balance. charging at 1amp didnt want to go higher as i couldnt remember was the max charge rate was (found out now that i can charge up to 5A)
 
rishy said:
i thought there would be more flight time
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Nah, that's about normal I'm afraid.

If you want to fly longer you can buy more batteries and swap them, use higher capacity batteries, use bigger props or decrease weight, all these have their cons though :)
To get anything near 12-15 minutes it's probably best to go to 4S, depends on your motors and ESCs though.
 
Col_M said:
7-8 mins on 10" props sounds bang on for 3S 2200mAh. My 450 which is about 975g has about the same flight time so not much wrong with yours :)
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Yeh I'd have to agree thinking some more, looking again at the numbers you posted compared to mine. I've got around a 50% bigger battery and a lighter quad, it flies for around 50% longer.

rishy said:
What do the guys that have fpv use in their quads as theymust be a lot more weight
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From what I have seen the main FPV kit isn't too heavy. But you'll probably find that people doing FPV probably have better all around gear - ie a lighter frame and a spot on motor/prop combination to go with it. Think the majority of the videos I've seen are from people saying they get under 10 minutes flight in full fpv trim - certainly with performance flying.
 
PinkFloyd said:
Yeh I'd have to agree thinking some more, looking again at the numbers you posted compared to mine. I've got around a 50% bigger battery and a lighter quad, it flies for around 50% longer.


From what I have seen the main FPV kit isn't too heavy. But you'll probably find that people doing FPV probably have better all around gear - ie a lighter frame and a spot on motor/prop combination to go with it. Think the majority of the videos I've seen are from people saying they get under 10 minutes flight in full fpv trim - certainly with performance flying.
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MY fpv rig is around 1.5 kg,the 2 cameras and video tx dont add that much weight probably 100 grams.


I get a good 15-17 minutes flying around like a maniac:D
 
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PinkFloyd said:
Seriously? Damn, that's impressive!
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its probably because ive tested over 10 different motor sets and a lot of different props,i eventually found something which gives 15+ minutes flight times with the right combination of motor/prop/frame/battery

she runs like a rocket,easily hovers at 50% throttle.


The setup is pretty much this:

Ntm 1200kv motors
Any frame that weighs 250g or less (lighter the better)
Graupner 9x5 props
5000 - 5800 mah 4s 30c battery (zippy compact,weighs less than the standard ones)
20 amp esc (hobbyking blue)

I ran the same setup on a Dji 330 frame with brushless gimbal and got 15 minutes of full sport flying every time.

I allways set the lipo alarm to 3.4,never ever had any problems with this in hundreds of flights over a good few years.

On the bigger rig she will do 25 minutes fpv,but thats a different beast all together.
 
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