another newbie question!

[Gary Turner]

Hi guys,

I have a parkzone corsair with the standard 3s 1800mah battery that it comes with. On an average flight (mostly 1/2 throttle with the odd spurt of full here and there) what sort of duration should I be setting a timer for?

Thanks

Gary

[Daithi O Buitigh]

The usual for electric models is about 10 minutes max. It dependes on the current being drawn by the motor and servoes really (the capacaity of the battery you have is such that it will operate a system drawing 1.8 Amps for a full hour, 3.6 Amps will give you half an hour and a current draw of 10.8 Amps will last 10 minutes

[Gary Turner]

I am still only on my third flight with this so its still hovering about on half throttle or less most of the time! I do take a brave pill now and then though and up the throttle and go for a loop or a roll! I'll go for 9 mins to be safe I think!! I did buy a 2200mah battery but my charger only goes up to 2ah charge rate!!

[Olly P]

Gary you can still charge the 2200 at 2amp but it will take a little longer.

I assume you are using a balancing charger designed for LiPo's?

Olly

[Daithi O Buitigh]

As Olly said, charge rate isn't the same thing as capacity - it's the rate it charges at. You can charge any battery at a fraction of its capacity (but it will take longer). Think of it as filling a five gallon jerry can - the faster you pump it in, the faster it fills, but the end capacity stays the same and the rate you empty it has no realtion to the rate you filled it at

[Simon Chaddock]

Gary

There is no reason why you should not charge your 2.2ah battery at a rate for a 2ah one. It will just take a little longer.

Its the 'balancing' at the end of the charge that is important for LiPos, not how long it takes to get there as.

Ooops! cross posted.

Edited By Simon Chaddock on 30/04/2012 18:44:12

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

Hi Gary does your charger tell you how much (in mAh) you put back in your battery when you charge it?

If so then you can do something like this:-

• Fly a fully charged battery for 5 minutes.
• Put it on charge and see what goes back in.
• Work out how many mAh per minute it used.
• Get some idea of how many minutes a complete battery will last. Aim for only using 70-80% of the batteries full capacity to look after it.

[Gary Turner]

Its a very simple charger! It has a green and red leds that flash to indicate cell balancing and it beeps when finished! In know you can charge batteries at a rate other than the 1 hour rate (worked in an aircraft battery bay for 2 years when I was in the RAF!!) But wasn't sure if the charger would throw a fit and give me the fault beeps!

[Daithi O Buitigh]

I had one of those basic chargers - the problem is they are hopeless at telling you how much juice is left in the battery. In the end I got one of these and solved all problems

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=11060

(I spent my time in the mob 120 feet underground on maintenance of the Chain Early Warning system and only ever saw a 'plane when the historic flight (now the BoB Memorial) used to beat up our station every Monday morning)

[Phil Claridge]

i fly the pz trojan and corsair with both 1800 and 2200 for ten minutes with mixed flying no problems

they are both great fun in a bit of wind

[Tom T]

Hi Gary,

Try one of these.... 1-8 cell battery tester (thats probably the wrong way of doing a link, sorry if it is)! Its just an alarm that goes in your plane, when your battery gets low the alarm beeps (loudly) and then that tells you when to land.

 

Cheers

Tom

Edited By Chris Bott - Moderator on 02/05/2012 08:29:40