Are my batteries at the end of their life??

[elethan]

Hello,

I am new to the hobby and am flying a used Blade 200QX that I traded with someone on craigslist. It flies great, but often has a weird issue. I will start flying with a fully charged 2S 7.4V LiPo battery (confirmed to be fully charged with a battery checker), and charged with a nice balancing charger. However, about ten seconds after getting into the air, my motors will power down, and the ship will fall from the sky and lay on the ground with the props still spinning but not enough power to get off the ground. I will then check the voltage with the battery checker and confirm that I still have 80-90% or more juice left, and both cells fairly well balanced (I think: e.g., 4.091 in one cell 4.101 in another).

I don't know how old the batteries are, and they do seem slightly puffy. A friend who is a little more experienced suggested that it might be an issue with the batteries, so I bought a brand new one, and had no issues with it (though I have admittedly only taken one flight with it so far). Here are my questions:

1. Does the issue I described with the motors powering down right away sound like it could be related to old batteries?
2. Is it possible that even though the batteries show in the checker as being fully charged, they are still at end of life?
3. What is good way to tell if a battery is too old and needs to be disposed of?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

 

[RAM]

This is worth a look.

 

[pressalltheknobs]

Probably. That behavior could be caused by an ESC lipo cut off. If the battery voltage is under the lipo cutoff for too long, ESC can shut down to a low power mode. The cutoff voltage and behavior can sometimes be programmed It's also possible the Flight Controller on that thing can so something like that too.

If the batteries are old they may not be able to supply the required current under load pulling the voltage down while still showing the correct voltage when not under load.

 

[brettp2004]

I was just trying to find a way to test how close to the end of their life my batteries are when I ran across this video. Exactly what I was looking for. On to hobbyking for a watt meter!! Thanks.

 

[JiggyJim]

I had made the mistake (not knowing before) of totally draining my batteries to absolute zero, and now they wont even take a charge, not a single amp/volt. They are the DJI 2200 batteries, each has less than 10 flights on them (3 batteries). Is there a way to bring them back to life? I am already shopping batteries and narrowing it down to the following:

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...apacity_3S_5200mAh_Multi_Rotor_Lipo_Pack.html

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__9183__Turnigy_5000mAh_3S_25C_Lipo_Pack.html

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__8579__ZIPPY_Flightmax_5000mAh_3S1P_20C.html

Anyone have any input on these? I fly a Phantom1 with dual batteries hanging on the outside.

thanks!!

Jim

 

[mikeporterinmd]

I've "restarted" Lipo batteries using one of the other charging modes - Nicad? I charged at maybe .1 amp until the voltage was high enough for the Lipo program in the charger to run. In the end, a cell went bad and the battery went slightly puffy. I got rid of it immediately once it puffed. Not worth the fire risk. Especially since this was a transmitter battery. It was winter when I put it outside. The snow melted, and my wife thoughtfully brought it back inside I need to get a salt water bucket.

Mike

 

[JiggyJim]

Ive decided to buy all new batteries and a better charger.....now just have to decide which one.