How to not over use your battery

[Austin Lam]

Your Open Question: How to not over discharge your lipo battery?

So I so some rc plane flying.
And I have 2 types of battery's

Sky Lipo 2200mAh 11.1V 20C
And
HobbyKing 1300mAh 11.1 20C

And I learned that over using your battery's ( over discharge will kill the battery's. ) how do I know when to stop like wen I reach like 50%%

Because I know you should never use your battery's pass like 0% how could I know when to stop besides using like a low battery beeper or whatever

 

[Joker 53150]

A very simple way would be to fly for a few minutes, land, check the battery, and fly some more if there is sufficient charge. Keep track of how long you fly until the battery has reached your target (50% or whatever you want for a minimum). That should be a good starting point, but keep in mind that flying the plane hard or easy will make a difference in how much time you get out of a battery. I do this for all of my planes and after only 1 or 2 packs I'll know how long to go with each pack size in a plane.

 

[Tritium]

IMHO the easiest even though you said other than same (it just works):

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__18987__On_Board_Lipoly_Low_Voltage_Alarm_2s_4s_.html

Mount it in the open on your craft and you can hear it a very long way.

Thurmond

 

[bicyclemonkey]

Program your ESC for soft cutoff at low voltage.

 

[pgerts]

I have never ever had any problems with pulling to much from my batteries.
You will feel that the power to your plane will drop some time before the battery is to low.
The speed controller will reduce or cut the power to the motor long before it cuts anything to the radio and servos making landing easy. There are some different programmable ways for the speed controller to reduce the power to the motor.
- CUT to zero - letting you pull back the throttle and start slowly again after a few seconds.
- Reduce the power patially to ex 50% then 25% before zero-
- Cycling the motor power between 0 and your radio signal frequently making a sound almost like a telephone ring signal.

One thing i think is important is to have a big C-rating at least 2* the max of the motor.
ex : the motor draws a max of 33 Amps and my battery is 2,2Ah making 100% =15C - My choice is to use a battery of at least 30C in that case.