Field Charging?

Motopreserve

Motopreserve

Drone Enthusiast
Hey folks,

Since I finished my build (is it ever REALLY finished???) I have been waiting out the weather in the northeast for flying. I got one chance to fly over the holidays when I traveled south, but that was in a backyard just steps away from an AC power source. Other than that one opportunity, been waiting for Spring...

But the weather today has been favorable up here in Vermont - and so I hoped to head out to a large field for some Multiwii tuning. It finally dawned on me that once my fully charged batteries are depleted, I will be miles away from a home-power source. When I bought my Accucel 6 charger, I had to spend the extra $ for the wall-wart unit for home charging - with the stock kit coming with only some small (unsafe???) alligator clips. I have seen the horror-photos of cars in flames from charging off the 12v car battery - and now wonder how you all charge when you are in the field.

Are you using the car battery under the hood? 12v cigarette-style plug? Do you have a dedicated 12v battery (like a smaller motorcycle battery) that you charge from? Or do you just call it a day after you run the pre-charged batteries down?

Thanks in advance for any safety advice.

Scott
 

sledge57

sledge57

Member
When messing with rc cars I used to charge from cars battery under hood, I have a 12V deep cycle battery for my boat that I plan to take with me for charging MR batts in the future though.
 

Carapau

Carapau

Tek care, lambs ont road, MRF Moderator
Field charging is generally done using two methods. One method NOT used is the car battery because you will kill it in a day. Car batteries are simply not designed to deal with the charging role because they have been built for short very sharp bursts of power. Also, fires caused from charging lipos tends to come from the lipos themselves not the car batteries.

The two methods to use then are:

1/ Use Leisure/Marine/Deep cycle batteries. Unlike car batteries they are designed to give long steady outputs of charge and can be cycled deeply before needing recharge.

2/ Use a generator

You will get more charges during the day with a generator most probably but it is noisy and more expensive than the leisure battery option in most cases.
 


Motopreserve

Motopreserve

Drone Enthusiast
Thanks for all the responses. Sounds like the marine battery would be the way to go. Easy enough to get locally up here.
 

COMike93yj

COMike93yj

Still Building!
Scott,

You CAN use your vehicle battery but as others have stated it is NOT designed for the type of charging you will be doing with your batteries. You can leave the car running to help but as others have suggested a DEEP CYCLE battery is your best bet by far! You can get em at Wally World or just about ANY car parts store. Generator will cost you TONS more BUT you will always have it if the zombies come and kill the power grid...LOL!

When you start getting into larger chargers for your batteries, you will probably need a powersupply for them at home. I just made one out of an old HP server PSU that is rated at 575W...cost me all of like fifteen bucks. You can also put two (or more) in series and have a PSU that will put out over 1000W.

I did a simple tutorial with links to some GREAT threads that inspired me to do this.

http://www.multirotorforums.com/sho...ply-for-chargers-DPS-600PB-YOU-CAN-DO-IT!!!!!

I also managed to "repair" the DOA Acucell 6 that had the broken button from HobbyKing. Just a simple job of taking it apart and super gluing the button back in place :)

Mike :)
 

kloner

kloner

Aerial DP
we use somewhat large packs and a 1000watt charger, but i can kill the battery on a f-150 not running in about 15 minutes, rendered useless..... i can run my truck, the risk is if for some reason the pack has damage (it's something you usually know you did) and is charged, can puff into a simple little flare type of a deal, problem is if your not staring at it, a few minutes after it's a little flare glowing it engulfs the car. All ama fields i've been to it is against the bylaws to charge under your hood, second problem then becomes a massive batery only does a couple charges.

places like harbor freight have generators on a really small scale for a couple hundred bucks or less. a gallon of gas and that thing and your flying all day.

We do this for work, i run a 3500 watt genny all day long when were flying, charger never stops, and we never get ahead, but we can make about 40 flights in a 10 hour day in a skyjib with 20,000 mah of packs each flight. for now, it's a harbor freight generator,,,,,, but sooner or later i'm getting a honda
 


Motopreserve

Motopreserve

Drone Enthusiast
Thanks Kloner. Until I get this quad flying right - I don't think I'll need a generator for a bit. But the harbor freight option is probably a decent one if I ever get to long-term flight :)

kloner said:
we use somewhat large packs and a 1000watt charger, but i can kill the battery on a f-150 not running in about 15 minutes, rendered useless..... i can run my truck, the risk is if for some reason the pack has damage (it's something you usually know you did) and is charged, can puff into a simple little flare type of a deal, problem is if your not staring at it, a few minutes after it's a little flare glowing it engulfs the car. All ama fields i've been to it is against the bylaws to charge under your hood, second problem then becomes a massive batery only does a couple charges.

places like harbor freight have generators on a really small scale for a couple hundred bucks or less. a gallon of gas and that thing and your flying all day.

We do this for work, i run a 3500 watt genny all day long when were flying, charger never stops, and we never get ahead, but we can make about 40 flights in a 10 hour day in a skyjib with 20,000 mah of packs each flight. for now, it's a harbor freight generator,,,,,, but sooner or later i'm getting a honda
Click to expand...
 

COMike93yj

COMike93yj

Still Building!
OUCH SCOTT!......I really feel for ya buddy! My GOAL is to not crash....however, I KNOW that I will. Good to be a dreamer!!!!

Kloner thanks for the insight on the genny!!! You are one of the seasoned vets that I love hearing REAL WORLD experiences from! Do you happen to have the model of the HF genny you use? My next question is why do you want to go to a Honda Genny?

This helps us BUY ONCE, CRY ONCE if we elect to go the genny route!

Cheers,

Mike :)
 

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