Help - Naza F550 battery life has suddenly halved. Flight time down to 6 minutes

[NYDave]

I'm very new to the world of multi-rotors but eager to learn. Any input, theories or advice here would be greatly appreciated

I bought a custom built F550 in December. Lots of fun until I noticed on a flight last week and one this week that the flight time we were getting from our 4S Lipoly batteries has dropped from 13 minutes to 6.

The batteries have been managed carefully. Put into store mode when left for any time over a couple of days and charged fully before flight.

The only difference in our configuration is the addition of a X468XT mount, a troubleshooting exercise involving said X468XT repeatedly burning out a roll servo currently attributed to a bad BEC and the setup of the voltage monitoring setting in the assistant software to indicate first and second level voltage warnings when the battery level drops below 15.4v.

When I first noticed the reduced flight time was when we tested the gimbal for the first time connected to Wookong MC. F1 and F2 outputs were turned on in the assistant software. We've since turned the outputs off and sent the servo BEC back to be tested by our supplier . No change to flight time still getting 6 minutes. Next step is to turn off the voltage warning off which seems a bit of a redundant move.

Her's the setup of our F550

Naza F550 Flamewheel
X468XT camera gimbal and Go Pro Hero 3.
6 x DJI 2212/920KV motors
Gemfan Carbon Fiber 10" Props 10"
30A Opto ESCs Signal Frequency: 30Hz - 450Hz
Wookong M flight controller. Firmware: 5.16
Devo 10 / RX1002 Transmitter/Receiver
Hyperion G3 VX 5400 mAh 4S 14.8V 4S Lipoly Batteries
Hyperion EOSO6061 AC/DC Balance Charger

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions?

Regards Dave

 

[helloman1976]

I'm very new to the world of multi-rotors but eager to learn. Any input, theories or advice here would be greatly appreciated

I bought a custom built F550 in December. Lots of fun until I noticed on a flight last week and one this week that the flight time we were getting from our 4S Lipoly batteries has dropped from 13 minutes to 6.

The batteries have been managed carefully. Put into store mode when left for any time over a couple of days and charged fully before flight.

The only difference in our configuration is the addition of a X468XT mount, a troubleshooting exercise involving said X468XT repeatedly burning out a roll servo currently attributed to a bad BEC and the setup of the voltage monitoring setting in the assistant software to indicate first and second level voltage warnings when the battery level drops below 15.4v.

When I first noticed the reduced flight time was when we tested the gimbal for the first time connected to Wookong MC. F1 and F2 outputs were turned on in the assistant software. We've since turned the outputs off and sent the servo BEC back to be tested by our supplier . No change to flight time still getting 6 minutes. Next step is to turn off the voltage warning off which seems a bit of a redundant move.

Her's the setup of our F550

Naza F550 Flamewheel
X468XT camera gimbal and Go Pro Hero 3.
6 x DJI 2212/920KV motors
Gemfan Carbon Fiber 10" Props 10"
30A Opto ESCs Signal Frequency: 30Hz - 450Hz
Wookong M flight controller. Firmware: 5.16
Devo 10 / RX1002 Transmitter/Receiver
Hyperion G3 VX 5400 mAh 4S 14.8V 4S Lipoly Batteries
Hyperion EOSO6061 AC/DC Balance Charger

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions?

Regards Dave

Hey Dave, just trying to understand your issue more clearly. I'm not exactly sure what you meant by, "the only difference in our configuration is the addition of a X468XT mount." Are you saying that the flight times have been reduced since you added this gimble? If so, it's the additional weight that has reduced the flight time. Also, there may be others here who disagree with me but I absolutely hate Gemfan props and/or slow fly props and I personally feel they are worthless unless you have a small or lightweight rig etc... My DJI 550 is probably somewhere around 4-5lbs and I use 2 4S x 4,000mah Zippy Compacts and I get around 10 minutes of aerobatic flying or around maybe 12 minutes of filming and I've seen up to 15 minutes if I really take it easy.

 

[Benjamin Kenobi]

Agreed. You've added some landing gear and the flight time halved? Sounds normal to me.

 

[olof]

When you added the gimbal, you added a lot of weight. This will cut the flight time down a lot.

I only get about 6 minutes time on my F550 with gimbal and cam weighing 2.7KG, with 6400 3S lipo and Graupner 10" E-props. W/O gimbal I get 12-14 minutes.

 

[gtranquilla]

NYDAVE....... I also use the 468 landing gear c/w gimbal as well as a GoPro3 Black...... but I upgraded the motors to NTM1100 , props and increased battery capacity to achieve 11 minutes per flight. The 468 is made with G10 polyester based fiberglass plate which is renowned to be very heavy material....disproportionally high for a light weight GoPro camera IMHO. It also uses a lot of steel bolts and nuts. Also you have two additional electrical loads, i.e., servos. Your flight times are realistic with these added loads and additional weight. I am still modifying my 468 system in an attempt to reduce the weight substantially. Typically one will gain 1 minute of airtime for each 100 grams weight reduction.

 

[NYDave]

Thanks for the interest and feedback guys. Just to clarify, the X468XT, landing gear, servos and go-pro have all been on the 550 since it was delivered. It was supplied without the BEC and connectors to the MC. I should have detailed it better in my original post but the troubleshooting step mentioned was the install of the BEC and the intermittant roll servo burn out '...the addition of a X468XT mount...' should have read - we've turned on the gimbal recently in the assistant and it may have affected the F550 power consumption. The only other thing done differently was the power consumption warning. The weight of the gimbal, go-pro etc hasn't affected flight time up until the last two flights. Here's a prior aerial experience edit from one of our longer flights: http://vimeo.com/moonshinemedia/review/61624693/a00b659725

 

[helloman1976]

Thanks for the interest and feedback guys. Just to clarify, the X468XT, landing gear, servos and go-pro have all been on the 550 since it was delivered. It was supplied without the BEC and connectors to the MC. I should have detailed it better in my original post but the troubleshooting step mentioned was the install of the BEC and the intermittant roll servo burn out '...the addition of a X468XT mount...' should have read - we've turned on the gimbal recently in the assistant and it may have affected the F550 power consumption. The only other thing done differently was the power consumption warning. The weight of the gimbal, go-pro etc hasn't affected flight time up until the last two flights. Here's a prior aerial experience edit from one of our longer flights: http://vimeo.com/moonshinemedia/review/61624693/a00b659725

Dave, hate to ask you to clarify again but I think we can get this solved if we have all the information. Can you clarify this statement, "The only other thing done differently was the power consumption warning."? Did you change the LOW VOLTAGE warning in the Naza flight controller? If so, one of the side effects of hitting the RED voltage is that it trys to force you to land and so you may feel as if your battery is dying early versus it forcing you to land. Hope that makes sense, check your Naza setup...you'll see it under the VOLTAGE area in the RED voltage zone.

 

[NYDave]

Thanks helloman1976, it did infact turn out to be the low-voltage warning. I calibrated the consumption warning to the fully charged state indicated on my Hyperion charger. 16.8v. When consumption dropped below 15.4 the drone landed. (At about 6mins). I turned off the warning in the assistant yesterday before a further test flight. We timed the first flight to 6mins with some vigorous aerial work then kept the 550 at a few feet above the ground and continued some gentle activity until the battery gave out. We got just under 15mins flight time. On the second flight we got a little more daring and flew the 550 vigorously for 12 mins then repeated the low level gentle activity until the battery drained. We got just over 14 minutes. So final question of the thread now that i have been edjamacated... what's best practice for calibrating the power consumption warning on the WKM?

Again really appreciated everyones input and advice on this post, the feedback has been tremendous.

Side note, thanks again gtranquilla for your off topic help and guidance with the X468XT, we've got a production job coming up next week where one of the cams will be the 550, your advice has made planning and testing a whole lot easier. Cheers

 

[helloman1976]

Thanks helloman1976, it did infact turn out to be the low-voltage warning. I calibrated the consumption warning to the fully charged state indicated on my Hyperion charger. 16.8v. When consumption dropped below 15.4 the drone landed. (At about 6mins). I turned off the warning in the assistant yesterday before a further test flight. We timed the first flight to 6mins with some vigorous aerial work then kept the 550 at a few feet above the ground and continued some gentle activity until the battery gave out. We got just under 15mins flight time. On the second flight we got a little more daring and flew the 550 vigorously for 12 mins then repeated the low level gentle activity until the battery drained. We got just over 14 minutes. So final question of the thread now that i have been edjamacated... what's best practice for calibrating the power consumption warning on the WKM?

Again really appreciated everyones input and advice on this post, the feedback has been tremendous.

Side note, thanks again gtranquilla for your off topic help and guidance with the X468XT, we've got a production job coming up next week where one of the cams will be the 550, your advice has made planning and testing a whole lot easier. Cheers

Glad I could help Dave, that's why I'm here buddy. To calibrate the low voltage warning take into account the following. The larger the capacity of your battery the lower the setting can be because the longer it takes to get to that voltage and vice versa. For example if you draw 30A to hover that's 500mah per minute so if you have a capacity of 5,000mah you'll fly to empty in 10 minutes at hover versus say 10,000mah you'll fly to empty in 20 minutes so your voltage will change less quickly. I have 8,000mah of battery so I set my low voltage (YELLOW) to 14V and my (RED) to 13V. When I use my 6,000mah sport flying setup I set my warning to 14.2V and my landing voltage to 13.5V (edited and corrected, not 14V). Hope that's clear. Let me know if you need anything else.

 

[NYDave]

Again, more great advice helloman1976, thanks. My testing was a little more rudimentary by comparison:

http://vimeo.com/moonshinemedia/review/62075052/a7d9a1d507

In the video I flew the 550 with the non-functioning X468XT landing gear and camera mount attached as well as a GoPro Hero3 in it's water-proof casing hard mounted to the frame. It was a pretty miserable day with a reasonable amount of wind gusting from the city. I had one hop into the air lasting 30 seconds before starting the footage. This clip runs at 13.5mins, it's been sped up and had time code added. 60 seconds of epilepsy inducing flight. Enjoy!