This is what I have always referred to as the 'Battery Nightmare' and is the single main reason, long with stunted flight times, that I avoided electric powered helicopters in the first place and went for petrol power. Not that electric doesn't have some significant attractions, less mess, noise and speed of deployment to name a few. I have generators on the petrol and nitro powered heli's that supply in-flight power requirements and also charge the receiver and downlink packs but batteries are still a PITA. After faffing around with everything else and finally getting airborne the transmitter low-battery alarm is ALWAYS going off. With half a dozen different cameras there are always batteries to be topped up.
I have a vast excel sheet to try and keep up with it all.
And now, this recent foray into the MR world has added another dimension to 'The Nightmare' with a dozen big main LiPo power packs. Perhaps not exactly a nightmare, maybe just a bad dream because technology has advanced and now two Robbe multi-chargers with two heavy duty 240-12v transformers permit six 6600 mah LiPo's to be charged simultaneously.
As a note to Bart and his bracketed envisaged power demands
http://www.multirotorforums.com/showthread.php?1549-How-many-chargers-do-you-end-up-using, I power the HDMI converter from the main pack using an Extension PCB with 5v Traco. This means more current demands on the main pack but it also saves the weight (and space) of an additional 5v pack or 3S with regulator. It does not appear to have made any significant difference in overall autonomy.
