Prieto Battery

[Kratos]

Is this going to be something new and replace LiPo in multirotors?

 

[Old Man]

Not much data there to make an assessment. However, the Japanese are real close to putting their carbon-carbon battery chemistry on the market.

 

[Kratos]

Enough, it will be much better than Li-ion battery, that is in most phones, and that battery is simmilar to Li po, still lipo is lighter. And how close are Japanese? I want to buy LiPo this month, is it better to wait then?

 

[Old Man]

Buy the Li-Po

 

[eskil23]

If you buy the LiPo you can fly now. If you wait for something else, you won't know how long you'll have to wait.

 

[Kratos]

I know how this works, Murphy's law... When I buy LiPo they will invent something new

 

[Old Man]

Well, over the last 10 years or so we've seen li-po's keep doing what they've been doing. We've seen the addition of Lithium Ion, A-123, LiFe, and a couple of others. To date Lithium polymer is still what works best for our needs unless you have a cord long enough to plug into a stationary power supply and fly off of that. Being the first on the block to try unproven energy sources is not where I want to be with a large M/R and a payload. You could wait for Tesla to finish their new battery manufacturing facility and see if they decide to do something other than car batteries, but I doubt someone is going to push something new onto the market for a little while yet.

 

[eskil23]

How far can one fly with a MR plugged into a ground power supply? The motots pull a not insignificant amount of amps. We usually use 10 gauge AWG or similar to batteries, and only a few dozen meters of such will add significant to the weight. To lift more cable, we'll need larger motors, which need more amps, which requires even heavier cables...

 

[Old Man]

I was joking OTOH, some very large MR's have been used in a tethered configuration. Not very good at maneuvering around a set though.

 

[maxwelltub]

Actually some companies make tethered multitrotors the come out of the back of pickup trucks for boarder survalance. Basically acts like a camera on a pole.