RC battery Life

[Andy Mac 230]

Hi Guys I checked the manual and trolled through here but no joy.
So as a rough guide...all things being equal what is a good ball park time on safe flight time from fully charged.
i was looking at getting a 4th aircraft battery but not much point if RC won’t last long enough. Being Uber cautious i am normally inbound to home at 25% and landing with normally 15% so 3 batteries is max 1 hour the 4th would safely give me 1:20
Am I in the right ball park

 

[monty.roman]

it also depends on how is the charge level of the phone when you connect it to RC. Less charged phone draws more current from the RC and vice versa (at least this is how things worked for me so far). Anyway, with Samsung S8 connected, after emptying two batteries in my Platinum (down to 30%), remote shows something between 70 and 75% charge.

 

[Andy Mac 230]

Thanks for that I use both a S8 and a IPad but always make sure are both fully charged before flight. I just wondered because looking at hard packs etc they give the option to carry 7 batteries and more which seemed strange unless you carried some form of charging the RC. I mean 7 batteries at being cautious 20 mins a pop is over 2 hours flight time!

 

[old man mavic]

i have 4 batteries for both my drones ,and my first battery warning on my MPP is set for 40% and i like to be on the ground soon after ,when i land there will be one steady and one flashing light on the battery ,but after cool down this will change to two steady as the battery recovers ,i find that this saves the faff of having to do a partial charge, if i know i will not be flying for at least a week depending on conditions this will give me a flight time of around 18 to 20 mins per battery which i find enough for me, also my take on flight time is to have a shorter flight time per battery so not to stress the cells and 4 batteries gives me that ,remember lipos when they reach 40% ,the voltage drops off faster the lower they get also they are quite hot at that stage and all these things contribute to shortening their lifespan

 

[Andy Mac 230]

hi OMM
i do the same as you...cos when I started I read lots of your posts. It was the RC battery life that I was interested in I reckon about 90 minutes as a safe catch all is that about right if everything is fully charged to start with or am I being too cautious?

 

[old man mavic]

hi OMM
i do the same as you...cos when I started I read lots of your posts. It was the RC battery life that I was interested in I reckon about 90 minutes as a safe catch all is that about right if everything is fully charged to start with or am I being too cautious?

i use an ipad for both my drones so i dont have issues with the RC charging them 4 batts flying i will have anywhere from 65 to 75% battery left on my RC
when i first had my MPP i had a android device and that would drain the RC battery what i did was to use a powerbank to top up the RC as i drove from one spot to another to film
but i dont have to do that any more ,MY MM RC is amazing as well, i fully charge it and even after 4 X 20+ mins flights ,the 4 lights on the RC are all still lit i think its because there is no screen so it uses very little battery to run

 

[Andy Mac 230]

Battery number 4 inbound
Thanks guys

 

[rconradvt]

Hi Guys I checked the manual and trolled through here but no joy.
So as a rough guide...all things being equal what is a good ball park time on safe flight time from fully charged.
i was looking at getting a 4th aircraft battery but not much point if RC won’t last long enough. Being Uber cautious i am normally inbound to home at 25% and landing with normally 15% so 3 batteries is max 1 hour the 4th would safely give me 1:20
Am I in the right ball park

I run four batteries in my load out. It has served me well. I also have a car charger, so I have never wanted for a 5th battery. I have not timed it, but I think the car charger, with the DJI 4 way hub, charges about 10% faster than my wall charger with the hub.

Your time estimate matches my real life use, about right.