DIY Long-Range FPV Battery, using Li-Ion batteries to increase drone flight times! VTC5A 18650

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Revision Note: In the diagram the balance lead labeled as “b2” should be “t2”.
Li-Ion Battery packs are great to have when you want to go scouting, surf mountain cliffs, or just need a little extra flight time and range! This quick and easy tutorial demonstrates how to build a Li-Ion battery pack using common materials.
Why use a Li-Ion Battery vs LiPo?
Pro: Almost double the mAh capacity per gram, so great for increased flight times
Con: Lower available Amps, i.e. not good for fast tricks or movements
Link to Range Test: • Increase FPV Drone Ran...
Link to Helical: "Coming soon, let me know if interested and I'll make it sooner."
Most FPV pilots use LiPo batteries which are great for fast race and freestyle flying, but are dead in about 3-5 minutes... Anyone who wishes to explore further, longer, higher, should have a couple Li-Ion batteries in their kit.
Note: I'm using the Sony VTC5A battery for the following reasons:
The Max Amps for the Sony VTC5a is 35A, however this "max" for very short bursts, continuous flying you should not exceed 25A. I'm usually around 15A, but the max Amps for this flight was 32A.
The Sony VTC5a Li-Ion battery is actually 2600mAh, but I call it 2500mAh because this is the real capacity that you should expect. Using all 2600mah would basically kill the battery.
I'll be making a 4200/4000mAh Molicel 21700 Li-Ion battery next week for some much longer range flight. Excited about that and will try to provide me thoughts.
6" Drone Setup Details (Changed from 5" to 6" props as I do a bit of long-range)
Flight Controller: Matek F405-CTR
VTX: Matek Mini 800mw
GPS Module: iFlight GPS Modul
Motors: XING-E 2306 2450KV
ESC: Aikon AK32 35A 2-4S BlHeli32
Propellers: HQ Ethix S5 5x4x3
FPV Camera: Some old Eachine; need to upgrade this... Currently running a Caddx Ratel and love it, just ordered a Foxeer Toothless for comparison.
Radio Receiver: TBS Crossfire Nano RX
Receiver Antenna: TBS Crossfire Immortal T V2 Antenna
VTX Antenna: SpiroNET Omni - 5.8GHz CP Antenna
ViFly Finder 2 Buzzer, highly recommend
Googles/Antennas
Fatshark HDO with Rapidfire Receiver
Foxeer Micro Lollipop 3 CP
SpiroNET 5.8GHz 13dB Patch
DIY 5 Turn Helical Antenna, Amazing!
Controller/Transmitter
FRSKY Taranis X9D Plus with TBS Crossfire Micro TX V2
Cameras, Footage, and Software
GoPro Hero 8 Black, shot in 2.7k
Various iPhones
Final Cut Pro X (FCPX) editing software
If you have any questions or comments about my setup please leave a comment.
Note: All equipment and flight plans were in accordance with current local laws. Special thanks to my spotters who hiked hard terrain with me in order to achieve this flight footage.
Keywords: FPV, drone, VTX, Transmitter, RX, Antenna, Fatshark, DJI, Freestyle, Race, Mountain, Forest, Norway, Norge, quad, kwad, taranis, frsky, matek, Foxeer, 21700, 16850, li-ion, tbs, team black sheep, immersion RC, x-ing, xing, motor, brushless, ethix, GoPro, GPS, iFlight, Matek, failsafe, range, test, cinewhoop, cinematic, FCPX, CP, Circular Polarized, Patch, 13dbi, dbi, helical, DIY, build, solder, carbon fiber, diatone, dal props, bheli, esc, runcam, crash, RTH, long range, flow, RCgroups, intofpv, RCIndia, how to, first person view, Hero, ND Filters
Lithium Ion, #LiIon #Longrange #FPV #Flighttime

Опубликовано:

2 окт 2024

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Комментарии : 75

@GiantAntCowboy 2 года назад

Correction: In the Diagram the Balance Lead labeled “b2” should be “t2”.

@Bellairvideo 3 года назад

One of the BEST brains in the business....Well presented Peter

@GiantAntCowboy 3 года назад

Appreciate it Noel!

@Bellairvideo 3 года назад

Hi Peter, ice morning here at 6c. Ordered the FPV Zhod Drift, delivered Au$150 with kopilot system, GPS & camera. Cheap! I may build that battery of yours for it. Keep safe & well mate

@GiantAntCowboy 3 года назад

@@Bellairvideo cool, Just checked out the Zhod drift, looks fun. Are you thinking about making a li-ion battery for that plane?

@Bellairvideo 3 года назад

Good Monday morning Peter, all ok as i found two spare batteries perfect for this glider but with EC2 connectors. I do have a spare battery from my Zhod Razor glider to use ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VkbSQu-UCNw.html Which is a little larger than the Drift Many thanks mate

@Jeff876533 2 года назад

I love your style of videos, very helpful and informative yet not too much fluff. keep doing you!

@GiantAntCowboy 2 года назад

Nice, love your style of comment! With my DIY videos especially I try to just make them simple, short and sweet. Here’s what you need, here’s what you do, here’s what you get. Thanks for the support, cheers man!

@abc57911 3 года назад

The tutorial is useful! Thanks!!

@GiantAntCowboy 3 года назад

Good to hear, The goal was a fast, simple, easy to follow tutorial. Stay tuned for some new DIY projects, tests and flights. 👍

@richierich142 3 года назад

Great informational video, Keep it up!!

@GiantAntCowboy 3 года назад

Thanks dude! Making a 4000mAh this weekend, then it’s time to hit some distant mountains!

@gunnhildpaulinelystad4895 3 года назад

Now I want to build batteries too😁

@GiantAntCowboy 3 года назад

Right? Custom batteries for everything!

@badger-productions 3 года назад

This is so good

@GiantAntCowboy 3 года назад

Oh yea. I just mentioned you might benefit from these in another comment. 👍

@rahulmk7633 3 года назад

Which frame are you using?

@GiantAntCowboy 3 года назад

The frame is just some old cheap “QAV250” Frame. Nothing special but it works fine. Been working ok for long range (see latest video) and basic acro flight, but looking to get a proper 7” frame eventually.

@Bellairvideo 3 года назад

This video smells much better than your last one on 'Muck Raking" LOL

@GiantAntCowboy 2 года назад

Haha Thanks, missed this comment earlier. Hope all is well friend!

@Bellairvideo 2 года назад

Doing well Peter. Just been filming a new twin aircraft at the beach after lots of storms & rain here. Keep well & safe mate

@carmellight8595 3 года назад

Nicework helpful info, Btw one point to correct 1:57 ,the balance port number not B2 but T2 I think.😃

@GiantAntCowboy 3 года назад

Yes great point… this was a typo, I’ll have to make a note. Thanks for pointing this out and for watching. Cheers!

@flat-earther Год назад

what length battery strap do you recommend for 6S1P 21700?

@GiantAntCowboy Год назад

I use 30cm straps branded as HQProps, and they work well.

@Jhaskydding 2 года назад

how do you sure if it's 1.5A? mine was 4 3500mah, so total of 14,000 mah? so 14A?

@GiantAntCowboy 2 года назад

In this video we’re building a 4s Li-ion Pack using four cells: - Four 3500mAh cells wired in “Series” = 4s (14.8v) 3500mAh battery pack (Method shown in this video) - Four 3500mAh cells wired in “Parallel” = 1s (3.7v) 14,000mAh battery pack Either way the pack should be charged around 1/2c so a 3500mAh pack would be charged around 1.75A. Let me know if that makes sense. Also Google Parallel vs Series batteries for more information. 👍

@lf5133 3 года назад

I read all the comments and can see I’m the only one that feels this way but here goes. When a creator can’t talk and just point to parts on a table… I move on.

@GiantAntCowboy 3 года назад

I’ve heard this once before and I understand what you’re saying, but this video is meant to be a quick step-by-step tutorial for people who just want to get to the point. I can and do talk in my videos but it does add a lot of extra time to the video. There are actually plenty of long talking videos out there, check out Falcon Rad’s DIY Li-Ion battery video for example. With all that said if you have specific questions, please let me know. Cheers! p.s. if you were one of the people that disliked my video, thanks…

@problemkehidupan Год назад

Hi, I wanna ask: I have a Parrot Jumping Night Drone: Drone: 3.7V 2A Max Battery Pack: Li-PO 3.7V 550mAh 2Wh 15C Cont Discharge Battery is dropping. Usually I can play up to 20 mins, now below 5 minutes. I want to diy using 18650 battery. I have AWT 3500mAH 3.7V 35A High Drain and MXJO 3500mAH 3.7V 20A (both are authentics). I use for vaping device. - Can I use my vape battery to drone? I plan to mount only 1 battery, probably using battery slot so I can easily recharge it. I have Nitecore UM2 USB Charger. - If can, do I have to tear down the original battery, take the BMS and put into 18650 battery or I can simply soldering cable at drone connector to the battery without BMS? For safety reason, which is best? - Also, there are 3 connectors on the drone, I think 1 for battery level, how to soldering it so I can see the battery level on the smartphone. - I think with 1 single 18650 battery with 3500mAH, I can get very longer play time. I confuse with 2A Max warning on the drone and 30A or 20A on the battery. Thank you

@GiantAntCowboy Год назад

Hey sorry for the delayed response. I don’t have all the answers but here’s some thoughts: - If the drone says 2A max that means it draws about 2A at max power. Your battery has to be rated to atleast 2A but can be rated higher without issue. - Voltage however is important, you not use a Battery with higher voltage than the drone ks designed for or it will likely fry the components. You can however run a lower voltage battery but it will draw more amps. - In your case it’s says 3.7v 2A max, the Li-ion cell from your vaping device will work fine as they are 3.5v nominal voltage and can handle more than enough amps. - The 3500mAh li-ion is likely larger and heavier so fitment might be tricky and performance could suffer. - As far as wiring I’m not 100% sure how this is set up, but basically the battery has positive and negative terminals and would be work if you can solder or otherwise make connections. (Be very careful soldering, battery quickly get damaged with heat and in extreme cases could catch fire) Let me know how it works out, learning is a large part of the fun here, cheers!

@problemkehidupan Год назад

@@GiantAntCowboy thanks for the feedback, Sir. I will let you know when I can mod the battery

@flat-earther Год назад

do you think copper desoldering wick is good for connecting the individual cells?

@GiantAntCowboy Год назад

Hmm, interesting idea, seems like it’d work well, but I’m not 100% sure. One thing to be cautious/aware of is that the whole outer shell of a Li-Ion cell is ground (-), so if you solder the positive (+) terminal and it touches the outer shell in any spot it will short out. Since copper wicks don’t have any outer coating/insulation, like a normal wire, you’d want to make sure there is some sort of protection to avoid shorting; either during the build process or a hard crash.

@flat-earther Год назад

@@GiantAntCowboy thanks for your reply. Yes I agree about the outer shell, so I ordered those round insulation rings to go over the positive side of cells. I'm not sure how good the copper wick idea is so instead of that I have now ordered 10mm wide copper strip. I'm not sure what thickness is best so I ordered 0.15mm and 0.2mm thick. The reason I want to use copper is because I heard nickel strip has much lower conductivity than copper. I think insulated wire would work to join the cells but since it's so thick that's why I want to use flat copper strip. I'm planning to use 21700 cells.

@GiantAntCowboy Год назад

@@flat-earther yup. Just wanted to share the warning in case. Smart to avoid nickel strips. Everyone that complains about “Hot” packs or poor performance seems to be using packs made with nickel strips. Nickel has much higher resistance than copper, and often the strips are just too thin to handle the current draw. I’m curious to hear how Copper strips will work, it’ll probably take a lot of heat to get them soldered. Maybe drilling a whole to solder through could help. Let me know, cheers!

@JonathanBirch7 2 года назад

Awesome video. Will be making a 6S version for my IFlight Chimera 7". Keep on living your dreams. Regrads from South Africa 🇿🇦

@GiantAntCowboy 2 года назад

I’m using a 4S2P and a 6S2P (Molicel) which are both good for 8000mAh, and long flight times. My next video is going to be a comparison of different configurations, but the 6s of course is the nicest to fly, Cheers!

@Jhaskydding 2 года назад

awsome! thank you for this!

@GiantAntCowboy 2 года назад

Absolutely, li-ion batteries are really useful. - Just make sure you don’t overheat them when soldering, I hold the battery and when I feel the battery getting warm i take a break, or solder another battery. - Li-Ion batteries have much lower Maximum Amps, so make you know how much current the battery can handle before using them and stay well below the maximum to avoid damage. Good luck!

@brezovprut4431 2 года назад

Have you seen Dave_C's modular 18650 4S battery clip and considered making one? Ability to use same cells on different setups and to replace easly dead ones is outstanding. Only drawbacks are few extra grams and barely noticable voltage sag.

@GiantAntCowboy 2 года назад

Just. Checked out his video, pretty neat setup that seems to work great. I’m about to convert my 4s packs into 5s packs for my Chimera 7 build since it had 2807 1500kv motors. But I’ll keep this modular design in the back of my mind. Thanks for sharing, watching and supporting my tests, cheers!

@endyX286 3 года назад

Good tutorials. Subs.

@GiantAntCowboy 3 года назад

Thanks, very much appreciated! Cheers

@jaysonrees738 2 года назад

Upon checking the pricing, I can save heaps of cash by building my own packs. This guide is going to save me over $100 just to create a couple of them!

@GiantAntCowboy 2 года назад

Absolutely! Almost half price, especially if your get a good deal on li-Ion cells. I highly recommend Molicels, I’ve had great luck with them. - If you’re using them for a 7” long-range quad check out the li-ion comparison video I posted a couple months ago. - Build Tip: Hold the cell with your fingers as you solder, when you feel them getting, stop and work on the next one. Overheating the cells and or wiring them wrong are the main two mistakes you can make. Good luck, cheers!

@jaysonrees738 2 года назад

@@GiantAntCowboy Yeah, Molicel appears to be almost uncontested in high amp cells. Been working towards getting everything together for a good 7 inch build, but it's proving even more challenging than finding stuff for a small one. Frames are widely out of stock, and I really would prefer a dual stack. Thinking the Source One with a 20mm to 30.5mm mount adapter would serve my needs. The other matter is that I can't decide if I'd like to start investing in ELRS equipment, or stick to my existing CRSF stuff.

@GiantAntCowboy 2 года назад

Regarding FC stack I’m using a Mamba F7/50A ESC stack. No complaints. I used CRSF up until recently when I switched to ELRS. I was have LQ drops and RX losses with CRSF, tried lots of antennas, configurations and was running it at 1W… maybe my TX is just old or something. But I picked up ELRS TX with Diversity RX for less than a single CRSF Diversity RX would cost… so decided to try it. So far it seems to be much better even at only 100mW. (Performs we’ll even at 10mW!) BUT if you have CRSF I’d say use that for now.

@jaysonrees738 2 года назад

@@GiantAntCowboy Already got a fancy stack ordered. Wanted to give iNav a try since this was going to be replacing my 4 inch long range build. As for ELRS's performance, that's quite impressive that it's handling the amount of distance I've seen you make at that level. Maybe some day...

@GiantAntCowboy 2 года назад

@@jaysonrees738 yup, I didn’t plan to get ELRS but then was doing a Nano build and ended up with an excuse to try it… let me know how your build comes out.

@Guenounovitch 3 года назад

The welds…

@GiantAntCowboy 3 года назад

Did I say welds? Or are you being critical of my soldering?

@TERBANGFPV 3 года назад

Yes.. vtc5a is better than vtc6a.. just have less 400mah difference. 👍 Im building 2 4s packs for my rekon 5

@GiantAntCowboy 3 года назад

Yea the VTC5a is great if you want or need that additional amperage. This is especially true with a 4s setup. I also really like the Molicel P42a (4200mAh 45A max), but these are probably too heavy for the Rekon 5 setup. Good luck! Let me know how it goes!

@TERBANGFPV 3 года назад

@@GiantAntCowboy yeah thanks

@GiantAntCowboy 3 года назад

@@TERBANGFPV looks like you live in a great area. Subbed! In look forward to seeing more of your videos. Cheers!

@TERBANGFPV 3 года назад

@@GiantAntCowboy thanks man 🙏🙏

@neilfpv 2 года назад

Awesome! At what voltage do we need to land our quads when using these types of batteries?

@GiantAntCowboy 2 года назад

Most modern Li-Ion batteries have an operating range of 2.5v - 4.2v, but note: some older Li-Ion cells only charge up to 4.1v, check the manufacturer specs if unsure. You should plan to land between 2.7v - 3v ideally, but in cold/emergency situations I’ve pushed mine close to 2v… and they still function normally, maybe with some minor capacity loss. I recommend Sony VTC5a 18650 or Molicel P42a cells.

@neilfpv 2 года назад

@@GiantAntCowboy wow awesome! What li-on brand would you recommend?

@GiantAntCowboy 2 года назад

@@neilfpv yup. I mentioned a couple cell types in the previous comment. Sony VTC5A and Molicel P42a depending on your size and capacity requirements.

@SkyborneProductions 3 года назад

Awesome tutorial!

@GiantAntCowboy 3 года назад

Thank you for the compliment! Much appreciated!

@sricharan7287 3 года назад

Hi bro my quadcopter draws less than 25 amp which cells do u recommend to use and the configuration so that I can get 18min flight time

@GiantAntCowboy 3 года назад

For 25amps I'd recommend the 2600mAh Sony VTC5a or the 4200mAh Molicel cells. Flight time is a little tricker to estimate, but here are some examples of a 4200mAh battery at different amperages: - 4200mAh at 25A = 10 mins - 4200mAh at 14A = 18 mins * Your goal * - 4200mAh at 10A = 25 mins amperagereduceamperagewhich is achieved by adding cells. i.e. Going from 4s to 6s. Your drone setup (Motors, ESC, FC, ect) will need to be able to handled the added voltage though. Reducing weight, using different props and changing flight style can also reduce amperage output. The cool part with this DIY is you can experiment and customize the configuration to meet different goals. Many long-range pilots run two 6s battery packs which doubles capacity, however this of course adds weight so it's not doubling flight time, maybe about 70% gain to flight time. Anyway, hopefully this is helpful, please consider subscribing/liking the videos as it really helps the channel grow! If you have more questions let me know! Cheers!

@sricharan7287 3 года назад

@@GiantAntCowboy thanks for reply bro I have checked my amp draw in mission planner it is always less than 20 with additional weight can I use samsung 30q in 4s2p or sony vtc 6 4s2p

@sricharan7287 3 года назад

@@GiantAntCowboy my quad is able to handel up to 4s

@sricharan7287 3 года назад

@@GiantAntCowboy can u pls how did u calculate the flight time roughly

@GiantAntCowboy 3 года назад

@@sricharan7287 Between these two batteries I would go with the Sony VTC6, but both are really only rated for 15A, so you'll be on the edge. This is why I went for the VTC5a and Molicel P42A which 30A when needed. Just fly carefully and avoid sudden throttle changes.