Drone lipo battery: consider 7 parameters before buying

As we all know, drone power is provided by lipo batteries(which means lithium polymer batteries), which can greatly affect the pilot's experience. Everyone wants their drone to fly for more time, but what parameters should you consider when choosing the best drone battery?

Weight

First of all, our plane is to fly into the sky, so as light as possible is what we need to pursue. Generally, more capacity means more energy and more energy. In fact, as the battery becomes larger, the increase in flight time becomes invalid due to the weight of the battery. When considering capacity, you should consider weight, not just choose a larger capacity battery.

Capacity

UAV flight time depends largely on battery capacity, more capacity means more power and more energy. Different UAV sizes require batteries with different capacities. The following is your matching table for reference only.

Choose Lipo battery depends on Drone type/size: 

Micro quad(tiny whoops) --- lipo 80-800mAh 1s / 2s

180mm --- lipo 1000mah / 1300mAh 3S / 4S

210mm --- lipo 1000mah / 1300mAh 3S / 4S

250mm --- lipo 1300-1800mAh 3s / 4s

280 / 290mm --- lipo 1500-3300mAh 3s

330 / 360mm --- lipo 2200-3200mah 4s

400mm --- lipo 3200-3300mah 4S

450mm --- lipo 3300mAh 4S

500mm --- lipo 3300-5000mAh 4s

540mm --- lipo 5000-5200mAh 4s

550/650 / 750mm --- lipo 5000-8000mAh 4s / 5s / 6s

800mm or large lipo --- 8000mah-30000mah 6s

Connector

There are many common connectors including Deans, XT60, EC3 and JST.

What is the performance impact of these connectors? The following list tells you the maximum rated current of the connector plug.

• JST --- connector-up to 5A
• XT60 --- connector-up to 60 amps
• Dean--- up to 60 amps
• EC3 --- connector-up to 60 amps
• EC5---connector-up to 120 amps

If you want to know more detail about the connectors, you can read this article:

https://blog.ampow.com/rc-battery-connector-types/

Discharge rate

The discharge rate is another important aspect that needs to be checked before you decide to buy any batteries for the drone. You need to get a C grade for your drone battery. You must compare the target c-level with the battery c-racing. In short, my principle is that the battery c-racing is higher than the target c-rating but not too high.

Relate post:

https://www.ovonicshop.com/blogs/battery-knowledge/what-does-the-c-rating-mean-on-a-lipo-battery

Voltage

The higher the cell count, the higher the performance. However, higher cell counts lead to weight gain and in some cases can affect performance. Choose the appropriate battery voltage, you should refer to the motor and esc data sheet.

Brand

Which of Tattu, Gens,Turnigy, Zippy, Graphene, Ovonic, SMC, Dronelabs, Ready MadeRC, ThunderPower, Floureon, Venom,  Bonka, Multistar, Pulse, E-flite, etc. Which is the best? All of these are good enough but depends on what you use on.

HV & Smart  batteries?

HV means high-voltage battery, and intelligence means smart battery. Intelligent battery features: self-balancing function, high-temperature storage self-discharge function, over-temperature and low-temperature alarm function, over-voltage and under-voltage alarm functions.

High-voltage lithium battery means 4.35v per battery, more energy and more energy. Smart batteries can measure voltage and current internally, and infer charge levels and SoH (health) parameters.

Conclusions

Choosing the right drone battery is undoubtedly important, and taking care of your lithium battery is also important. Do not overcharge and discharge, and do not store fully charged batteries for more than 3 days.