Batteries for Gaui 550 - Recommendation and Flight Time

[MTDV]

I am about to order a Gaui 550, so would you please give me your recommendation on the battery. By the way, please also give me your battery type and its typical flight time. Thank you very much for your help.

[rstacy]

We run 2 Hyperion 3S 3200 packs in series and get 4.5 to 6 minutes depending on who is flying it.
We could easily do 7 to 8 with hovering or gentle flight

[Mikej]

MTDV,

It depends to a large extent on how you fly - I am still learning so doing lazy eights etc.. I use 2 x 2200mAH pack in series to give 6S1P 2200mAH. I get about 7 minutes from my Kong Power batteries.

Mike,

[MTDV]

Wow, that seems great with 7 mins flight. I am just a novice, so FF is my recent practice. What is your setup Mike? could I do that with a stock CF version? Thanks for your info.

[Mikej]

MTDV,

I have a standard plastic frame, std Gaui 850KV motor, Std Gaui 50a ESC, 14 tooth pinion, 500mm blades and short tail. Throttle curve is 0,86, 90, 90, 95, this gives me a constant head-speed at the throttle openings that I fly most (about 60% stick) and headspeed of about 1600 - 1700 which is nice and docile for a duffer like me, but still responsive enough.

This is definitely my favourite heli :)

Mike.

[ps61785]

i got 8 minutes at 100% throttle...just hovering around, no 3D...with brand new flightpower evo25 3700mAh packs (3s)...that was the first charge cycle and i was just hovering to break it in...

[Wazzer]

I use cheepo 3100 3300 and 4100s

31's nad 33's balanc better with long tail 41's are a bit nose heavy

i get about 7 mins from the 31'and 33's and about 8-9 on th 41's but all basic hovering only as thats where i am right now! with some gentle forward flight you should see a slight increas in flight time as the rotor disk is more efficient in forward flight.

Cheers

Ben

[Wazzer]

oh and i'm flying totaly bone stock plastic frame hurry with 850KV motor 50amp esc and 500 wood blades

i love this heli

[MTDV]

I talked to a couple guys at the flying field last night, and they told me that Gaui 550 is a 25C, 2200mA, lipo killer. It can hover on a series of two 15C, 2200mA lipo for 4 mins most, and idle up takes less than 2.5mins. The batteries got very hot after each flight. Does anyone have experienced that yet? Thanks.

[rstacy]

I talked to a couple guys at the flying field last night, and they told me that Gaui 550 is a 25C, 2200mA, lipo killer. It can hover on a series of two 15C, 2200mA lipo for 4 mins most, and idle up takes less than 2.5mins. The batteries got very hot after each flight. Does anyone have experienced that yet? Thanks.

That has been my experiance...

[ke6d]

I talked to a couple guys at the flying field last night, and they told me that Gaui 550 is a 25C, 2200mA, lipo killer. It can hover on a series of two 15C, 2200mA lipo for 4 mins most, and idle up takes less than 2.5mins. The batteries got very hot after each flight. Does anyone have experienced that yet? Thanks.

I have a friend who also flies on a TPX 2200 25C. One day he got carried away and did a series of loops, rolls, flips, high stall turns. After 3.5 min, he landed and opened the canopy, the brand new TPX 2200 packs was plumbed up very much and was about to explode. We carefully put the packs away from people ands things. A while later, the packs cooled down and came back to original shape. After seeing that, I only fly with 3200/3300 packs.

I some maneuvers, my EagleTree recorder recorded 78A peak. Most maneuvers are around 60A.

Unless the only thing you want to do is flying FF, figure 8s, and hovering, I highly recommend at least 3200 mA packs to start.

Dan

[bugdozer]

I was running two FlightPower 2170's and pulled a little too much collective in a sharp turn the ESC's low battery kicked in and the motor started to pulse and this was only two minutes into the flight. Luckily, the ESC kicked back in before I lost too much altitude and all was well. Granted, these were my older batts and I have not had the problem running my Kong Power batts. I also avoid being a 'collective spazz'.

So my question. Do I start buying 3200's and will they fit on the stock Gaui frame and in the canopy or do I upgrade the frame to carbon fiber so I can fit bigger 5 or 6 cell batts?

This all kinda goes against the reason I got this heli, to use existing T-Rex packs, but it's just too much damn fun to fly! :)

[ke6d]

So my question. Do I start buying 3200's and will they fit on the stock Gaui frame and in the canopy or do I upgrade the frame to carbon fiber so I can fit bigger 5 or 6 cell batts?

This all kinda goes against the reason I got this heli, to use existing T-Rex packs, but it's just too much damn fun to fly! :)

I don't know about the other packs, but I have 1 set of FP EVO30 and 1 set of TPX 3300 V2. They fit the stock frame perfectly. For the short tail boom, the Hurricane is a little bit of nose heavy, but after upgrading to the metal tail from HeliDirect, the CG was OK.

Dan

[bugdozer]

I don't know about the other packs, but I have 1 set of FP EVO30 and 1 set of TPX 3300 V2. They fit the stock frame perfectly. For the short tail boom, the Hurricane is a little bit of nose heavy, but after upgrading to the metal tail from HeliDirect, the CG was OK.

Dan

Very cool as I have the metal tail. Guess I need to get some bigger batts next time around. Thanx!

[Zoobie]

What motors are you guys running with the 2200 mah packs? The 850, 1100 or one of the Z-20, because we might be comparing vastly different power systems?

[bugdozer]

What motors are you guys running with the 2200 mah packs? The 850, 1100 or one of the Z-20, because we might be comparing vastly different power systems?

Yup, I thought of that after my last post. I'm running the Z-20A 980kv, 14T pinion with stock gearing. Flies real well right now but I may be in need of a little more head speed when I get more comfortable.

[mjdee14]

What motors are you guys running with the 2200 mah packs? The 890, 1100 or one of the Z-20, because we might be comparing vastly different power systems?

I ran the original 890 motor for a while and it puffed up some 18c 2200's that came with the package....went to polyquest 2500 25c and they worked much better.

I pulled about 55 amps with the Gaui motor running 15t pinion..

Switched to Z20 980kv and batts come down cool...motor is cool....and max amps so far with 14t pinion has been about 43amp... flight times are getting longer...maybe 7 - 8 min of FF, 8's and stall turns....

All other gearing is stock and I'm using the go quick 515 cf blades. i was not going to go below a 2500 pack but have had such good flight times I decided to order a couple of cheap hextronic 2200 packs to try out..if I can 6 min for $27 each I'll be happy, I have a couple of Poly 3300's but they go for $120 each....

[Zoobie]

Thanks, the reason I ask is because I just ordered the Z20 980 so that I can use my KP 2200mah. The most I do is a few rolls and loops, but mostly figure of eight stuff - from what you guys say I should be ok for 5min flight time?

[mjdee14]

Thanks, the reason I ask is because I just ordered the Z20 980 so that I can use my KP 2200mah. The most I do is a few rolls and loops, but mostly figure of eight stuff - from what you guys say I should be ok for 5min flight time?

Zoobie...

I think you will really like the Z20...with the 14t i'm getting about 1850 -1900 head speed...plenty fast for my type of flying....

it has been so easy on the batteries I'm hoping to get 6 min out of the 2200's...

[Mikej]

What motors are you guys running with the 2200 mah packs? The 850, 1100 or one of the Z-20, because we might be comparing vastly different power systems?

Standard 850kV

[MTDV]

Standard 850kV

Mike,

Thanks for your reply. One of the local guy told me that he flew with the 2500 pack with a Gaui 550 SE (all metal head parts) with all available updraged parts, but he can only get about 4mins of hovering and about 2.5mins of idle up. He ran with a stock motor. He will order a Z-motor with me when I order my Gaui. I think I will go with the stock plastic heli. It should be lighter and more flight time.

Would you please show us your detail configuration (servos, battery, ESC, motor, pinion, BEC, RX, etc.) Many thanks. .

[Mikej]

MDTV,

I'm about as basic as you can get ...
Platic kit
500mm blades
Short boom
Futaba 3001 on cyclic
Futaba 3151 on tail
Futaba R146iP Rx
Telebee Gyro :wow2: (works well)
Dimension Engineering SportBEC
Gaui 50a ESC
Gaui 850Kv motor
14 tooth pinion, 19 tooth OWB, OK gearsTrex 600 skids (heavier than std)
CNC levers

Can't think of anything else that is relevant I have 4 x 2200 Kong Power 25C 3S1P and 2 x Aplus 2200 25C 3S1P. I am learning so I only fly lazy 8s / FF / hovering.

Cheers,
Mike

[baspappas]

Hey guys.
I' m a little bit troubled here.
I fly with the carbon version of Hurricane 550 using the 1100Kv motor and 3300packs of batteries. I also use the revco gears with a 22T pinion on the motor.
So, i started doing some 3D flying but after about 5 mins of flying, one battery of each pair of packs buffed.
Any ideas please?

[Mikej]

Guys,

The reason that I am happy to push my packs out further than some is that I have taken 2 specific actions to try and get the maximum flight times without risking damaging packs.

1. I use "programable" lipo monitors - I have one from Efliernz on my Hurricane, the same on my King and an HR Poly-X on my 3DX-500 - using these you can set the voltage at which the led's com eon and the buzzer goes.
2. I use a Cellpro 4S balance charger. This tells me how much capacity I am putting back into my batteries and hence how much I am using.

I regularly check how much I am putting back in to the batteries and adjust my lipo monitor to account for variation (weather, different flying style, lipo degradation etc.). This way (hopefully) I am limiting the opportunities to damage my packs.

Obviously when I go and fly today I'll puff them all now :lol:

Cheers,
Mike.

[baspappas]

Is it OK to use a 5s lipo battery instead of two 3s packs (in series) for the Gaui 1100Kv motor?