It's wearing out

[Bargee]

After 191 flights the tail motor failed and now after 320 the battery connector is failing. Not exactly a durable machine.
Does anyone know whether the Align 150 lasts any longer?

[Liduno]

Whats that about 10 or 12 hours for the tail motor? I agree that's not very long, but the battery being plugged and unplugged 320 times seems pretty good. No?

[FR4-Pilot]

Noticed mine was sluggish at around 275 flights, so I replaced the motors (both) and the battery connector.

Nope, still sluggish - must be my Lipos ...

[FR4-Pilot]

I just went through all of the lipos I use with my mCPS and found 4 (out of 12) that have IRs approximate double what the others are.

Two of them are 45C NanoTechs - they're about 1-1/2 years old.

The other two are MUCH older E-Flite packs that came with my pre-owned mCPX.

I'm surprised with the 45C NanoTechs though ... the 35C NanoTechs seem to be doing better.

[BrokeDad]

It's to be expected with brushed motors. Sometimes you get one that lasts a lot longer than normal and vice versa.

[FR4-Pilot]

My two main motors are still good though.

[koopa137]

My original main motor has lasted 250+ flight!

Those 1s lipo wouldn't last long though...

Btw what IR of a lipo can tell ? higher IR than usual means lipo is aging?

Sent from my EVA-L09 using Tapatalk

[FR4-Pilot]

https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/...attery_runtime

My lipos that are around 100mOhm are the best performers. The few than are over 200mOhm (one is close to 300mOhm) will cause sluggish flights, and even LVC before a 3 minute flight is completed. When this happens the heli 'self lands'

[koopa137]

Originally Posted by FR4-Pilot

https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/...attery_runtime

My lipos that are around 100mOhm are the best performers. The few than are over 200mOhm (one is close to 300mOhm) will cause sluggish flights, and even LVC before a 3 minute flight is completed. When this happens the heli 'self lands'

Ah no wonder my map s isn't performing as good as before. All mine measure about 170 ohm. Good to know ir can be used to determine the usefulness of a lipo!

Sent from my EVA-L09 using Tapatalk

[FR4-Pilot]

I just got some pre-owned Pulse 300mAh lipos that measure around 70 ohms each! I'm really looking forward to trying them out but life hasn't let me yet The original owner indicated they only had 8 flights each and were stored properly

[Bargee]

I just got round to changing the power plug and its transformed the helis performance. I was getting LV warning as early as 2.5 minutes now those same batteries are lasting 5 with no warning😀 (260 mAhr)
Initially I planned to change the whole cable and plug but had trouble removing the wires from the PCB. So not wanting to put too much heat into it I spliced the wires half way.

The replacement tail motor has outlasted the first one by 2 hrs and its still OK despite not being an official spare, it's just one I had kicking about.

T C

[FR4-Pilot]

Good deal! Glad to hear that helped. Though, we really shouldn't have to do this.

I really hate these little 1.25mm and 2.00mm connectors HH should stop using these - they suck. Solving this problem is low hanging fruit.

[Bargee]

And your solution is? Bearing in mind the weight constraints and batteries with built in plugs.

[FR4-Pilot]

I would go with the red JST connectors for these tiny micros. Sure, add a gram or two in weight, but they're good for like 6 amps I believe, where these tiny white things are good for 1 or 2 amps, max, but only when the contacts are in perfect shape and new - after a short period of time things just go down hill.

They should de-rate the current specs for these connectors - the 1.25mm is rated for 1A - they should only use it for 1/2A max draw. The 2.0mm is rated for 2A - they should only use it for 1A max draw. The red JST are rated for 6A - they should only use if for 3A max draw. Next would be the XT-30, then XT-60, then XT-90, Etc. Etc. Etc.

Right now they're using connectors at or above their max rated current draw, which is extremely optimistic & wishful thinking that obviously only works well some of the time, at best. And then the cheap connector clones really don't have any trust-able specs, so who knows what they're really rated for (?) I'll bet they're not rated any Better!

[Bargee]

I took the red JSTs off of my 200Qx as they too wore out quite quickly. Yes the current on the 200 is higher but the durability of the red JST aint great

[koopa137]

In my experience this little bird's main motor and battery connector are much more durable than the Nano's.

Mine has lasted 300+ flights without replacement. It's a bit sluggish than before, but still aerobatic-worthy. Its power connector is quite robust too, where as the stock Nano's battery wire can simply snap off during hard crash.

Today my Nano S2 arrived, took its lipo out of box and measured its IR immediately, and it reads 296 om! Then I did some re-measurement on all my 1s Lipo. nano's batteries all read 190-400 om. mcp s batteries read 100-230 om. My Eflite 130S lipo shows a IR of 65 70 71. So I suppose the higher the capacity the lower the IR? Interesting...

[Liduno]

Originally Posted by koopa137

In my experience this little bird's main motor and battery connector are much more durable than the Nano's.

Mine has lasted 300+ flights without replacement. It's a bit sluggish than before, but still aerobatic-worthy. Its power connector is quite robust too, where as the stock Nano's battery wire can simply snap off during hard crash.

Today my Nano S2 arrived, took its lipo out of box and measured its IR immediately, and it reads 296 om! Then I did some re-measurement on all my 1s Lipo. nano's batteries all read 190-400 om. mcp s batteries read 100-230 om. My Eflite 130S lipo shows a IR of 65 70 71. So I suppose the higher the capacity the lower the IR? Interesting...

I have zero knowledge on the subject so consider that while reading this post..lol Would it be accurate testing the IR before using the battery a few times? I only ask because I know there is some type of storage preparation done to new batteries to keep them from going bad before use. I don't know if that procedure would have any kind of effect on your test?

[FR4-Pilot]

The IR will increase as cells age.
The IR will fluctuate with the temperature of the cells. Before, during and after charging / flights / etc. IR is inversely proportional to temperature.
Good IR values for smaller cells will be larger than good IR values for bigger cells (also inversely proportional to the cell’s surface area).

I have a few charts for IR and cell capacities in the last section of my Taming the 180cfx blog if interested