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  • Author Author: fvan
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Quadcopter Charge Notifier using Particle Photon

fvan

I received my first quadcopter for Christmas, a XS Nano Quad from Revell. It’s a tiny quadcopter, which I find extremely fun to play with. Unfortunately, the battery lasts only about 5 minutes (3.7V 100mAh) and the charge time is between 30 and 40 minutes.
Because I regularly forget I put it to charge, I decided to make a simple device which can notify me as soon as the battery is fully charged, allowing me to maximise play time!

 

Using a Particle Photon and a photoresistor, changes in light intensity from the charge indicator LED can be measured and used to trigger a notification via the IFTTT service.

imageimage

As usual, all details including code are available on my blog: Quadcopter Charge Notifier using Particle Photon – Frederick Vandenbosch

 

Let me know what you think! What would you use such a notification system for?

  • in reply to tomaja

    Some of the more expensive batteries can be charged up to 5C. But that lets them age more quickly.

    Reason might be in the chemical reactions which take place. Maybe the reaction for charging takes more time than discharge.

    The internal resistance seems to limit discharge rate. 50C battery has a significant lower resistance than a 20C. And yes, the get hot when discharged even at their rated current. image

  • in reply to crjeder

    Yes, I tried to say the same thing "1C denotes current of 1 battery capacity / 1h" - in case of your battery: 1.8Ah / 1h = 1.8A

    I don't know either why there's such a big difference in charge and discharge rate but everywhere I find the same advise - charge rate shouldn't be more than 1C. It would probably get too hot (or even burn) when charged with greater current but I didn't want to destroy a battery just to check that image

  • in reply to crjeder

    BTW: I am nowhere near this.

    My helis crash more often..

  • in reply to DAB

    That's the same with all rotary wings. The just need a lot of energy to stay in the air.

    For an example to the more extreme end see this:

    You need more batteries to have more fun image

  • in reply to tomaja

    More inprotant than charge times is the amount  current wich you safely can draw. In LiPo batteries 1C acually means that you can charge or discharge a 1 Ah battery with 1 Amp.

    The not physically correct formula is (ignoring all units):

    capatcity (in Ah) * C = current (i A)

    In my bigger (300er) heli I fly a 1,8 Ah battery wich is rated at 30C. That gives the little thing 54 Amps to play with image (at 11,7 V)

    But for bigger RC helis 90C at 22 V is not unusual.

    I don't know why the batteries behave assymetrical, i. e. discharge much faster than they charge.