Eachine lipo batteries issues

[exotico]

Hi everyone, bought my first-toy drone two months ago on Aliexpress: Eachine E520S. That's a cute toy, nicely reviewed on Youtube many times. I'have 3 battery version 3x Lipo 1200mah 7.4v 25c. Batteries has micro USB charge connector. Using 2A usb smartphone charger. Charge take around 2 hours and it's complete when blue led on battery is solid. Two of them lasts few seconds before drone take off ...remote start to beep for low batteries in the moment rotors start spinning ..losing controls of drone. The last one lasts 15 minutes (as specified on data sheet) but remaining % on Android app quickly decrease, in a strange way.
Testing my charger by usb tester, it seem not really ok: only 4.9V. Bought a new one : it produce around 5.1V. Not sure charger could be the reason of batteries issues. A lower voltage mean a longer charge time (?). What do you think about? Really excited for the first fly but now really scarred about my first battery crash. Seller is sending me just ONE battery and already has sent me a full blades set: first set has some scratch on the edges caused by propeller guards.
Thanks for your attention.
Emanuele

 

[MJW]

Morning Emanuele , here's what I've learned so far in my venture into drones and 2s, (2 cell), lipo batteries.
The supplied charger's with the drones will work but not as well as a multi-cell quality charger.
There are quite a few on the market, some are basic with no info screens and the ones with the screens that show battery resistance & individual cell voltage will give you the best results.

A 2s battery, obviously has 2 cells, one cell can have a low resistance value and the other a higher resistance value, if you're not using a good balance charger the cell with the high resistance will will give a false indication of being fully charged while the other cell won't be charged up to spec.
So when you go out to fly the high resistance cell will give up very little of it's charge while the low resistance cell deplete's itself in a very short time.

When ever I charge a battery I check the cell resistance value, in ohm's, then I charge it, I write the ohm value on the battery then time the flight.

New batteries seem to have a high resistance value but the value drops as I use the battery a few times.
If the value doesn't drop in say 5 charge cycles then it's pretty much a dud battery, not much can be done except to replace it.

It doesn't matter how many cells in a battery, if one cell is not responding or has high resistance then that pack will never perform well.

So your first step before investing in more batteries would be to get a quality multi-cell balance charger, because by the time you've purchased a bunch of batteries trying to get a few good ones that respond to the supplied charger you've spent more on them than the cost of a read out charger.

Just recently I purchased a used drone and used batteries, the batteries were not properly charged for long term storage and only 2 out of 5 of them are ok to use, the other 3 might give me a 1 to 2min flight.

Lipo batteries should be given a storage charge if you're not going to use them for a few days, leaving a lipo fully charged or fully dis-charged is bad for their health and won't last as a good pack for long.

When I go out and fly, I fly the pack until drone won't lift off any more, then I let them cool for an hour or two before either recharging them or putting a storage charge in them.

Never charge a warm battery, always give them plenty of cool down time, the outside may feel cool but the core will hold onto heat for quite a while so the 2 hour wait will let that core cool down.

They are all 1s cells so the results of high resistance are easy to understand, the rest of my drones use multi-cell packs and those I started using a quality balance charger and I haven't been disappointed.

Hope this helps,

 

[MJW]

And do yourself a huge favor, watch all the video's on youtube about lipo batteries, it's free and it will save you a bunch of frustration.

Matter of fact, do that before you buy a charger or more batteries.

 

[exotico]

Thx for your attention.
Watched some videos about lipos and multiple cells battery. What about a 2s lipo charged by a simple USB charger made for smartphone without any balance system? Seen lot of e520s reviews. All the people charge the battery using usb 2a charger. How could this be possible? Spent some times searching online (Amazon, Aliexpress, Banggood..) pro lipos charger with USB connector. All of them as special lipo connectors. None of professional lipos battery as USB connector. I'm so confused.. So, my battery are just for toy (i'm quite sure..)? No way to charge it without issues? OR All my batteries are faulty? Was i totally unlucky? My toy cost just 90 euro 3x batteries included... Really frustrated on seeing such a number of positive reviews. Sorry for the outburst...

 

[MJW]

let me do some research on this

 

[MJW]

Morning Emanuele , I did some reading on it, seems batteries can be an issue.
Understand it's not the shipper that's at fault, it goes back to the manufacturer of today's world of mass production and almost no quality control on the product.
The batteries are termed "Prioritized", that means they fit only one application, in other words they only fit that quad and that charger.

Not much I can help with I guess, just hope the replacement battery is a good one,

Sorry I couldn't be of more help, there is a different charger available that will cut down on charge time of multiple batteries,

Amazon.com: EACHINE E520 RC Drone Quadcopter Spare Parts 3-in-1 Charger with Batteries Combo: Toys & Games

Buy EACHINE E520 RC Drone Quadcopter Spare Parts 3-in-1 Charger with Batteries Combo: Quadcopters & Multirotors - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

Let me add this, I don't consider them toy's, they have some very complex electronics in them, and you got a pretty good deal on yours.

 

[exotico]

Thx MJW,
Hope to get a new fully functional replacement battery soon. Thx for help, I really appreciate.
Emanuele

 

[MJW]

Hope it all works out.

 

[Jackson]

Watched some videos about lipos and multiple cells battery. What about a 2s lipo charged by a simple USB charger made for smartphone without any balance system?

Don't sound right to me. A 2S Lipo fully charged is 8.4V. How can pumping 5V into it get it to 8.4V? Unless the batteries have some internal circuitry to up the voltage.

 

[exotico]

Those batteries has just mini usb connection..

 

[exotico]

Received a new one from Eachine. This sems ok after first charge (2a usb smartphone 5v charger micro usb cable). It least around 10/12 minutes of fly and video recording. Still trying to record videos on micro sd but my 128 (fat32 formatted) Aliexpress sd class 10 (fake class) is maybe too big . Never mind at this moment. Low battery allert is on 20% as described on product guide. Remaning percentage displayed on app is evaluated on realtime energy consumption: (example) 30% when flying back and forth 60% when stand in the air. What about first charge faulty batteries? Any second chance to charge it or better to trash it?
thx for all your help

 

[MJW]

On lipo's it seems that if there's an issue to start with they don't fix them selves, but me being how I am, I don't give up until it just doesn't respond, I mean what does it hurt to keep trying to charge them, just a few times even.
And if they don't start to respond then I guess it 's just not going too.
That's the fault with mass production and no quality control of the manufacture and part of the hobby.

 

[MJW]

Afternoon Emanuele , just to let you know, I ordered and received 4 lipos for my Holystone hs200 from Holystone, so far 1 out of the four is bad.

It happens all the time,