I'm using a 45c battery rating on my 5". Good or bad?

J

Jonarmour2323

Member
So in my early days of drone flying I wanted to go budget and ordered two 1500mah 45c 4s lipos from Floureon for 29$.
I have been using them along with my tattu 1500mah 75c 4s lipos and I don't notice a difference. Same flight time same punch power.
Am I just over working my 45c batteries? Because they charge back up every time no problem.
I admit I do try to just cruise with the 45c batteries cause I figure staying around 55% throttle when punching out or recovering from a roll.
Could I be doing damage to my components trying to run the 45c?
Thanks for your time!
 
So you worry that you're wearing out your 45C batteries?

When I was a young Radio Control flier, 30mumble years ago, a friend told me I shouldn't fly so often because it was not good for my plane. At the time I flew several flights every Saturday, many Sundays and occasionally during the week. I realized that he brings a new plane every year or so and crashes it. So, who got the most enjoyment out of their airplane? I ignored him (and gained an enemy in the club).
 
Yeah the only component you'll damage by over discharging the batteries is the batteries. Increased amperage equals increased heat/loss and also generally accelerates chemical breakdown/reactions.

The C rating by itself really tells you absolutely nothing because it is used in combination with the capacity to calculate the max discharge rate in amps. I could have 1000C 10mAh battery and you can discharge at a max rate of .010Ah * 1000 = 10A

Also like dugdog mentioned you have to take the numbers with a grain of salt they are after all maximums and are set by the mfg to try and sell their product. That said I've seen tests by Josh Bardwell on batteries and there is a difference in higher C rated ones within a mfg typically but between mfgs it's hard to compare since there is no unbiased third party testing/rating them.

If you are using 20C 1.5Ah batteries you have max discharge of 20*1.5 = 30A if each motor is drawing say 5A then you only use 20A and you aren't stressing the battery you won't see a large voltage drop and won't cause damage to the battery. If you have a higher C rating but aren't drawing more power than the lower C batteries can supply then you'll see no improvement.

If you have bigger props or more blades you add more weight and need more torque in order to accelerate the blades at the same rate so more or less blades or bigger/smaller ones will effect the draw/load on the whole system.

You can buy a separate IR tester or get a charger that gives you IR calculated while charging (I have a keenstone AR1 that does it I think the iSDT ones also give you this info). The internal resistance (IR) is really what C rating is meant to tell you, how much resistance is in the cell itself and therefore how much will it heat up when current is flowing through it.
 
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