Can a Drone Fly with AA Batteries?

AA batteries power just about anything in your house! But can it fly a racing drone?
Special Thanks to Sam for making this project finally possible!
/ polomarknot17
#FPVFREESTYLE
- - - - - - - - -
Support Rotor Riot by purchasing from our store:
rotorriot.com
Want to fly FPV like the pros? Start here:
learn.rotorrio...
Looking for a PC to run the latest sim? We've got you covered:
rotorriot.com/...
Get Rotor Riot Apparel here:
rotorriot.com/...
Get Rotor Riot Motors here:
rotorriot.com/...
Get Pre-Built Drones here:
rotorriot.com/...
Check out the latest FPV Parts on the market:
rotorriot.com/new
Would you like a monthly goodie box?! Check out Kwad Box:
www.kwadbox.com/
- - - - - - - - -
FPV Freestyle Pilots / Hosts -
Joshua Bardwell [Knowitall]
/ joshuabardwell
Drew Camden [Le Drib]
/ ledribfpv
Jeff Orta [VORT3X]
/ vort3xfpv
Alex Vanover [CaptainVanover]
/ @captainvanover
Shawn Morrison [Let's Fly RC]
/ @letsflyrc
Production Team
Chad Kapper - Executive Producer
Drew Camden - Producer
Christian Kapper - Editor
MUSIC:
Febreze
By: Nightime Burnout
/ nightime-burnout
An Adventure Called Life
A Dubstep Race
Come Get Some
-Courtesy of PremiumBeat
www.premiumbea...
www.rotorriot.com

[@krispymedia9373]

THE ENDING!!!!! That's why we love Bardwell

[@DrMacca]

So good! lmao

[@YOUTUBEsucks-m8b]

@Rowan Damien what for wretched ain't you

[@ReplicateReality]

Lol

[@andyhoughtaling6319]

lol dude is a wildcard apparently

[@hweissi]

Sam: "I put only the essentials on there" Shawn: "LEDs on the arms it is!"

[@tristanlizaola5852]

😂😂

[@DENMONKEY]

And a vtx.

[@jonathantanner9517]

Bardwell just sending it right at the very end was the best thing I’ve seen from RR in years. That’s the kind of off the cuff humor I love.

[@polomarknot17]

I had a lot of fun doing this! Working with the RR guys is always great, especially when they're convinced the task is basically impossible

[@NOVUSuk]

Agree with Aakash 💯

[@DrMacca]

Awesome stuff, man. Well done!

[@maddog2314]

Just goes to show how well deserved the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was.

[@Pile_of_carbon]

Hah! That is so true dude! Imagine a timeline where li-ion and lipo didn't happen. "Apple released their latest iPhone today. It only weighs in at 3kg, 90 % of which is battery. CEO Tim Cook says he is hopeful they'll get that down to 87 % within a decade! In other news, Amanda Smith, age 15 is the new world champion of arm wrestling. She attributes her insane stamina and vice-like grip to TikTok and texting her friends for several hours every day..."

[@timsanders7632]

@@Pile_of_carbon this made me LOL

[@DrMacca]

@@Pile_of_carbon lmao, brilliant!!!

[@terranovarain6570]

@@Pile_of_carbon lol 😆 😂 🤣

[@terranovarain6570]

Most people don't realize how much of our modern way of life we owe to John B Goodenough not only for lipo lion batteries but even ram and transistors kinda sucks that the new lithium ceramic batteries have lower power density considering they have none of the drawbacks of lipo batteries even in regards to operating temp discharge/charge rates and dendrites

[@minkorrh]

This is actually an interesting demonstration of how much power these little lipos we use have. The energy density and discharge rate is incomparable.

[@TrithFPV]

The reactions are so extreme, they almost appear fake. You're messing with double AA battery's, not the philosopher’s stone.

[@LosAngeles234]

Dude perfect reactions lol

[@YorkyPoo_UAV]

When Vanny says a battery might catch on fire... He overcharges all of his batteries too.

[@tehllama42]

I never want that meme to die... because it's hilarious

[@Schradermusic]

You can charge a LiPo (4.2V) to LiHV (4.35V) voltage without any risk. The only thing is that the lifetime of the battery will shorten by a lot.

[@dronemoodbr]

04:55 Me looking at the deans connector and thinking: something wrong is not right 05:36 Joshua: oh my God, stop!

[@matthewarchibald5118]

Xt60

[@NicholasRehm]

They used to fly helis off those nimh packs before lipo was a thing, so not very surprised

[@desertdronepilot]

And rc cars, just you could not poke it with a sewing pin and almost light your house on fire (My Mistake)

[@JonGraceCox]

13:10 😆 Priceless reactions.

[@carsonlight_lapse6394]

Basically it's the internal resistance that are sagging out the voltage as more current goes through the battery, basic physics, so this is why we used lipo cuz the internal resistance won't be taking out a lot of voltage in the process of discharging (ie internal resistance -> heat, that's why the bat pack got very hot)

[@Skateroo]

This is literally how I powered random electronics I was trying to mess with when I was like 8. I literally taped batteries together.

[@vampcaff]

for those that dont remember the days of nicd and nimh know damn well we can use AA's in rc toys. lol the drone community acts like all this stuff if new uncharted territory.

[@OscarTRob]

Yeah but flying takes a lot more energy and power than rolling a car along the ground, drones never ran off of nimh

[@volksyes9477]

I would have tried tethering it and flying it like an old school RC helicopter, like the one I remembered my grand dad flew back in the early 80’s a good 30 feet of wire hoooked up to a car battery.

[@benmorgan4928]

Couldn’t you try this using a toothpick-style setup with an all in one flight controller/esc to save weight. Maybe a 1s 3 inch build

[@larsmartintangen7072]

18650 battery's is a viable option for a long range 6" - 7" quad, they even use them on 3". But there is not a lot of videos out there about this topic. Maby a idea for future RR video ? Anyway , loved this video and its so nice to see a channel like RR doing fun experiments and not only showing different flights like most fpv channels does

[@Vousie]

18650's are still lithium. Here the point was to use AA batteries...

[@Thelango99]

@@Vousie There are lithium AA batteries. AA is a form factor, not a chemistry.

[@Vousie]

@@Thelango99 Sure. By AA batteries I meant the standard ones - alkaline or, if you want rechargeable, NiMH. Not specialty ones like the lithium batteries.

[@JBothell_KF0IVQ]

Did anyone else see BARDWELL handling a powered drone with the PROPS ON!!!! dude... that's hard core

[@ChainsawFPV]

I did not know I needed to know this. Thank you! How about a link to Sam's channel?

[@realestate2827]

I hope that when I have kids some day that I can show the same level of excitement when they bring me their arts and crafts as Le Drib when the drone arms on double AA batteries.

[@dividingbyzerofpv6748]

Good job. Have always wondered but never had any desire to screw with it

[@xreylabs]

I've been wanting to try this one too. Tnx

[@markiemark7018]

Love these episodes! 🔥🔥

[@uptimefpv]

Love this kind of content! Great video! I would have used AAA batteries, and then connected 3 sets in parallel with some capacitors to handle current spikes.

[@iWhacko]

why not use 9v block batteries?

[@Noical]

ayy Sam's here! throwback to flying a TT lipo on 5in haha

[@davidmiddleton3223]

Nice episode. I'm currently playing catchup on your back-cataloge. I recently watched one that had two pilots swapping control of the kwad by handing over the transmitter. You've also done one with two kwads stuck together and the pilots arming their one depending on which way was up. Can you do one where two pilots fly one drone, no swapping transmitter; each pilot controls one gimbal.

[@kreativ_corals]

lol that would be absurd if anyone could fly like that! Really cool idea

[@davidmiddleton3223]

My thoughts as well.

[@Guilefpv]

Can you try it with 9v batteries next? there's are rectangular in shape, probably easier to mount and stack too.

[@RursusPsittacus]

This is the ultimate electrical engineering nerd out video.

[@Marshcar]

I was just walking through walmart yesterday and thought about doing this myself when I saw some AA batteries on a shelf, now today you upload it! That's so weird

[@fpvlegion]

Guys , please, SAFETY... even being almost impossible to just fly away or burst into psico mode, testing live motors with props indoors just contradicts PROPS OFF master voice!

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Realistically, there was no way the AA pack would have enough power to do anything dangerous. Calculated risk, professional pilots, etc.

[@Chromie21]

the drone letsflyrc made for the batteries flies less because its using more power for the fpv signal, when the other one was LOS

[@SimpleMeFPV]

Very interesting 🤔. I ♥️ the channel 👍 you all rock! Any thoughts of making anymore micro 3” drone videos? “Micro madness spotlight”!!

[@MrTurboTash]

If you try this again try D cell. Still same tech but the D cells were intended for motor run stuff. (or at least the best this tech could do)

[@chrisfaison8912]

you guys are super smart how bought you collectively design and build a safer battery for FPV i say you can do it change the game

[@wheresmynamego1152]

I gotta admit, I did learn something today

[@foomp4532]

Supercapacitors next?

[@stephenkarpath]

😂🤣 that awesome!! Would be cool if it worked same way as Lipos 😎 Bardwell at the end🤣🤣

[@MarkKunoff]

Ok guys, glad you got it out of your system. Next!

[@thetesseract2237]

Use rechargeable Nickel metal hydride cells as they have lower internal resistance and the Loop brand rechargeable AAs can handle 10 amps

[@Enderkruemel]

I did Fly a 7" 6s Drohne on 2s. It works just fine, But has a little to less Power. But that was expected. I think i can Fly whithout any Problems whith 7,2 v (6s nimh) car packs. Also i tryed lifepo4 Batterys and this works as well. Also li-ion packs are very Good. I also did a test whith a NiCd pack from a Drill. Also packs for our lawntrimmer work fine. The heavyest Batterie pack was a lead-gel/ lead acid 12v 3A one. It was flyable, But had a very big voltage sag(down To 9v) I also used my old and very Bad whoop packs to Made a bigger pack. Also i tested supercapacitors, cellphone Batteries(removed Protektion circuit) and a intro Motor whith a Generator. (this was the only fail, Not enough Power from the Generator)

[@Mr18031967]

love this type of video so good

[@atlasfpv7030]

Cool! What about a copter with an internal combustion engine?)))

[@tribefpv]

That punch out was insane, how do you handle such power 💪😂

[@GregQuillen]

Should be using like a rekon 5. Analog.. lower amp draw and we'd be able to see voltage and amp draw

[@mrgarkeiner]

ahahahahahah I couldn't stop laughing when he soldered on the wrong type of XT60. because when i built my first quad the same thing happened to me and I also got the same face expression XD

[@gionag]

Yes... You need power... But doing the same power with lower current (aka higher series cell count) will works better for high internal resistance cells like aa

[@baggszilla]

Drew looks so weird with FatShark goggles on I'm not used to it!

[@Dr_Mario2007]

Normally AA battery (that's of classic Alkaline variety) carries between 2 to 2.6 Amps hour of capacity, and very importantly, the internal resistance is also crucial since it alone can determine how much energy those batteries can actually dump without too much trouble. Generally Alkaline batteries suck compared to the Lithium-ion batteries when it comes to energy density per cell weight. Obviously Nickel Metal Hydride cells would do better than the Alkaline batteries since they have much lower internal resistance (closer to the Lithium-ion cells for some brand cells). Nevertheless that would be a fun experiment.

[@skippyfpvexperimentalrc6755]

Great Sam ! I awesome build . You look so different then the last time I flew with you

[@power-max]

Placing my bet: Very saggy, very heavy. Will struggle to hover, more likely just spin the props and not lift off at all. Compared to lithium, alkaline chemistry has much higher internal resistance. Because the voltage is lower you need more cells in series, and the series resistance adds up fast. Energy density is qctually not a huge amount lower than that of a lipo, maybe 30% to 50% less guestimating based on equivelent energy in 3 AA's as a single 18650, but an 18650 has almost double the energy density of a lipo. A 1500mAH single cell from a lipo is probably roughly equivelent to 2 AAs. Problem is of course, power density. That ESR severely limits the amps. My guess for the best configuration will be 10S3P

[@Wearyman]

This would work quite well with a fixed-wing plane. Especially a big lightly built one.

[@bizmar]

Last exterior segment really needed another color grade pass, it's all over the place. Denoise, Renoise! Solid episode too. 😄

[@madtoffelpremium8324]

Using rechargeable AA batteries doesn't count. Good NIMH batteries can sustain much higher amp draws than Alkaline battries, although they are still leagues away from li-ion or even lipo batteries.

[@kdobson83]

Wouldn’t it have worked better if you used different motors and props that were designed to be super efficient? The old school Flite Test guys used to fly their H quads with 8” 2 blade slow fly props and 2212 motors with wooden booms and everything. That combo pulls max 10 amps with the right pitch prop. x4 motors and your like 40a punch outs and maybe max 20a hover. And they did that on 3s, so less battery than you all used. Anyway, I think this rates a revisit but done with different hardware. Time to call David “The Swede”.

[@polomarknot17]

Allegedly David attempted - and failed - to make it fly on AA batteries

[@JoshuaBardwell]

For the record, we tried like five other things that didn't work, including lithium AA (just as an example), and calling in David Windestal for advice, but not all of that made the edit.

[@CF_Joel]

HAHAHA!!! At the end, JB showed how it can fly with NO batteries!

[@im_botabe]

You're crazy guys, love it. 😂

[@Maskyn97]

I cried when I saw the soldering 😢

[@starshipfpv]

Lol.. Jeff face at the end

[@overkilldyl6841]

Joshua always throwing drones lol

[@metalmansean6040]

its good to see Joshua out of the house and sober.

[@flightevolution8132]

The fuck is wrong with you loser?

[@metalmansean6040]

@@flightevolution8132 im drunk and at home

[@flightevolution8132]

@@metalmansean6040 Pathetic.

[@metalmansean6040]

​@@flightevolution8132 its a joke dog

[@giovannip.1433]

What about using 10" propellers and lower rpm? Move more air utilising 'wing' lift.

[@Vousie]

And in this episode of "Rotor Riot have no science skills and think they can just mash things together"... The fact that Sam could to a full roll and land gracefully again, but they couldn't even with *his own method* tells me there's something seriously wrong going on there.

[@VdubSPAZ]

I'm curious have you guys done a video on different types of lithium batteries...... That would be interesting to see the results of performance...... Because we know we fly with lipo which is lithium polymer .... Then there is liFe batteries and then there is lithium ion and I want to say that they call them lie on ... And then there is a new style but very expensive lithium but it's mostly graphite and it's not our style of lithium graphene but similar you might find the research on KZbin

[@fukale3438]

sick! You should use a dc to dc Step up Converter with AA's and see what happens for science....

[@carboncubss]

Need more Bardwell on RR!!!

[@tylerm.7737]

I wanna see coin batteries next time!

[@niels8096]

How about give it another try with a 1 cell drone, oversized props and 3 AA batteries (4.5v). Can it take of with that weight :P Great video as always!!

[@shadowfpv8904]

Awesome video. Love your flying

[@checkm8606]

How about a race between vanover and drew... but vanover has to use the batteries while drew has his lipos

[@timhout2032]

try 18650's, they're used in vapes, some vapes use 200 Watts or even more. And im pretty sure you can onder them already spot welded

[@LetsFlyRC]

Long time in the making

[@licensetodrive9930]

I'm only a minute in and am guessing you did manage to get it to hover at least. Whatever the material & quantities of they make Duracell batteries with has got to be a closely guarded secret, I found a set of 4 Duracell AA's in an old RC car and after 30 years (or longer) they still read 1.46v, no leaking, can still be used.

[@licensetodrive9930]

​@@smooth_ops2942 Yeah they must've changed their recipe in the past decade or two, Duracells made in that time do now leak. When rechargeable AA's turned up I used them as much as possible because the cost saving over continually buying alkalines was massive. Now I rarely need AAAs & AAs, lithium batteries are reigning supreme, although I wish more devices had user replaceable lithium batteries.

[@traviscook5144]

This is very entertaining

[@Wow88z]

Bardwell is my favorite

[@deadshotx4741]

someone thinks : that will catch on fire. Why are u doing this rotor riot : thats why

[@skippyfpvexperimentalrc6755]

I have been working on engineering a 3s battery to get a fpv wing to fly for 45 min !

[@tk-maker]

Lol, you should try bigger build. I got one 15inch props with 4822 390kv 6s drone, It lift well at 5amp. a single motor will produce 1.5kg thrust at 12 amps

[@Kyodaina_]

i know this is old. but i wish you guys had saftey glasses for this lol.

[@joshwayop]

Use rechargable NIMH AA batteries and it will work even better

[@wongalahara8196]

Camera guy having too much fun with the zoom and quick pans xD

[@Lizlodude]

Large toothpick... I propose we name this class the skewer.

[@Madison_Rosewood-Anderson]

The end 😂

[@babyeater350]

quad mythbusters

[@tehllama42]

So... it didn't occur to any of them to try a 4" ultralight? If you're trying for the most usable setup that can haul a Vista unit (barely), that's going to be the most likely candidate

[@JoshuaBardwell]

To be fair, in 2019, 4" ultralight category basically didn't exist. But our goal was to fly a 5".

[@theinventionshow]

You should try with power-tools batteries 🔋

[@aggrobert8490]

What a great idea Disposable drone batterys Greta would Love you

[@fleabiter]

"omg, it's alive!"

[@rusty1765]

Dammm this is crazy

[@haydenpaulwoodger3562]

Yeah boi!

[@furonwarrior]

What’s most likely going to happen is that the excessive heat from forcing current draw from AA batteries will destroy the anode and cathode, burn up the dry electrolyte before the battery will drain. You guys should really of done the more Scientific approach so you can determine how many AA batteries you would need to actually fly the quadcopter and see if you can pull it off. I would recommend using 6S+ motors because with higher voltage, it’ll use less current draw which is where the AA batteries suffer the most.

[@kitten-whisperer]

Scientific research? Guy, relax. It was just a little video idea to see if it would work. I doubt they actually care about spending the time to research the shit to make it work

[@DigitalN8v]

Change the pids and tune motors and throttle in beta flight.

[@jacobreezyfpv6287]

I've tried all tips of batterys and you should of tried the Energizer batteries last loger not that you guys did anything wrong just my opinion on batteries great video guys

[@Scarecrow_Jenkins]

FINALLY!! 🙌🙌🙌

[@ChrisGripeos]

I'm so confused... is this a "flashback" video? what happened to all the gray hair and beards?

[@potatopilot16]

Yeah it was a flashback video back when they tried to use aa batteries and to now where they found a guy to help them

[@matthewrichmond5179]

Alkaline batteries have an extremely high internal resistance. lipo batts have an internal resistance of around 5 mOhm to 20 mOhm. alkaline batteries have around 100mOhm or .1 ohm. BIG DIFFERENCE. Great video showing why we use LiPo batts... gg on the vid tho

[@MakeStuffDoMore]

It was totally called for

[@AGILISFPV]

5:35 LOL

[@jstagzsr]

try it with liion 18650's or 20700's or 21700's or 26650's.. There are plenty of batteries other than lipos that can power a drone.

[@MasterofNONE1]

Did you guys announce the December giveaway yet ?

[@NOVUSuk]

Great video as per