DiY Long Range FPV Battery Build | Li-ion

Here is a detailed video on how I make my own long range FPV li-ion battery packs. Hope this helps anyone who is thinking of making there own battery's for FPV.
#fpvdrone #fpv #diyfpv
#fpvbuild

[@tobytorials]

Great video! I don’t understand why people complain about the soldering part; it can be done perfectly if you know what you’re doing. 😁

[@shrek4002]

This is just the video I needed thank you so much. Thanks for the great explanations too!

[@andrewmedia3568]

No problem, happy to help. 😁

[@kjsj2304]

Dear friend A great and well explained video .The explanation of balance leads contact point the flow of current from first cell to the last are fantastically explained. ❤ your work

[@monkeygutz69]

Explained well. Kool! Function over looks...Yeppie!

[@Nspecthergadget2010]

Nice job.

[@andrewmedia3568]

Thanks!

[@raptr49]

Well done video. I like the fact that you make these without any special materials. The only improvement would be to use metal strips instead of wires to interconnect the cells. You can solder them as well, so no need for a spot welder.

[@andrewmedia3568]

Thank you! Metal strips would work very well to hold the cells together and conduct electricity. 👍

[@floriandussart2665]

Is it possible to solder nickel strips with tin? A recommendation? What width for 21700 batteries?

[@andrewmedia3568]

@@floriandussart2665 Nickel strips would work great.

[@ugpfpv361]

Copper strips would be better than nickel

[@craycle]

Great Video! Thank you for your efforts, it was nice to whatch.

[@andrewmedia3568]

Thank you I appreciate it.

[@justinanthonyberru4996]

really well explained , thank you so much sir.

[@andrewmedia3568]

Thanks! No problem 👍.

[@illicit_fpv8208]

Awesome. Thanks!

[@kevinglenister6520]

I made two 4200 mah Molicel P42A and I'm getting about 18 -20 minutes cruising 40-70 kph with my CL2 XR 7 inch on a single pack. Question do you charge them to 4.2 volts or just 4.1? Thanks again for the video.

[@andrewmedia3568]

I put my charger on lipo setting and go to 4.2. I don’t think it makes much difference though 🤷‍♂️

[@ugpfpv361]

Yeah that's what I have for my 6", getting about 2 minutes less... I just charge mine to the 4.1 and try to land at 3.0, I was just testing an 18650 pack I made for my cinewhoop and when I got down to 2.6 it fell off a cliff in about 15 seconds

[@Ahmad-gy8zq]

very usefull knowledge video 👍👍👍👍

[@Cadora05]

Great video, thank you !

[@andrewmedia3568]

Glad you liked it!

[@MaxSMoke777]

Looked easy... right up until the balance leads. :[ Does this really save any money over just buying these packs? If it's only saving a few dollars over a professional pack, seems like it might be safer to spend the extra couple of dollars.

[@andrewmedia3568]

It’s a bit more than a couple dollars depending what battery your buying. And if you have the money and don’t want to mess with it then definitely just buy a battery and you’re good to go. And saves you the time of building your own. But if you enjoy this type of stuff, building your own gear. this video was supposed to help people that wanted to build their own packs.

[@dethraft4241]

Nice vid man thanks

[@CaptainKazi]

Nice Tutorial, I just picked up a Dark Lithium from Upgrad Energy, for my new Foxeer Mega 7 build. I wonder what the cost difference is when using DIY Samsung li ion packs

[@andrewmedia3568]

Its a pretty big cost difference. Much cheaper to build. But you just order yours and charge it. No hassle, I just wanted to build for fun and use the specific cells I wanted.

[@ugpfpv361]

Upgrade energy is about the only one I would say compare to what you can build with the best molicel cells... With upgrade being about 3x the price

[@CaptainKazi]

@@ugpfpv361 Hmm, I own a few Upgrade energy packs now and I love them. I'm not fond of the idea of building my own batteries when flying 8k out..

[@ugpfpv361]

@@CaptainKazi yeah kinda scary at first but actually pretty easy, and quality of cells is the same that they use, but being out there, anything can happen, lol, but my battery is literally the least of my worries

[@JuicySmullietFPV]

Yes! I’m excited to watch this! Thank you for pushing this video out! How much does your 6S weigh just so I have an expectation? I'm going to be using P42A batteries also. lastly, is it just my connection or is the last minute of the video just black?

[@andrewmedia3568]

My 6s p42A packs weigh 466g each and I run 2 together in parallel for my LR flights on the 7" quad. And yes the the last minute is just black lol. I messed up the export of the video and don't want to re upload.

[@JuicySmullietFPV]

@@andrewmedia3568 running in parallel, 8400mah, how long of flight time are you seeing?

[@andrewmedia3568]

@@JuicySmullietFPV If you are just cruising and easy on the throttle 15-20 minutes. maybe could get more. Ive never purposely tested how long of a flight I could get. the longest I've done is 17 minutes though. I built the 6s for mountain surfing and testing the dji system range. At some point its a diminishing return on mAh vs the weight of the battery/drone.

[@cagmuer]

I'm getting ready to build 30 (yes thirty) 6S 18650 packs for my lawn mower (and I'll also use them on my LR airplanes) and I'm using recycled cells from modems. Good video and matching some of the choices I am making. Good video.

[@andrewmedia3568]

Thank you! Good luck with the battery packs. 👍

[@Dot2TheLock]

If your going to do 30 I would sugest getting ur self a spot welder for 100$ and somes bars and save your self a lot of time

[@dronepilot260rc]

Nice video bro!

[@andrewmedia3568]

Thanks. 🤘

[@SpaghettiFPV-tg3qh]

cool vid

[@andrewmedia3568]

Thank you.

[@kevinglenister6520]

Great video, don't worry about the remarks from those key board warriors, that never have anything good to say and in their wildest dreams have any idea of how much time and effort that goes into making a video like this. As I'm kind of new to FPV and just finished my third build a 7 inch CL2 XR from roto riot ( Ihave skyliner like you as well which ive bashed alot lol) and Im making some 6 s with molicel P42A , being 6 cell will that make them a 6000 mah battery? Or still a 4000mah like these 4 cell packs. Sorry it may sound like a dub question. :)

[@andrewmedia3568]

Thank you! The molicel p42A is Technically 4200mAh for one cell. So making a 6S pack would still be 4200mAh and 45 amp continuous discharge rating, If your just running one single 6s pack. I run 2 6s packs together in parallel so the voltage stays the same at 6s but the amperage increases to 8400mAh (4200mAh x 2) and 90 Amps continuous discharge since im pulling from 2 packs equally at the same time. Batterys wired in series increases voltage but amperage stays the same. And wiring batterys in parallel increases amperage but voltage stays the same. Hope this makes sense and helps. lmk if you have other questions, maybe I can help.

[@kevinglenister6520]

Thank you, I understand the parallel vs series with voltage just didn't get the correlation to mah, good explanation. Unrelated question, I just built a 7 inch drone and used a two antennas set up on a ELRS radio master single receiver, 2.4 , I have the front antenna vertical and rear horizontal. So which way do I run the T radio antenna. Thanks appreciate your help. @@andrewmedia3568

[@ryankingston7733]

Great video,Thank you! Liked and sub'd : )

[@andrewmedia3568]

Thanks I appreciate it!

[@johnrosner8964]

Using solder To build batteries is a bad idea I think you know why

[@andrewmedia3568]

I wouldn’t say it’s a bad idea if you know what you’re doing. It’s not the “correct” way. But my packs have worked very well on quite a few long range flights. I did mention in the video that it’s not the correct way and it’s at your own risk. 🤷‍♂️

[@rollon_no1168]

I have soldered battery packs together since 1988, NiCad packs back then. Soldering is better than resistance welding, but You must limit the amount of heat put into the cells. See Chris Rosser's video on making li-ion packs.

[@andrewmedia3568]

@@rollon_no1168 No dont see chris rossers video he used a tiny soldering iron and held the heat on too long because of that. Not sure why people think he did such a great job building those. He definitely did not do it correctly. 🤦‍♂

[@rollon_no1168]

Yeah, I noticed that too. What I meant is the negatives of building packs with resistance welded nickel strips.

[@ugpfpv361]

​​​@@rollon_no1168yes if your just doing spot welding with the 1.5 Nickel strips alone, but there are ways around that which will get you probably 90% of the way to the lower resistance on soldering but without the risk of heating the cells up too much

[@kevinglenister6520]

Question can you attach two lipo batteries in parallel as well?

[@andrewmedia3568]

Yes you could solder them in parallel to make one single pack, but I just made a parallel xt60 and plug them in.

[@kevinglenister6520]

@@andrewmedia3568 yes that’s what I meant, using a parallel plug. Thanks

[@FlockingForDays1]

Are the molicel P45B better than the P42A??

[@andrewmedia3568]

It seems like it might be. Just looked at it and the continuous discharge amperage is the same but with a slightly higher mAh at 4500 vs the 4200 of the 42a.

[@rodic-y]

There is a reason not to use Spot Welder? Should be easier not?

[@andrewmedia3568]

Spot welders work great, but I don't have one and soldering works very well too.

[@niemma2]

I have keenlab kWeld, i bought it for hobby use at the time, nowadays i also use it at work when i build batteries. I recommend kWeld.

[@ziedtimoumi9496]

Hey brimo, i want ask if the 18650 / 5800 mah li-ion will be ok to make 4s. Thank you.

[@andrewmedia3568]

Not sure I understand your question. You just need a battery that has at least a 35 amp continuous discharge rating. Doesn’t matter if it’s an 18650 or 21700 size cell. And 4 cells for 4s obviously. The discharge rating is most important. Most high mah have lower continuous discharge and lower mah have higher discharge. But a few cells have both. Like the molicel p42a, p42b and the Samsung 40T I used in this video. Also sony has some good 18650 cells. The vtc 5 or 6.

[@ziedtimoumi9496]

Thank you for answering, i asked beacause the 21700 is out of stock where i live, so i have just the 18650 available.

[@ziedtimoumi9496]

It's branded BRC 18650 4800mah 3. 7 v, it's all what i can have in the shop close to me, it will be ok?

[@andrewmedia3568]

@@ziedtimoumi9496 without knowing what the continuous discharge rating is idk. If it’s only like 10 or 15 amps you could kill the cells with one flight or have a quad on fire. I would say they are not safe to use unless you know the rated continuous discharge amperage is.

[@Cephas2904]

Great video mate, respect from India. Two questions, how would I know the C rating? And two, will it suffice, since FPVs would need a higher discharge rate as given by LiPo batteries

[@andrewmedia3568]

Thank you! So I bought these battery's from a Reputable Vendor online. 18650batterystore.com, they specialize in cells used for electric skateboards and bikes and so on. For the name brand cells like samsung, molicel and sony they have the spec sheet and graphs posted on the page for the cell. So that shows the max discharge rating, charge rating, mAh at different temps. So you just need to find some cells like the sony VTC6 or Molicel P42a, those have known discharge ratings like 45 amp continuous. As for fpv discharge rating I run 2 6S packs together in parallel giving me 90 amps continuous discharge (45 amp x2= 90). Thats plenty of amperage for flying long range. I'm typically pulling around 30-40 amps during normal flight at 30-50mph. so that leaves plenty of extra amps for altitude increase or limited punch outs. I just watch how many amps im pulling while flying. You also need to make sure your amp settings are correctly calibrated in betaflight. hope this helps.

[@Cephas2904]

@@andrewmedia3568 Wow, thanks for the detailed reply. And two 6s packs in parallel? Is it 6s2p or quite literally two 6s packs? If the latter, I’m confused how you’re accommodating them on the drone

[@andrewmedia3568]

@@Cephas2904 It is kinda 6s2p, but it is literally 2 6s 21700 cell packs I made strapped to the drone and a parallel XT60 connector I made. Check out this video link, I show them briefly in the intro at around the 1:30 mark. kzbin.info/www/bejne/anKZeYlqoLGAgs0

[@Cephas2904]

@@andrewmedia3568 yeah just saw it mate. You’ve got a permanent subscriber now, thanks. :)

[@minhquanghotelquangbinh4521]

please tutorial video calibration battery for lion betafligth ! thüank you

[@ugpfpv361]

There's nothing you need to change in betaflight, but if you don't lower your low battery warning, that will be flashing once your voltage goes below that point, one of my quad I haven't set yet and the flashing is just annoying, that's all.

[@flyingwithtofu]

Would suggest using spot welding to connect the cells, it's safer and much faster.

[@divingfalconfpv4602]

I want to make a 6s4p pack. I'm nervous 🤣 🤣 🤣

[@andrewmedia3568]

6s4p 😮. You flying a cinelifter??

[@divingfalconfpv4602]

@andrewmedia3568 what's that? I got a whoop... just kidding. 8" and 10" Long Range Quad. I have run 6S4P 18650 on the 8". I paralleled 2 6S2P packs

[@ViewFromAbove_]

How heavy did that end up??

[@ugpfpv361]

Ust be heavy on the throttle... Doing a lot of diving and pulling amps?

[@MattBalder]

Great video and your packs look like quality builds. I believe either solder or spot welding nickel are both good methods if done correctly. If anyone is wanting more information on spot welding nickel strips and arranging them to meet your amp draw I have found this video useful. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rZW9kHaXlNh0kKcsi=UxJL67N2Qd0h6bku

[@djaseniro]

This is kinda confusing im making a 6s 😭

[@andrewmedia3568]

Im sorry I tried my best to explain. Just be careful. 👍

[@user-pn9li7uq6o]

wow - rosser put out this same video with so much more knowledge a day ago and this guy's gonna rehash it immediately... maybe look into creating genuine content

[@andrewmedia3568]

Seems like you have a lack of knowledge. This video took multiple hours to film and days to edit. I have been working on this for a while and finally finished the edit today. And as for rosser, he definitely used way too much heat and held the iron on those cells for much too long. Using a tiny soldering iron and tip. Not they type of "kNoLeDgE" people should be listening to when it comes to this specific topic. go read his comments alot of people saying the same thing. too much heat for to long. If you actually watched my older videos I mentioned a few times that I was going to make a battery build video. In fact my last post before this I mentioned it before rosser posted his video. "More Knowledge 🤣" you dont even know enough about this to know rosser made mistakes.

[@dieselphiend]

you sound miserable.

[@GiantAntCowboy]

@@andrewmedia3568 I made this video years before Chris Rosser… it’s all about putting your own twist on it. You obviously put a lot of time & effort here, so nice work. We all agree Rosser didn’t do the best job soldering but I did appreciate his comparisons. I’ve been arguing that Soldered packs perform better than spot welded packs for years now and he basically proved that point. Keep up the good work, cheers!

[@user-pn9li7uq6o]

@@andrewmedia3568 imagine being this butthurt 🤣 and then going on to speak ill of another content creator. i take it back, your priority should be to look into being a genuine human first.

[@andrewmedia3568]

⁠@@user-pn9li7uq6o so just because I criticized one video he made I’m a “bad human”? But didnt you “speak ill” of me in the first place 🤔. Chris is well known in the community for a reason. Cause he makes great content, testing and showing the results. I didn’t say Chris is a bad guy, I just gave you the same level of respect you gave me and explained some things he could have done better.