rdmonster

My set up is an IFO MK#3 with an e-flight 370 4100 KV, e-flight 20 amp esc and TP 2 cell lipo. At first I had plenty of power. Not straight up vertical but good strong climbs and enough juice to run though three or four loops in a row. It would also take off in about three or four feet. Now it takes longer to take off and has much less authority when climbing and maneuvering. With the 4100 kv motor it seems like Im pretty much always at full throttle. Might this be killing my battery??Nothing has been getting hot just a little warm but I don't know a ton about electrics. I was thinking about either getting the 5400kv motor or a 3 cell lipo. If stepping up the volts would do it Ill go for it but if the battery is ok I'd get the power by stepping up the KV. It's charging just fine and my flight times haven't seemed to have dropped just less power. Is this normal for a lipo. Its probably got about 30 flights of 20 minute duration.My friend has a MK 3 with the same battery but the 5400 kv motor and it has a bunch of power to spare!!Any help with my battery problem would be great. Thanks

Greg Covey

It sounds like you've damaged the Lithium pack from drawing too much current but I cannot tell because you didn't say which ThunderPower cell you were using, just that it was a 2-cell TP pack.

Matt Kirsch

My Feedback: (21)

Yeah, if you're drawing too many Amps from the pack, neither of your solutions is a good one, as both will cause even MORE Amps to be drawn from the pack.

Besides drawing too much current, overdischarging the pack will also cause damage. If you're flying for 20+ minutes, until the low-voltage cutoff kicks in, do you have the cutoff set properly? It needs to be set at 3.0 Volts per cell if it's programmable. If the LVC is not programmable, you need to time your flights carefully, and land when the buzzer goes off.

Another possibility is crash damage. I would have to assume that this plane has seen a few hard landings in its time, even an occasional one straight on the nose... Prop shafts get bent, motors get jammed up... Both of these will cause "loss" of power (it's actually a gain of power, but it's being used to overcome the excessive friction from the damage, and doesn't get to the prop).

rdmonster

I must have not fully charged it because it was flying great the last three times out. I'm sure the packs not damaged and it actually has not had any bad crashes. It's went in a few times but no broken props or bent shafts. I do sometimes charge it off my riding mower and was wondering if the lower amps it puts out in comparison to my car battery would give it something of a lower charge.It is a TP 2 cell lipo at 1320 mah ( ithink thats the mah). I think I may but the hotter motor any way because my friends will literally climb straight up until it's a speck. He also only uses 1/4 to 1/2 throttle most of the time so with the same battery his flight times are doubled!! As a side note last week I charged off my mower so often that when I went to cut the grass I had drained the mower battery and had to jump it off my car!! Thats some flying!!!