Modded P4P battery mod brackets DIY'D

tml4191 · Mar 5, 2017

I had the materials, so I spent a few hours custom fitting the instamorph with a piece of plastic from a dishwashing rack. The weight may be heavier, but it's an easy design that snaps on and off. The total weight of the battery, brackets, instamorph, zip ties, and battery mod are less than 500g. I have yet to test this setup, but here are some snapshots.

Parts:
-2 Batteries (On Sale): Durafly Curtiss P-40N Warhawk 25C 4S 2300mAh 15.2V LiHV LiPo Battery by Venom

-Battery MOD: DJI inspire mods new easy power adaptor phantom 3 pro/adv

-Instamorph: Amazon.com: InstaMorph - Moldable Plastic - 6 oz: Arts, Crafts & Sewing

-Battery Charger: Accucell S60 AC Charger (US Plug)

-Drone Decal: Shop iClearShield

Spike_151 · Mar 5, 2017

It will be interesting to see how you get on with this and how much extra distance you get with the batteries. I know the P4 series cannot carry as much weight as the P3 series, but its a payoff as to how much extra energy is needed to fly with the half kilo extra versus the extra power provided by the batteries. Im not sure what the power to weight ratio is for the P4P standard out of the box. Perhaps someone else here will know those figures. I would be trying to source the lowest weight batteries available if I were to do a battery mod to mine, and not necessarily the most powerful in output.

Given you have nearly thirty minutes flight time standard, I was wondering why you want the extra flight time, are you going to try and break distance records?

tml4191 · Mar 5, 2017

Spike_151 said:
It will be interesting to see how you get on with this and how much extra distance you get with the batteries. I know the P4 series cannot carry as much weight as the P3 series, but its a payoff as to how much extra energy is needed to fly with the half kilo extra versus the extra power provided by the batteries. Im not sure what the power to weight ratio is for the P4P standard out of the box. Perhaps someone else here will know those figures. I would be trying to source the lowest weight batteries available if I were to do a battery mod to mine, and not necessarily the most powerful in output.

Given you have nearly thirty minutes flight time standard, I was wondering why you want the extra flight time, are you going to try and break distance records?

I did not know the p3 has superior carrying capabilities compared to the p4 series. Thanks. Hopefully this design will reduce the stress cracks that I've read about here. I did it for the sake of added flight time. I'll definately report it in, but the weather might be a factor. It flew fine with a single 4000mAh pack under the vps, but it often drifted up and down, so I'm attempting to do it this way and compare results.

spirytus · Mar 5, 2017

What paint did you use to pain the shell? Did you disassemble before painting or masked?

tml4191 · Mar 5, 2017

spirytus said:
What paint did you use to pain the shell? Did you disassemble before painting or masked?

It's a decal. The link is in my first post^

azgeek · Mar 5, 2017

tml4191 said:
I had the materials, so I spent the few hours custom fitting the instamorph with a piece of plastic from a dishwashing rack. The weight may be heavier, but it's an easy design that snaps on and off. The total weight of the battery, brackets, instamorph, zip ties, and battery mod are less than 500g. I have yet to test this setup, but here are some snapshots.
View attachment 77694 View attachment 77695 View attachment 77696 View attachment 77697 View attachment 77698

That looks promising. Let us know what type of additional flight time / distance you get compared to the OEM HC battery.

I like the decal and have asked if they have other colors (other than listed on the web site) for greater visibility. Thanks for posting that link.

tml4191 · Mar 6, 2017

azgeek said:
That looks promising. Let us know what type of additional flight time / distance you get compared to the OEM HC battery.

I like the decal and have asked if they have other colors (other than listed on the web site) for greater visibility. Thanks for posting that link.

Update: Either the weight was too much or the batteries aren't that good. I got 22minutes wih 22% left, so I stopped the test. It flew better with the single pack under the vps, but I might have to change the bracket weight to lower the total weight.

tml4191 · Mar 7, 2017

Update: The batteries might be the problem. When I charged them to storage after the test, it only charged up to 52mAh and 152mAh for the other one, so that means they are not being fully utilized; therefore, it might be the extension cable or the batteries themselves. I guess more testing is required because as far as balance, this dual split pack flies better than the single fat pack under the vps.

tml4191 · Mar 12, 2017

Update: I purchased a new parallel xt60 cable since that or the batteries seem to be the problem. I shaved down the battery brackets to 9 grams each, and that only increased the flight time by about 30 seconds, so the batteries or the split cable is the problem.

bacano115 · Mar 12, 2017

nice p4p. I also have a modded p4p with a split 5200 mah battery and get killer flight time. I hit like 5 miles today and only used up like 25% battery. I plan on going out to 7 or 8 miles out tomorrow.

tml4191 · Mar 12, 2017

bacano115 said:
nice p4p. I also have a modded p4p with a split 5200 mah battery and get killer flight time. I hit like 5 miles today and only used up like 25% battery. I plan on going out to 7 or 8 miles out tomorrow.

That looks like FPV custom brackets! Nice. I was looking into that, but I had to make sure my venom batteries were legit. What exact batteries are those?

bacano115 · Mar 14, 2017

Sorry for the late reply. Yes those are custom fpv brackets. I had Paul Shaffer do it. He does a pretty good job

tml4191 · Mar 23, 2017

^7% left with the multistar 4000mAh.
It's decent, but I think the 5200mAh will give more time

bacano115 · Mar 23, 2017

What was your total distance?

tml4191 · Mar 23, 2017

bacano115 said:
What was your total distance?

I didn't go for distance; I went for time. I basically just flew it within LOS in fairly huge circles at a medium to full speed.

bacano115 · Mar 23, 2017

Oh ok. You should try distance next time. With a 4000 you could probably hit a little over 4 miles before you have to return

Phantom751874 · Mar 24, 2017

Single batteries from board power always works best. Some of us here messed around with dual batteries from a modded craft battery and found all the additional wiring caused a lot of additional electrical resistance and therefore lost energy (low flight times) versus a single battery.

tml4191 · Mar 24, 2017

Phantom751874 said:
Single batteries from board power always works best. Some of us here messed around with dual batteries from a modded craft battery and found all the additional wiring caused a lot of additional electrical resistance and therefore lost energy (low flight times) versus a single battery.

Thanks for the insight. You're the second to note this, but I prefer the convenience since I don't plan on doing near 40 minute flights everytime. I think this mod still works great though. I might mess with a bigger battery before making a final conclusion on this battery mod.