Suitable battery pack?

[scsirob]

Wondering if there's recommendations for a suitable battery or power pack to supply autonomous power to PAW in flight?

I've ran a test with a brand new, fully charged XTORM XB200L 6700mAh Power Bank to see how long it would power the PAW, running the latest 20180129 software. I expected (hoped?) to get about 4 hours out of it, but it ran out at 2:15 hours  . Either I'm dealing with 'marketing mAh's'  or something is off.

What are others using, how much time does it give, and are there any tip and tricks to reduce power usage to prolongue the battery life?

[Admin]

Hi Rob,

3 choices in my opinion
Anker, Anker & Anker 

http://www.pilotaware.com/pilotawareintroduction/
(search for Powering PilotAware)

http://www.pilotaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/PilotAware-Flyer.pdf

Thx
Lee

[Moffrestorer]

I and many other users have the Anker 20100mA/hr power bank. Someone in a post, long ago reported getting about 30 hrs powering PAW from it! I now have the PAW powered from the Aircraft but the Anker provides useful backup for the PAW and recharge for my iPhone, iPad Mini etc when away from civilisation.

[exfirepro]

Hi Rob,

Same as Chris (Moffrestorer) and Lee. Most of us use these...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00VJSGT2A/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=IMA71TT39Z84P&colid=2LV7ZMZCH2EA&psc=1

They have gone up in price a fair bit since I got mine, but are normally good for a full day's flying.

Regards

Peter

[scsirob]

Thanks guys! I'll get myself an anker..

[Ian Melville]

I use one of these and it is more than enough for several hours flying. Velcos to top on my PAW case. It is very close to the size of the original PAW Case

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-PowerCore-Ultra-Compact-High-speed-Technology-Black/dp/B019GJLER8

Edit: help if I put the link in🙄 And the correct one at that 🙄🙄

[tnowak]

Can someone explain "20100mA/hr"?
My knowledge of battery capacity means this battery will deliver 5V at:
20.1A for 1 hour
2.01A for 10 hours
0.201A for 100 hours

Is this correct?

Tony

[exfirepro]

Hi Tony,

Correct in theory, except that it won't supply 20.1 Amps ever - or if it does you probably don't want to be standing nearby! The 2.01 Amps for 10 hours you quote is more realistic, though the PAW current draw will vary, hence normally over 10 hours is realistic.

You often have to take battery claims with a 'pinch of salt', you can find many fairly obviously exaggerated claims on 'flea bay', which is one of the reasons we recommend the Anker units. They have been tested by us over a considerable time period and have always proved extremely reliable. Most users will get a good day's flying out of one pack and I have left units on test many times for up to 15 - 18 hours on a fully charged battery (they usually shut down during the night so it's difficult to be precise without checking system logs).

The other thing we need to watch is that some of the modern 'Intelligent Charging' Packs are designed to supply a constant or slowly varying current for charging phones or tablets and can't cope with the potentially rapidly varying current which can be required by PAW, so unless we know something definitely works we are very wary of recommending it. Any notes of proven alternatives always welcome.

Best Regards

Peter

[tnowak]

Hi Peter,

So a fully charged Anker unit will power PAW for at least 10 flying hours?

Tony

[Ian Melville]

I accidently left a 22,000mAh one running in the car one night. Left at 18:00 ish, it was still running at 08:00 the next morning with capacity left. So 20,000mAh should be good for 10hrs. Normally I use my 10,000mAh one for a days flying (3hrs plus).

[exfirepro]

Ian's link in his post higher up the page goes somewhere strange.

He means this one....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-PowerCore-Ultra-Compact-High-speed-Technology-Black/dp/B019GJLER8/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1518197123&sr=8-5&keywords=anker+power+bank

....Which as Ian says is very close to the same size as the Classic case and is good for 5 - 6 hours flying or more.

N.B. The same Amazon page says lower down that 'There is a newer model of this item', but it uses an upgraded IQ charging circuit, which might be fine - 'IQ chargers' are great for charging phones, but they often don't meet the current requirements of PilotAware and I for one certainly haven't tried this one.

Regards

Peter

[Paul_Sengupta]

The capacity of these power banks are specified at the nominal Lithium Ion battery voltage of 3.7 volts. So 20,100 mAh will be at 3.7V, not at 5V. To work out what it will be at 5V, divide them. So (3.7/5) * 20,100 = about 14,874 mAh at 5V. Then the charging and voltage conversion circuitry are each about 90% efficient. So take 90% of 14,874 and you get 0.9*14874 = 13,386.6 mAh available to power the PAW at 5V. The PAW draws an average of about 0.7A at 5V, so theoretically you can eek about 19 hours out of said power bank.

In my testing experience, you get somewhere between 17 and 18 hours from an Anker 20,100 mAh power bank.

I would expect a 10,000mAh unit to get about half that, 8-9 hours.

[scsirob]

Well, I ended up just building a small dedicated 14V -> 5.2V power supply, fixed install into the plane. One of these noisy switching thingies, but fully shielded in aluminium case against interference, added a ferrite as well. No noise on the radio whatsoever. Flip the switch and PAW is on. GPS feed from my AvMap UltraEFIS which has a very sensitive GPS receiver (fix even inside the hangar) and supports selective NMEA Out. So far so good.

[Dro]

I was looking for a solution without a separate battery pack. I installed an UGEEK UPS Battery Hat in my Raspberry Pi and it works fine. With a 2500 mAh battery is works for about 2 hrs, but of course you can install a bigger battery (e.g. 3800 mAh) and even connect the Anker battery pack for additional power.

See attachment how it fits.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/UGEEK-UPS-HAT-with-Battery-for-Raspberry-Pi-3-Model-B-2B-B-Raspberry-Pi-Battery/32786176030.html

[alan_d]

I was looking for a solution without a separate battery pack.

I also experimented with a Pi battery for an all-in-one solution in my 3D printed case as shown here: http://forum.pilotaware.com/index.php/topic,1144.0.html
The general advise was not to, for risk of it exploding / sudden death etc etc. The fact that batteries in PowerBanks are the same technology appears irrelevant.
Anyway, if you'd like the 'tall' version of my case to fit the PAW and the Pi battery (or with some modifications, the battery you have) let me know.
I have the 'batteryless' version for sale on ebay currently.