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Batteries
PowerCube
™
Batteries and the Flyer-LE
™
The PowerCube batteries are rated at 6.0
Ah, 14.8V. Please read the literature that
comes with each battery and charger for
details.
Generally we use the batteries in pairs,
generating (nominally) 29.6VDC
in series (24V setting of switch), or
13.8VDC in parallel (12 volt setting of
switch).
It’s best to use batteries that are roughly
equally charged. In the 24 volt mode, one
battery is “tapped” to also provide 12
volts at the power connectors.
For a lightweight, 12 volt running rig,
you might want to remove a battery,
and/or use one Endura 7 or compatible
battery. Use two smaller batteries for a
lightweight 24 volt rig.
Discharge rate
As your Lithium-Ion PowerCube™
batteries are used, the voltage drops
at a fairly regular rate. However, the
sample 30 watt discharge chart shows
some interesting information. Hot off
the charger, a single battery will read
16.8 volts, but within a minute drops
to 16.1 volts when under load. This is
normal, and not a cause for concern or an
indication of a weak battery.
At the 30 watt discharge rate, the battery
voltage drops slowly for about 3 hours
from 16.1 volts to the “knee” voltage of
13.8 volts – slightly faster at the upper
end, and more slowly as the battery is
discharged. When the voltage reaches
13.8 volts, the voltage drops off very
quickly to 11 volts (within 8 minutes).
The batteries have a self-limiting cut-off
of 11 volts.
If the voltage drops below 26 volts when
the camera is not running, you will not
get any appreciable run time with most
35mm, 24 volt film cameras.
Charging your batteries
There is no memory effect with Lithium-
Ion batteries. There is also no need to
deep discharge your batteries to improve
their response. Charging a completely
discharged battery (11 volts) to fully
charged (at 16.8 volts) with a 3.0 amp
charge takes about 2 hours and 40
minutes, but the battery reaches 80% of
a full charge (at about 16.5 volts) in just
over 90 minutes. The last 20% of the
charge cycle takes over an hour.
We suggest that if you have the time,
fully charge your batteries. If you are in a
hurry, however, charge them only for an
hour and a half or less, as an 80% charge
of these batteries is still a lot of watt-
hours, and typically you are using two of
them. Also don’t discharge them much
below 13.8 volts if possible.
Note: If you have the optional VL-
4S charger, all batteries are charged
simultaneously. With one, two, or three
batteries on the charger, the charge
current is 3.0 amps per battery. When the
fourth battery is added to the charger, the
charge current for each battery drops to
2.3 amps, which will increase the time it
takes to charge each battery.
