What's your Eggfinder Rx battery life?

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Alan R

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Mostly curious about battery life for the 4xAA option, but if you use LiPo's I'd like to hear that too.
Trying to decide if I want/need to go LiPo route on the receiver.
 
Are you talking about the LCD receiver? If so, I only use the 4 double AA and it lasts a long time. With the flying and testing I've done, I have over 8 hours. Perhaps Cris from Eggtime will reply. I'm sure he knows.
 
Are you talking about the LCD receiver? If so, I only use the 4 double AA and it lasts a long time. With the flying and testing I've done, I have over 8 hours. Perhaps Cris from Eggtime will reply. I'm sure he knows.

Thanks for the reply. Yes, LCD+GPS. Good to know. The docs only mentioned battery life for a 1000+ LiPo unless I missed something.
 
I have used in the past a 300 & 500 mAh lipo but because my case has so much room, bigger is better
 
I thought about a lipo for the receiver, but then I would have had to put another hole in the receiver box to charge. WIth the AA batteries, I have yet to open the box to replace them.
 
I now mount my battery out side the box with velcro for easy charging. Before I added the GPS module for the receiver, I would say for sure, the 500 would last all day. Can't say since I added the GPS module since I am now using the 950 mAh battery but I might charge that one every two launches. Cris Erving can probably give you a better estimate.
 
Good point about the GPS module. I have not used mine a bunch since I added the module (work always seems to get in the way).
 
I use a 1000mAh Turnigy Nano-Tech LiPo on both my EggFinder Tx and Rx LCD w/GPS. The Rx has been used at several launches weeks apart on a single charge. The first time I used the Tx was in my 3" BlackFly for a morning launch at Bong. After I retrieved the rocket, I forgot to disconnect the LiPo. On the afternoon of the following day, the Tx was still transmitting but just barely.
 
On the RX I use a 1000 mAh LiPo. It will last for a long day with the GPS module. LiPo batteries have very good charge retention; you can charge one up, toss it in your range box and use it months later.
 
I use a 1000mAh 7.4v 20C LiPo. Left it on for over 24 hours once and it was still on when I remembered and turned it off. I didn't check the voltage on the battery so I don't know how low it got.
 
The LCD receiver uses about 50 mA, add about 25 mA if you have the LCD-GPS module, another 50 mA or so if you also have the Bluetooth module, and about 300 mA if you use the backlight. Assuming you don't need the backlight, you can get about 10-12 hours of use out of a set of good alkaline AAs with the LCD-GPS module.
 
Assuming you don't need the backlight, you can get about 10-12 hours of use out of a set of good alkaline AAs with the LCD-GPS module.
Thanks for the info.That's good enough. I have rechargeable AAs, as well as lots of extras.
I think I'll double my options and add a LiPo pigtail as well when I wire it in. Just because.
 
Thanks for this thread Alan :)
While I'm not launching right now, I thought about not having changed out my AAs since I built it.
I've only used it for three rocket flights but more draining was for our HAB launch a few years ago. The team launched it in Idaho for the solar eclipse and we were waiting in Wyoming on the other side of the Grand Tetons waiting for its arrival. We had it turned on for at least 3 hours until it landed.

My thoughts right now while reading this thread, are the batteries leaking inside the four AA case and I probably need to replace them. Having bad batteries when you're tracking something isn't good.
No leaks and I was aamzed that when I turned it on it fired right up :)

I built mine so everything fits inside the case, even the wire antenna used to track from >50,000' and miles away. I use velcro to hold the battery case in place. Some day I suppose I'll put in an on off swicth on the case, probably a low profile latching button switch. :)
EggFinder GPS open case.png EggFinder GPS in case.png
 
No leaks and I was aamzed that when I turned it on it fired right up :)

I built mine so everything fits inside the case, even the wire antenna used to track from >50,000' and miles away. I use velcro to hold the battery case in place.
thanks for the update. good to know.

i found a case on Thingiverse and printed mine. Had to make it just a few mm deeper. It was designed for a big LiPo but my tweak fits AA's in a 2x2 case.

Still have to do the GPS board, so it's not screwed down yet. I'll save that project box for something else.

Printed the TX holder also with a 450mah battery. Just plan on clipping it to the nosecone, or running the shock cord through it. The holder fits in a 38mm tube except for the screw cap. I think I might be able to reverse that design and put the cap and threads on the inside of the tube if I ever needed it to get that small.

IMG_20200405_135921266.jpg IMG_20200405_135931124.jpg IMG_20200405_140932132.jpg
 
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