Intel® Falcon™ 8+ Drone - Topcon Edition: Smart Batteries - BMS Menu

The Intel® Powerpack™ Battery features automatic balancing, storage mode and charging. 

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Intel® Falcon™ 8+ Drone - Topcon Edition: Smart Batteries - BMS Menu

Overview:

For further information about the battery you can activate the menu of the BMS. For activating the menu it makes no difference if the battery is connected to the power supply unit (in charge) or not. To activate the menu:

  1. Push/hold down the button (> 2 sec). The activation of the menu is shown when the first LED (no. 1, red) is flashing, indicating that the first menu option can be activated by another long push on the button (> 2 sec).
  2. Every further short/brief push (< 2 sec) on the button navigates to the next menu option which can be activated by another long push on the button (> 2 sec), indicated by the flashing of the respective LED. If there is no user input, the LED menu is closed after 33 sec.

Menu option 1, charging state:

When LED 1 is flashing menu option 1 can be activated. When activated, the LEDs show the state of charge of the battery . After showing the state of charge of the battery for 8 seconds the menu is closed automatically (all LEDs off).

Menu option 2, Storage Mode:

When LED 2 is flashing menu option 2 can be activated. When you select this option by pushing/holding down the button for more than 2 secs the battery Storage Mode is activated. When this mode is activated all but one LEDs are on. The off LED moves from right to left.In the Storage Mode the BMS automatically balances the battery down to 3.8V / Cell (= 15,2 V per battery). The battery Storage Mode can be deactivated by pushing the battery button for more than 2 secs.We recommend to use this mode when you plan to store the battery for 2 days or longer. When it is necessary to activate storage mode on batteries, make sure to have them discharged by flying with them before. So that they can be charged to storage voltage level.

 It will take very long to discharge full batteries to storage voltage because there is only a small resistive load.

Menu option 3, charging cycles:

When LED 3 is flashing menu option 3 can be activated by a long push. The LEDs show the current battery charging cycles, i.e. how often the battery was charged.
The total number of charging cycles of the battery is shown by the LEDs in a binary system by powers of 2 from right to left multiplied by 10.

The LEDs show the total number of charging cycles of the battery from right to left beginning with LED 5 (green) = 20, this number has to be multiplied by 10

Menu option 4, overall capacity:

Menu option 4 shows the current possible amount of charge the battery may hold when fully loaded as percentage compared to the factory battery capacity.

The LEDs show the current possible battery capacity as percentage compared to the factory battery capacity.

Menu option 5, battery status:

Menu option 5 shows the difference (in percentage) between the highest measured cell voltage and the lowest measured cell voltage, measured at the same time.The BMS tries to balance the charging status of all 4 battery cells to the same level. By measuring the difference between the highest cell voltage and the lowest cell voltage the actual battery status is determined. This status can be shown by activating menu 5.

The LEDs show the status of the battery.

To get a comparable result, this battery status check is done best directly after use/flight.

BMS error mode:

If during the charging process the LEDs are lit alternatingly in the way LED2 and LED4 ON <=> LED3 ON, the charging process is interrupted for one of the following reasons:

  • The battery cells are too hot (> 45°C) or too cold (< 0°C)
  • Charge Control Circuitry too hot ( > 70°C)The charging process will resume automatically once the cells cooled down respectively heated up.

 

When the battery shows LED1 ON and LED5 ON alternating with LED2 and LED4 ON, the battery was operated out of specifications (e. g. too hot during discharge).When a battery shows this behaviour, it will still be possible to discharge its remaining capacity, but it must not be used it anymore. When you have a battery showing this error mode, push the battery button once. As a result, a few LEDs will be lit. Please either make a photo of the lit LEDs or note which ones are lit (no. 1 is the LED most left, no. 5 is the LED most right). Contact the support team at Intel and provide the information which LEDs are lit. In case this state became active during a flight, please also provide a log file of this flight.If you see any other behavior of the LEDs contact your supplier.