3 s Lipo batteries are prevalent for most small electronic devices. These are higher in energy, lighter in weight, and long-lasting. Therefore it does not matter if you are a hobbyist or a professional, 3 s Lipo batteries are needed by everyone. This guide will walk you through everything about 3 s lipo batteries to choose the best 3s lipo battery for your devices.
You can find more information on our web, so please take a look.
3s Lipo is a rechargeable battery based on lithium-ion technology. It uses polymer electrolytes instead of liquid electrolytes. It is a high energy density battery within a compact size ideal for small gadgets where weight is very crucial. A 3s Lipo battery contains three individual batteries inside one pack. Each battery has 3.7v that is connected in series making 11.1 volts. So in 3s lipo battery “3” means 3 lithium polymer cells and “S” means connected in series. The voltage of the battery increases with the increase in number like 4s have 14.8 volts and 2s will have 7.4 volts.
2s and 3 s lipo batteries are different from each other. Both batteries have different voltage range, power output, and capacity. Here are the key differences between these two lipo batteries.
In general, 3 S LiPo batteries provide more power, capacity, and runtime compared to 2S, making them a popular choice for medium to high-draw electric devices and models. However, 2S batteries are lighter, more compact, and better suited for smaller, lower-power applications.
You can determine the nominal voltage of an “s” series lipo battery by its name. In 3 s lipo batteries, the nominal voltage is 11.1. Each cell contributes 3.7v when you connect in series. In a 3s battery the full voltage rate is the following:
Note: If you charge a 3s battery above the charged range of 12.6V, it can damage the battery life. Similarly discharging the battery below 9V is also harmful for the battery. However, most 3 s lipo batteries have built-in circuits to prevent the battery from overcharging and discharging.
The 3 s lipo batteries come in various capacities depending upon the power needed for the device. You will find a 3s lipo battery of mah as the lowest battery capacity and can get a 3s lipo battery mah as a higher capacity model. In the market, you will find the following three popular models commonly used for devices.
1. 3S Lipo Battery mah
This 3s mah battery is a stable battery in weight and power ratio. The average price of this battery sits around $20 to $25 depending upon the battery brand. It makes the battery an ideal choice for most RC applications specifically RC plans.
2. 3S Lipo Battery mah
This 3s battery is suitable for various applications, including but not limited to high-performance drones, RC aircraft, medical equipment, and professional cameras. You can get this battery for $30 to $35.
3. 3S Lipo Battery mah
It is the 3s Lipo Battery mah commonly popular among high-performing devices. Because it has a huge power capacity the runtime of electronic applications becomes two times higher. It is a suitable battery for RC planes and vehicles, cameras, drones, and different equipment. The price range of this 3s lipo battery mah capacity is around $50 to $70 depending upon the quality and brand.
There is no fixed runtime of a 3s lipo battery because it relies on several factors to calculate how long a 3s battery can last. Let’s check out the following determining factors.
As an example, a 3S lipo battery mah has the following approximate runtimes:
3 s lipo batteries are rechargeable. So if you choose the best 3s lipo battery for your electronic device, it is important to have a suitable 3s lipo battery charger. In the market, plenty of chargers are available, but choosing a suitable one is essential to have a long battery life and higher battery backup.
1. Charge Rate
Choose a 3s lipo battery charger that has a charging rate of 0.5C to 1C. A 3s lipo battery usually needs 2.5A to 5A. Therefore, you should not look for a charger having higher charging amperes, as these can damage the battery.
2. Charge Modes
Good quality chargers are intelligent enough to charge the battery at different charging modes. Moreover, these have overcharging and temperature protection to protect the battery. Therefore, choose the 3s lipo battery charger having a three-stage charging mode and active battery protection feature.
3. Input Power
Usually, chargers come to handle AC input power ranging from 110V to 240V AC. however, there are DC chargers that support 12V DC and can charge the battery with a car battery or solar power.
4. Connectors
Make sure, that the selected charger must have a required connector to charge the 3s lipo battery. So you should verify connector types like XT90, XT60, or Deans.
There are plenty of 3 s lipo batteries in the market. But choosing the right one is always a challenging task. Therefore, we have shortened the list to 5 so you can choose the best 3s lipo battery for your device. Here are 5 of the best 3 S LiPo batteries on the market.
1. Ufine 11.1V mAh 3S LiPo Battery
Ufine Battery is a leading polymer lithium-ion battery manufacturer. It provides an extensive range of 3s lipo batteries from mah to mah. Moreover, it offers battery customization to power every electronic device.
2. Tattu 11.1V mAh 3S LiPo Battery
Tattu is a popular battery brand for its high-quality 3 s LiPo batteries. It has a wide range of 3s lipo batteries to power all the demanding applications like large drones and high-speed RC models.
If you are looking for more details, kindly visit SINC.
3. Turnigy Nano-Tech 11.1V mAh 3S LiPo Battery
The Turnigy Nano-Tech 3S mAh LiPo is an excellent value-oriented option. It offers generous capacity and power output at an affordable price point. The battery uses nano-technology to achieve high energy density without sacrificing cycle life or safety.
4. Venom 50C 11.1V 3S mAh LiPo Battery
Venom’s 3S mAh LiPo is known for its high power density and compact size. It makes 3 s lipo batteries for drones and RC vehicles that need lightweight and high-power batteries. It can be a good choice if you need a compact powerful battery.
5. Multistar Elite 3S mAh 30C LiPo Battery
The Multistar Elite series provides a good balance of capacity, weight, and price. This is the best 3s lipo battery for the device that does not need high power and discharge
Larger battery allows for longer flight time. Unfortunately the increase of flight time isn’t proportional to the increase of battery size, which means you are looking at something like this.
Before we begin, make sure to read the basics of LiPo battery for drones.
As the battery gets larger, the increase in flight time becomes ineffective. Eventually it will reach a point where it just doesn’t gain any more flight time with bigger battery (even lose flight time). This is mainly caused by the weight of the battery. Also note that the heavier your copter gets, the less agile it will be. But some people prefer the stability it brings with heavier weight, some would call it “flies like a tank” :). Apart from capacity, there is also C-rating you need to consider, which I shall explain later.
The trade off between flight time and battery capacity, makes it more difficult to choose which battery should be used, rather than just “pick the largest battery available”. There are techniques you can use to help with this selection task – creating graphs and mathematical model in Excel, which I found really useful when comparing various products of the same kind. I recently bought some 4S batteries for my FPV tricopter, I will use this as an example. This technique should be useable for any multicopters, including the 250 mini quad.
Talking about Batteries, here is a tutorial on how to do LiPo parallel charging.
First, list all the batteries with different capacities, brands of the same cell number. You can include their weight, price, etc in your table. For example I was looking for 4S lipo battery for my tricopter and here is the table I created.
It’s important to note, that the batteries you listed can supply enough current for the motors. Max current supplied by the battery can be calculated by this formula:
max current = capacity * C-rating
First, work out what would be the possible max current draw from your motors. I usually just look at the motor datasheet, which should tell you what the current draw is at 100% throttle, times number of motors, and add some margin for other electrical parts, and you have the possible max current draw from your quadcopter.
My tricopter has a max current draw of around 30A – 35A, and all of the batteries below meet the requirement.
From these data, you can create some very interesting and useful graphs, for example I usually do
From the above graphs, if I am only going for best performance and not worry about the price, I would definitely go for mah, mah, or mah. Also mah might be a good choice too due to its outstanding value.
These graphs tell you some insights into which battery has the highest price/performance ratio, but it doesn’t tell you whether this is the best battery for your RC aircraft, quadcopter or tricopter. To do that, we need to create a mathematical model.
This is actually pretty fun to do. By using this model, you will be able to calculate the flight time of any battery. All you need to do is to put in the data of that battery in the excel spreadsheet. Of course, this is only an estimation, but it does give you an rough idea what battery to go for, and save you from spending too much money and time to try each type.
First of all, you need to get one battery first, and collect data using it. Basically the data we need is flight times under different loads. You can of course collect some other data as well to help you identify what is the max load your multicopter can take, for example, the throttle value, current etc.
In my example, I used a mah 4S Lipo Battery as a reference, and tested the flight times under different load weight (0g, 110g, 220g, 340g, 405g, 515g – all these weights are physical items I can find in the house that’s why the uneven numbers). This is the data I collected from 6 test flights.
I always land the tricopter when the voltage alarm beeps, which is when the voltage reaches 3.5V per cell. The column “Actual Capacity Used” is not really needed, but I collect it just to make sure my data is valid. I got that from my charger, when I charge it fully at 4.2V per cell, I know what capacity was used in the previous flight. I then work out “mah / second”, which is the speed of power consumption, and we can draw a graph from this.
The good thing about Excel is, it provides an equation from a few dots on the graph. This is probably should not be a linear relationship, but the battery weight falls within this range so it’s close enough for me.
So here is the model. “Cap at 3.5V (86%)” is the effective capacity that can be used during a flight. I am making an assumption that the voltage drops down to 3.5V when 86% of battery capacity is used. “mah/s” is calculated from the above equation, we can work out the mah/s for each battery, depends on their weight.
And now the estimated flight time is roughly equals to effective capacity divide by mah/s. For example for the mah battery, the effective capacity is mah, and the speed of power consumption is 5.75mah/s, so the flight time would be 898.16 second which is nearly 15 mins.
When I worked out all the flight times, I found this interesting relationship between size of the battery and flight time. That’s exactly what we predicted at the very beginning.
That’s the analysis I always do when buying batteries. I made a lot of assumptions above, so also do your research on the flight time, ask people for their experience, to verify your theory.
Let me know if there is any mistakes in the method, or any better ideas.
Want more information on mAh Lithium Ion Battery? Feel free to contact us.