Conventional batteries are the cells, some cables, plastic foil … and thats it. Balancing of the cell voltages is usually done by the battery charger and the estimation of the remaining capacity is done by current counting by an additional device on your drone. This is comparably imprecise and needs a fully charged battery with precisely known capacity to function at all.
Smart batteries contain a battery management system (BMS) which manages all the relevant safety and monitoring funtions internally. It can also include the balancing of the cell voltages. Information about state of charge (SOC), battery health (SOH) and eaven expected lifetime can be gathered and communicated with the host. Especially for health and lifetime estimate it is essential, that the BMS is permanently connected to the battery.
What is smart about a smart battery?
Conventional Batteries …
Conventional batteries are cells, some cables, plastic foil … and that’s it. Balancing of the cell voltages is usually done by the battery charger and the estimation of the remaining capacity is done by current counting by an additional device on your drone. This is comparably imprecise and needs a fully charged battery with precisely known capacity to function at all.
With an aged battery the calculation might not add up.
Our Smart Batteries
Our smart batteries contain a battery management system (BMS) which manages all the relevant safety and monitoring functions internally. It also includes the balancing of the cell voltages. Information about the state of charge (SOC), battery health (SOH), remaining flight time and even expected lifetime is gathered and communicated with the host. Especially for health and lifetime estimate it is essential that the BMS is permanently connected to the battery.
Additionally, our batteries are swaped within seconds with one simple grip
aeroPAX Smart Batteries
The new aeroPAX smart batteries monitor the state of charge and the state of health of the battery and report it via UAVCAN to the flight computer. This enables better flight planning because your actual flight time is calculated based on sophisticated algorithms that take the history of the battery into account. Based on your actual usage, a lifetime forecast is made to give you a better ground for planning.
We are using new lithium-ion technology which is becoming more common in high-power applications. This allows for a lower weight-to-energy ratio compared to lithium-polymer pouch cells.
Swapping the batteries is easy with a quick release mechanism integrated in the handle and an slide-in and plug system. The battery is taken out one-handed within seconds. All important system data can be checked via a small display in the front of the battery. The batteries are hot-swappable and can be used in parallel.
During the build of your drone, the design saves you time and effort. You need fewer cables and connectors which saves you weight. In operation, you again save time because the batteries are rapidly exchanged while the battery information on the display grants better planning and therefore a safer operation. During a flight, you always know the current state of charge (SOC) which allows for optimal utilization of the battery capacity