Hot Swapping Batteries
Hot Swapping Batteries on the IF800 is useful as it can allow you to continue a waypoint mission flight without losing your place. This process does require the aircraft to be rebooted.
To perform a battery hot swap on the IF800, follow these steps:
Once the aircraft has landed and disarmed unlock the batteries
Take ONE of the discharged batteries out of the aircraft and set aside.
One battery must remain in the aircraft when hot swapping to maintain power to the mainframe. If both batteries are removed then the aircraft will turn off.
On the first new battery, press the center button to awaken it. Then insert it into the drone.
Remove the second discharged battery from the aircraft and set aside.
This battery might flash red this is normal and can be clear when pressing the center button. This fault state protects the battery from being charged by the full battery.
On the second new battery, press the center button to awaken it. Then insert it into the drone.
Next you will need to do a software reboot of the aircraft. DO NOT power the aircraft nor the ground control station off.
On the Ground Control Station, navigate to the IGC icon in the upper right corner, select vehicle settings, scroll doen to parameter settings and select the tools button in the top right, opening a menu with the option to "reboot", select reboot. The aircraft will beep and restart.
Resume the Flight You can continue the flight, including resuming a waypoint mission mid-swap.
Important Notes
The "reboot" command is a soft reboot. After hot swapping, Ardupilot will continue to look for the original batteries and this will cause a CAN device error. The soft reboot resets the system, allowing it to connect to the new batteries without cutting power or resetting the payload, allowing you to resume a waypoint mission without losing your place.
Future updates to the IGC will include a dedicated button for this process, eliminating the need to navigate through menus.
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