45 times charged, 89% battery life

[t2adze]

Hey All

I recently learned about the battery maintaining and how to take care of it.
But now i see that one of them is 89% life left. at it was charged only 45 times.
Is there anything specific i can do, or i should be aware of ?
Or i just continue flying, but consider the battery taking care rules i learned?

P.S.
Also i have another question.
I have discharge set to 3 days. What if after 3 days when it starts to discharge, which takes 2 more days, i decide i need to fly. But the battery is discharging? what do i do?

 

[With The Birds]

Hey All

I recently learned about the battery maintaining and how to take care of it.
But now i see that one of them is 89% life left. at it was charged only 45 times.
Is there anything specific i can do, or i should be aware of ?
Or i just continue flying, but consider the battery taking care rules i learned?

P.S.
Also i have another question.
I have discharge set to 3 days. What if after 3 days when it starts to discharge, which takes 2 more days, i decide i need to fly. But the battery is discharging? what do i do?

Don't worry about the auto discharge status, just charge and fly. Just pressing the power button cancels the discharge as does connecting the charger.

89% life doesn't sound too bad for 45 cycles. I look more at the the lowest initial capacity and major deviations recorded (using healthy drones). How many mah the charger puts back into the battery and cell balance are very good indicators of condition. Served me well long before smart batteries and some life % DJI hasn't elaborated on the algorithm for calculation.

 

[Dronason]

Don't worry about the auto discharge status, just charge and fly. Just pressing the power button cancels the discharge as does connecting the charger.

89% life doesn't sound too bad for 45 cycles. I look more at the the lowest initial capacity and major deviations recorded (using healthy drones). How many mah the charger puts back into the battery and cell balance are very good indicators of condition. Served me well long before smart batteries and some life % DJI hasn't elaborated on the algorithm for calculation.

Fully agree with you.
1) Expected life of battery is about 300 cycles, so that match. You should avoid low level discharge < 5% and never leave them at that level. Don't forget that the % is an estimate only and that it is more the voltage that tell you real situation.
2) Always fly with fully recharged batteries. Better to discharge down to see at least last LED blinking and recharge it fully (it will not take that much time).

 

[With The Birds]

Fully agree with you.
1) Expected life of battery is about 300 cycles, so that match. You should avoid low level discharge < 5% and never leave them at that level. Don't forget that the % is an estimate only and that it is more the voltage that tell you real situation.
2) Always fly with fully recharged batteries. Better to discharge down to see at least last LED blinking and recharge it fully (it will not take that much time).

Voltage will give you a good idea of state of charge. Cell balance, particularly under load and at end of flight and mah put back into a pack when charged are much more reliable indicators of health.

 

[t2adze]

Don't worry about the auto discharge status, just charge and fly. Just pressing the power button cancels the discharge as does connecting the charger.

89% life doesn't sound too bad for 45 cycles. I look more at the the lowest initial capacity and major deviations recorded (using healthy drones). How many mah the charger puts back into the battery and cell balance are very good indicators of condition. Served me well long before smart batteries and some life % DJI hasn't elaborated on the algorithm for calculation.

Whay is the battery life % after which i should stop using the battery?

Sent from my SM-G900FD using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Mark The Droner]

The consensus is, you should ignore the battery life percentage altogether.

 

[With The Birds]

The consensus is, you should ignore the battery life percentage altogether.

Tell me more please..... Does anyone actually know how the percentage is determined? I see no correlation in my packs.

I tend to think it is pretty useless atm. I plan to retire a pack when I see 20pc reduction in usable capacity or significant cell balance issues under load. Pretty much how I handled dumb lipos.

 

[Mark The Droner]

About the battery life percentage... I'm just guessing. I assume it has something to do with the 300 cycle life but there are surely other variables. But who do you know who has cycled their battery 100x - never mind 300? Batteries seem to go way before then, so what good is the life percentage figure?

 

[With The Birds]

About the battery life percentage... I'm just guessing. I assume it has something to do with the 300 cycle life but there are surely other variables. But who do you know who has cycled their battery 100x - never mind 300? Batteries seem to go way before then, so what good is the life percentage figure?

It's not charge cycles and it's not difference between lowest initial capacity and rated capacity. At least it's not solely based on or weighted towards these. It's not a function of charge cycles/300 (or another constant) either.

I was interested to learn why it should, or rather why it could be safely ignored.

 

[Dirty Bird]

If I recall correctly the anticipated life of a Phantom battery is ~300 cycles. This would be complete discharge down to some percentage DJI deems fully discharged. If you only discharge to 50% it won't be counted as a full cycle. In other words you might get 2 charges before a cycle is counted if you only discharge to 50%. That being said, if you are at 89% life with 45 charge cycles, you aren't doing bad. You still have nearly 90% life remaining. Not sure if the battery firmware forces the battery into uselessness when life reaches 0%?

On your P.S. question, if the batteries are discharged/discharging, I suggest charging them to 100% before flying.

Hey All

I recently learned about the battery maintaining and how to take care of it.
But now i see that one of them is 89% life left. at it was charged only 45 times.
Is there anything specific i can do, or i should be aware of ?
Or i just continue flying, but consider the battery taking care rules i learned?

P.S.
Also i have another question.
I have discharge set to 3 days. What if after 3 days when it starts to discharge, which takes 2 more days, i decide i need to fly. But the battery is discharging? what do i do?

 

[MichaelR]

About the battery life percentage... I'm just guessing. I assume it has something to do with the 300 cycle life but there are surely other variables. But who do you know who has cycled their battery 100x - never mind 300? Batteries seem to go way before then, so what good is the life percentage figure?

I was just searching the forum for any threads on ppl's numbers of battery charge cycles and 'life expectancy' of batteries etc.

I've had my P3P seventeen months now and have made 375 successful flights. I have had 3 batteries almost since day 1, and have tried to use them equally. Just checked my number of cycles and % 'life expectancy' and they seem to be holding up pretty well.

Battery 1. 117 Charges. 92%
Battery 2. 115 Charges. 94%
Battery 3. 120 Charges. 95%

I was going to ask if there was anyone out there that has got any battery upto the 300 cycle level, and if so, was the battery still useable?

Cheers


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

 

[Alan Russel]

I have just purchased a new battery for my P3P, the old battery had 91 charges 80% battery life. I was noticing sometimes the bird was lacking power, have been running external batteries the last few months which may account for battery deteration? any feedback appreciated.

 

[MichaelR]

I have just purchased a new battery for my P3P, the old battery had 91 charges 80% battery life. I was noticing sometimes the bird was lacking power, have been running external batteries the last few months which may account for battery deteration? any feedback appreciated.

Alan,

Have you tried re-calibrating your old battery? I.e. Run it down to 8% power or less, leave it to cool to room temperature, then charge it to max.
Then check the % battery life.
My 3 have all dipped to around 80%, but re-calibrating has boosted them back up


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

 

[Alan Russel]

Hi MichaelR I have not re-calibrated in a while, I will do that and check % battery life gain. Thanks. (I am still running in new battery.) fly safe.