I have a p4p and only fly it once or twice a week. I have one battery and usually run it down to about 30%. When I want to fly I charge the battery for the drone and then I charge the transmitter battery until fully charged. My question is should I charge the transmitter every time I fly or is it hurting it charging when it’s not really that low?
Battery charging
- Thread starter Graggy
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The transmitter doesn't take a lot of battery while in use. Personally I wait till I get down to the last light then charge it up. Been doing it for 18 months now and no issues
N017RW
Premium Pilot
Agree with Neon.
While LiPos don't typically like being stored at full or near full charge this seems less critical in low current demanding situations (as opposed to the on-board aircraft battery). While this may sound contradictory- it is also not damaging to frequently charge or top-off these batteries.
Also know that transmit power does not decrease as the battery discharges. These devices employ voltage regulation which means they typically only require about 4volts to operate at spec. and therefore have full power until you get the low-batt indication or warning.
While LiPos don't typically like being stored at full or near full charge this seems less critical in low current demanding situations (as opposed to the on-board aircraft battery). While this may sound contradictory- it is also not damaging to frequently charge or top-off these batteries.
Also know that transmit power does not decrease as the battery discharges. These devices employ voltage regulation which means they typically only require about 4volts to operate at spec. and therefore have full power until you get the low-batt indication or warning.
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Best practice is to drain aircraft to 30 percent and charge. The transmitter is the same. It’s a LiPo battery. Topping off charged up batteries cause early swelling. I have been buying lipos for over 10 years now. There is a happy medium to them. Take care of them and they will take care of your investment.
With flight batteries, you don't have to drain the battery to 30% to charge it. There is no harm charging a battery at 50% or 75%, but generally speaking most everyone flies their batteries down to around 25 to 30% anyway. However, if you have a battery at 60% when you get home, that's ideal for storage, wait and charge it right before you fly. Try to prevent storing batteries that are depleted, especially below 20%. Storing at 50 to 60% is best practice, however that can be difficult to do unless you have the DJI charge cradle that charges 3 batteries, one at a time. That cradle has a storage mode that will bring your batteries up to about 50 to 60% and stop, which is the ideal storage level. Then the day before you fly, flick the mode switch and charge them up to 100%. This happens fairly quick, about 30min per battery since they are already half charged.
Storing at 100% is not good for extended lengths, that's why the flight batteries have auto discharge incorporated, in case you forget. So, if you plan on not flying anymore, such as for winter, you can throw a 30% battery and a 100% battery in the cradle, set the mode switch to "storage" and they will be charge and discharged accordingly to the 50-60% level for winter storage. You don't have to leave them in cradle, just unplug and store them away. If it's more than 4mo I suggest you plug them in and check their storage level, but they will likely be OK.
However the RC doesn't have the auto-discharge feature. So it's best to NOT store it for long lengths of time (over 2wks) at full charge if possible. I never charge my RC after each flight. One charge is good for about 10-12 flights. I won't charge the RC until it gets down to half charge or lower, or 2 LEDs and less. Since I have 6 flight batteries, I can't fly all my batteries with an RC that's half charged, so 2 LED's is when I typically charge to 100%. I keep a car charger with me all the times in my drone backpack in case I need to charge the RC battery in the field, but beware, the RC battery charges at a slow 2A rate, it takes several hours to charge the RC up. An hour charge on the RC will get you about 4 flights, if I remember right.
Storing at 100% is not good for extended lengths, that's why the flight batteries have auto discharge incorporated, in case you forget. So, if you plan on not flying anymore, such as for winter, you can throw a 30% battery and a 100% battery in the cradle, set the mode switch to "storage" and they will be charge and discharged accordingly to the 50-60% level for winter storage. You don't have to leave them in cradle, just unplug and store them away. If it's more than 4mo I suggest you plug them in and check their storage level, but they will likely be OK.
However the RC doesn't have the auto-discharge feature. So it's best to NOT store it for long lengths of time (over 2wks) at full charge if possible. I never charge my RC after each flight. One charge is good for about 10-12 flights. I won't charge the RC until it gets down to half charge or lower, or 2 LEDs and less. Since I have 6 flight batteries, I can't fly all my batteries with an RC that's half charged, so 2 LED's is when I typically charge to 100%. I keep a car charger with me all the times in my drone backpack in case I need to charge the RC battery in the field, but beware, the RC battery charges at a slow 2A rate, it takes several hours to charge the RC up. An hour charge on the RC will get you about 4 flights, if I remember right.
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