Battery life ends when?

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Hey all

One of my batteries, when holding the button for 5 secs, shows 2 lights only. Its pretty old battery. How do i know when to stop using it without risking my drone crashing?

Thanks
 
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I've always wondered as well.

Paul, what is the lowest percentage would you advise when you have to scrap the battery or does the Go app specifically tell you its knackered?
 
To be honest, I don't know if Go will tell you in time or not. Coming from years of lipo use on helis and planes, I look for overall capacity compared to the stated capacity and, more importantly, balanced cells. I'd want to keep all cells within 0.15V of each other.
 
One of my batteries showed 4 green LED lights upon take off, DJI Go also said 100%. Took off about 15', was just about to fly off to the photo subject when the Phantom wanted to land itself almost right away. Had a devil of a time holding it back for a gentle, controlled landing. Just two green LED lights showing upon landing and DJI GO said the battery was just 10%. Conclusion: the battery was no longer holding a charge so I scrapped it. Took it to Best Buy for recycling.
 
I've always wondered as well.

Paul, what is the lowest percentage would you advise when you have to scrap the battery or does the Go app specifically tell you its knackered?

It's more of a question as to the condition of each cell and not an over-all percentage. The software can give you this information.
 
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One of my batteries showed 4 green LED lights upon take off, DJI Go also said 100%. Took off about 15', was just about to fly off to the photo subject when the Phantom wanted to land itself almost right away. Had a devil of a time holding it back for a gentle, controlled landing. Just two green LED lights showing upon landing and DJI GO said the battery was just 10%. Conclusion: the battery was no longer holding a charge so I scrapped it. Took it to Best Buy for recycling.

You should never only go by lights or even percentages. I _highly_ recommend displaying the voltage on the Go app and watching that. It's the lowest reading in each cell.
 
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One of my batteries showed 4 green LED lights upon take off, DJI Go also said 100%. Took off about 15', was just about to fly off to the photo subject when the Phantom wanted to land itself almost right away. Had a devil of a time holding it back for a gentle, controlled landing. Just two green LED lights showing upon landing and DJI GO said the battery was just 10%. Conclusion: the battery was no longer holding a charge so I scrapped it. Took it to Best Buy for recycling.


Ye Gods. You might have been a fair distance out over water and ...................................

Not worth thinking about.
 
I have 2 batteries, one with 56 charges and one with 58
4215 mah capacity and 4240
both 86% battery life left
one cell came up red at 3.6 volts
and then I had a battery with 4 charges and 99% life and one cell came up red at 4.1 volts
 
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Not really sure
I've been flying for a couple years with those batteries and sometimes the battery cells show red and sometimes they don't
I'm not going to ditch a battery with 4 cycles just yet
May be just a variation or percentage from the other cells when it shows less than the others
I think when the volt of a cell gets to 3.1 then the battery shuts down
 
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Not really sure
I've been flying for a couple years with those batteries and sometimes the battery cells show red and sometimes they don't
I'm not going to ditch a battery with 4 cycles just yet
May be just a variation or percentage from the other cells when it shows less than the others
I think when the volt of a cell gets to 3.1 then the battery shuts down


Thanks Bud. Handy info.. I will do a bit of research for a definite answer and report here with any findings.


H'mmm. See :-

Is my battery toast? Lower voltage on 1 cell | DJI Phantom Drone Forum

Post No. 2
 
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To be honest, I don't know if Go will tell you in time or not. Coming from years of lipo use on helis and planes, I look for overall capacity compared to the stated capacity and, more importantly, balanced cells. I'd want to keep all cells within 0.15V of each other.
Agree 100%- mah put back in on last charge and cell balance are the most reliable indicators of health followed by internal resistance where it might be conveniently measured. I find 70mv imbalance is ok as an upper limit, 15mv would be fantastic.
 
So, is there a specific voltage figure which will tell me that the battery is kaput?

Not so much to show the batteries over-all health (but it can help). More so when launching and flying. You mention that your battery was at 100%. This is a guess by the software and may not have been correct. Here is what you should note when it comes to battery voltage:

Don't allow voltage to drop below 3.3V
Try not to fly under 3.4V
Your battery may shut down completely at 3V
 
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Thanks guys for the input.

Thinking about it, there are enough tasks to carry out before take off.

I suppose what I am after is the answer to this :-

Is there any way to quickly check on the Go app. whether the installed battery is good to support a flight duration one would expect?
 
I still don't understand. If there is no deviation in voltages, you can keep flying even if your battery health is 10%?
 
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