Battery Storage

[joelet]

I live in Western NY and its pretty cold and always snowing so I put my Phantom 4 Pro in storage for the winter. I discharged the batteries to 10% and packed everything away for the winter. I am now having second thoughts about leaving the batteries depleted for such a long time but, if I charge them up again I can't fly due to the weather. Can anyone tell if the batteries are going to stay safe without charging for the rest of the winter? Oh I forgot to mention I have 6 batteries so that's a lot of flying to discharge again if I charge them up. Thanks

 

[solentlife]

CHARGE THOSE BATTERYS !!!!!!!

Let the software auto discharge to storage and safeguard your investment. Storage level for a LiPo is between 30 and 50% ... DJI system achieves about 55% and then the discharge is extremely slow after that

Personally ... charge up fully ... then leave them to auto discharge. Every few weeks check to see that they are still above 30%. If they drop below 30% ... then just charge up again and let auto system work again.

 

[solentlife]

Second - WHY are you not using your P4 to get amazing winter shots ? My P3P is used in temps as low as -10C and lower ... I've had it out there in -15C if the scene is good.
We have averaging -5 to -10C at present and I will be out there next few days videoing with the P3P.

 

[joelet]

I fear I may be to late the batteries have been sitting at 10% for about 2 months. To answer your other question about not flying during the winter is because the weather is so bad here with rain, lake effect snow and high winds off lake Erie daily I just decided to put it away for the winter.

 

[solentlife]

Whatever you do or not ... go get those batterys ... if they are cold from being outside in below freezing - let them warm up in the house first - then plug them in and get them charged up.

You may be OK ... the answer will be if they charge up.

 

[solentlife]

Any update on those batterys ??? I hope they are ok ?

 

[Deleted member 99081]

I live in Western NY and its pretty cold and always snowing so I put my Phantom 4 Pro in storage for the winter.

My reply is about the snow, not so much the batteries. I live in the far west of Ireland where the winters are cold, wet and windy but with little snow. Last year we had snow for 3 days. I flew my P4A and got some stills and videos. Within a week, my photo agency had sold the stills 24 times to national newspapers and magazines. Go get those snow shots!

 

[joelet]

Any update on those batterys ??? I hope they are ok ?

I charged 2 of them last night and they seem fine

 

[joelet]

I charged 2 of them last night and they seem fine

I’ll keep you posted thanks.

 

[joelet]

My reply is about the snow, not so much the batteries. I live in the far west of Ireland where the winters are cold, wet and windy but with little snow. Last year we had snow for 3 days. I flew my P4A and got some stills and videos. Within a week, my photo agency had sold the stills 24 times to national newspapers and magazines. Go get those snow shots!

I had a few close calls with high winds so maybe I’m a little gun shy. Plus I don’t think I would be able to stand the cold for more than 10 minutes. I’m glad someone is getting some good winter shots.

 

[solentlife]

I’ll keep you posted thanks.

I charged 2 of them last night and they seem fine

That's great news ..... now just let the software do its job.

Every few weeks just check to see what charge level you have ... top up to full again when it gets below 30%. The number of life cycles you will use is small compared to cost of replacing those batterys.

 

[Hillbilly Pilot]

OK, I gotta ask. I know with my RC trucks, I use Lipo batteries with them and I've all ways understood that we had to store them at under a 20% bal. charge ( to keep them for having a chemical reaction causing them to expand or burst), if they were not going to be used for two weeks to a month or more. Aren't these the same thing? I hope I didn't miss something in the OP . School me so I can preserve my batteries properly. Thanx H.P.

 

[BigAl07]

OK, I gotta ask. I know with my RC trucks, I use Lipo batteries with them and I've all ways understood that we had to store them at under a 20% bal. charge ( to keep them for having a chemical reaction causing them to expand or burst), if they were not going to be used for two weeks to a month or more. Aren't these the same thing? I hope I didn't miss something in the OP . School me so I can preserve my batteries properly. Thanx H.P.

You're like me.. Old School... I think the manufacturer has opted for a middle of the road approach between battery care and battery risk. Anytime you get down below 20% you've got to watch what you're doing or you risk causing physical and unrecoverable damage to the cells if you dip into single digits. The software in the APP is designed to make it as easy and idiot proof as possible and DJI has chosen the average to be between 30% - 50% just to be on the SAFE side. In reality I haven't noticed any increased safety storing them anywhere in the 20% - 60% range what so ever. Any more than 70% and long term storage we've seen them lose some PUNCH. The higher you store the quicker the loss and of course the longer they are stored the more the loss.

In terms of battery being too cold to charge... we have actually utilized the CHARGE process to get batteries warm that were stored in a cold area. We used to always store our batteries in a cold area and it worked very well IIRC to help preserve battery performance. I store my "generic" packs in the veggie crisper in our fridge with it turned down to it's coldest setting (35deg I think).

 

[Phantombandit]

CHARGE THOSE BATTERYS !!!!!!!

Let the software auto discharge to storage and safeguard your investment. Storage level for a LiPo is between 30 and 50% ... DJI system achieves about 55% and then the discharge is extremely slow after that

Personally ... charge up fully ... then leave them to auto discharge. Every few weeks check to see that they are still above 30%. If they drop below 30% ... then just charge up again and let auto system work again.

Being new I have to asl, how do the batteries “auto discharge?”

 

[solentlife]

20% is below the minimum recc'd by various battery companys online. The usual range is 30 - 50%....

20% will not hurt but I would not store below that.

OK .. Phantombandit ... Auto Discharge.

DJI have built into their packs - a user set number of days before automatic discharge occurs to bring batterys down to about 55% charge level to store. On the P3 - the setting range is 1 - 10days ... with factory default at the too long a period 10 days.

It is generally recc'd to set that to about 2 -3 days to avoid batterys standing long with full charge.

The setting is in GO ... and each battery needs to be plugged in to AC to have the setting changed.

 

[Hendricks]

I absolutely agree with earlier posts on this:

CHARGE THOSE BATTERIES!!

It doesn't take much to keep an eye on them and once they get down to 30%(that would be one light flashing when you press the status button), you should charge them fully.

These batteries need to be cycled regularly in order to be in top shape.

If you don't plan to fly for awhile, just keep those batteries charged.

 

[BigAl07]

Being new I have to asl, how do the batteries “auto discharge?”

I've never taken one apart but there must be some type of "circuit" inside the cap that gets "closed" and the battery slowly discharges via that circuit. It gets ever so slightly warm during the discharge phase and it's done over the course of a couple of days. Much like we used to hook the battery up to a small light bulb or something and just let it sit until it was down to our "storage" charge level.

 

[Phantombandit]

I've never taken one apart but there must be some type of "circuit" inside the cap that gets "closed" and the battery slowly discharges via that circuit. It gets ever so slightly warm during the discharge phase and it's done over the course of a couple of days. Much like we used to hook the battery up to a small light bulb or something and just let it sit until it was down to our "storage" charge level.

Thanks.

 

[Hillbilly Pilot]

You're like me.. Old School... I think the manufacturer has opted for a middle of the road approach between battery care and battery risk. Anytime you get down below 20% you've got to watch what you're doing or you risk causing physical and unrecoverable damage to the cells if you dip into single digits. The software in the APP is designed to make it as easy and idiot proof as possible and DJI has chosen the average to be between 30% - 50% just to be on the SAFE side. In reality I haven't noticed any increased safety storing them anywhere in the 20% - 60% range what so ever. Any more than 70% and long term storage we've seen them lose some PUNCH. The higher you store the quicker the loss and of course the longer they are stored the more the loss.

In terms of battery being too cold to charge... we have actually utilized the CHARGE process to get batteries warm that were stored in a cold area. We used to always store our batteries in a cold area and it worked very well IIRC to help preserve battery performance. I store my "generic" packs in the veggie crisper in our fridge with it turned down to it's coldest setting (35deg I think).

I do the same thing with my generic batteries, my wife has a fit when I store value packs in the frig. Like my garage/shop, I need all the room I can get. I was always under the assumption, cold temps preserved the performance of the batteries. I'm 60 and old habits are hard to break.Thanks for the info. H.P.

 

[Loz]

Agree with all sound advice provided, just to restate one point generic and smart batteries are different - the DJI smart batteries do have a smart circuit built in, to manage the battery state and discharge process & eventually will drop into a logical hibernate mode. Generic batteries as I understand things do not have any smarts, so user must manage charge state and accordingly manage them in storage.