Battery to 1% is it bad?

[Weston Ney]

Ok, time for a humbling moment for me, I was flying my Phantom 4, and about 15 minutes into the flight the wind kicked up. When I was almost home the aircraft started to land at the 13% battery. I finally coasted in and landed at 1% battery. I was very scared!
Is doing this on accident one time going to destroy the battery permanently? Or do you think doing this just made me lose a few cycles in the future?

 

[Shoot4fun]

I would think a single incident wouldn't do too much damage. Just don't make it a habit. Things happen.

Brad

 

[Weston Ney]

Ok, I brought the battery inside and plugged it into the charger and set it on my laptop cooling fan. Maybe that will help.

 

[solentlife]

The problem is the board will not allow charge if its below the threshold voltage.

Sometimes you can plug into charger (use the DJI charger as its a simple power brick) and then keep pressing the ON button to switch on repeatedly - this momentarily 'jumps' the board ,,, keep doing it and you may bring the voltage up enough for it to charge OK ... you will know because finally the battery will switch on and stay on !! with LED's scrolling in charge mode.

A single action 1% should be OK - just get that pack charged to 30% or more as quicklyu as possible though. Do not leave it so low.

 

[Shoot4fun]

@Weston Ney
One more thing to add to all this: Don't charge a Hot battery! As mentioned, get the battery charged soon as possible, but not while hot! Let us know if the battery charged up properly.

Brad

 

[BigAl07]

That's pushing it but if it's a healthy battery a one-off shouldn't cause too much harm. It's also important to note that the SmartBoard leaves a pinch of a buffer (Safety Factor) to protect the battery. The actual amount isn't 1% of battery capacity but 1% of the "Allowed Capacity".

What's harmful is pushing it low repeatedly and keeping it fully charged. Oh Heat... LiPo do not like heat especially when being stored with a charge. IMHO the two best ways to ruin a LiPo are:

1) Short Out causing immediate and detrimental SUDDEN discharge
2) Storing at 100% and in a hot environment

I don't even leave my batteries in my car during the day anymore.

 

[Capt KO]

If it will land, it will charge. When cooled down. Same mistake.

Battery still fine after another eight months of flying.

 

[Ansia]

I don't even leave my batteries in my car during the day anymore.

Learned from experience?

 

[BigAl07]

Learned from experience?

Afraid so. I lost 4 Mavic Pro batteries in 3 days.... all were 100% charged and sitting in my case in my car last month.

 

[solentlife]

Cars .... ask any responsible dog owner how hot a car gets inside ....

 

[John Locke]

1% isn't a problem, I've done that add least a dozen times for test purposes to see what happens with craft behavior. Below 3.00 volts is not good, and potentially harmful, but shouldn't keep the battery from charging unless stored a long time under 3.00V, potential death. If the battery is too hot, sensors in the battery will prevent charging until cool. Avoid letting the batteries get above 100F while storing, that's not helpful, keeping them 50-75F is ideal at half charge for storage.

 

[albert4178]

How long do these batteries last and can they be made to last longer maybe solar energy or a bigger battery

 

[Weston Ney]

The battery sat on the cooling fan for about an hour and blinked it's 4th light saying it can't charge. then it finally started to charge. It charged to 100 percent last night.

 

[Weston Ney]

I just plugged the battery in question into my phantom and checked the battery settings pages. It was running at a little over 17 volts and all the cells were green and equal. Is this good? What does it mean?

 

[dronesky]

I just plugged the battery in question into my phantom and checked the battery settings pages. It was running at a little over 17 volts and all the cells were green and equal. Is this good? What does it mean?

Any cell deviation around 17 is kinda vague Never mind just noticed you did state that they are equal

 

[BigAl07]

How long do these batteries last and can they be made to last longer maybe solar energy or a bigger battery

If properly cared for and stored they can last a long time. I was teaching with a Phantom 2 Standard yesterday with batteries over 3 years old and they performed very well.

Solar Energy? Not a viable option.
Bigger Battery? Not in this particular system... no room.... and the electronics are expecting certain parameters.

 

[Shoot4fun]

My P3 has the original battery going on 3 years now. Haven't checked cycles lately, but it functions just like it always has. I have 2 aftermarket batts less that 4 months old with no issues so far...

 

[Weston Ney]

My P3 has the original battery going on 3 years now. Haven't checked cycles lately, but it functions just like it always has. I have 2 aftermarket batts less that 4 months old with no issues so far...

Thats good. I sure wish that Phantom 4 batteries costed the same as Phantom 3 batteries LOL. I have seen some of the aftermarket batteries for the Phantom 4, and some of them seem like they are good, but I always spend a little extra and get OEM batteries because I am fearful that trying to cheap out on a battery might destroy the much more expensive drone. I have two batteries for my phantom 4, both OEM.

Do the aftermarket batteries void the warranty on the drone?

 

[Shoot4fun]

Can't answer that Weston. Didn't get aftermarkets until my warranty was up on my P3. I have 2 for the P4P, and another just purchased from Ebay (not new, but OEM). $80. As @Capt KO keeps telling me, there's deals, just gotta be patient...

 

[dronesky]

If properly cared for and stored they can last a long time. I was teaching with a Phantom 2 Standard yesterday with batteries over 3 years old and they performed very well.

Solar Energy? Not a viable option.
Bigger Battery? Not in this particular system... no room.... and the electronics are expecting certain parameters.

That would be a hoot seeing you fly a old dinosaur like that with all the hi tech you fly at work