Best way to use batteries

[martinetti]

Hi everybody:
I've read about some guy who lost his Phantom due to what can be named as a "wrong battery usage". He launched his bird with 50% battery remaining (or at least that was what DJI Go was telling him). He lost the drone after a Low Battery Landing (unfortunatelly, at sea), just a minute after launching. Log analysis determined that battery was almost empty at launch time, because that 50% is only accurate when you start at 100%.
So, if you use your bird for 5 or 10 minutes you will still have aprox. 50% of your battery. Should you charge it to 100% before next flight? Of course, it will depend on time between flights, so probably the right question is how long is the pause between flights that allows you to trust the remaining battery indicator?

 

[Franky]

Hi everybody:
I've read about some guy who lost his Phantom due to what can be named as a "wrong battery usage". He launched his bird with 50% battery remaining (or at least that was what DJI Go was telling him). He lost the drone after a Low Battery Landing (unfortunatelly, at sea), just a minute after launching. Log analysis determined that battery was almost empty at launch time, because that 50% is only accurate when you start at 100%.
So, if you use your bird for 5 or 10 minutes you will still have aprox. 50% of your battery. Should you charge it to 100% before next flight? Of course, it will depend on time between flights, so probably the right question is how long is the pause between flights that allows you to trust the remaining battery indicator?

Good question I’m also interested in this. Having owned my P3A for a few months and been living off a single battery. I now own 3 and have set discharge to 2 days. I read that this is the best discharge time for Lipo life. I’d be interested in flying for 10 mins and then an hour or so later knowing it could be safe to use the same battery for the remaining 10 mins.

Thanks

 

[N017RW]

Always charge before a flight in this case. Always have a fully charged battery to start flights.
There is no degradation by ‘topping-off’ before flights.
Storage should always be in the 60-40% SOC range long term.
Use the built-in self-discharge feature to be sure your batts are stored properly.

 

[martinetti]

Good question I’m also interested in this. Having owned my P3A for a few months and been living off a single battery. I now own 3 and have set discharge to 2 days. I read that this is the best discharge time for Lipo life. I’d be interested in flying for 10 mins and then an hour or so later knowing it could be safe to use the same battery for the remaining 10 mins.

Thanks

This is precisely the same way I use my P3A. I also own 3 batteries but never fly for more than 10 or 12 minutes, so I wonder if charging batteries after this kind of usage wil shorten battery life.

 

[N017RW]

This is precisely the same way I use my P3A. I also own 3 batteries but never fly for more than 10 or 12 minutes, so I wonder if charging batteries after this kind of usage wil shorten battery life.

No

Topping off before flight is fine.

Long term storage at full charge and derp discharge are the two primary LiPo damaging habits. DJI has provided protection from these issues.

 

[martinetti]

No

Topping off before flight is fine.

Long term storage at full charge and derp discharge are the two primary LiPo damaging habits. DJI has provided protection from these issues.

If you land your bird with 50% remaining battery, and you plan to take offer in the next 5 minutes, obviously you will not top off your battery. If your next flight is going to be next week, you will. So, there is a point when things change. 1 hour? 1 day?

 

[LarBear360]

I fly once a week but rarely go through all 4 batteries. They are all set to the default 10 day and top them all off the night before. Hopefully I'm not messing them up.

 

[N017RW]

If you land your bird with 50% remaining battery, and you plan to take offer in the next 5 minutes, obviously you will not top off your battery. If your next flight is going to be next week, you will. So, there is a point when things change. 1 hour? 1 day?

Sure you can... but the monitoring system is non-linear and there are numerous reports of issues from initiating flight on partially charged batteries.
You’ll need to judge the risk based on experience.
For example, a short, near-by, flight may be fine but planning a longer or BVLOS flight may result in an unexpected landing in an inappropriate location.
Maybe others will chime in..

 

[Neon Euc]

I would like to add to this if that's ok.... I use one of them multi chargers where you can charge 3 batteries and the controller all at the same time rather then one by one...

I noticed that I got a lot of battery deviations with this... This has been going on for about a year... Recently used the DJI official charger and no battery deviations ever since. Could just be a fulty charger (as the fan makes a racket at start up...never used to) but also if you get a 3rd party charge like that then check to make sure it's ok ..

Another tip..... Keep your finger pressed on the battery for 5 seconds ..... Usually you press it once and it tells you how much battery you have.... But holding it down for 5 seconds will give you the overall battery life.... Didn't know that unitll recently...

Another tip.... Register with airdata for free... This will give you info too on battery life and if there is any cell deviations or problems.. plus it will give you info like how your compass was, how strong your satalitte signal was, etc....

 

[solentlife]

The general consensus is only full charge battery for each flight.

I have 3 batts and I never use a partial battery unless its just a short quick test hop for a minute or less and NEVER do I fly more than a few feet.
It may sound over-cautious - but believe me - it saves models !!

I would not like anyone to become another addition to the statistics !!

Nigel

 

[RunningWithScissors]

I have 4 batteries for each of my two Phantoms. I have them set for 5 day discharge cycle, top them off before a flight, never launch with less than 95%, and start monitoring my distance when they reach 50%. The only time I had serious problem was when I relaunched with a bit over 60% and flew longer than expected. It didn't have enough battery to make it all the way back and ended up auto-landing at critical warning. Crashed through the tree canopy at 100'+, flipped over, and landed on its back. Happy ending, though.

 

[Chrislaf]

I have 4 batteries for my P3S. I always fly every flight on a fully charged battery and never launch with a partially charged battery regardless of how long its been. I usually press the button to check I have 4 bars. When I launch, I hover for about a minute and check my battery status to make sure everything is ok before flying off.

 

[Offroader]

I have 5 batteries, one of which sustained damage from a crash. I use it to warm up the AC, hovers mostly, no more than 5 minutes, camera recording. I only fly it about 15' max height and no more than 10 or 15' away. It is also the one I use when I need to power the thing up to check settings on the AC, etc. The others I have set to 2 days discharge and recharge after every outing. If I don't get to the air until they start discharging, I top off on the day I intend to fly. Granted, I have only been doing this since Christmas, I follow the lessons of others on this forum that have been using LiPos for some time.

 

[solentlife]

Just to add about Topping Up ....

Just connecting charger is not sufficient ... you need to Switch ON battery before connecting charger. Reason is - battery control board refuses to top-up if battery is about 90 - 94% charged level. But switching on - bypasses that limitation and allows full charge.

Nigel

 

[Offroader]

Just to add about Topping Up ....

Just connecting charger is not sufficient ... you need to Switch ON battery before connecting charger. Reason is - battery control board refuses to top-up if battery is about 90 - 94% charged level. But switching on - bypasses that limitation and allows full charge.

Nigel

I think I saw a post in the past from you saying that very thing. I do that just to see where the level is when I plug in.

 

[solentlife]

Another tip : People say they check charge level by pressing on button ...

Fine but remember that a full LED is a 25% step ... a flashing LED is a 12.5% step ............

So in fact ALL 4 LED's lit up CAN actually be 87.5% or higher .....

Caution my friends ..... all is not what all appears .....

Check you manual if you do not believe me ...

I personally do not like the LED's for checking full ... I only use them to check low levels ... where it makes more useful sense ...

Nigel

 

[Franky]

Another tip : People say they check charge level by pressing on button ...

Fine but remember that a full LED is a 25% step ... a flashing LED is a 12.5% step ............

So in fact ALL 4 LED's lit up CAN actually be 87.5% or higher .....

Caution my friends ..... all is not what all appears .....

Check you manual if you do not believe me ...

I personally do not like the LED's for checking full ... I only use them to check low levels ... where it makes more useful sense ...

Nigel

I get the top up logic but surely that’s not worth doing if you’ve fully charged the day before? The discharge won’t kick in until after 2 days and you can also prevent auto discharge by pressing the battery button which effectively resets the counter for the auto discharge. [emoji106]

 

[solentlife]

The auto discharge - I agree kicks in at set time as long as battery not touched...

BUT all batterys have Self Discharge - the DJI batterys have an idle self discharge HIGHER than ordinary LiPo's because of the control board ... which stays live even when battery off.

Regardless of auto discharge setting - I still top-up even if only next day after full charge.

But anyway - the Top-Up charge switch on is still relevant ..... I in fact switch on for ALL charge routines I make - even when from storage. I have found I get nearer 100% charge than when I just do it without switch on.

Nigel

 

[Othan1]

I always top off. I also set the voltage to be next to the percentage because that's a more accurate representation.

 

[Franky]

The auto discharge - I agree kicks in at set time as long as battery not touched...

BUT all batterys have Self Discharge - the DJI batterys have an idle self discharge HIGHER than ordinary LiPo's because of the control board ... which stays live even when battery off.

Regardless of auto discharge setting - I still top-up even if only next day after full charge.

But anyway - the Top-Up charge switch on is still relevant ..... I in fact switch on for ALL charge routines I make - even when from storage. I have found I get nearer 100% charge than when I just do it without switch on.

Nigel

That’s worth knowing. Thanks