Does Cold Damage Batteries

A.L.E.X · Dec 19, 2016

I recently got my repaired P3A back from DJI after a prop guard screw "experience."
Where I live, in Canada, its usually below freezing, but really want to fly despite the temperature. I know that cold will decrease battery runtime, but will the battery be fine again next summer? I don't want to blow $200 CAD just because I couldn't wait for a warm day.

I'm fine with poor performance, as long as the battery works normally when temps go up again in spring.

thefrisbee995 · Dec 19, 2016

Give this a read: Cold Weather Can Damage, Zap Electronic Devices

Adjday · Dec 19, 2016

Its also known that when in storage mode (3.80 - 3.85), it helps the lipo to stay in an above freezing temperature (the beer fridge) so it will not loose any voltage (very quickly) over the storage time. Its also good mesure to check the voltage evey couple months to see if they are still holding the charge.

A.L.E.X · Dec 20, 2016

thefrisbee995 said:
Give this a read: Cold Weather Can Damage, Zap Electronic Devices

Interesting article. It seems that electronics are more of a concern than the batteries. It didn't really say that batteries will sustain irreversible damage, and I can't find any other sources that do. I haven't heard of phantoms getting circuit damage simply because of cold either.

royster · Dec 20, 2016

Alex- I flew on Sunday, it was -8 here in Ontario. I really didn't notice battery time affected by cold but, my fingers go so cold I only lasted, about 10 minutes. I doubt flying for 10-12 minutes there is enough time for batteries to be affected by the cold. Unless. you loose your bird & don't find it for hours, or overnight, battery could be toast.
Actually, when I pulled the battery, it was warm to the touch, at least warmer than my fingers!

Dounin Front · Dec 20, 2016

royster said:
Alex- I flew on Sunday, it was -8 here in Ontario. I really didn't notice battery time affected by cold but, my fingers go so cold I only lasted, about 10 minutes. I doubt flying for 10-12 minutes there is enough time for batteries to be affected by the cold. Unless. you loose your bird & don't find it for hours, or overnight, battery could be toast.
Actually, when I pulled the battery, it was warm to the touch, at least warmer than my fingers!

I also noticed the battery actually heats up during flight at freezing temps which might keep the electronics a bit warmer too. I store my batteries at room temp and they are always that temp at take off.
I worry just as much about the battery getting too hot during a summer flight. BTW: my older battery (68% life) heats up much more during flight than my newer battery (98% life). Guess it works harder to produce the needed amperage.
Also - anyone else tracking battery life? Used to be available in Go app, but now only in Litchi. At what Percentage do you toss the battery (for safety sake)?

Quadcopterpilot · Dec 20, 2016

I flew my P3P all last winter, -10c was probably the lowest temp I flew in, but no issues over the summer with the same batteries.
I'm also in Ontario.

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

A.L.E.X · Dec 20, 2016

Thanks for all the responses. I'm going to fly tomorrow but stay close to home as it's my second flight ever. I'm also in Ontario, so your experiences are encouraging. I'll probably get another battery in the spring.

Matts175 · Dec 20, 2016

I'm new to the whole DJI Phantom thing.... but I can tell you that I have a tricked out Traxxas Slash 4x4 with 3s and 4s batteries. I live in Michigan, so I run it in the cold/snow/slush all the time. I've had the same 2 lipo packs for 2 years now and have had zero problems. LEAVING them in the cold is a problem. Just going outside for a 20 minute run and then bringing them back inside is not.

Ohh... and I've been flying my P3 in this cold. Flew it twice today. It was maybe 25F out, but the wind was very strong, so I mostly just hovered around in front of my house at very low levels.

JimmysWoodshop · Dec 20, 2016

Electronics major here...

Optimum working temp of solid state electronics is 33f degrees (just above freezing). Keeps them cool under load but not cold enough to create ice crystals and freeze any moisture inside their housings and cause damage.

Chemical Cells (batteries) can actually benefit from freezing in many ways (not going to get into it) but shouldn't be charged under 40f really. Although it can be depleted at much lower temps. That's just a general rule, obviously there's exceptions.

Quadcopterpilot · Dec 21, 2016

Keep the batteries warm until you are ready to fly and watch your voltage, you should be good.
Bird will take a little longer to warm up so be patient.

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

A.L.E.X · Dec 21, 2016

I flew today and got a solid 13 min flight, with 90% charge at startup. It was just below 0C. I ran it down to 25% and the battery has 26 cycles from previous owner, so I'm happy with this time. The battery was luke warm when I removed it. Quadcopterpilot- the warmup was a reasonable 1 min. The battery was kept inside at 16C before the flight.

A.L.E.X · Dec 21, 2016

Dounin Front said:
I also noticed the battery actually heats up during flight at freezing temps which might keep the electronics a bit warmer too. I store my batteries at room temp and they are always that temp at take off.
I worry just as much about the battery getting too hot during a summer flight. BTW: my older battery (68% life) heats up much more during flight than my newer battery (98% life). Guess it works harder to produce the needed amperage.
Also - anyone else tracking battery life? Used to be available in Go app, but now only in Litchi. At what Percentage do you toss the battery (for safety sake)?

I noticed that instead of a %, the go app gives a mah capacity: I am assuming this could be taken as a percentage against the original capacity on the label. I'm not 100% sure on this though.

Dounin Front · Dec 21, 2016

A.L.E.X said:
I noticed that instead of a %, the go app gives a mah capacity: I am assuming this could be taken as a percentage against the original capacity on the label. I'm not 100% sure on this though.

I wonder how the battery calculates its MHa on the fly? And I wonder what the average milliamp draw is in the air at 20 mph?

A.L.E.X · Dec 21, 2016

Dounin Front said:
I wonder how the battery calculates its MHa on the fly? And I wonder what the average milliamp draw is in the air at 20 mph?

I'm not sure how the battery knows its current capacity, but 4480 mah (my battery) means a supply of 4480 mA for one hour. If the battery used all its capacity and the flight time was the advertised 23 min, it would equal 4480/23=194mA per minute, or 3.25mA per second. At 20mph it would be much more. I haven't checked wether the capacity updates as you fly. If it does, that would be the best way to gage power use.

Dounin Front · Dec 21, 2016

A.L.E.X said:
I'm not sure how the battery knows its current capacity, but 4480 mah (my battery) means a supply of 4480 mA for one hour. If the battery used all its capacity and the flight time was the advertised 23 min, it would equal 4480/23=194mA per minute, or 3.25mA per second. At 20mph it would be much more. I haven't checked wether the capacity updates as you fly. If it does, that would be the best way to gage power use.

I just learned that it does update as you fly. The FLY.dat logs are on the drone. Really extensive. You can download them from the Go app in advanced settings and convert to .csv.