How many charge cycles can one expect on the P3 batteries?

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I've done only 17 flights to date and have always seen 100% life on my stock battery. Today I charged it and when I started the P3 up it said it only had 91% battery charge, fresh off the charger. Also the battery life was down to 83% from 100% yesterday. At this rate I will have a dead battery in a month. Surely they should last longer than this!

I've been flying in temps around 100F or 38C and the battery is too hot to hold when I take it out right after a flight. Would running the P3 in the heat be killing the battery? Would cycling the battery fix this?

Thanks!
 
Two things to know about lipo's that come into play with your question
If your battery is too hot to hold after use, it's not great for the battery.

However, discharging or running your battery below 80% of its charge is worse.
That kills them very fast, and will shorten its life quick.

There isn't much you can do about the heat after use, except watch how hard you fly when it's hot out, and what temperature you fly in.
 
I don't run below 30% usually, but do you subscribe to running down to7-8% or so every 20 cycles or whatever the manual says?
 
On almost every flight I have landed shortly after the 30% low battery warning. I haven't hit 20 cycles yet so I haven't run it down super low and charging from there. I guess I could do that now and see what happens.
 
Possible semantics here... The rule of thumb has historically been don't discharge more than 80% of capacity.

Many chargers on the market report the # of mAhs the battery received.

You're then supposed to modify or adjust your flight time so as not to put back more than 80%.

The 'intelligent' battery config. makes this impossible to tell anymore.
 
Correct, he is saying it's not good to run them down to 20% battery life. As a rule, when I hit 30% and the alert goes off, I head back to land. I usually land with at least 25% left but it's not a big deal for me to leave those extra few minutes of flight time on the table.
 
I agree the LEDs are useless really.

I have Batt. telemetry in my P2 and reach 10.7v under load with two LEDs still lit. (10.65v is the P2 'hidden' LVCO)

I have no intention of trying to run-down to 8%, etc., to reset the LED indicator.
 
I have a 14 month old Phantom with none of the original two batteries. You won't get more than 50 flights without some issues, and way less if you bang or drop them.
 
Joe,

This is consistent with my DJI experiences as well as when I used to fly 450 CP-helis.
50-60 cycles and they were retired to bench testing and set-up or disposed.
 
Anyone know how they count a cycle? I believe with my iPhone, if I'm at 100% and drop to 50... charge and then the next day go from 100% to 50% and charge. That equals 1 cycle. Or is each charge, even if its at 80% to 100% counted as a cycle?
 
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I used 9 P2 batteries over a year and a half with 4 quads. I sold 2 batteries and 2 more are working fine still but that's 5 that were retired - 4 DJI and one Limefuel). I never got more than 60 flights on a battery. I assume the P3 batteries will be similar but I only have 25 flights total on 3 batteries now and they all seem perfect. It's kind of sad that 50 flights means $3 or so per flight just for the battery and I hate having to dispose of so many large batteries. I would be a lot happier if they got 100+ flights each.
 
I have a 100+mph 1/8th scale rc car that uses a 6s setup. Had the same batteries for 2 years and probably have 100+ cycles easy and it works perfect still.

My original p3 battery is at 28 cycles right now I still get 100% and it still last just like it did the day I got it. I've charged it even after only 5 mins of flying I don't pay attention to the whole run it down after this many flights or never go below this. These quads have it built in to when it sees a dangerous low voltage it auto lands. It's to prevent the LIPO from going bellow a certain voltage. Just like RC car ESC'S do. I'm no expert but in my years of using lipos I've never had any issues.
 
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Anyone know how they count a cycle? I believe with my iPhone, if I'm at 100% and drop to 50... charge and then the next day go from 100% to 50% and charge. That equals 1 cycle. Or is each charge, even if its at 80% to 100% counted as a cycle?

In the Pilot App on your phone/tablet look at the battery info, it tell you # of cycles.

1 cycle is = cumulative charge(s) to 100
After Flight 1 you change form 70% to 100% (you input 30%)
After Flight 2 you change from 30% to 100% (you input 70%)
Total of input across 2 flights = 100% = 1 cycle

This is the same for all devices that advertise rated battery cycle counts.
For example Apple rates their iPad LiPO's will hold 80% of their design
capacity after 1000 cycles.
 
I have a 14 month old Phantom with none of the original two batteries. You won't get more than 50 flights without some issues, and way less if you bang or drop them.

Not sure I believe you, 50 flights is not the same as 50 battery cycles. I would be shocked if I only got 50 flights out of one of my batteries.
 
Dji claimed that you should get 300 cycles out of the phantom 2 battery. Getting less than 100 seems like a class action waiting to happen...
 
I have a 100+mph 1/8th scale rc car that uses a 6s setup. Had the same batteries for 2 years and probably have 100+ cycles easy and it works perfect still.
Same here 6S brushless Erevo and custom brushless Summit (both out of commission). I Still have my three year old Max Amps which took a beating and are starting to puff a little, but still hold a charge.
 
another thing to consider is to not keep them 100% charged all the time. so basically

- dont keep em 100% charged too long (they have a self discharge feature for storage which is great!)
- dont bottom them out, (dont go under 3.5v/cell, land before it hits that like at 3.75)
- dont fly them too hot (phantom tends to heat up), let them cool down before you charge again (because chemicals inside)

then, if you're unlucky some may still die earlier than others - but in generally its pretty good.
 
I have a Thunder Tiger X50E Heli running on 12S 5000 mah batteries, I get about 7 minutes of 3D flight then I reach my 20 percent and land. My battery is hot but you can hold and not get burnt. If you take care of your batteries and let them cool down before you charge them, let them cool before you fly they should last for 100+ flights with out a notion failing.
This is my first Phantom so I can not give any valuable information about the life of the pack but if the cheap Chinese packs get 60 to 100 these better get 100+.
Make sure you set your discharge to less than 5 days and get in the habit of leaving it at 60% when you put it away it should do good. I set my discharge to 3 days knowing I am not in that much of a hurry for anything.
 

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