Is the 30% low battery level setting good?

Joined
Jun 12, 2015
Messages
889
Reaction score
116
Age
43
I took the p3 out today after not flying for a week... Gimbal was off again but what else is new. Well into the flight I was feeling adventurous when all of a sudden I hear sirens and a woman is yelling at me. From spending way too much time here I started to panic thinking it's one of those battery failure warnings and so I wooshed the quad back only to realize it was that silly 30% batt level warning. I was so happy my quad has yet to prove itself defective but sheesh 30% seems a little high to me... Thoughts?
 
Last edited:
I took the p3 out today after not flying for a week... Final was off again but what else is new. Well into the flight I was feeling adventurous when all of a sudden I hear sirens and a woman is yelling at me. From spending way too much time here I started to panic thinking it's one of those battery failure warnings and so I wooshed the quad back only to realize it was that silly 30% batt level warning. I was so happy my quad is yet to prove itself defective but sheesh 30% seems a little high to me... Thoughts?
Depends on how far away and how high- that silly 30% battery warning can be changed if you are not going to be to far away and too high, but when that comes up, you need to be ready to move to the landing location and start descending. It wont be long before critical battery level will come up and the Phantom will want to auto land.
 
Do you keep yours at 30%? And at what percentage does it go from go home and land to LAND LAND LAND!
 
Do you keep yours at 30%? And at what percentage does it go from go home and land to LAND LAND LAND!
I try to start descending and getting close to home at 30 %-- if it reaches -- depending on altitude, it will auto land between 15 and 10 percent. The computer calculates the amount of power the Phantom needs to land depending on altitude. Why push it to the limit intentionally? Run the battery down to critical voltage and it wont last very long, even though it may appear to recharge ok for a few cycles.
 
Testing auto land etc. No real way to test without letting it go down. At what % does it start to affect the battery life?
 
As good practice I land at just under 20% and every 20 charge cycles I deplete the battery to between 5% and 8%
I also like to live live d.jpg
;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mal_PV2_Ireland
Just hover a few feet above your landing point until the battery runs down and then land.
 
30% is ok and largely irrelevant if you keep an eye on your battery level in flight. Fiddling with the critical level is where people come unstuck on occasion. Increase that and you may be struggling with an autoland at an inconvenient time.
 
I don't mind getting a warning at 30%. It gives me enough time to finish what I am doing and start heading home without having to rush. I usually end up landing at 15-20%.
 
As good practice I land at just under 20% and every 20 charge cycles I deplete the battery to between 5% and 8%
I pretty much do the same thing.

In my experience don't ever let your battery go below 5%. I've experienced strange battery events when the battery has gone below 5%.
Strongly advise to keep the warning set at 30% and get her close to home. The beeping is annoying but reminds me to stay close by :)

As for discharging to 8% I just leave the bird on ( with a small fan under the bird to keep it cool) and play with the simulator.
 
This deep discharging to 8% subject has been beaten to a dead horse in other threads.

Battery
http://www.phantompilots.com/index.php?threads/Battery.88291/

Some techs at DJI recommends it, and some techs say it is not required. The latest manual no longer mention it. So its up to you how you want to maintain your battery. There was a comment in that thread that asked - If there are no unbalanced cells, then why do the deep discharge. This makes sense. That is why I have not done it to my batteries.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots
 
Last edited:
I think that a lot if misinformation has been carried over from the NiCad rechargeable battery. NiCad will definitely get a "memory" set and it will ruin it to "top it off". LiPo has no such issue. In fact if it is not protected from being too deeply discharged, it can be very harmful. I just wish that LiFePo would catch on quicker than it has.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ROD PAINTER
Mine is set at 30 but I'm going to change it to 25 or even 23 before I head out again.
I am usually very careful about watching the battery percentage so don't think the change will affect me too much but like the OP mentioned the audible alarm can be very unnerving.

Out of habit I usually have the bird fairly close when it gets around the 40 mark and experimented a bit this past weekend....I noticed that if the alarm goes off at 30 I usually am hand catching my P3A by 27%.
So even if I change to 23 I should be ending my flights just below 20...maybe as low as 18...all things being equal.
 
As good practice I land at just under 20% and every 20 charge cycles I deplete the battery to between 5% and 8%
It has been strongly suggested on the DJI forum, to deep cycle our Phantom 3 intelligent flight battery packs every ten full charge cycles.
When or why it was changed from the suggested 20 early on, is beyond me, and I couldn't get a reply that made any sense, to me.
Why battery life was removed from the iOS Go app, is another??, I am trying to get it reissued though.
YYMV, and always all ways follow your own guidelines. ;-)

RedHotPoker
 

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,358
Members
104,935
Latest member
Pauos31