leave battery in drone when not flying?

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I was looking at a pre-flight/post-flight check list and the last item on the post-flight list was to remove the battery from the drone. So my question is should I be taking my battery out of the drone when I'm not flying it? or is it safe to leave in? Thoughts and or reasons why?
 
It's perfectly safe to keep a battery stored in your Phantom while it's not in use. That's how DJI ships them out and countless stores have Phantoms sitting on store shelves like that.
 
As contacts on battery and on the dji drones are gold plated and battery is switched off while storing, it is perfectly safe to store phantoms with the batteries plugged in.
 
If I were to take a guess I suppose that if the battery was in the bird at full charge and both were in a high heat environment the pack could swell and make removal a problem as well as damaging the bird too.
 
If you don't fly for 10 days the intelligent battery will start to bleed off juice until it reaches a safe storage capacity. So just remember to check it before you go fly.
 
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If you don't fly for 10 days the intelligent battery will start to bleed off juice until it reaches a safe storage capacity. So just remember to check it before you go fly.
If you don’t have a need for it 10 days is probably a setting to avoid. The longer you leave your packs at or close to 100% the faster they will deteriorate.
 
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I usually keep the battery in, but halfway so that contact is not made and dust won't easily get in.
I've had too many indtances where a bad battery caused me to loose my expensive equipment. I'm not taking any chances again.
 
I don't like to leave any electrical contacts stressed when not in use.

It's not based on a past bad experience, just don't do this in any device if I have a convenient choice.
 
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I leave the battery OUT to allow any possible flight moisture to dry out.
 
I also fly racing/acro quads, so I currently have around 45 LiPos of various sizes. I store & charge all of my LiPos, including my Phantom 3 batteries, in a cabinet I built (metal shop cabinet lined with fireplace tiles, properly vented). I also keep them in LiPo bags, but that's more for organizing and transport.

Given all the other responses above, I guess I'm in the "paranoid minority," but having experienced two LiPos melt down, including one that started a small but scary garage fire, I won't take any chances around my house & family.

I agree storing a Phantom battery in the craft won't damage it in terms of operation, it's just a safety thing for me. And probably the more exposed racing LiPos are more easily damaged and susceptible to catastrophic discharge, than the Phantom batteries that are much more protected (unless we drop them in handling). Anyway, an alternate perspective...

Cheers,
Paul
 
I can't argue with erring on the side of caution. But LiPos don't just light-off.
It's typically (crash) damage or trauma, an external short, or improper charging.

My local Hobby Shop has hundreds sitting on shelves and has for about 15 years.
 
I can't argue with erring on the side of caution. But LiPos don't just light-off.
It's typically (crash) damage or trauma, an external short, or improper charging.

My local Hobby Shop has hundreds sitting on shelves and has for about 15 years.

Yep, for sure, with both of my LiPo discharges, they were damaged from acro crashes (like head-on into a tree type of crashes). The catastrophic discharges happen when air mixes in with the chemicals inside the LiPo, so pretty much every time the surrounding cell membrane has to be punctured in some way to initiate it. I think even in the cases of over-charge/discharge, the insides expand enough to pop the membrane. Maybe a short burns through?

One went off immediately in the field right after the crash. The second (the garage fire one), however, was damaged but not enough to discharge right away. When I got it home, I was inspecting it and wiggled the battery lead, which I guess opened up the membrane and it went off in my hand. I had to drop it, and it caught a little mat on fire. Fortunately, I also have fire extinguishers in the garage, which put out the mat (but most common fire extinguishers won't put out a LiPo, they need a special chemical one that is pretty expensive).

As I said, a Phantom battery has the enclosure around it, as well as being in the craft, so not likely to get the same damage as a smaller quad LiPo that's just hanging off it. Unless it gets dropped on a concrete floor or something.

Yes, I'm admittedly overly paranoid. But if I can get someone to think a little about LiPo safety and save them an incident, I'm happy to get laughed at.

Cheers,
Paul
 

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