New owner (almost) with questions

[lonewolf41]

My P4P will be here next week, but I have a few questions before it gets here. I see intelligent batteries advertised/talked about. What does this mean? Can the battery tell you how many hours it has flown or flights it has been used on or how much life is left? How much usage should I get out of a battery before it has to be replaced? Same thing about the drone itself. Does it log flight hours/time? Also, what items wear out and how long do they last? Things I should have spares for?

Thanks,
-Keith

 

[tevek]

My P4P will be here next week, but I have a few questions before it gets here. I see intelligent batteries advertised/talked about. What does this mean? Can the battery tell you how many hours it has flown or flights it has been used on or how much life is left? How much usage should I get out of a battery before it has to be replaced? Same thing about the drone itself. Does it log flight hours/time? Also, what items wear out and how long do they last? Things I should have spares for?

Thanks,
-Keith

Intelligent batteries refer to the 'smart' electronics within the battery that manage the charging of the battery and when set to auto discharge within the GO4 app, also the discharge of the battery when in use. The 'smart' battery will also notify you when there is sufficient battery power left, dependent on current draw or distance from home, and that it's time to return home.
I have over 100 cycles on my batteries with 40 hours of flying and over 800 klms in distance and would be happy to get 200 cycles before I retire them. Battery life is largely dependent on your flying habits and I run mine down to 30% and charge them up just prior to flying.
The GO4 app has battery cycle and voltage information and also logs all your flights with info regarding distance, hours flown and you can replay each flight when you are finished.
As for spares, I'm still on my original props and have never smacked into anything, so have not needed to replace anything. Being fairly conservative, I also do a pre and post check of both the drone and controller to look for any cracks etc and store the package in a dedicated area of the house where the cats can't get to it...

 

[Meta4]

My P4P will be here next week, but I have a few questions before it gets here. I see intelligent batteries advertised/talked about. What does this mean? Can the battery tell you how many hours it has flown or flights it has been used on or how much life is left? How much usage should I get out of a battery before it has to be replaced? Same thing about the drone itself. Does it log flight hours/time? Also, what items wear out and how long do they last? Things I should have spares for?

The batteries have added circuitry to manage charging and also to discharge the battery to a safe storage level when not used for a period of time.
They do log the number of charge cycles etc.
The DJI Go app also records and stores data from each flight and allows you to go back and review any flight in detail
Here's the front page of the app flight records page.

As for wearing out, there's not much that does.
Props don't take to being used for hedge trimming but that's about it.
You get a spare set with the Phantom and with care, you might not even need them.
If you get hooked, additional batteries are something you will want.

 

[msinger]

Can the battery tell you how many hours it has flown or flights it has been used on or how much life is left?

You cannot tell how many hours the battery has been flown, but it does record the number of battery cycles. The cycle count increments each time the battery is charged 100% of the way. Since that requires two batteries charges, you can assume the battery has been used twice whatever the current cycle count shows. That's assuming you always fly the battery after charging it. If you wait 10 days (the default setting in DJI GO), the batteries will start to auto discharge down to the storage level (and you'll need to charge them again before flying).

If using some kind of tool that is able to read the flight logs, you could record the flight time for each flight taken on each battery. Or manually track that by hand. It's probably not worth the hassle unless you're flying commercially and required to do so.

How much usage should I get out of a battery before it has to be replaced?

It depends on how you care for them. You can prolong the life of the batteries by not storing them at a 100% charge for long periods of time (10+ days), not storing them for extended periods of time at less than a 25% charge level, and not storing/using them in hot/cold weather conditions.

what items wear out and how long do they last?

Assuming you don't crash, the batteries will probably be the only thing that wears out. Even though, it's a good idea to check all of the major components prior to each flight. Inspect the props, prop locks (on top of the motors), and the shell for cracks/damage -- and make sure the battery is properly locked into place.

 

[lonewolf41]

Excellent information. Thanks for the replies. I will be looking for a spare battery to have on-hand.