Phantom 3 Advanced Battery Life

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Hi everyone,

I took my drone out for its maiden flight and thought that the 2 batteries seemed to deplete rather quickly. Here's a snapshot of some flight info I culled from the flight records. Does this seem normal? I didn't think I flew that fast (in terms of drone speed). I did take off / land maybe 6-7 times. Also brought it to California max 400 ft. about 3 times. Flew some erratic patterns around the baseball field. Would this deplete TWO batteries with about 24 minutes of total flight time? Is this about normal?

- Filmed in 1080p @ 60fps - 3 videos.
- Hovered quite a few times just to get oriented.
- Set low battery warning to be 30% since I was freaked out I'd run out of batteries and something crazy would happen on my first flight...

When I first got my 2 batteries I charged them to full and then took them out for the first flight.



[file]Flight Info|none[/file]
 
I dont know if this is specifically true for the phantom battery, but I assume it is; all my other lipo's when I buy them new, have some chemical stabilizer in them to preserve them on the shelve. This stabilizer dissolves upon charge/discharge after a few cycles (5 or so). Until its dissolved, the battery performs well below optimal. During this break in period, you should also avoid deep discharge (30% is ok I guess) and pulling too many amps. The latter is more tricky on a multirotor, just avoid long fast climbs and high speed flying I guess.
 
I dont know if this is specifically true for the phantom battery, but I assume it is; all my other lipo's when I buy them new, have some chemical stabilizer in them to preserve them on the shelve. This stabilizer dissolves upon charge/discharge after a few cycles (5 or so). Until its dissolved, the battery performs well below optimal. During this break in period, you should also avoid deep discharge (30% is ok I guess) and pulling too many amps.
There is no break-in period for DJI batteries.
 
Here's a snapshot of some flight info I culled from the flight records.
Please upload this TXT flight log here and post a link back here.
 
I looked at 3 of my logs.
1) 18m 23.5s landing at 23% battery
2) 14m 41.4s landing at 33% battery
3) 20m 32.1s forced landing at 9% battery
 
Please upload this TXT flight log here and post a link back here.
I've uploaded the flight logs. Flight #1-4 was using battery 1 and Flight #5-7 was using battery 2.

Battery #1: started @ 94% (??). ~13m flight time landed @ 24% remaining battery.
Flight #1
Flight #2
Flight #3
Flight #4

Battery #2: started @ 97%.12m 34s flight time landed @ 28% remaining battery.
Flight #5
Flight #6
Flight #7

It did seem slightly windy that day. Also, I don't think I was flying all that fast at all. Erratic, but not all that quick. My ascents to maximum heights were at full speed though. So too were my descents.

Given that I set an early battery warning (30%) I'd say I can maybe add on 2-3 more minutes to the above flight times with similar flying conditions. Does that seem normal? Anything that I'm doing wrong that I can correct and extend flight time?

Thanks in advance again !
 
It looks to me that the shorter total time is just because of multiple short flights.
Try one flight from full battery down to 30% and see what you get for time then.
 
Also. Some people turn the critical battery level up from the default 10% thinking they are safer. They are not. The aircraft will land at the critical mark. No matter where the aircraft is at the time.
 
I looked at 3 of my logs.
1) 18m 23.5s landing at 23% battery
2) 14m 41.4s landing at 33% battery
3) 20m 32.1s forced landing at 9% battery

Your second flight looks to be very similar to mine. I guess my flight times do seem normal then. You mentioned above that my series of short flights probably contributed to my shorter battery life versus say one long continuous flight on a fully charged battery. That makes sense ! Thanks !
 
Also. Some people turn the critical battery level up from the default 10% thinking they are safer. They are not. The aircraft will land at the critical mark. No matter where the aircraft is at the time.

When you say it will land at the critical mark, this includes RTH right? If so, then there is no point in me turning the critical level to 30%. I'll revert to 10% and just mentally be mindful that at around 30% I should begin to think about turning towards home.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
 
When you say it will land at the critical mark, this includes RTH right? If so, then there is no point in me turning the critical level to 30%. I'll revert to 10% and just mentally be mindful that at around 30% I should begin to think about turning towards home.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

When the battery reaches the critical mark (10% by default) The aircraft will land, no matter where it is or what it mode it is in.. Do not turn this higher than 10%. Always land before you get to critical.
 
There is a Low Battery warning (default at 30%) It is a warning only, telling you to find a landing spot soon. If you hit the 10% Critical it is coming down. All you can do is steer it to a preferred place.
In my 3rd log you will notice it says Forced Landing. I just managed to steer it to a beach as it was over water. Almost did not make it.

There is also an earlier warning on the battery called Low Power. There is a green progress bar near the top of the screen. The right end is 100% battery and the left end is 0%. It also shows your critical and Low battery marks. As you use the battery the right end of the bar moves toward the left side. Along that bar is a yellow H. When the right end of the bar reaches the H you will get a LOW POWER alert. This is the point that the app has calculated as having enough power to return home. It will tell you. Returning Home in 10 seconds. You can chose to cancel and fly home yourself. If not RTH is activate.
 
There is also an earlier warning on the battery called Low Power. There is a green progress bar near the top of the screen. The right end is 100% battery and the left end is 0%. It also shows your critical and Low battery marks. As you use the battery the right end of the bar moves toward the left side. Along that bar is a yellow H. When the right end of the bar reaches the H you will get a LOW POWER alert. This is the point that the app has calculated as having enough power to return home. It will tell you. Returning Home in 10 seconds. You can chose to cancel and fly home yourself. If not RTH is activate.
FYI, this will only occur if Smart RTH is enabled in DJI GO.

DJI-GO-Smart-Go-Home.png
 
Hi everyone !

I went out for my second set of flights today. I made sure to fly fully on one charge without landing and restarting etc. I noted that it was pretty dang windy today. I think this is what is affecting my flight time.

Flight #1: Battery #1 - ~14min total flight time, landed at 25% remaining battery.Took it 400 ft and mainly let it hover. Max speed barely cracked 5mph. Drone felt like it was compensating for heavy wind though.

Flight #2: Battery #2 - 12min total flight time, landed at 28% remaining battery. Did not take the drone that high. Did some erratic and quicker flights (21mph). Hovered a little, flew high, flew low etc. Still windy.

Do these flight times look normal given my flying style? Anything I can do to improve the flight times? I'm definitely going to need to pick up...like 2-3 more batteries. I'm planning to take the phantom 3 adv with me to Maldives, Singapore, and Japan for my honeymoon. ~30min (2 batteries) flights just isn't going to cut it.

Thanks !
 
hovering in 30 Km/H wind is the same as flying at 30 Km/H when there is no wind. Still, thats not a very impressive result. Msinger says there is no break in period for phantom batteries, and its true I cant find any reference to it in the documentation, but I find it hard to believe DJI would not chemically stabilize its batteries to preserve their shelf life (and reduce fire risk etc in storage).
 
Hi everyone !

I went out for my second set of flights today. I made sure to fly fully on one charge without landing and restarting etc. I noted that it was pretty dang windy today. I think this is what is affecting my flight time.

Flight #1: Battery #1 - ~14min total flight time, landed at 25% remaining battery.Took it 400 ft and mainly let it hover. Max speed barely cracked 5mph. Drone felt like it was compensating for heavy wind though.

Flight #2: Battery #2 - 12min total flight time, landed at 28% remaining battery. Did not take the drone that high. Did some erratic and quicker flights (21mph). Hovered a little, flew high, flew low etc. Still windy.

Do these flight times look normal given my flying style? Anything I can do to improve the flight times? I'm definitely going to need to pick up...like 2-3 more batteries. I'm planning to take the phantom 3 adv with me to Maldives, Singapore, and Japan for my honeymoon. ~30min (2 batteries) flights just isn't going to cut it.

Thanks !
How windy? Check uavforecast.com and input the altitudes you want to fly at. If you're going up at altitudes where the wind is 17-20mph it will affect your flight time. Besides, these are not appropriate wind speeds to fly at anyway. I do not fly in winds any stronger than 15mp. The phantom will handle heavy wind but it is not a good idea. If the winds you were flying in were more like 8-10mph, you're not getting good battery life at the moment for some reason.
 

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