short flight time of P2V+

[WILQ]

Anyone could advise me on the flight time of P2V+?
Anywhere I look, people say the Phantom flight time is 25 minutes.
I get 13 minutes hovering (until reserve alarm sounds) at 1-2 m, light wind.
That time I achieve on both batteries and it is c.a. the same from the very beginning of using the device.
Why is it so short!?

• Phantom is almost new
• soft updated frequently
• 2 relatively new 5200 mAh batteries (original) equally used less then 20 times each, both show no signs of wear (some 94% of life or whatever the soft calls it)
• batteries fully charged before flight and always discharged to the level of 25% reserve (red zone in DJI Vision app. - landing right after the first alarm)
• original charger
• air temperatures when flying 10-15ºC
• battery temp. when starting 17-21ºC
• standard props that came together with the quad
• Vision + and prop guards attached

Am I missing any important info?....

Do you have similar problems?
I wish you LOOOOOONG flights.

 

[yorlik]

I anxiously await replies too! I doubt I could get 25 minutes flight time from either of my new batteries either....

I am beginning to form an opinion that may not be super popular:

Depleting your battery below 50-60% causes it to fail much sooner.

Both my batts have near 20 cycles on them. Unlike others, I have flown down to 50-60% level 99% of the time. My batteries both state capacity 10% ABOVE NEW still. Why?

Others have battery problems, but it seems to me they fly them down to 15-20% every flight.......

I went 2 years on my lipo batts in my all electric car never going below about 50% capacity. they were prestine and like new. I then decided to work them, and I lost 10% of them in 6 months. I think it is all related to running them down below 50% or so often.

Just my opinion......

 

[WILQ]

Hi, yorlik,
How come the batteries state capacity 10% ABOVE NEW? How is that indicated - in Volts, mAh?
In my case there is 75% used each time and the flight time is 13 min (hovering, light or no wind). The 100% (proportionally) would give 17,3 min.
That is a mathematical problem whether flying less (e.g. 50%) could give almost 2 times longer time of flight.
I strongly doubt that. Time cannot be negative or a battery does not get additional electrons from the air by being discharged only to half of it's capacity.
... Maybe they have minutes of different lenght?...

 

[yorlik]

Hi, yorlik,
How come the batteries state capacity 10% ABOVE NEW? How is that indicated - in Volts, mAh?

I will post screen shots tomorrow from assistant. But it is 'full capacity' value above 5200mah

 

[john smith]

DJI LIES LIES LIES!!! THEY ESTIMATE THEIR COMPANY AT 10 BILLION DOLLARS. WHAT A JOKE!

 

[CyberCitizen]

On Average With Both Batteries I Get Around 18 Minutes. Under Heavy Flying I Have Gotten Them Down To 10 Minutes.

 

[WILQ]

Maybe it is a good idea of yorlik that we show our LiPo's performance by posting screenshots from DJI Assistant or notes from that app.
I will do it later today.

 

[WILQ]

DJI LIES LIES LIES!!! THEY ESTIMATE THEIR COMPANY AT 10 BILLION DOLLARS. WHAT A JOKE!

Man, this thread is about the flight time.
We are trying to help each other.
Please, switch to general topics if you want to discuss your opinion on DJI.

 

[gingerbloke]

I think his post was valid, DJI promote their batteries as 20+ minutes of flight time and 300 cycles - these batteries are a lock-in technology and are priced at a premium.

If people are experiencing lower flights times and batteries going south after 50 cycles or so then we should be pulling DJI up for it.

I love my P2V+ V3 but I wouldn't buy a quad with lock-in batteries ever again.

A

Man, this thread is about the flight time.
We are trying to help each other.
Please, switch to general topics if you want to discuss your opinion on DJI.

 

[WILQ]

I think his post was valid, DJI promote their batteries as 20+ minutes of flight time and 300 cycles - these batteries are a lock-in technology and are priced at a premium.

If people are experiencing lower flights times and batteries going south after 50 cycles or so then we should be pulling DJI up for it.

I love my P2V+ V3 but I wouldn't buy a quad with lock-in batteries ever again.

A

O, yea,
Now you talk of batteries and the time of flight. I appreciate your opinion and agree, I will never again buy a copter with lock-in batteries. I decided to build another one -that will be hexa and I will try to achieve at least 30 min flight with some 2 kg load. That will cost me...

 

[kirk2579]

definitely not a fan of the dji smart battery as far as cycles etc.

I have a basic P2 v1 and a P2v2+ and use 3 batteries between them and try to land at 2 lights or so.

On the basic p2v1, which is far lighter than the plus as well as uses less current draw without camera, wifi etc,
I get about 15 minutes to that 50% point.
I could see maybe getting 25 on a perfect day taking it down all the way to 10% or so

The Plus quad gets about 11- 13 to same point , 2 flashing lights on battery. Ill never test this one out to below 30% or so..lol

 

[yorlik]

I will post screen shots tomorrow from assistant. But it is 'full capacity' value above 5200mah

Shows my batteries above new capacity. Anyone else see the same on yours?

 

[WILQ]

I do not know how to prepare such screenshots on my Mac.
Just checked: my batteries show Full Capacity 5153 mAh (both show the same) and percentage of life 96% (one was 17 times discharged and the other one - 14 times).
I had not pay attention to those figures and now I have at least one reason of shorter flights - the full capacity of my LiPo's is remerkably below the design capacity, which means I will never get satisfactory times of flight.