Smart battery care

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A couple questions about how everyone is caring for their smart battery.

I know you should store it at 50-60% when not using it for a couple of weeks or more. Does it matter how you get it to 50%, either by draining it down or charging it half way? I've always been hesitant to only charge a battery half way, but I guess there's no memory and it doesn't matter? How long is too long to leave it fully charged?

Every 20 cycles or so you should drain it almost completely. How are you doing this? My phantom tries to land before it gets to 20%. I've only flown in cold weather so far so maybe that's part of the reason why. But are people just forcing it to stay in the air until it lands itself even against the throttle? What % are we trying yo get to in that scenario? Under 10%?

Are you storing the battery in the phantom when not in use for a few days/a week or not?

Thanks.
 
Unless I know I'm going to be flying again soon, I generally charge it up to 50% post flight while playing with the video/pics I just shot. Occasionally, if my flying gets interrupted and the battery's discharged to around 50%, I just leave it alone. I don't think it really matters how you get there,

In this video (most authoritative sounding I've found) he seems to recommend storing at full charge for no more than a week, but then adds "deterioration" may start in as little as 24 - 48 hours (toward the end of video). My take aways from some of his comments are that the exact level isn't super critical but the farther away the voltage is from full charge (with out going below 50%), the better off the battery is, and that storing below 50% isn't as big a problem as long as it's not long term (like weeks or months). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7FFHKsuJHs

So far I haven't really tried to get it below 15% (where it lands itself).

I store my batteries outside of the Phantom figuring the spring loaded data contact pins will keep their "spring" longer if not always compressed.
 
After you land, you can start it up and just let the rotors "idle" at the center throttle position on the Tx. I've even held my finger on top of the Phantom and ran the throttle up just slightly above center position. Then I just watch my mini iosd display at the battery voltage percentage.
 
DesertFlyer53 said:
After you land, you can start it up and just let the rotors "idle" at the center throttle position on the Tx. I've even held my finger on top of the Phantom and ran the throttle up just slightly above center position. Then I just watch my mini iosd display at the battery voltage percentage.

I can see a few of the "slower" members here losing a finger or two with this advice. I can hardly wait to see!!
 
The important thing with "storage voltage" is that it shouldn't be stored full because that slowly deteriorates the health of the battery, and also not stored low enough where the gradual loss of charge at rest drops the voltage past is minimum safe floor.

Normally, if your flights are a few days to a couple of weeks apart, you can just store your battery at whatever level you ended your last flight, around 20% remaining charge is perfectly safe. Just charge it up the night before or day of flight. No fussing with draining the batteries artificially, holding it down while throttling, etc.

If you're not going to fly for a month or more, it's probably worth sticking a 20% battery on the charger for 20 minutes or so to get it to a proper storage voltage.
 

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