Beware of battery self discharge!

[jonathan tozer]

Off I went,a few orbit shots of a local wind turbine,3 full batteries,happy days.
Off she went 120 m up,a dot on the horizon.WAIT NOOOOOO! 3 minutes left on the battery as it had self discharged as it had not been used for 10 days.
Squeaky bum time,home safely......just

 

[RPSM]

Off I went,a few orbit shots of a local wind turbine,3 full batteries,happy days.
Off she went 120 m up,a dot on the horizon.WAIT NOOOOOO! 3 minutes left on the battery as it had self discharged as it had not been used for 10 days.
Squeaky bum time,home safely......just

Did you check they were full before you flew? I’ve never seen them show full and then discharge like that in flight. That indicates a damaged battery.

 

[jonathan tozer]

My own stupid fault,charged them 10 days ago but rain stopped play,I didnt check.Lesson learned.

 

[Moon]

Off I went,a few orbit shots of a local wind turbine,3 full batteries,happy days.
Off she went 120 m up,a dot on the horizon.WAIT NOOOOOO! 3 minutes left on the battery as it had self discharged as it had not been used for 10 days.
Squeaky bum time,home safely......just

Might be worth using a pre-flight checklist so this doesn't happen again? It soon be becomes a habit to check before taking off and hopefully less stress thinking you won't see your drone again!

The batteries self discharge as protection, if you are going to store them full then turn them on/off every few days to reset the timer. I've been caught out a couple of times by going out to fly only for the batteries to have half discharged!

 

[InvisibleName]

My own stupid fault,charged them 10 days ago but rain stopped play,I didnt check.Lesson learned.

Probably the most basic check of them all! Good that you admit your error, so that other’s who read this will take note. Does worry me about what other pre-flight checks are you not doing!

 

[Lake_Flyer]

I always check my batteries (in the app) and props (for damage) before I leave my house. In the process I download the map of the area I will be flying. And do a preflight check in the field which includes the batteries and the props (if still properly locked).

 

[aokusman]

Off I went,a few orbit shots of a local wind turbine,3 full batteries,happy days.
Off she went 120 m up,a dot on the horizon.WAIT NOOOOOO! 3 minutes left on the battery as it had self discharged as it had not been used for 10 days.
Squeaky bum time,home safely......just

Self discharge is not the problem here. You not checking the battery level was.

 

[MarkoPetejan]

Off I went,a few orbit shots of a local wind turbine,3 full batteries,happy days.
Off she went 120 m up,a dot on the horizon.WAIT NOOOOOO! 3 minutes left on the battery as it had self discharged as it had not been used for 10 days.
Squeaky bum time,home safely......just

From the manual page 28: battery will self discharge to 65% after idling for 10 days to protect it from swelling

 

[Lake_Flyer]

It started to become a problem ever since DJI introduced that in the firmware of the Phantom2. Before that batteries just remained as full as they were. You had to maintain them yourself and bring them down to storage level when you suspected you wouldn't fly for a couple of weeks. After that many pilots have lost their bird because of forgetting to check the battery level.

Many of the measures DJI takes to make drone technology accessible to everyone (including battery maintenance) eventually work exactly the opposite way.

 

[Lake_Flyer]

My own stupid fault,charged them 10 days ago but rain stopped play,I didnt check.Lesson learned.

It's not that stupid, however you should do a checklist from now on. Many electronics just hold their power. It's DJI nannying and not trusting their customers to be smart enough to maintain their batteries themselves, and they have a point there, considering the masses that they want to address.

 

[Former Member]

OP, do you remember what battery level your device was telling you when you first took off?

 

[mad monkey]

I think he admitted he forgot to check the levels preflight
That's all

 

[Ram85]

I know this is an old topic but I would like to know if it is okay to fly while the self-discharge message displays... Someones you get to a location and just want to snap a quick pic or video but you connect the drone etc and oops, you forgot to charge it. There is still charge on the battery and you can fly... but I just want to know if I'm causing any damage or not. I know its always best to fly with 100% charged batteries.