Cooling a hot battery

[Qoncussion]

I'm driving around today, flying at several locations. It's about 90°F here in Northern California. After giving my first battery 30 mins to cool, after a flight, I still get LED4 flashing (too hot) when I go to charge it. I'm in the middle of nowhere right now. What do you do to cool down a hot battery? I'm thinking about getting a little fan to carry with me in the car.

 

[Former Member]

Do you know what your actual battery temperature is? You can check it in DJI Go and also with a cheap temp gun.

I use something like this plugged into my inverter in my car to cool batteries in between charges:

 

[Zoso]

Not sure if this is advisable or possible , but back in the day . I use to cool my NIMH Batterys used for 12th scale carpet rc racers using a cold pack ( not an ice pack) . Not to cold but just to help speed up the cool down time between races .

 

[Qoncussion]

@Thunderdrones - I too have an 1,100W inverter in my car, but your link goes to a dead product page. I'd be interested in seeing what you were trying to link to.

@Zoso - that's not a bad idea. I have several cold packs. I could keep it in a cooler, with some towels over it, and just drop the battery in.

 

[Former Member]

Not sure if this is advisable or possible , but back in the day . I use to cool my NIMH Batterys used for 12th scale carpet rc racers using a cold pack ( not an ice pack) . Not to cold but just to help speed up the cool down time between races .

I think that's fine as long as it doesnt shock cool the battery. Lipos are a little more sensitive than the NIMH.

Funny you should mention 12th scale carpet cars. I just sold my last RC12 last weekend at an RC swap meet. Most fun and best handling car for the buck.

 

[Former Member]

@Thunderdrones - I too have an 1,100W inverter in my car, but your link goes to a dead product page. I'd be interested in seeing what you were trying to link to.

@Zoso - that's not a bad idea. I have several cold packs. I could keep it in a cooler, with some towels over it, and just drop the battery in.

Here's a picture of it. You can get it from Target for $13.99

 

[Lapeer20m]

I'm driving around today, flying at several locations. It's about 90°F here in Northern California. After giving my first battery 30 mins to cool, after a flight, I still get LED4 flashing (too hot) when I go to charge it. I'm in the middle of nowhere right now. What do you do to cool down a hot battery? I'm thinking about getting a little fan to carry with me in the car.

Why not find a way to keep the battery in front of your air conditioning vent while driving around?

 

[Former Member]

I'm driving around today, flying at several locations. It's about 90°F here in Northern California. After giving my first battery 30 mins to cool, after a flight, I still get LED4 flashing (too hot) when I go to charge it. I'm in the middle of nowhere right now. What do you do to cool down a hot battery? I'm thinking about getting a little fan to carry with me in the car.

I would be interested in your battery temp if you're still getting a blinking LED 4 after 30 minutes at rest. I have flown in 90 - 95 temps, and waited 15 minutes, then the battery was ready to be charged. Guessing it had cooled down enough.

 

[WEOTN]

I've got a 12v plug in cooler that I'm going to try when it warms up here in Minnesota. Big enough to hold a 6-pack and it cools about 20F lower than ambient and has a circulation fan built in. I'll add a cold pack if I need to, but might find an excuse for another battery or three...

 

[Qoncussion]

I would be interested in your battery temp if you're still getting a blinking LED 4 after 30 minutes at rest. I have flown in 90 - 95 temps, and waited 15 minutes, then the battery was ready to be charged. Guessing it had cooled down enough.

Too late to check it now. When I get home I'll upload logs to airdata to see what the battery topped out at during flight.

 

[Qoncussion]

I would be interested in your battery temp if you're still getting a blinking LED 4 after 30 minutes at rest. I have flown in 90 - 95 temps, and waited 15 minutes, then the battery was ready to be charged. Guessing it had cooled down enough.

When I uploaded this flight to airdata.com, the min and max battery temps are both 89°f. Which is wrong. It seems like the logs are not correct. On other flights, my battery shows temps in the 120°+/- range for the max.

 

[Former Member]

Temps up to 120 should be fine. Something's not right, because the logs should be getting info from the battery. Im thinking that your battery might be on it's way out. How many cycles on it? If it wont let you charge until it has cooled down for 30 minutes after a flight, but its not getting any hotter than 120°, and is giving you that 4th LED, it might have somehow gotten damaged. Usually when lipos are on their way out, they tend to run hot, dont hold as much of a charge any more, and take longer to cool down.

If your battery has less than 40 or 50 cycles on it, and you are still under warranty, might be time to contact DJI about it. I always have a temp gun for my RC cars and trucks, and have lately been checking temps of all the Mavic components after every flight.

 

[Qoncussion]

Battery only has 15 cycles on it so far. Here's the flight data:

[link removed by OP]

 

[Former Member]

I could be wrong but I would not trust that battery. As you said, and as the log shows, a flat 89° from startup to shutdown is probably not accurate. I looked at all your previous flights and the battery went through a normal warmup process then maxed at around 96.

 

[Qoncussion]

I run a few more tests on it to see if the data is consistent.

 

[Former Member]

Do you have a different battery you can try?

 

[Zoso]

Temps up to 120 should be fine. Something's not right, because the logs should be getting info from the battery. Im thinking that your battery might be on it's way out. How many cycles on it? If it wont let you charge until it has cooled down for 30 minutes after a flight, but its not getting any hotter than 120°, and is giving you that 4th LED, it might have somehow gotten damaged. Usually when lipos are on their way out, they tend to run hot, dont hold as much of a charge any more, and take longer to cool down.

If your battery has less than 40 or 50 cycles on it, and you are still under warranty, might be time to contact DJI about it. I always have a temp gun for my RC cars and trucks, and have lately been checking temps of all the Mavic components after every flight.

Very smart to get a temp gun and check everything manually rather then rely on data readings , sometimes old school methods can save the day !

 

[Qoncussion]

Do you have a different battery you can try?

I have two... I just reviewed stats for the other battery, and it shows the same temp issue (sometimes). I've seen on airdata.com where my battery temp under the "General" info tab, always shows 32°f. I think this is an airdata issue. I "would" look into getting a temp gun, if I hadn't already spent so darn much on drone stuff... Well that, and if I wanted to throw my marriage away

 

[Former Member]

Fathers day is right around the corner.

Temp Meter Temperature Gun Non-contact Digital Laser Infrared IR Thermometer New | eBay

 

[Kalvik]

Some chargers don't tolerate the square-wave inverter output very well. Don't know if the Mavic charger is one of those. You could be getting a false reading.