Air 3 Combo Batteries Discharging from 100% to 58% in 30 Days?

[riterb97]

My Air 3 Combo is about 4 months old, and after reviewing the battery data from Airdata and the Flight Log Viewer, I have a few major concerns.

I fully charged two of the batteries (Battery 2 & 3) on 10 September 2024. They were stored in the Combo Charging Hub and remained unused until my last flight on 10 October 2024. At takeoff, both batteries were at 58%, meaning they had discharged by 42% over the course of 30 days while sitting in the charging hub (see yellow highlight). I double-checked the log files, which confirmed this information, though there is a discrepancy in the charging times (see green highlight).

Battery 1 hasn’t been recharged since its last flight on 22 September 2024, when it landed at 51%. It further discharged to 40% while sitting in the drone over 19 days. Normally, I fully recharge my batteries on the same day after a flight, but I left this one because it still had a significant amount of power remaining.

Here are my concerns and questions:

1. Is this normal? I doubt it. If not, what could explain such a large discharge in relatively new batteries? During all my flights, I’ve only received low battery landing warnings 2-3 times. Airdata shows the battery health at 98-99%, which makes this steep drop puzzling.
2. What could be causing this discharge? Do others have similar experiences with their batteries?
3. Why is there such a big discrepancy between the "Times Charged" reported by Airdata and the Log Files?

Lastly, I saw a recommendation on Airdata to "Visit MY LOGS => BATTERIES" (screenshot attached), but I can’t seem to find that option. Is it only available in the paid version?

I’d appreciate any insights or explanations anyone can provide.

Thank you!

 

[GFields]

Yes this is normal. These are intellgent batteries and have auto discharge during storage.

 

[Droning on and on...]

As @GFields said.

After 3 days, the controller in the module begins slowly discharging through a resistor. The energy is converted to heat – you may feel the batteries getting slightly warm.

This is done to maximize the usable cycles of the battery, and as much of its rated capacity as possible on each charge. Lithium Ion battery chemistry does not like to be stored at 100% charge, or depleted. Ideal charge level for storage is around 60%.

 

[Meta4]

1. Is this normal? I doubt it. If not, what could explain such a large discharge in relatively new batteries? During all my flights, I’ve only received low battery landing warnings 2-3 times. Airdata shows the battery health at 98-99%, which makes this steep drop puzzling.
2. What could be causing this discharge? Do others have similar experiences with their batteries?

From p63 of the manual for the Air 3.
Pay particular attention to point #2

Something else you need to be aware of with batteries that have been sitting around discharging.
If you were to fly with one of those batteries, you'd find that although the app might indicate battery level at 58%, it would fall rapidly in flight.
The % indication is only reliable when you start the flight with a freshly charged battery.
Launching with batteries that have been discharging has been known to lead to the loss of drones.

 

[msinger]

I saw a recommendation on Airdata to "Visit MY LOGS => BATTERIES" (screenshot attached), but I can’t seem to find that option. Is it only available in the paid version?

You need the HD 360 Gold plan ($6.99/month) or higher to see that battery section. Or you can get the battery data and much more for free with my online log viewer.

 

[Erk1024]

Previous posters are 100% correct.

Lion batteries degrade if stored at 100% (it's a chemical reaction, the full explanation is complicated.) The industry standard is that a battery should have less than 20% capacity loss after 500 full charge cycles. If you only charge to 80%, then that number goes up to 2000 cycles. But that's a bit misleading, basically it's not the charging that does it. It's heat and sitting for extended periods of time at 100%.

The best thing to do is keep your batteries at 60% (or thereabouts) and then fully charge them up when you're ready to take it out to fly (or the night before is totally fine) and then they will get discharged when you fly. Then when you get home, just charge them back up to 60%.

This very dependent on the battery chemistry. LFP (Lithium IRON phosphate) batteries degrade much slower at 100%, but the tradeoff is that they have lower energy density, etc. etc.

 

[Felix le Chat]

My Air 3 Combo is about 4 months old, and after reviewing the battery data from Airdata and the Flight Log Viewer, I have a few major concerns.

I fully charged two of the batteries (Battery 2 & 3) on 10 September 2024. They were stored in the Combo Charging Hub and remained unused until my last flight on 10 October 2024. At takeoff, both batteries were at 58%, meaning they had discharged by 42% over the course of 30 days while sitting in the charging hub (see yellow highlight). I double-checked the log files, which confirmed this information, though there is a discrepancy in the charging times (see green highlight).

Battery 1 hasn’t been recharged since its last flight on 22 September 2024, when it landed at 51%. It further discharged to 40% while sitting in the drone over 19 days. Normally, I fully recharge my batteries on the same day after a flight, but I left this one because it still had a significant amount of power remaining.

Here are my concerns and questions:

1. Is this normal? I doubt it. If not, what could explain such a large discharge in relatively new batteries? During all my flights, I’ve only received low battery landing warnings 2-3 times. Airdata shows the battery health at 98-99%, which makes this steep drop puzzling.
2. What could be causing this discharge? Do others have similar experiences with their batteries?
3. Why is there such a big discrepancy between the "Times Charged" reported by Airdata and the Log Files?

Lastly, I saw a recommendation on Airdata to "Visit MY LOGS => BATTERIES" (screenshot attached), but I can’t seem to find that option. Is it only available in the paid version?

I’d appreciate any insights or explanations anyone can provide.

Thank you!

Concur with other replies. This is perfectly normal for both Li-Po and Li-Ion intelligent flight batteries which will start to significantly self-discharge after two days of non-use.

 

[KenG]

Previous posters are 100% correct.

Lion batteries degrade if stored at 100% (it's a chemical reaction, the full explanation is complicated.) The industry standard is that a battery should have less than 20% capacity loss after 500 full charge cycles. If you only charge to 80%, then that number goes up to 2000 cycles. But that's a bit misleading, basically it's not the charging that does it. It's heat and sitting for extended periods of time at 100%.

The best thing to do is keep your batteries at 60% (or thereabouts) and then fully charge them up when you're ready to take it out to fly (or the night before is totally fine) and then they will get discharged when you fly. Then when you get home, just charge them back up to 60%.

This very dependent on the battery chemistry. LFP (Lithium IRON phosphate) batteries degrade much slower at 100%, but the tradeoff is that they have lower energy density, etc. etc.

Then when you get home, just charge them back up to 60%.


With the Air 3 charging hub charging 3 batteries, what is the best way to stop charging the batteries at 60%?

 

[Erk1024]

@KenG You can either just keep an eye on them and pull them out of the charger when you get three LED's. Or there are aftermarket solutions that will charge them to 60% and stop (or at least I've seen aftermarket chargers for the Mavic 3 batteries). But the quality of the aftermarket chargers varies.

I just keep an eye one them and pull them. Any charge between 30% and 80% is good. The problem with going to 30% is that they will take longer to charge up to 100% when you want to go flying.

 

[Max Headroom]

You can either just keep an eye on them and pull them out of the charger when you get three LED's. Or there are aftermarket solutions that will charge them to 60% and stop (or at least I've seen aftermarket chargers for the Mavic 3 batteries). But the quality of the aftermarket chargers varies.

Why do this when the batteries are designed to do it automatically from 100% charge?

 

[Meta4]

Why do this when the batteries are designed to do it automatically from 100% charge?

Why put your battery through unnecessary life-shortening cycles?

 

[Max Headroom]

Why put your battery through unnecessary life-shortening cycles?

If your batteries are very low when you have been out flying and you plan to fly in the next 9 days why not charge them fully then they are ready rather than wait until the day you plan to fly and you have to charge them from a very low charge state which can take quite a while if you have more than one, if you also keep them charged they are ready in case you decide to go out on an unplanned flying session.

The battery automatically discharges to about 96% of the battery level when it is idle for one day. To prevent swelling, the battery automatically discharges to 72% of the battery level when it is idle for nine days.

 

[riterb97]

Concur with other replies. This is perfectly normal for both Li-Po and Li-Ion intelligent flight batteries which will start to significantly self-discharge after two days of non-use.

Thanks Felix, I did not know this. Was just very concerned, now I understood. Regards
R

 

[riterb97]

You need the HD 360 Gold plan ($6.99/month) or higher to see that battery section. Or you can get the battery data and much more for free with my online log viewer.

Thank you Mike. I am currently using Flight log viewer as well

 

[riterb97]

From p63 of the manual for the Air 3.
Pay particular attention to point #2

Something else you need to be aware of with batteries that have been sitting around discharging.
If you were to fly with one of those batteries, you'd find that although the app might indicate battery level at 58%, it would fall rapidly in flight.
The % indication is only reliable when you start the flight with a freshly charged battery.
Launching with batteries that have been discharging has been known to lead to the loss of drones.

Thanks Meta..shows you I should read EVERY Page of the manual. Yas I noticed the level went down quite quickly after the flight started.

 

[riterb97]

Yes this is normal. These are intellgent batteries and have auto discharge during storage.

Thank you GFields...Any idea why the discrepancy between the charging times of Airdata reports and the log files?

 

[Felix le Chat]

If your batteries are very low when you have been out flying and you plan to fly in the next 9 days why not charge them fully then they are ready rather than wait until the day you plan to fly and you have to charge them from a very low charge state which can take quite a while if you have more than one, if you also keep them charged they are ready in case you decide to go out on an unplanned flying session.

Even if there is a well planned flight, chances are high the weather will throw a spanner in the works, so a full charge of kit the night before might be wasted for at least a couple of days (the worst I've had on-site was three days of unexpected constant rain: one of constant mizzle then another of heavy sea fog... that's bloody Wales for you!)

Every so often I like to let the 'spontaneous' bug bite so I'll get up at horrible o'clock to whack the IFB's and controllers on charge then head out to follow my nose, but even then about 20% of the time there'll be one reason or another why I don't end up sending the birds up on that day... so... another wasted charge cycle.

Regardless of whether it's one more nail in a battery's coffin I suppose I just accept that pre-charging the batteries is a game of swings and roundabouts... sometimes it's a waste: sometimes it's a winner.

 

[Cafguy]

Nine days is quite a bit of time for your batteries to remain above 60% I don't trust that. The first batteries I owned Varied in Cycles when they died. Then I learned that some have decided to Bypass the smart feature and take care of their own Batteries. I am of the same thought
I have a charger with a storage charge option and after use, my batteries get charged to 60% ( storage Charge). hrs or the morning before a job the Batts get charged to 100 and used. If I dont use one I plug in a DJI Adapter and charge some stuff with the remaining Batteries.
Yes DJI Batteries WILL self-Discharge BUT its not fast or consistent enough for me ( please note I said ME). So I will just keep doing as I have. I have not killed a battery yet doing it like this and I am sure I have gone thru hundreds of Air2S batts and gotten EVERY expected cycle from each one.
The biggest reason for killing a DJI Battery is charging it to 100 and then putting it away to do its own thing. When doing this you will end up completely destroying the Battery because you didnt keep a check on it. You risk letting it Drain too much.
The BMS inside will eventually drain every bit of life from the Battery and in fact drain it beyond the point you could hope to wake it up without repair.
If you want to charge them to 100% and store them Great that's what they are designed to do!!! BUT they are NOT designed to be ignored for long periods. KEEP a Frequent check on them!!

 

[Max Headroom]

Nine days is quite a bit of time for your batteries to remain above 60% I don't trust that. T

I assume they had the option to set the time to discharge to as many days as they felt necessary so i trust 9 is not going to do any harm.

 

[AroundTheWorld]

Can someone tell me if the auto discharge feature damages the batteries?