Battery care

[Carb63]

So I watched a YouTube video yesterday and decided to do this.
According to the video host, if you wanted to reset your battery after many uses and add a bit longer life , you can use battery till it depletes to 0 , this will them reset intelligent battery for better battery life . What’s you opinion? Please advise.

 

[quirom]

No. You can try to store them at 40-60% to give them longer lifetime. Just remember to charge them fully the day before flying.

 

[Moose1967]

I have over 45 charges on each of my batteries - I store them between 50-60% - none are bulging either - also I try not to take them down past 40 percent - only if I have too !!!

 

[Rattydude77]

I was always told never deplet a lipo to zero smart or not

 

[Carb63]

I was always told never deplet a lipo to zero smart or not

Wow. Ok. In the YouTube video I saw , he stated after a certain amount of usage, to bring battery down to 0 and it would reset battery life since it’s an intelligent life battery to almost new capabilities. Well I did it last night , shm, no issues. I’ve had my bird since oct 2017. Just want to care for the battery so I can get max life out of them. Don’t have much flight time on them. 67 charges the most. Just looking to have them last longer. I think I’ve seen some of the pilots stating 200 charges. Seem to be the life of a intelligent batt. With no issues. Please advise. I am in FL and it’s truly hot here, going on a road trip this weekend and for the next 2 weeks and want to make sure batt are safe.

 

[Thomas B]

So I watched a YouTube video yesterday and decided to do this.
According to the video host, if you wanted to reset your battery after many uses and add a bit longer life , you can use battery till it depletes to 0 , this will them reset intelligent battery for better battery life . What’s you opinion? Please advise.

Link please. TIA

 

[JSKCKNIT]

Link please. TIA

I think this is the video he saw.

 

[quirom]

I think this is the video he saw.

I didnt watch it. However, discharge a LiPo battery to 0% is a good way to destroy its life time, that could cost you money. Perhaps you misunderstood the message?

 

[old man mavic]

the only time you would want to completely drain your battery to zero,is when you want to dispose of it, the actual lipo part of a DJI battery is no different to any other lipo ,the intelligent part is the built in charging and cell balance controls, even if you do run them right down there is a cut off point that stops the cells from going below a certain voltage,i think that the idea of the drop to low voltage is to reset the charge counter if you find that the battery wont take on a full charge

 

[Carb63]

Link please. TIA

Sure.

 

[JSKCKNIT]

I didnt watch it. However, discharge a LiPo battery to 0% is a good way to destroy its life time, that could cost you money. Perhaps you misunderstood the message?

If you didn't watch the video, how can you comment on misunderstandings! In the video he explains why you would want to discharge to zero and it had nothing to do with battery life expectancy.

 

[Carb63]

Oh boy. I hope I didn’t. Well it was one time only. Hope I didn’t damage the 2 batteries I have. ??‍

 

[Carb63]

the only time you would want to completely drain your battery to zero,is when you want to dispose of it, the actual lipo part of a DJI battery is no different to any other lipo ,the intelligent part is the built in charging and cell balance controls, even if you do run them right down there is a cut off point that stops the cells from going below a certain voltage,i think that the idea of the drop to low voltage is to reset the charge counter if you find that the battery wont take on a full charge

Thx Omm, if I may call you that. I will rewatch the clip. Sometimes, I have to revisit when learning lol. 2-3x.

 

[Thomas B]

Sure.

Thx.

 

[old man mavic]

Oh boy. I hope I didn’t. Well it was one time only. Hope I didn’t damage the 2 batteries I have. ??‍

next time you fully charge them check the total voltage and more importantly the individual cell voltages in the app they should ideally be all the same a very slight difference is ok and then after you land check them again this will show up any weak or damaged cells you should be ok if you did not let them stand for to long discharged

 

[JSKCKNIT]

Oh boy. I hope I didn’t. Well it was one time only. Hope I didn’t damage the 2 batteries I have. [emoji2359]

I analyze almost all my flights using Airdata.com. There's a power tab on there that you can use to check your battery performance and efficiency. If you have a gold membership, you get access to battery management. Very helpful information, even on the free version.

 

[Carb63]

next time you fully charge them check the total voltage and more importantly the individual cell voltages in the app they should ideally be all the same a very slight difference is ok and then after you land check them again this will show up any weak or damaged cells you should be ok if you did not let them stand for to long discharged

No I didn’t, as soon as it went to 0 , I charged them. Took around the same time to fully charge , an hour. Flew on one of the batteries no issue, but didn’t think to check the voltage individually, will do later today. All reading were good to go when I did my checklist. Thx again. Anything abnormal come up, I will check in with you.

 

[old man mavic]

here is my take on battery care a list of things that can affect battery life ,in no particular order
(1) mishandling ie dropping them leaving them in a hot vehicle

(2)excessive current drain ie flying in sport mode for extended periods.

(3)storage ie leaving them fully charged for more than a few days ,and by the same token leaving them below 20% charge for long periods

(4) leaving them at storage charge for more than a month without checking them as they do loose some of their charge over a long period of none use,

(5) allowing them to experience excessive heat or cold both killers of any type of battery.

(6)something that is not mentioned much is using the correct charger for the number of cells your battery has, also some none standard chargers can cause damage if their rating is to high for the batteries they are charging

 

[The Editor]

For the love of god, how many times does this come up?

Zero on a DJI battery IS NOT ZERO capacity.
The same way that your cell phone turns off when it reaches ‘zero’ does that destroy the battery? - No.

It has simply reached Low Voltage Cut-Off (LVC) which is there to protect the battery.
DJI ‘Smart’ packs are no different - they have an LVC built in.

This has been spoken about ad nauseum on the forum(s) previously

 

[old man mavic]

For the love of god, how many times does this come up?

Zero on a DJI battery IS NOT ZERO capacity.
The same way that your cell phone turns off when it reaches ‘zero’ does that destroy the battery? - No.

It has simply reached Low Voltage Cut-Off (LVC) which is there to protect the battery.
DJI ‘Smart’ packs are no different - they have an LVC built in.

This has been spoken about ad nauseum on the forum(s) previously

you are correct but what you propose is that no one should reply to a question just because it has been raised before maybe when a newbee asks a question that has been covered many times the forum directs them to a list of previous answers just a thought