Battery help

Dmascot · Nov 21, 2019

Is it alright to top off the Mini’s Battery if it isn’t below 15% let’s say at 80%?

old man mavic · Nov 21, 2019

Dmascot said:
Is it alright to top off the Mini’s Battery if it isn’t below 15% let’s say at 80%?

if you plan to fly very soon then go ahead and top it up prior to your flight if you want to store it for a while for what ever reason keep it between 50-65 per cent that is 2 lights solid and the third one flashing, with regards to topping it up from 80% no problem if you want to go and fly again soon, its always best practice to start any flight with a fully charged battery and a flying session with the controller, device ,and flight batteries all fully charged

Dmascot · Nov 21, 2019

Thanks

PW_Plack · Nov 22, 2019

Dmascot said:
Is it alright to top off the Mini’s Battery if it isn’t below 15% let’s say at 80%?

Your concern is understandable, but the old advice to run batteries fully down before charging is left over from the days of nickel-cadmium (aka "nicad") batteries. They would develop a "memory effect" if not fully discharged before charging, but that's not applicable to lithium types.

When nicads first became widely available, many people accustomed to the even older lead-acid technology stored their handheld radios and similar devices in the charger, unaware nicads should not be subjected to constant trickle-charging. That's one reason memory effect became so widely known.

Lithium chemistry batteries enjoy their longest life (in terms of number of charge cycles before you have to replace them) if they're never charged nor discharged fully. But that's moot point in drones, because they're discharged at such high rates in normal use that they only last a couple hundred cycles at best.

Best general practice with lithiums is probably to start your mission with a full charge, but after you get back home, don't recharge again until a couple hours before the next mission. The only reason to run them fully down periodically is to allow the charge regulator to recalibrate as the batteries age and their capacity declines, so the regulator can protect you from reaching zero before the indicator warns you.