Charge now or later

[earlbalentine]

After flying and discharging batteries in drone and controller. Is it best to wait and recharge batteries the day before flying again which could be weeks or months later or recharge all batteries and then top off again the day before flying? I don't know how long the controller and drone batteries stay charge in storage.

 

[msinger]

It depends on how much charge is remaining in the batteries. The worst thing you can do is store completely discharged batteries for long periods of time. That's known to destroy DJI batteries.

Check out my guide here:
HOW TO: Maintain and store your DJI Mavic batteries

 

[eEridani]

Reputable sources (engineering tool companies) say store Li-Ion batteries at 50-60% state of charge to maximize battery life.

DJI recommends 60% for storage by way of the fact their latest Smart Batteries perform self discharging to 60% after 5 days on non-use. See page 25 of the Air 2 User Manual v1.6.

When I come in from flying, I'll charge the battery to where 3 lights are on and pull it off the charger. After it rests a bit, they usually settle to 2.5 lights (50 to 63% SOC). This limits the 100% charge condition that is a known cause of battery life decline, and minimizes the time in an undercharge condition that also can be hard on a battery.

But even doing this my batteries are losing capacity as they age. From 3500mAH in July to 3250mAH in October. So consider batteries disposable, with a limited lifespan even if stored properly.

ps: I use Airdata to monitor my flights and hardware. Uploading logs is easy, and all aspects of flight are available: battery logs, flight logs, inflight notifications, wind and weather conditions, and a lot more. Well worth the cost.

 

[msinger]

Uploading logs is easy, and all aspects of flight are available: battery logs, flight logs, inflight notifications, wind and weather conditions, and a lot more

And a lot more data will be available if you process TXT logs with my free online log viewer or Flight Reader.

 

[eEridani]

And a lot more data will be available if you process TXT logs with my free online log viewer or Flight Reader.

Not nearly as easily available as in Airdata. I also use FlightReader, and the data is buried in text logs and CSV's and you have to manually go hunting for it. Not easy at all to find info or notifications. And zero weather of in flight wind info.

And heck, now it seems it lost my license key and have to re-enter it just because I haven't opened the app in a week.



So Mike - how do I get my key to be sticky?

 

[eEridani]

Even better: now FlightReader is refusing my license... woohoo.

 

[msinger]

how do I get my key to be sticky?

The key should be sticky without any interaction on your end. From your second screenshot above, it looks like something on your computer might be blocking Internet access to Flight Reader.

 

[msinger]

And zero weather of in flight wind info

Weather conditions and calculated wind speeds are not available in the TXT logs. I was referring to actual data within that they don't make available for whatever reason.

 

[earlbalentine]

The key should be sticky without any interaction on your end. From your second screenshot above, it looks like something on your computer might be blocking Internet access to Flight Reader.

I put the drone memory card into my laptop to read the files. Nothing there but a couple accent photos.

 

[earlbalentine]

It depends on how much charge is remaining in the batteries. The worst thing you can do is store completely discharged batteries for long periods of time. That's known to destroy DJI batteries.

Check out my guide here:
HOW TO: Maintain and store your DJI Mavic batteries

Thanks that's all I needed to hear. I know there were several months during the high point of the pandemic earlier this year that I did fly or charge.

 

[eEridani]

Weather conditions and calculated wind speeds are not available in the TXT logs. I was referring to actual data within that they don't make available for whatever reason.

Nearly everything in FlightReader is available in Airdata. Yes, some existential data isn't included, but also is never needed. Access however - hands down Airdata makes important information available at your fingertips. FlightReader is a mining expedition to find even the simplest info. Having to scan a 25,000 record worksheet one line at a time just to find 10 notifications, well, is not value added. The major difference is usability. Airdata consolidates useful information and puts it within your grasp with a few mouse clicks.

Third try minutes later Flightdata finally accepted the key (no system changes). Why it lost it is still a mystery.

 

[eEridani]

I put the drone memory card into my laptop to read the files. Nothing there but a couple accent photos.

Flight Log recovery is a separate exchange. Mike (msinger) created FlightReader and many of the well known websites like PhantomHelp. He is quite knowledgeable about DJI drones and inner workings.

You can read up on logs and how to access them in the Mavic Crash Assistance forums. sar104 has a thorough if terse guide for getting to data from files stored on the drone and flight controller. Log files recent drones use are named thus:

DJIFlightRecord_2021-07-12_[21-24-21].txt

Location in the Android file system can change with DJI Fly app versions. They are not human readable text files. They must be read using available tools like the Airdata website, PhantomHelp website, or FlightReader application.

 

[msinger]

The major difference is usability. Airdata consolidates useful information and puts it within your grasp with a few mouse clicks.

Certainly. I guess it depends on what kind of data you're after. Having consolidated views of limited data isn't useful in all cases.

FWIW, I also have an Airdata subscription as it comes in handy in certain scenarios. I'm not trying to hate on it -- just pointing out that the generated CSV is quite limited.