Charging battery

[Marlem]

Looking for help with battery charging. I partially unboxed my Mavic air about a year and a half ago. Charged the batteries, but never finished or flew. Life happened and put it way till now. Tried to charge the batteries in the hub, it flashes green a couple times then goes red for a bit, then the cycle continues. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[slup]

Welcome to the forum ?

So you charged them ... then put them away for a year & a half. Probably stone dead then I'm afraid ... Have you checked the RC ..? The battery in that might also be wasted.

Just advised a proper procedure to handle the MA batteries over at DJI's own forum ... marked in red below where it went wrong.

1. Keeping the battery at 100% isn't good for it ... do what you can to minimize the time that they are at that level (the default 10 days auto discharge down to 60-65% is way to long ... & if you check the level by pushing the button you reset the counter & the 10 day counter will restart). If a battery that is above storage % level haven't been used in a couple days, use the usb adapter from the Fly More Kit to charge something else (your phone) in order to bring it down to storage % (see below ...)

2. Heat kills them ... don't store above room temperature & absolutely not in a car during summer, 5 hours in a burning hot car & the battery have sustained serious damage.

3. Let them cool down to room temperature before recharging them.

4. Don't fly with a battery colder then 15C degrees, keep them warm in colder weather, have them in a pocket close to your body.

5. Store the batteries between 40-60% ... a good thumb rule is to take them of the charger as soon as the third led start to blink, then they are just over 50%. But anything between 1 solid + 1 blinking up to 2 solid + 1 blinking is good enough.

6. Don't drain them to low, make sure they don't go under 10% ... once in a while, so be it. Try to not have them lower then 20% ... if you aim for that you usually don't end up below 10%.

7. If stored for a long time, cycle them at least once each third month ... then back to storage %.

 

[Marlem]

Thanks for the help. I believe my RC is wasted as well. What are my options for that fix.
Thanks Marc

 

[slup]

Thanks for the help. I believe my RC is wasted as well. What are my options for that fix.
Thanks Marc

Usually you can't exchange that battery by yourself ... & DJI doesn't sell it either. Open a ticket with DJI & send the RC in, that's the only way.

 

[Underwaterguy]

Hi, I have 3 Mini2 batteries that ended up stored for six months. Read the above thread but I'm unsure of what to do to harm them least with a recharge. Just charge them fully? Can explain what "cycle them at least once" means as a process? Thanks!

 

[slup]

...explain what "cycle them at least once" means...

1. Fully charge them from where they happen to be (should be on storage voltage though)
2. Deplete them down to where you usually have them when you've flown and consider them used (15-25% perhaps?)
3. Let them cool to room temp.
4. Charge them up to storage voltage again (3,7-3,8V/cell or 40-60% or between 1 solid + 1 blinking up to 2 solid + 1 blinking LED).

 

[Underwaterguy]

Thank you so much for the step-by-step info. Regarding Step4: If I'm now going to be flying (not continuing to store the drone and batteries), after depleting them in Step2, do I just charge to 100% and go fly?

 

[slup]

Thank you so much for the step-by-step info. Regarding Step4: If I'm now going to be flying (not continuing to store the drone and batteries), after depleting them in Step2, do I just charge to 100% and go fly?

This drill with the step 1-4 is intended to be used each third month if the batteries are long time stored, it's even stated by DJI in the safety guidelines ... for instance over the winter. If your regularly fly & use the batteries ... I mean, the you're already charging/discharging the batteries regularly.

Read post #2, point 7. again ...