Charging the flight battery when it's turned on

[sparky7670]

Will charging a battery while it is turned on damage or degrade the charger, battery or both? When I slowly discharge a flight battery down to storage levels when not planning to fly the drone for a while, I sometimes slightly over discharge and will then charge briefly to get the level above 50% or so. Occasionally I have inadvertently left the battery turned on prior to charging. Looked in the manual regarding this and found the following with no additional explanation "Ensure the Intelligent flight battery is turned off at all time (sic) during charging."

 

[brett8883]

Will charging a battery while it is turned on damage or degrade the charger, battery or both? When I slowly discharge a flight battery down to storage levels when not planning to fly the drone for a while, I sometimes slightly over discharge and will then charge briefly to get the level above 50% or so. Occasionally I have inadvertently left the battery turned on prior to charging. Looked in the manual regarding this and found the following with no additional explanation "Ensure the Intelligent flight battery is turned off at all time (sic) during charging."

I would avoid that for sure but the battery won’t allow charging while it’s in use or turned on.

As far as discharging it you could just put it in the Mavic and let the motors idle to discharge it. I think the battery will turn off after not being in use for a certain amount of time. It’s such a large battery I can’t imagine being able to discharge it without hooking it up to something.

 

[sparky7670]

I would avoid that for sure but the battery won’t allow charging while it’s in use or turned on.

As far as discharging it you could just put it in the Mavic and let the motors idle to discharge it. I think the battery will turn off after not being in use for a certain amount of time. It’s such a large battery I can’t imagine being able to discharge it without hooking it up to something.

Thanks for the quick response. I had just assumed that the battery was charging when I found it turned on. If it wasn't charging like you say, then the voltage must have just recovered after discharging to the point that it surpassed 50% charge.

 

[sparky7670]

Thanks for the quick response. I had just assumed that the battery was charging when I found it turned on. If it wasn't charging like you say, then the voltage must have just recovered after discharging to the point that it surpassed 50% charge.

As far as discharging, I connect up an old iPad that drains the flight battery at a decent rate.

 

[old man mavic]

the batteries do recover from the remaining charge level shown in the app on landing after a flight ,i have set my first battery warning at 40 percent in the app and always try to have landed soon after that goes off,by the time i get home and the batts have cooled down,if i press the button they will show 50 percent charge remaining,which if you check the levels using the app again will give a cell voltage of around the 3.8 per cell that is a good level for storage

 

[Detritalgeo]

I have taken apart a few mavic air batteries (do not do this) and they are simply a 3s1p battery of lipo cells with 9 Wh each (~2Ah at 3.7 nominal voltage).

Standard li-ion charging behavior would indicate that the deep cycling is not warranted and not helpful. The greatest wear of the battery occurs as full cycles are completed and most common li-ion chemistries tend to go around 300 cycles before capacity is reduced to 80%. The best way to extend the lifespan of the battery is to charge to 90%, but this is not helpfull in the drone world. Also, extended storage at full charge causes deterioration.