Controller battery self discharge rate?

Imaginet · Jun 22, 2017

I have a new Mavic and have a question about the self discharge rate of the controller. I have not used it in 2 days. It was 100% charged and turned off. I checked the power today and it reports 70%. That is a loss if 15% a day! Is this normal?

Thanks

HLS811 · Sep 29, 2017

I notice the same thing.. I plugged mine in on Tuesday night and put it away when it hit 100%. Thursday afternoon I powered it on and it was down to 82%.

Mavic_Pete · Sep 29, 2017

How long have you had your mavic or RCs? That is very strange. I charged mine a week ago and I just checked and it still shows 99%. Do you always keep it fully changed when you don't plan on flying for some time? I was told the rc battery is the same as the mavic batteries and you should store it between 30-60% to preserve the battery. Hopefully that is not the problem but I'm not sure what else could be causing the drain.

4wd · Sep 29, 2017

I don't think it is the same chemistry as the Mavic batteries, they are doing quite different jobs.
I wouldn't leave it discharged but at 50% up should be fine.

Mavic_Pete · Sep 29, 2017

4wd said:
I don't think it is the same chemistry as the Mavic batteries, they are doing quite different jobs.
I wouldn't leave it discharged but at 50% up should be fine.

It's a LiPo battery so I'm assuming it should be treated the same as the mavic batteries. The battery trype is listed on the back of the controller. Not saying that that's the issue with the controller losing 15% a day but it could be. I know that after finding this out I personally won't be charging my controller to 100% anymore of I don't plan on flying for 10+ days.

Dw911 · Sep 29, 2017

4wd said:
I don't think it is the same chemistry as the Mavic batteries, they are doing quite different jobs.
I wouldn't leave it discharged but at 50% up should be fine.

It has the same chemistry as the Mavic

HLS811 · Sep 30, 2017

So i charged it again last night, powered it on this morning and down to 90% overnight. I'll reach out to support to see what they say - I'm afraid they won't do an advanced exchange which means I'll have to send the controller in first and based on my previous experience with ground shipping puts me out for 2 weeks or so.

HLS811 · Oct 1, 2017

I sent an email to DJI Support yesterday and today they responded with this:

"Please check on your DJI Go 4 app if the auto-discharging for your remote controller's battery is enabled.
If yes, please disable it, however, this feature is designed so that the batteries for your both aircraft and the remote controller will be prevented by having cell error and overcharging or bloating."

For the life of me, I can't find that setting. Theres nothing under the Remote Controller Settings, and under the Aircraft Battery section I do see a 'Time to Discharge' field, and its set to 1 Day - Auto is not an option. Am I missing it somewhere?

Of course, if I find the setting and its disabled already and I keep experiencing the issue I have to send it in for service... I really dont want to do that, I'll probably just have to make sure I charge it the night before. No impulse flights.

msinger · Oct 2, 2017

HLS811 said:
Please check on your DJI Go 4 app if the auto-discharging for your remote controller's battery is enabled

There is no such setting in DJI GO.

HWal · Oct 2, 2017

I watched a Mavic RC teardown video showing that the controller has a Li-ion battery.

The aircraft battery is LiPo.

I believe Li-ion battery is the most used chemistry in mobile phones and laptops.
I have read, but cannot confirm, that Li-ion is more robust regarding charge level when stored.

Dw911 · Oct 2, 2017

HWal said:
I watched a Mavic RC teardown video showing that the controller has a Li-ion battery.

The aircraft battery is LiPo.

I believe Li-ion battery is the most used chemistry in mobile phones and laptops.
I have read, but cannot confirm, that Li-ion is more robust regarding charge level when stored.

Mine has a lipo pouch type battery in the controller.

HWal · Oct 2, 2017

Hmmm... that's interesting.

Have a look at 4:54 in this video:

Dw911 · Oct 2, 2017

HWal said:
Hmmm... that's interesting.

Have a look at 4:54 in this video:

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I see what you mean, it says li lon cos it is, they all are li ion broardly speaking , its just how they are constructed, thats where the different names come in, the battery in the controller is a soft pouch type battery and can be easily punctured and can be made into many different shapes and sizes and is normally referred to as a Lipo( lithium polymer)
, as opposed to a cylinder type cell -which has to be a cylinder as opposed to a pouch from the way it is constructed with rolled layers - say a 18650 cell which is normally referred to as a li lon cell.
Doubt ive explained it very well but hopefully that makes sense

Just to add, your phone would have a lipo battery, like the mavic controller, a laptop or cordless drill would normally use 18650 lilon cells, although a lot of the thinner lighter laptops do use lipo packs

HWal · Oct 2, 2017

Thank you for the nice explanation. This put a clear light on something that obviously has confused me.

Qoncussion · Oct 2, 2017

Imaginet said:
I have a new Mavic and have a question about the self discharge rate of the controller. I have not used it in 2 days. It was 100% charged and turned off. I checked the power today and it reports 70%. That is a loss if 15% a day! Is this normal?

Thanks

I've been seeing a 4%-5% discharge of my RC, after about two days. I am thinking that this is a calibration issue. You might want to try running the RC battery down to around 10%, followed immediately by a full recharge. This can recalibrate the electronics that measure the percentage of battery life to correct for the error.