Discharge batteries

[Shuttershooter]

Auto Discharge is designed to Discharge Fully charged batteries down to 50% to save the batteries from harm. 40 to 60% is where you want to store your batteries at. I don't believe they will discharge completely as that would be harmful for the battery too. Truth is if you have fully charged batteries and are waiting 10 days for them to discharge on their own, you are harming your batteries.

 

[msinger]

Auto Discharge is designed to Discharge Fully charged batteries down to 50%

The auto discharge process only discharges the batteries down to 65%.

 

[skypros]

This charge / DisCharge just makes my HEAD SPIN !!!!

When I had a quality Charger / Discharger..... I would balance charge for my next flight.... when I was done flying..... I would put the batteries back in the (SKYRC D100) and set it to "storage mode" charge.... and it would charge/discharge the Lipo's at the correct storage charge..... It was fairly straight forward and easy.

Here with these DJI "smart" batteries I see no easy way to get these lipo's to the correct storage charge. I think this is crazy to fly the drone and then put the batteries into the charger and then "monitor" the charge level by pressing the battery button until it reaches a certain level.... and do this for every battery..... Who is going to do this???? I am not saying that you shouldn't do this... I am saying who the heck has the time to do this.

If these batteries are so smart.... and we have access to a "dumb charger" and these batteries "should" be left at a storage charge...... Then you would think there would be a button on the battery that you could press to put the battery in storage mode.... Place the batteries in the "dumb" charger and it would do it's thing.

Sorry for the Rant

 

[Motley]

This charge / DisCharge just makes my HEAD SPIN !!!!

When I had a quality Charger / Discharger..... I would balance charge for my next flight.... when I was done flying..... I would put the batteries back in the (SKYRC D100) and set it to "storage mode" charge.... and it would charge/discharge the Lipo's at the correct storage charge..... It was fairly straight forward and easy.

Here with these DJI "smart" batteries I see no easy way to get these lipo's to the correct storage charge. I think this is crazy to fly the drone and then put the batteries into the charger and then "monitor" the charge level by pressing the battery button until it reaches a certain level.... and do this for every battery..... Who is going to do this???? I am not saying that you shouldn't do this... I am saying who the heck has the time to do this.

If these batteries are so smart.... and we have access to a "dumb charger" and these batteries "should" be left at a storage charge...... Then you would think there would be a button on the battery that you could press to put the battery in storage mode.... Place the batteries in the "dumb" charger and it would do it's thing.

Sorry for the Rant

100% agree, we need the ability to discharge batteries when needed. Say you charge 4 batteries but only end up using 3 on a shoot, then the 4th with sit with a full charge until next flight which hopefully won't be long but who knows. I also prefer to discharge my batteries to storage level just after flying or if I charged them thinking I would fly and something comes up and I need to travel and bring my Mavic with me.

I guess this is an list item for the Mavic 2.0 wishlist thread.

 

[msinger]

Maybe DJI will add a storage switch to the advanced battery charging hub (whenever it surfaces) to toggle between a full/storage charge. I often use that option when charging the P4 batteries with my P4 charging hub.

 

[Heavysledz]

so what is the harm if I leave them fully charged and hit the button say after 8 days and reset the 10 day timer? Is there reason to be concerned about storing 100% charged batteries for a period of 2 weeks or more in a temperature controlled environment?

 

[Motley]

so what is the harm if I leave them fully charged and hit the button say after 8 days and reset the 10 day timer? Is there reason to be concerned about storing 100% charged batteries for a period of 2 weeks or more in a temperature controlled environment?

Do some searching on Lipo batteries, they will not last you nearly as long if you keep them at 100% all the time and is the reason for the discharge at a set idle time. It is also more dangerous to store them at full charge.

Also, if you take them on an airplane the regulations say they should not be fully charged.

 

[Heavysledz]

I get that but at what point is it degrading the life of the battery? If the default setting to start the discharge is 10 days does that mean it is OK to leave them fully charged for 10 days and then after that it begins to degrade the battery life? What is more harmful to the battery life...leaving it fully charged for an extended period of time or more charge/discharge cycles? How many charge cycles can we expect from these batteries before they need to be replaced?

 

[Motley]

I get that but at what point is it degrading the life of the battery? If the default setting to start the discharge is 10 days does that mean it is OK to leave them fully charged for 10 days and then after that it begins to degrade the battery life? What is more harmful to the battery life...leaving it fully charged for an extended period of time or more charge/discharge cycles? How many charge cycles can we expect from these batteries before they need to be replaced?

Would need to get that from DJI, not sure if they have posted that info anywhere but I suspect it is somewhere and depends on the battery quality. It is a balancing act the way I see it, you don't want to charge/discharge your batteries more than necessary but you also don't want to store them on a full charge. The best way is obviously to fly your Mavic until the batteries are at about half or so and then store it until ready for next flight since that will get more use from your Mavic. Some say discharge until 3rd led on battery flashing, I say either 2 or 3. The issue really comes in when you are someone on the go a lot and could be called to travel on a short notice. I will only leave my batteries charged more than about half if I plan to use it within 2-3 days, any more than that and I prefer to leave them in a "storage charge" state. You will also notice that if you charge a battery and leave it for 5 or 6 days and then try to use it the battery will drain much faster than one that you recently pulled off the charger (even though you push the button and it shows a full charge), it is just the way the energy is stored in the battery and while the voltage may still be there it will not hold it as long.

My issue is not so much with the built-in discharge feature, but the time it takes for that to happen once started (2-3 days after the 10 day wait for the process to start) and no way other than flying to drain the battery.

 

[Heavysledz]

gotcha.....my concern is the clock getting reset every time you touch the button. I have hit the button several times by accident when handling the Mavic and from what I hear the count down timer resets when this happens even though you didn't turn on the battery.

 

[Motley]

gotcha.....my concern is the clock getting reset every time you touch the button. I have hit the button several times by accident when handling the Mavic and from what I hear the count down timer resets when this happens even though you didn't turn on the battery.

Yes, that is poor design IMO but I guess it works if you leave the battery stored in a box or something and never touch it (who would do that I don't know). I don't think DJI put much thought into battery maintenance when designing the charger for the Mavic.

 

[John Locke]

This charge / DisCharge just makes my HEAD SPIN !!!!
Here with these DJI "smart" batteries I see no easy way to get these lipo's to the correct storage charge. I think this is crazy to fly the drone and then put the batteries into the charger and then "monitor" the charge level by pressing the battery button until it reaches a certain level.... and do this for every battery..... Who is going to do this???? I am not saying that you shouldn't do this... I am saying who the heck has the time to do this.

If you have the handy little adapter for the Mavic battery that lets you charge phones via USB, just charge a phone battery to lower the Mavic battery charge. This charging cycle will automatically turn off when the phone is fully charged. Depending on the phone/tablet battery you are charging, you can eventually determine the right amount to bring the Mavic battery down to storage level. This way you don't have to monitor the charging or discharging, and you don't throw away the power, by using it in your phone.

 

[Kilrah]

Here with these DJI "smart" batteries I see no easy way to get these lipo's to the correct storage charge.

Sure there is - Put them away and they'll do it all by themselves.

Maybe that's too low maintenance for you and you absolutely need to have to do something for it to happen?

 

[skypros]

Yep, I agree.... In my rant I kida forgot about them being able to do that

I was really commenting (ranting) on a way to be able to easily "charge" the batteries to the desired storage level.

Maybe we a just over thinking the whole thing... IE: if I just put the batteries away when I am done flying (usually between 20% and 40%) they will probably be just fine.

Sure there is - Put them away and they'll do it all by themselves.

Maybe that's too low maintenance for you and you absolutely need to have to do something for it to happen?

 

[Kilrah]

Yup absolutely. And if you REALLY want to be picky charge them and put them away... but really you wouldn't see a difference between both scenarios unless you left them for years. Hope you'll fly your Mavic before that long

 

[Heavysledz]

If you have the handy little adapter for the Mavic battery that lets you charge phones via USB, just charge a phone battery to lower the Mavic battery charge. This charging cycle will automatically turn off when the phone is fully charged. Depending on the phone/tablet battery you are charging, you can eventually determine the right amount to bring the Mavic battery down to storage level. This way you don't have to monitor the charging or discharging, and you don't throw away the power, by using it in your phone.

I thought of that but I have 7 batteries (5 now and 2 on the way). That's a lot cell phone recharges....I have used a fully charged battery with the adapter to recharge the remote, cell phone and tablet and it only dropped the battery about 13%

 

[jerryflah]

If it's impossible to fly, another option would be to use the Battery to Power Bank Adapter to drain the battery by charging a mobile device.

Thanks for the tip

 

[Motley]

All of the suggestions for how to discharge a battery are great, but none of them are as elegant as being able to hook them to a charger that will set them to the best voltage for storage. Maybe it is just me but having used LiPo batteries for a while now I am used to that process and just wish the Mavic batteries were compatible with the process. It seems like a marketing/business plan to me to get a bunch of batteries out there that are not being well maintained in the hopes of selling more batteries due to them going bad prematurely.

I would expect one of these batteries to last me close to a couple of years (or get at least 150 charge/discharge cycles out of them) but without proper maintenance I feel most batteries are doomed to live half that long.

 

[RickL]

Has anyone seen or used this device? I'm no electrician and I'm not sure how this quite basic device would work with an intelligent battery? - Phantom Angel


Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

 

[Motley]

Has anyone seen or used this device? I'm no electrician and I'm not sure how this quite basic device would work with an intelligent battery? - Phantom Angel


Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

I would definitely want more details but that is basically the type of device I am talking about, something that can do the proper maintenance on the LiPo batteries that not only DJI recommends but any company manufacturing LiPo batteries would recommend. I already have a SkyMax charger/discharger that I would like to use and it is much better as it doesn't require a light bulb to do the discharging. I am hoping someone just makes an adapter that will connect a Mavic battery to the charger I use, I would do it myself if I knew just a little more about the batteries. It should be possible to use my current charger as the battery chemistry is the same as what the charger supports andeven the device you linked only uses the positive and negative terminals to complete the job.