Discharged battery.

[yawyaw33]

Hello, I continually read that a completely discharged Lipo battery is a dead battery, can someone help me then decide how long I can keep a m2p in storage? I realise that the battery will intelligently keep itself charged at I believe approx %10-12, but I can't find an answer to the question 'how long it will hold the %10 - 12 whether it's weeks or months. Thank you.

 

[old man mavic]

Hello, I continually read that a completely discharged Lipo battery is a dead battery, can someone help me then decide how long I can keep a m2p in storage? I realise that the battery will intelligently keep itself charged at I believe approx %10-12, but I can't find an answer to the question 'how long it will hold the %10 - 12 whether it's weeks or months. Thank you.

store at 50% check once a month and recharge after no more than three months

 

[yawyaw33]

store at 50% check once a month and recharge after no more than three months

Thanks very much for your reply
Sincerely Jim

store at 50% check once a month and recharge after no more than three months

store at 50% check once a month and recharge after no more than three months

Thanks for that 'Old man' I was hoping you would say almost exactly that!

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

If left in default settings, your batteries should self discharge at about 10 days, down to around 50 - 55 %.
That is fine to leave, but they will lose power very slowly then, possibly drained to almost nil by ~ 12 months (some say this is about right).

So I guess push the button after say 3 or 4 months, and see how many bars show.
If 1 bar flashing, it'd be a good idea to pop those on the charger until say 2 bars are solid, and the 3rd has started flashing .. .. .. that should be around 60%.

I've read that damage can occur when batteries are drained to 5% or less regularly.
Many pilots aim to land at 20% or so, supposedly good practice for battery maintenance.

 

[old man mavic]

there are two states that lipos get harmed at if not being used ,one is fully charged ,and the other is at a very low voltage
these two extremes cause the battery to gradually lose its ability to hold a full charge ,and indeed take on a charge
two other external influences that are harmful to lipos and restrict their performance are heat and cold so do not store them in a very hot place, cold limits their output performance ,but some people believe that low temp storage slows down the loss of charge, and recommend keeping them in a fridge when not in use
as far as the UK is concerned we don't often get the extremes of temp that would need such measures
for me i like to land at around 40% which gives me a flight time of between 18 to 20 mins ,they are then at a safe storage amount till the next time i fly
whether it is in a couple of days or a few weeks if after 4 weeks i had not used them then i would check them to see how much charge was left
don't become obsessed with worrying about your batteries as DJI has put in place some built in safeguards to protect them happy flying

 

[yawyaw33]

Much appreciated, BTW I am relatively new to this and as you can see above I have inadvertently posted stuff to you I'm sorry about that. Regarding the info that was good of you to post the detailed stuff. Indebtedley.

 

[yawyaw33]

there are two states that lipos get harmed at if not being used ,one is fully charged ,and the other is at a very low voltage
these two extremes cause the battery to gradually lose its ability to hold a full charge ,and indeed take on a charge
two other external influences that are harmful to lipos and restrict their performance are heat and cold so do not store them in a very hot place, cold limits their output performance ,but some people believe that low temp storage slows down the loss of charge, and recommend keeping them in a fridge when not in use
as far as the UK is concerned we don't often get the extremes of temp that would need such measures
for me i like to land at around 40% which gives me a flight time of between 18 to 20 mins ,they are then at a safe storage amount till the next time i fly
whether it is in a couple of days or a few weeks if after 4 weeks i had not used them then i would check them to see how much charge was left
don't become obsessed with worrying about your batteries as DJI has put in place some built in safeguards to protect them happy flying

I just sent off a reply and in the (almost) very same instant I recieved your latest, your point about extremes of temperature make sense I presume all batteries even dry cell perform poorly under such circumstances.

 

[old man mavic]

the batteries apart from the cost of replacing them ,are along with the props ,possibly the most important part of drone flying so if you look after them they will give you good service, they do over time gradually lose their ability to take on a charge, but by taking care of them you are hopefully prolonging that day, never charge them when they are warm give them an hour or so after use before you recharge them don't let them sit in a hot car in the sun as it can cause them to swell and if fully charged,they can ignite and cause a nasty fire
the chemicals used in them are very powerful and can store a lot of energy just handle them with respect and they are perfectly fine ,one other last thing please don't ever leave them charging unsupervised, they do get warm as they charge but they should not get really hot ,if they do stop the charge and put the battery outside away from animals and kids i am not trying to scare you just pointing out some of the issues that lipos can have