Is all this battery charge level stuff just OCD hobbyists?

[Kyle76]

The MA2 has “intelligent“ batteries, right? Aren’t they supposed to take themselves to the right level for storage after a period of non-use? Does one really need to put a lot of effort into figuring out how long until they’re going to fly again and manually futz with their batteries in order to increase their life? And how much difference is that going to make? I’m pretty sure that a whole lot of MA2 owners just fly and either charge before their next flight or keep the batteries on full charge by charging after use. Yet, I see thread after thread here for all models, including those with intelligent batteries, on proper battery practices. I number and rotate my batteries. Is the rest really worth the bother?

FYI: the word in the title that was blocked out was not all that bad, just an anatomical term for someone on the compulsive side.

 

[Ice_2k]

Smart batteries can do a lot of things on their own but they can’t self charge. I would say as long as you don’t store them empty, you should be good. I don’t think there’s a huge difference between storing them with a full charge and just manually charging them to about 60%. That being said, I personally take the time to do the latter, it gives me peace of mind

 

[Meta4]

Aren’t they supposed to take themselves to the right level for storage after a period of non-use?

Yes .. the batteries will self-discharge to storage level, just like the manual says.
There's really not much interfering needed.
About all you could do is only charge to half full if you knew you wouldn't be flying soon, rather than charging fully and allowing it to discharge back to around 50%.

 

[jlatas]

LiPo longevity depends on keeping them stored in a cool dry place at approximately 30 to 70% charged. They do not like being stored nearly depleted or at full charge, hence the battery firmware will discharge them after sitting charged for a few days. At 115.00 a pop, I recommend you follow the manufacturers recommendations unless you have money to burn. I typically charge them the night before a flight, or the morning of. Just my 2 cents

 

[slup]

You know ... LiPo batteries will not last forever. In the best case they will have such a degraded flight time so you don't bother to use it anymore, others have a sudden cell failure airborne which will result in a forced landing then & there ... & others start to develop a swelling which in flight can mean that the battery once heated up is pushed out of the drone resulting in lost power with all the equipment free falling from height.

So how to foresee when this is going to happen as it's not as easy as a visual inspection ... is it even possible with acceptable accuracy?

Usable flight time, voltage drops & cell deviation is possible to follow up either manually through the logs, reading off every single flight one at a time or by web services like Airdata.com that can bundle all flights per battery & create trend graphs how these 3 parameters develop over time. Out from this it's up to you to judge if it's worth taking the risk flying more or if it's time to put a certain battery to only desk service for unloading media or adjust AC settings.

As these failures can occur all between brand new to several years old with many many charge cycles on them it's hard to say in advance when a battery shouldn't be used anymore ... if something happens up to 6 month from activation it should be a warranty case but after that ..?

We know that certain thing's isn't good or at least worse for a LiPo battery ... they don't like heat & they don't like to be stored too far outside approx. 40-60% ... or cell voltage wise, too far from 3,8V during any longer period. So here we can do something to rise the odds to our favor ...

... see to that the battery is outside room temperature as little as possible by not storing it too hot (in a car during summer...) and cool it down after flight (place it in the open in shadow) as quick as possible, respect the operating temps from the user manual & never charge before letting it cool down to room temp.

... then as we know that the battery is the least degraded in the sweet spot window (% or voltage wise) ... we can see to that the battery is out of that as little as possible. This by charge it up to 100% just before flight ... & bring it into the storage span as quick after flight as possible.

In most of the incidents that I've seen so far where it's been a battery failure that's been the cause it's striking how many there is that just have been using the batteries without any consideration of age, temps, swelling, storage or any followups of how the batteries have performed in earlier flights.

Yeah ... you can leave it to the Smart battery & use it without monitoring, but then the failure that eventually will come ... will surprise you. I would do what can be done in order to keep my AC flying ... but that's me.

 

[mschaffer66]

I don't put a ton of effort into making sure my batteries are having a happy life. I store them on the charger and keep one in the drone. Im sure even at rate they will live plenty long enough.

 

[old man mavic]

it all depends on how you like to fly
if you must extract every last ounce of juice from you batteries and regularly run them down to below 20% then they would need a charge back to the 55 to 75 % value for storage over time of none use
if on the other hand your like me then my first battery warning is set to 40% wich gives me around 18 to 20 minutes of flight time and i like to be on the ground fairly soon after the alarm sounds ,once the battery has cooled and recovered i will have 2 lights solid on the battery and i know that i am good to store for a good couple of weeks if i cant get out to fly during that time ,i only charge my batteries the evening before a flying day and i know that they will be fine my auto discharge setting on the MPP is set for three days ,the MM of course does not have that facility so i will use the hub to charge my Ipad to drop some charge off to 75% so they are not sitting fully charged for long periods ,there is nothing wrong in just using the auto discharge method if thats what makes you happy, as has been said many times ,its fully charged or very low charge, that causes the most harm to the cells over time ,and is made worse by extreme heat

 

[slup]

I don't put a ton of effort into making sure my batteries are having a happy life. I store them on the charger and keep one in the drone. Im sure even at rate they will live plenty long enough.

Long or short life length is one thing ... but cell failure with following forced autolanding or power loss due to swelling & free falling is another which can not only make you loose your AC, but also damage people & property.

 

[Electromen]

The Mavic 2 Air uses Lithium Polymer (Lipo) batteries. It is 3S which means it is 11.1 volts.
Each cell is 3.7 Volts. That means 2S is 7.4 V. 4S is 14.8 V

They are excellent for radio controlled devices including aircraft, RC cars and trucks.
Lipo have the ability to discharge high levels of amperage instantly. An example is the Traxxas RC car that can go 0-100 mph is 2.9 seconds.
I have a Traxxas Lipo that can jump start your car because it will drain the Lipo battery in seconds, but the car will start.
This high discharge ability is why your MA2 can go from stop to start instantly. It can accelerate quickly.

Lipo advantages are several.
They have nearly double the capacity of NiCad (nickel cadmium) and NiMH (nickel metal hydride).
They stay charged longer than the other types and do not retain a memory.

They also have disadvantages.
Lipo are very sensitive to high temperatures.
They are very sensitive to high and low voltages. Exceeding either will damage the battery.
They are prone to explode if exposed to heat, or charged/discharged improperly.

Like others have said the best practice for storage is either manually stop use at 50% or charge it and let it automatically discharge to storage level.
Don't store a discharged battery for more than a couple days.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I number and rotate my batteries. Is the rest really worth the bother?

Not worth the bother! The batteries manage themselves just fine. If anything, they are far too conservative in their battery management, depriving you of valuable flight time!

 

[volition]

Your original post in regards to these batteries is spot on. DJI have taken the time to build “intelligence” into these batteries so that we the user if we choose need not baby them,

Interestingly there is little actual evidence that “storage” charges actually increase the lifespan of lithium batteries.
users will swear black & blue that you must put them at 3.85v per cell if you intend on storing them without use for any longer length of time. But I am starting to suspect that is just an ongoing perpetuating theory that lacks supporting evidence other then a continual pass along the line. I challenge someone to show some evidence to prove “storage voltage” is beneficial apart from reading it on a website. An actual study, or data that proves it.

what is clear?
1 Heat is bad, therefore cool is good in regards to storing.
2. Batteries have a limited cycle life
3. Allowing lithium based batteries below a certain voltage [around 3.0-3.2v) is bad and you may not be able to charge again if they go below.

With that in mind limit cycles and top up if stored for a long long time.
i’d also add keep an eye on the health of batteries, swelling, overly degraded performance, dirty contacts, broken chargers & cables. I”ve only ever seen lipo fires when people have had unhealthy equipment.

i have charged & used thousands of lithium batteries and seen thousands of others too in My RC car racing, vaping, power tool, laptop & phone with only 1 incident. Caused by a faulty charge cable .

 

[RobertR]

I leave mine to manage themselves......

 

[Starz]

And they are replaceable when they are unhappy.

 

[Ukung]

The MA2 has “intelligent“ batteries, right? Aren’t they supposed to take themselves to the right level for storage after a period of non-use? Does one really need to put a lot of effort into figuring out how long until they’re going to fly again and manually futz with their batteries in order to increase their life? And how much difference is that going to make? I’m pretty sure that a whole lot of MA2 owners just fly and either charge before their next flight or keep the batteries on full charge by charging after use. Yet, I see thread after thread here for all models, including those with intelligent batteries, on proper battery practices. I number and rotate my batteries. Is the rest really worth the bother?

FYI: the word in the title that was blocked out was not all that bad, just an anatomical term for someone on the compulsive side.

Yes compared to years ago the batteries are intelligent, their users often not so much !

 

[dawgpilot]

The batteries aren't "literally" intelligent. That's just a marketing term. The intelligence is just an auto-discharge algorithm that some engineer at DJI decided was the best compromise between extended battery life, user convenience, etc. The battery has no way to know how soon you plan to fly again, so the intelligence will never be as good as a user self managing the charge level.

For example if you full charge the battery and then decide not to go flying for a week, the "intelligence" will end up having your battery sit at 96% charge for 5 days. Much better to either fly the drone around a bit, or use the USB adapter to get the charge level down to a safer level of 60%.

 

[volition]

The batteries aren't "literally" intelligent. That's just a marketing term. The intelligence is just an auto-discharge algorithm that some engineer at DJI decided was the best compromise between extended battery life, user convenience, etc. The battery has no way to know how soon you plan to fly again, so the intelligence will never be as good as a user self managing the charge level.

For example if you full charge the battery and then decide not to go flying for a week, the "intelligence" will end up having your battery sit at 96% charge for 5 days. Much better to either fly the drone around a bit, or use the USB adapter to get the charge level down to a safer level of 60%.

More fun too! doing a self storage by flying.

I'm still to be convinced that storage charging makes much a difference but I do it anyway. lol Wish someone could actually point to some research or data.

 

[Dave Maine]

It is silly to argue with DJI’s recommendations. They have actually done the research, which matches up with what the lipo industry recommends. If it is too much trouble, don’t bother, but expect poorer battery performance.

 

[Davyc]

just a thought with all the concern about the batteries, whats the situation regarding charging and discharging the remote control, is there any procedure for that or is it a different battery..

 

[Serk]

I have been the owner of a MA2 for two months now, and being my first drone, I have been reading as much as I can, just one thing regarding the battery storage, why is everybody recommending to keep the charge around 50 % while the manual clearly states to fly the drone until battery level is below 30%

 

[apeel]

While it is true that we can over-think how to best care for the LiPo batteries, I think it is useful to do so since:
1) They are expensive to replace. If you are rich, I guess you do not need to be concerned with this aspect. However, there are other reasons to be concerned.
2) You can lose your drone if you place a defective battery in the drone without realizing it. Even a slight bulge could lead to a drone loss.
3) Drone crashing / forced landings can have serious impacts to body and property of it occurs at the wrong time or place.
4) While perhaps it is not a common occurrence, LiPO batteries can be a fire risk if not properly cared for, both in terms of charging and storage.

That's my 4-cents worth ;-)