Is it normal to charge batteries and they are just 59%?

[faysal9]

I usually charge them and don't use for a few days. But when I try to go out and fly, The battery is not 100% but 59%.
is that because These batteries may discharge over the period of time?
Can someone shed some light on it?

 

[MA2 317]

Hello from the Hoosier Heartland faysal9.

The batteries don't like being charged to 100% and not used.

The circuitry in the MA2 batteries will self discharge to 96% if not used for a day.
It will continue to self discharge to 60% if not used for five days.

It's normal for the batteries to feel warm to the touch during this process.

-page 25 of the Mavic Air 2 manual.

Welcome to the Forum.

 

[Meta4]

I usually charge them and don't use for a few days. But when I try to go out and fly, The battery is not 100% but 59%.
is that because These batteries may discharge over the period of time?
Can someone shed some light on it?

Page 25 of the manual explains this:

Auto-Discharging Function: ​

To prevent swelling, the battery automatically discharges to 96% of the battery level when it is idle for one day, and automatically discharges to 60% of the battery level when it is idle for five days.​

It is normal to feel moderate heat being emitted from the battery during the discharging process. ​

If you haven't found it already the manual is here:

https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/Mavic_Air_2/20200615/Mavic_Air_2_User_Manual_v1.2_en_.pdf

 

[DomDeV]

I usually charge them and don't use for a few days. But when I try to go out and fly, The battery is not 100% but 59%.
is that because These batteries may discharge over the period of time?
Can someone shed some light on it?

Best practice is to get in the habit of charging the evening/morning before use, not after use.
Yes, it means you need to plan more, but if a battery has self discharged after 5 days, my experience is that battery isn't trustworthy until it's recharged.

I nearly lost my MA2 (over water) because of dramatic loss of charge %, I think because it had self discharged after 5 days (1-day discharge to 96% always seems fine...), and didn't really know/show it's true charge level. Flying into gusts in sport mode suddenly dropped voltage to the point where it thought the battery was exhausted at 45% (!) . I flew back low & careful, but was 30 seconds from owning a DJI submarine. [emoji15]

Short story: don't recharge batts after use, recharge *before* use.

 

[faysal9]

thanks for all the help guys.
really appreciate it.

 

[Repaid1]

Best practice is to get in the habit of charging the evening/morning before use, not after use.


Short story: don't recharge batts after use, recharge *before* use.

I understand what your saying, but it needs to be defined that when you say "Don't recharge batts after use" could easily damage batteries just as a full charge. If a person flies batteries down to a safe storage level then fine, but if they drain the pack to below 30% then the battery indeed should be allowed to cool and stabilize and the pack should be charged to at least 50% (Two solid lights) If they over shoot the level too much then let it full charge and let it do the storage discharge itself if you don't want to hover the batteries back down.

Also of note is that if batteries have begun a self discharge. Then they should be manually turned on and off to cancel that discharge before using battery, even a short 1 minute charge into the battery will ensure that the Discharge is cancelled. A safer bet and recommended is NEVER fly a non full battery from the start of using it for first flight of day. I always top off the battery within 1 hour before flight.. I haven't had a issue in over 5 years using DJI batteries.

 

[Peshoa]

I really do not get it...someone is buying 1K dollars device and he ignore the User manual...just think what else you do not know? Go and drop your drone in the water, if it is soooo hard to read the manual....

 

[InvisibleName]

I really do not get it...someone is buying 1K dollars device and he ignore the User manual...just think what else you do not know? Go and drop your drone in the water, if it is soooo hard to read the manual....

Not really neccessary!

 

[DanMan32]

DJI already has a safety margin at the low end of displayed state of charge, so I don't see much of an issue not charging the batteries after a flight. Just be sure you don't leave them low for months without periodically checking their charge state.

 

[Tentoes]

Sure. If they're 59%, charge them and fly.

I think if you're going to put them away for the winter, charge them up and put them away. They'll lower themselves to the proper storage level.

I don't put mine away for the winter, but might not use it as often.