Keeping batteries fully charged at all time
- Thread starter dji30t
- Start date
Reading material. Check the number 5 paragraph.
enterprise-insights.dji.com
Tips to Keep Your DJI Drone Batteries Healthy and Safe
How should you store your Intelligent Flight batteries? Can you use a third-party charger? Learn about drone battery charging, storage, and maintenance.
enterprise-insights.dji.com
YVRGUY
Well-Known Member
Yep... that's how it is.Reading material. Check the number 5 paragraph.
Tips to Keep Your DJI Drone Batteries Healthy and Safe
How should you store your Intelligent Flight batteries? Can you use a third-party charger? Learn about drone battery charging, storage, and maintenance.
And... it's not a matter of if you can afford to buy new batteries more often or not... it's a matter of preventing the battery to abruptly fail airborne making the craft either:
-initiate a forced low voltage auto landing on the spot you can't stop... or
-getting a suddenly swelling battery in the craft with a possible total power loss & a freefall
Batteries that are cared for usually "fade away" with just shorter & shorter flight times... but abused ones fail suddenly.
The tricky thing with batteries is that you can't just look at them to see if they are flight worthy or not...
JPayne
Active Member
Pure technically, running DJI batteries the whole way down to 0% will not harm them in a disastrous way... LiPo batteries have a safe voltage span (with some safety margin in the lower end) where they can be used without destroying them, it's between 4,2-3,5V/cell. A DJI LiPo is at 3,5V/cell at indicated 0%.
The problem is that the voltage drop from full to empty isn't linear... the voltage drops really fast in the lower end. So if going too low & something makes the return+landing being a bit delayed you easily drop down where you risk to seriously harm it. I would say that going to 15% on regular basis (landed & motors shut off) is a healthy lowest level.
Also don't forget that DJI batteries have a failsafe to prevent a total depleted battery with a free falling drone as a consequence... it will initiate a auto landing (which you can delay by applying full throttle while you manoeuvre the drone to a safe landing spot, releasing the throttle will again start the landing)... that auto landing usually starts at 10%+, but it's height dependent & can start near 30% if up on 400ft... the goal with the function is to reach solid ground before the battery goes flat.
A LiPo battery has the least wear at nominal voltage (3,7-3.8V/cell; approx 50%, storage voltage) & the wear increases the further away voltage wise the cells are both above & below that.
And regarding charging... LiPo's doesn't have a "memory" problem, they can be charged from any level without harm.
Last edited:
I didn't know about #8. It says charging and discharging the battery is critical to accurate battery percentages.Reading material. Check the number 5 paragraph.
Tips to Keep Your DJI Drone Batteries Healthy and Safe
How should you store your Intelligent Flight batteries? Can you use a third-party charger? Learn about drone battery charging, storage, and maintenance.
Some claim it’s a good idea to run them down close to zero on occasion but not every time they are used.
Spartan Drones
Well-Known Member
Page 38 of the Mavic 3 User Manual states that the battery will discharge to 96% after 3 days and then down to 60% after 9 days.
Powering up the battery and turning it off again will reset the discharge timer. So if you power them up them after 7 days, and then immediately turn them back off, it will be 9 more days before the discharge cycle to 60% begins again.
You cannot top off a 96% battery to 100% on the charger without first manually discharging it to 95%. Just put it in the drone and power it up to acquire the HP and wait until it drops to 95%, and then remove it, and replace it with a 100% battery. You can then charge the removed battery from 95% to 100%.
If you have multiple batteries, always keep one at 100%, and the rest at 96%, and rotate the one at 100%. While flying the one at 100%, after first discharging the other 96% ones to 95%, you can be topping them off to 100%.
Even if you were to keep all your batteries at 100% all the time, as long as you are also using them regularly, no harm will come to them. Just don't keep all of them at 100% and not use any of them for a prolonged period of time. Batteries are an item of consumption. When the flight times decrease substantially, or if any develops swelling, replace it.
When your priority is constant readiness for optimal flight time with 100% charges, the longevity of the batteries has to take a back seat, but the above guidance will be a reasonable comprise.
waynorth
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2018
- Messages
- 805
- Reactions
- 885
Yes, that is what DJI told me. The important step is to not store the battery when you have discharged it to close to zero. That can brick the battery. It must be charged up to 50-60% soon after discharging.
Thanks for sending that reference. I hope that with a future update DJI let’s us change the days to discharge to something less than 10 days. With the capacity of the M3 batteries if I don’t pay attention to rotating the usage I could easily go longer than 3 months without cycling my batteries. Also, I never discharge as low as 20% which seems to be necessary on that interval to maximize life.Reading material. Check the number 5 paragraph.
Tips to Keep Your DJI Drone Batteries Healthy and Safe
How should you store your Intelligent Flight batteries? Can you use a third-party charger? Learn about drone battery charging, storage, and maintenance.
a2tomm
Well-Known Member
The number of charge cycles are visible in the app. I use a small sticker on the battery to track that number. Most office supply stores have them.
So does the auto discharge to 50% count as 1/2 a cycle? I think lithium batteries have a 500 charge/discharge life? Also, anyone keep them 100% charged all the time and did this severely shorten lifespan in your experience? Or did you have newish battery suddenly die due to keeping battery charged at all times for 1-2 months? When I am on an out-of-town job I usually am out for 2-3 weeks and need to have drone ready for deployment on short notice so need to keep at least one battery topped up. Will follow the advice here and keep one topped up and others at 50% then charge them if necessary.
peterc4
Well-Known Member
50% counts as a half cycle towards lifetime cycles. Not sure how DJI counts them in the app. I've kept most of my batteries 100% charged all the time, and never worry about it. Worst that can happen is swelling, which was an issue with Mavic 2 batteries, but not until they were at least a year old! Just follow the advice I gave you above, and you'll be fine. Just rotate the battery you keep charged at 100%.
Suren
Well-Known Member
I have a bad habit of after every flight , I leave my batteries to cool down for an hour or so then fully charge them and keep them away. When I want to fly, they are normal down to the 3rd or 4th light flashing so I top them off to 100% then fly. I occasionally, maybe once every 3 or 4 months fly them to 2% and let it cool off for 2 hours before charging again. I have been doing this since I got the Dji Spark when it first launched and never once had an issue with bloating batteries even in my original Mavic Pro or Mavic 2 drones which lasted for more than 230 cycles each before I sold them.
Many will disagree with my method but it has worked for me for many years without 1 battery issue.
Many will disagree with my method but it has worked for me for many years without 1 battery issue.
Similar threads
DJI Drone Deals
New Threads
-
-
-
-
2 Pro Discover the magic of Ofryni beach and experience unforgettable moments- Started by wind-up
- Replies: 0
-
Forum statistics
