Maintaining Intelligent Flight Batteries according to DJI

[msinger]

The assumption is that the Mavic Air has a default setting. Has anyone figure what it is yet?

It defaults that setting to 10 days (like all DJI batteries do). The only difference is that you cannot see that setting in DJI GO to adjust it.

 

[JacksonML]

The typical storage percentage is 30-70% of battery capacity. Sure nothing will "blow up" (don't quote me on that if your battery is faulty) if you store it at 100% or 5%, but its not good for the life of it. When the battery's auto discharge kicks in it'll drain it to somewhere within that range. Also, if you click the button on the battery it resets the self-discharge timer.

 

[DeltaAlphaZulu]

The DJI guide says "discharge to between 40-65%" if going to be left idle for 10 days or more. Say I fully charge 3 batteries before going flying, but only use 2 of them. How do you manually discharge the remaining fully charged battery to the specified percentage?

 

[msinger]

How do you manually discharge the remaining fully charged battery to the specified percentage?

They will discharge down to the storage level on their own if you set them aside and don't touch them. And then next time, only charge the batteries you're going to use.

 

[swooshdave]

The 10 days is probably a good compromise between annoying the customers and battery longevity. Of course we’ll never know which side they errorred on.

 

[Former Member]

How do you manually discharge the remaining fully charged battery to the specified percentage?

Fly it for 5 minutes.

 

[MountainMan2017]

I’ve been flying for many years using lipo batteries. I’ve done quit a bit of research on them to learn how to maintain them for best care and performance. But now there are intelligent lipo packs on the market. Technology changes so fast we can hardly keep up. Regardless lipos still need to be treated the same way they have been for years. #1 never discharge completely. Best to leave 20% of its mAh rating. Known as the 80% rule. . #2 Never recharge immediately after your flight, let them rest and cool off for at least 15 min in normal operating temperatures. If it’s very hot out let them cool off for a longer time and keep them in the shade. #3 Don’t fly with cold lipos : warm them up before you go out to fly in cold weather. Use a hot pack ( hunters hand warmers) work well. Or store in warm temp for a while before you head out. I suggest 75degrees F. 80degrees as well if it’s below 30 degrees F. Lipos hate extreme cold weather. Same goes for extremely hot temperature too so don’t leave them resting in direct sunlight during hot temperatures. #4 Its always best to charge a 1C amp rating the day you intend to fly. Most of us free style / FPV quad copter pilots don’t like leaving our packs fully charged for more then 3 days. My last suggestion: buy more batteries. I bought the fly more package and added one more pack for a total of 4 Mavic Pro Batteries. Some of these suggest statements are my opinion and others are from hours and hours of research. But for the price of these batteries It’s worth knowing the basics about how to maintain them to get the most cycles out of them .

 

[Former Member]

I’ve been flying for many years using lipo batteries. I’ve done quit a bit of research on them to learn how to maintain them for best care and performance. But now there are intelligent limos on the market. Technology changes so fast we can hardly keep up. Regardless lipids still need to be treated the same way they have been for years. #1 never discharge completely. Best to leave 20% of its mAh rating. #2 Never recharge immediately after your flight, let them rest and cool off for at least 15 min in normal operating temperatures. If it’s very hot out let them cool off for a longer time and keep them in the shade. #3 Don’t fly with cold lips: warm them up before you go out and fly in cold weather. Use a hot pack ( hunters hand warmers) work well. Or store in warm temp for a while before you head out. I suggest 75degrees F. Lipos hate extreme cold weather. Same S extremely hot temperature too so don’t leave them resting in direct sunlight during hot temperatures. #4 Its always best to charge a 1C amp rating the day you intend to fly. Most of use free style quad copter pilots don’t like leaving our packed fully charged for more then 3 days.

I agree with your thinking and it's good "rule of thumb" advice. The only point I would make is that the intelligent battery usually will not let you charge if it's too hot, it will usually blink at you until it feels its cool enough to charge safely. But even if it does, rule of thumb says let it cool anyway.

 

[LongRifle]

Fly it for 5 minutes.

If you can't fly (I never fly my Mavic indoors, though some may be comfortable doing it) and have the flymore combo I use the USB adapter to charge my phone, tablet, etc. until only 2 solid lights remain.

 

[MountainMan2017]

If you can't fly (I never fly my Mavic indoors, though some may be comfortable doing it) and have the flymore combo I use the USB adapter to charge my phone, tablet, etc. until only 2 solid lights remain.

Excellent idea. That’s a nice low amp draw too. If anyone is looking for some great advice on battery maintenance check out Drone Vally on you tube. He has a excellent video on this topic.