Might be dumb question but should you keep the battery out of your drone when not using?

BJR981S · Mar 24, 2018

I keep mine out of the aircraft.

The batteries are spring loaded so the springs will weaken over time.

fileophile · Mar 24, 2018

I have a timer operated battery recharging station that recharges all kinds of batteries: hand power tool batteries, rechargable domestic-use batteries (like AA’s, AAA’s, etc.) and was thinking of adding my Mavic batteries also. The timer sends power to the recharging units 12 hours per day, then off 12 hours.

Would this be a good way to keep Mavic batteries “topped-up”?

BJR981S · Mar 24, 2018

fileophile said:
I have a timer operated battery recharging station that recharges all kinds of batteries: hand power tool batteries, rechargable domestic-use batteries (like AA’s, AAA’s, etc.) and was thinking of adding my Mavic batteries also. The timer sends power to the recharging units 12 hours per day, then off 12 hours.

Would this be a good way to keep Mavic batteries “topped-up”?

Keeping Lipos at full charge will destroy them.

That is why they deliberately discharge down to storage voltage.

Eraser339 · Mar 24, 2018

eyz said:
battery has on/off circuit itself.

hence, the battery attached on the drone will not have any electricity flowing to the drone.

It depends on what you are trying to protect. To protect the MC you disconnect, so a battery fire doesn't destroy the machine. All non mechanical switches use semiconductors and are still physically connected and therefore there is some leakage, maybe micro amps. Even disconnected, the self discharge smarts means it's connected although internally.

HighlandsVideo · Mar 24, 2018

Clockman said:
The automatic standby discharge is negated when in the aircraft.

Are you sure about this?

I've had my MP for more than a year & I've always left a fully charged battery in the drone at all time in the event a flying op presents itself on short notice. That battery also discharged itself according to my setting (5 days). After a week without flying, II rotate to another fully charged battery.

I have read that checking the state of the charge with the battery button will reset the timer, however. That seems counter-productive.

dbyantis · Mar 24, 2018

John_P007 said:
I’m sorry if this is a dumb question but when your not using your drone should you take battery out or is it fine to keep in?

Not dumb question, because I found that in the drone I built, if I kept the battery plugged in, the battery telemetry sensor drained the LiPo down to a damaged cell, oops. DJI drones are smarter than that, I guess.

VinceJM · Mar 25, 2018

cheolk said:
I charged the Mavic battery and the RC a week ago. The battery was not inserted back into the AC. Today, I decided to fly and found that the battery had gone down to 3 lights meaning 75% and the RC becoming 91%. I flew it for 8+minutes and the battery becomes 20% and the RC is now 7

I have had that happen to me also. There is a discharge system in the battery to bring it down below a certain %. You can select how many days you want to wait before the battery starts to discharge. There is a default value set by the factory but you can change it to up to 10 days I believe. This is done to get the best possible service from the battery.

Kevjones777 · Mar 25, 2018

It is probably not a good idea. I doubt that anything will get damaged however I bet you one day that you will forget a battery in the aircraft that is discharged on the day you need it.

cheolk · Mar 25, 2018

If the battery is discharged, will it be degraded?

daisy-girl · Mar 25, 2018

John_P007 said:
I’m sorry if this is a dumb question but when your not using your drone should you take battery out or is it fine to keep in?

If we include Ryze's Tello as a drone, I take it out after charging it, because I've noted that it will lose some of its charge over time. For example, if I fully charge it at the end of the day, I will need to recharge it in the am before flying. Tomorrow, I will double-check whether it loses its charge even when stored outside the aircraft in a slot in the carrying case.

With regard to my MPs and their batteries, all are stored in cases, one of which is a backpack. My concern is that any jostling that may occur within the cases while carrying them may inadvertently activate a battery in the aircraft, so I never leave one in.

I use the empty space to conveniently store my landing gear, lens hood and FAA #.

UPDATE AS PROMISED: as of about 20 minutes after plugging Tello into the charger, the charger is still sending 1.11A at 4.95V into the aircraft -- see the attached images -- despite the battery being removed from the aircraft overnight.

Classic flyer · Mar 26, 2018

William Ball said:
No need to take them out. One thing I've always done, and this too probably isn't necessary, I will take the battery out of the quad after landing it on a hot summer day just to remove the heat source from the quad. Those batteries produce some heat. I do this at the flying field, or if I'm just shooting the breeze with people, or whatever the case might be. Allows the machine to cool quicker. Probably all in my head. But once they cool a bit and it is time to store the unit, i leave them in.

Good observation

Zim_drone · Mar 26, 2018

Clockman said:
Not a dumb question at all. The automatic standby discharge is negated when in the aircraft. Remove it for storage if you have a battery charged much greater than 40% so it will discharge. Discharge times can be set in the battery section of the GO app.

New drone owner here (mavic air and loving it) but looking at the best way to store and save my batteries

So what is the best setting to have the "discharge" set at? does this all depend on how long you plan to store your drone vs when you plan to fly it next? from what i have read the discharge will only start to occur after 10 days (correct me if i am wrong)

msinger · Mar 27, 2018

Zim_drone said:
So what is the best setting to have the "discharge" set at?

There is no way to change the time to discharge setting in DJI GO when flying the Mavic Air. For some reason, DJI decided to default it to 10 days and not allow the setting to be changed.

Floater · Mar 27, 2018

daisy-girl said:
If we include Ryze's Tello as a drone, I take it out after charging it, because I've noted that it will lose some of its charge over time. For example, if I fully charge it at the end of the day, I will need to recharge it in the am before flying. Tomorrow, I will double-check whether it loses its charge even when stored outside the aircraft in a slot in the carrying case.

With regard to my MPs and their batteries, all are stored in cases, one of which is a backpack. My concern is that any jostling that may occur within the cases while carrying them may inadvertently activate a battery in the aircraft, so I never leave one in.

I use the empty space to conveniently store my landing gear, lens hood and FAA #.

UPDATE AS PROMISED: as of about 20 minutes after plugging Tello into the charger, the charger is still sending 1.11A at 4.95V into the aircraft -- see the attached images -- despite the battery being removed from the aircraft overnight.

View attachment 34400 View attachment 34401

It looks like you are charging on a flammable surface of cardboard and carpet. Not likely, but if the charger or battery malfunctioned, a bad situation could be made worse.

Donnie Frank · Mar 30, 2018

John_P007 said:
I’m sorry if this is a dumb question but when your not using your drone should you take battery out or is it fine to keep in?

Depends on where you store the drone....<;^)

For the longest time I had the bad habit of leaving my drone in my car. After ruining a couple LiPo's I stopped doing that well over 2 years ago. Keep your batteries in the house - not the garage. Assuming your other battery habits are good, your batteries should last a very long time.

John_P007 · Apr 22, 2018

I keep in the house in one of those battery bags inside a camera backpack lol that’s a mouthful lol

drone_video · Apr 23, 2018

John_P007 said:
I’m sorry if this is a dumb question but when your not using your drone should you take battery out or is it fine to keep in?

I see lots of advice here. I will offer one for you also.
If your leaving it in the drone for short times, (less than 30 days), and your temp controlled where you leave it you will be fine. You can do what others suggested and pull them out and put them in the fire safe bags etc.

However, store your batter at between 50/60 percent if your going to not use them for a while, like the season. This should be managed by the battery itself. Do NOT put it on a timer and top it up. This will destroy that battery. Being at 0% and 100% are the two states these batteries do not like. Long term storage is always at 50%.

Now, for the reason why you should not store the battery in the drone. If you ever have a battery issue, where it puffs, or leaks, you will damage the drone itself. If you have it outside the drone, you only damage a battery.

So armed with tons of information, should be easier to make a decision.

SmackIt · Apr 23, 2018

I have 3 batteries. I charge them all up to 100%. One goes in the drone, the other 2 go in the bag. I leave them alone for 7-10 days. Go flying, the one in the drone will be at 75-85%, the other 2 that were sitting in the bag will be at 98-99%. I've reproduced this several times. Batteries that sit in my Mavic Air seem to slowly discharge over time 5-10% per week. Batteries that sit in my bag lose about 1% per week.

Classic flyer · Apr 23, 2018

SmackIt said:
I have 3 batteries. I charge them all up to 100%. One goes in the drone, the other 2 go in the bag. I leave them alone for 7-10 days. Go flying, the one in the drone will be at 75-85%, the other 2 that were sitting in the bag will be at 98-99%. I've reproduced this several times. Batteries that sit in my Mavic Air seem to slowly discharge over time 5-10% per week. Batteries that sit in my bag lose about 1% per week.

What do you think it does to the electric parts in the MA...the (low) but constant draw of power...just a question