Really discouraged right now...

[xman1]

I set mine to discharge after 3 days. Seems like it only takes about 2? days of "discharge" time, and there done.

You might be right on the time it takes. I knew it takes days, but how many is the question.

Note: I also rarely let the battery level drop below 20% either. Dropping below 20% is also damaging to the battery.

 

[Bearly Flying]

About a month ago my drone crashed to the ground like a rock. What happened is there battery swelled and disconnected in flight. Fortunately, it was close to the ground and there was minimal damage. Yesterday I flew again and my drone kept disconnecting from 30 feet away. I thought it was some sort of interference. When I landed to change batteries, the battery practically shot off from the pressure that had built up between the battery and the release. I'm really disappointed. It looks like I'm going to have to I replace four batteries that are only a year old and have only been used less than twenty times. It's going to cost $80 each to replace. That's $240!!!!!!! I get that batteries have a limited life, but only year? They still hold a charge and run for twenty minutes. The batteries swell, push away from the connectors and the drone disconnects. Best case scenario, the drone only disconnects. Worst case, it drops from the sky like a rock. How long do you think these batteries should last?

I think that is clearly an indication of faulty batteries. There is no way batteries are supposed swell like that during normal use, period. Yes there are some things we are supposed to do in regards to storing and discharging etc etc. But still, normal use does not cause batteries to swell like that.

 

[BJR981S]

About a month ago my drone crashed to the ground like a rock. What happened is there battery swelled and disconnected in flight. Fortunately, it was close to the ground and there was minimal damage. Yesterday I flew again and my drone kept disconnecting from 30 feet away. I thought it was some sort of interference. When I landed to change batteries, the battery practically shot off from the pressure that had built up between the battery and the release. I'm really disappointed. It looks like I'm going to have to I replace four batteries that are only a year old and have only been used less than twenty times. It's going to cost $80 each to replace. That's $240!!!!!!! I get that batteries have a limited life, but only year? They still hold a charge and run for twenty minutes. The batteries swell, push away from the connectors and the drone disconnects. Best case scenario, the drone only disconnects. Worst case, it drops from the sky like a rock. How long do you think these batteries should last?

You did not follow the procedures in the Battery Safety manual.. You need to check and charge DJI Smart batteries every 3 months. I have many DJI batteries and I set a calendar reminder every 3 months to do the check. I also have 192 normal Lipo batteries and that are kept at storage charge and I check them every 12 months as a minimum. and return to storage charge if they are a bit low. 3.8V per cell. I also have this programmed in my calendar. I keep an XLS of all my batteries and detail their usage and charge status and last checked.

I have only lost 3 batteries in the 5 years that I have done this and they were from faulty cells from manufacture.

I have found that the light status on Mavic Batteries and Spark batteries lie. After 3 months you can check a Mavic Pro battery and it will show that it has 2 lights, 50% charge. But when you plug it into your charger it will indicate that it has less than 25% charge.

Leaving the battery at these low charge levels will slowly cause the battery to deteriorate. After 12 months of non use you will get swelling as the battery is damaged on charge and discharge.

Cheers

 

[mbsz53]

You did not follow the procedures in the Battery Safety manual.. You need to check and charge DJI Smart batteries every 3 months. I have many DJI batteries and I set a calendar reminder every 3 months to do the check. I also have 192 normal Lipo batteries and that are kept at storage charge and I check them every 12 months as a minimum. and return to storage charge if they are a bit low. 3.8V per cell. I also have this programmed in my calendar. I keep an XLS of all my batteries and detail their usage and charge status and last checked.

I have only lost 3 batteries in the 5 years that I have done this and they were from faulty cells from manufacture.

I have found that the light status on Mavic Batteries and Spark batteries lie. After 3 months you can check a Mavic Pro battery and it will show that it has 2 lights, 50% charge. But when you plug it into your charger it will indicate that it has less than 25% charge.

Leaving the battery at these low charge levels will slowly cause the battery to deteriorate. After 12 months of non use you will get swelling as the battery is damaged on charge and discharge.

Cheers

Evidently there are different versions of the battery maintenance protocol. Mine said to completely discharged every ten cycles. I always landed my drone at approx 30% and charged after they had cooled from use. I followed the battery care instructions to the best of my ability. I kept a calendar as well, so l would know when it was time to do a complete discharge.

I've not gotten any concrete answer, ie. From DJI support. The general consensus send to be that the most recent version do not suggest complete discharge. I plan not to empty my batteries completely and fly more. Google said the only reason those batteries would swell is from had build up from overcharging. Since these batteries are supposed to be smart, overcharging shouldn't be possible. As well, I always took the batteries off the charging when they reached capacity. None of it makes sense to me. I really think I did what was instructed and now I have for ruined batteries that are only a year, old having been cycled twenty times. I pray this doesn't happen again, because I can't afford to spend $250 a year on batteries.

Thanks for your care.

 

[mbsz53]

I think that is clearly an indication of faulty batteries. There is no way batteries are supposed swell like that during normal use, period. Yes there are some things we are supposed to do in regards to storing and discharging etc etc. But still, normal use does not cause batteries to swell like that.

I'm positive I did not abuse these batteries. In fact, I did everything to the best of my knowledge that the manual instructed. They are right at one year old, cycled twenty times and absolutely useless now. My ultimate goal for sharing this experience is too find out what I need to correct. Unfortunately, no one has been able to pin point a problem. There must be something I did wrong, but we have not discovered the problem. I plan not to do the 10 cycle complete discharge and try to fly more often. More than anything flying more should prevent the gases from building up.

Thank you for caring to post.

 

[mbsz53]

I would not rule out that you might have some sort of short/high discharge going on in the aircraft. The LIPO batteries shouldn't swell (that quickly) unless there is a high charge or discharge rate going on. In your case a high discharge. Are any motors too hot to touch after a swelling battery flight? Not sure if the logs would pick up the current/voltage data, but if so might be worth looking through.

We ruled out that the charger may have overcharged the batteries because of their smart function. It could be logical that the drone had an issue which would effect all four batteries about the same time. I'm going to figure out how to post the flight info so that possibly someone might find a clue.

Thank you for caring.

 

[BJR981S]

Evidently there are different versions of the battery maintenance protocol. Mine said to completely discharged every ten cycles. I always landed my drone at approx 30% and charged after they had cooled from use. I followed the battery care instructions to the best of my ability. I kept a calendar as well, so l would know when it was time to do a complete discharge.

I've not gotten any concrete answer, ie. From DJI support. The general consensus send to be that the most recent version do not suggest complete discharge. I plan not to empty my batteries completely and fly more. Google said the only reason those batteries would swell is from had build up from overcharging. Since these batteries are supposed to be smart, overcharging shouldn't be possible. As well, I always took the batteries off the charging when they reached capacity. None of it makes sense to me. I really think I did what was instructed and now I have for ruined batteries that are only a year, old having been cycled twenty times. I pray this doesn't happen again, because I can't afford to spend $250 a year on batteries.

Thanks for your care.

Interesting. Do you remember where you saw the discharge after every 10 flights? Was it in this thread or in a manual. If you search on Google you will get more misinformation than real. You need to use the manufacturers operations manuals. You also need to specify what the maintenance is for various battery technologies. It is different for different types of lithium batteries. LiPos, LiFes, Lion, and LIHvs. Also if smart technology is involved in battery management it impacts the maintenance as the smart technology always imposes a drain on the battery due to the battery level being monitored by electronic circuits.

DJI Mavic batteries. M2, MA and MP are all Smart LiHvs.

If you follow the operations specified in the battery safety manual you will be fine. Your batteries, your choice, on Discharging down to 0 every 3 months. This is about battery ageing and the "Fuel Gauge" calibration. If you just charge all your Smart batteries every 3 months and put them back in the box you will be fine. The self discharge will drop them back to storage charge. The calibration only really needs to be done after 30 Plus flights to cover the battery ageing. You should get at least 500 flight as long as you maintain them correctly and never discharge them below 40% charge in flight. The number of discharges below the nominal voltage of the cell reduces the number of cycles for battery life by a small percentage.

If you follow the manual you will be fine and not need to buy batteries every 12 month. Think of it as part of your learning curve. We all need to go through that.

Cheers Brian

p.s. Here is the text from the Battery Safety manual.

Battery Maintenance
1. Never over-discharge, as this may lead to battery cell damage.
2. Battery life may be reduced if not used for a long time.
3. Fullly charge and discharge the battery at least once every 3 months to
maintain battery health.

Relevant text highlighted.

 

[simbaboy]

I have three batteries but I usually only fly one or two batteries worth.
How do you guys keep a track of which batteries were used on the last flight?
I know a little diary kept in the drone storage case would help. I have numbered the batteries 1,2 and 3.
Simba

 

[mbsz53]

Interesting. Do you remember where you saw the discharge after every 10 flights? Was it in this thread or in a manual. If you search on Google you will get more misinformation than real. You need to use the manufacturers operations manuals. You also need to specify what the maintenance is for various battery technologies. It is different for different types of lithium batteries. LiPos, LiFes, Lion, and LIHvs. Also if smart technology is involved in battery management it impacts the maintenance as the smart technology always imposes a drain on the battery due to the battery level being monitored by electronic circuits.

DJI Mavic batteries. M2, MA and MP are all Smart LiHvs.

If you follow the operations specified in the battery safety manual you will be fine. Your batteries, your choice, on Discharging down to 0 every 3 months. This is about battery ageing and the "Fuel Gauge" calibration. If you just charge all your Smart batteries every 3 months and put them back in the box you will be fine. The self discharge will drop them back to storage charge. The calibration only really needs to be done after 30 Plus flights to cover the battery ageing. You should get at least 500 flight as long as you maintain them correctly and never discharge them below 40% charge in flight. The number of discharges below the nominal voltage of the cell reduces the number of cycles for battery life by a small percentage.

If you follow the manual you will be fine and not need to buy batteries every 12 month. Think of it as part of your learning curve. We all need to go through that.

Cheers Brian

p.s. Here is the text from the Battery Safety manual.

Battery Maintenance
1. Never over-discharge, as this may lead to battery cell damage.
2. Battery life may be reduced if not used for a long time.
3. Fullly charge and discharge the battery at least once every 3 months to
maintain battery health.

Relevant text highlighted.

 

[mbsz53]

The information related to discharging every ten cycles was in a DJI manual. Others have posted that has since been changed.

Based upon what you suggested relating to not using below 40% send to contradict the manual suggesting to set RTH warning at 30%.i might be wrong here. I just know that is where mine is set and that information came from somewhere. I'm pretty sure it was the manual and not a YouTube video. It's definitely a learning experience. My goal is to learn from this and not repeat. Unfortunately, I don't feel like I've been made aware of any definite thing I did wrong that would produce the swelling in all four batteries after twenty cycles.

Thank you for caring to reply.

 

[mbsz53]

I have three batteries but I usually only fly one or two batteries worth.
How do you guys keep a track of which batteries were used on the last flight?
I know a little diary kept in the drone storage case would help. I have numbered the batteries 1,2 and 3.
Simba

I do exactly what you suggest. Number the batteries and keep a diary of their life.

 

[BJR981S]

Discipline. I have 2 Mavic Pros (8 batteries), Mavic Air (3) and Mavic 2 Zoom and Pro(6). (And 5 Sparks I keep the batteries colour coded to the Spark Colour and batteries numbered. I have 17 Spark batteries.( I use the Sparks for flight instruction) And some Tellos for under 10 year old instruction.

It's easy to use a text editor on your smart device when you are flying to mark down battery usage. (IOS is great for this if you also have a Mac and iCloud storage.)

 

[BJR981S]

The information related to discharging every ten cycles was in a DJI manual. Others have posted that has since been changed.

Based upon what you suggested relating to not using below 40% send to contradict the manual suggesting to set RTH warning at 30%.i might be wrong here. I just know that is where mine is set and that information came from somewhere. I'm pretty sure it was the manual and not a YouTube video. It's definitely a learning experience. My goal is to learn from this and not repeat. Unfortunately, I don't feel like I've been made aware of any definite thing I did wrong that would produce the swelling in all four batteries after twenty cycles.

Thank you for caring to reply.

That's a good question.

You can discharge the batteries down to whatever you like, there is no stopping it. DJI suggest 30% as a default, as a balance between Flight Time and Battery life.

The number of lifetime cycles against discharge levels is an exponential curve Where 90% charge is 1000s of cycles Nominal is say 500 and 0 is about 20.

You need to work out flight times vs the cost of buying new batteries. Then set a warning level at what suits your wallet.

I fly Ducted Fan jets 2 of them are 12S twins that requires 75C plus ratings. So that's 4 batteries at $200 a battery for a 4 minute flight. I use a Futaba 18MZ radio and Castle Edge 150 Amp ESCs with telemetry that gives voice warnings on Battery usage current and Amp hours used. I would take 3 sets to the field so I make sure that I never discharge them below 3.7V per cell. It's just too expensive to replace them. I have been flying RC for 40 years. Only started flying drones when DJI released the Phantom. I flew DJI Wookong and DJI Naza based helicopters FCs before that. Still fly them, I have F3C and Scale 700 800 size helis as well. And just bought my first jet turbine. Its nice being retired. I live to fly, and fly to live.

 

[dangerousdavekincaid]

Evidently there are different versions of the battery maintenance protocol. Mine said to completely discharged every ten cycles. I always landed my drone at approx 30% and charged after they had cooled from use. I followed the battery care instructions to the best of my ability. I kept a calendar as well, so l would know when it was time to do a complete discharge.

I've not gotten any concrete answer, ie. From DJI support. The general consensus send to be that the most recent version do not suggest complete discharge. I plan not to empty my batteries completely and fly more. Google said the only reason those batteries would swell is from had build up from overcharging. Since these batteries are supposed to be smart, overcharging shouldn't be possible. As well, I always took the batteries off the charging when they reached capacity. None of it makes sense to me. I really think I did what was instructed and now I have for ruined batteries that are only a year, old having been cycled twenty times. I pray this doesn't happen again, because I can't afford to spend $250 a year on batteries.

Thanks for your care.

I had seen from another Discussion that you had said:

Every ten flights I run my batteries all the way to zero. Keep your drone running on the ground until it drains.

Running these batteries down to zero will kill the battery. I learned this a few time with my RC cars years ago. The batteries are SMART batteries and will maintain them selves if you let them cycle down. Then when you want to use them charge them back up. I have never had a DJI battery go bad other than ignoring them for a year or so and then they had dropped to low and would not charge back up.

 

[BJR981S]

I had seen from another Discussion that you had said:

Every ten flights I run my batteries all the way to zero. Keep your drone running on the ground until it drains.

Running these batteries down to zero will kill the battery. I learned this a few time with my RC cars years ago. The batteries are SMART batteries and will maintain them selves if you let them cycle down. Then when you want to use them charge them back up. I have never had a DJI battery go bad other than ignoring them for a year or so and then they had dropped to low and would not charge back up.

Interesting. Following that proceedure of leaving them at no charge will cause the cell chemistry to break down. That will cause battery swelling and self destruction. Mystery solved.

 

[hoggdoc]

Hopefully the last question on batteries... The little written guide says:

"Discharge the battery to 40-65% if it will NOT be used for 10 days or more. This can greatly extend the battery life."

Assuming the technology hasn't changed, I read this to mean that we should actively discharge the battery to these levels to ensure optimum battery life, rather than passively allow them to discharge to this point. Is this correct?

The Smart battery logic will discharge the battery to the proper holding voltage at a specified time. This is setable with the the DJI GO app. But yes you should fully charge each battery after using it then let it settle to the holding voltage predetermined by your setting in the app.

 

[hoggdoc]

Drawing your batteries down to 0% (zero) is never good for them.

DJI's software/firmware won't allow the user to draw the battery to 0 unless they override the low battery warnings.

 

[dewster]

Exercise those batteries.

 

[beejAMG]

All four batteries are stuffed? Its your charger. Buy a new certified original dji charger, buy new batteries and happy days.

 

[GJD]

DJI Mavic batteries. M2, MA and MP are all Smart LiHvs.

p.s. Here is the text from the Battery Safety manual.

Battery Maintenance
1. Never over-discharge, as this may lead to battery cell damage.
2. Battery life may be reduced if not used for a long time.
3. Fullly charge and discharge the battery at least once every 3 months to
maintain battery health.

Relevant text highlighted.
I have a mavic pro and the batteries are LiPos not LiHvs