Storing the batteries in the Hub or Drone? Maybe not

[Ian in London]

Some may know, but it seems many more don't. The auto-discharge function doesn't always work when you store the batteries inside the drone or an unplugged charging hub. Which has a real bad impact on your batteries.....

 

[Morrisey20]

Appreciate the heads up Ian, this really needs addressing by DJI.
Just knocked up a temporary cover to prevent the battery engaging the contacts in the hub - it simply hinges away when you need to charge but blocks during storage.

 

[Deleted member 137163]

As a newer MA2 owner I thank you. My Nanuk 915 storage case was just opened and the battery left in the drone removed and stored properly. Even if this is 100% not true (which I do not believe is true) there is no harm taking the battery off the drone and storing. I have read complaints that the 915 grabs the rear props. I carefully take all 4 props off post flight.and potential problem solved. Post flight is as important as pre-flight. Thanks for the input! This is why I became a Premium Pilot member today. $29 to have a valuable, well run forum is dirt cheap.

 

[Deleted member 137163]

Ok, now I watched Ian's video in full. Only for the mini 2 - got it. Well I will stick with my new procedure of not leaving a battery in the MA2. I will store all 3 in their appropriate Nanuk slots. Maybe there a reason someone knows why this is good procedure for the MA2 as well. I see no down side.

 

[RC_Adik]

Charged my M2 batteries to 100% 4/4/2021 and removed them from the charger & drone. Tested them today and they are 95-96%. Conclusion is this procedure does not work or work for me, unless the discharge time is greater than 5 days.

 

[GadgetGuy]

The video contains many errors. The batteries do not discharge at 5% a day, even when outside of the hub and the drone. After 5 days at 96%, they are supposed to discharge to 72%. Big difference. Also, leaving your batteries at 100% charge does not "ruin" them or break them. Over time, it may lead to swelling, which is only a problem if they no longer properly fit and seat in the drone or the charging hub. On prior DJI batteries, such swelling generally takes a year to develop. This is not the crisis portrayed. Some of us prioritize flying with 100% charged batteries over prolonging the life of a battery at the expense of losing out on spontaneous flight opportunities. Now that everyone knows how to get the features they want, don't ruin it for the rest of us by demanding a FW update to ruin a good feature that keeps your batteries fully charged and ready to fly any time, even if it may eventually lead to minor swelling that might ultimately require replacing a battery. Batteries are an item of consumption, and should be treated that way!

 

[Ian in London]

The video contains many errors. The batteries do not discharge at 5% a day, even when outside of the hub and the drone. After 5 days at 96%, they are supposed to discharge to 72%. Big difference. Also, leaving your batteries at 100% charge does not "ruin" them or break them. Over time, it may lead to swelling, which is only a problem if they no longer properly fit and seat in the drone or the charging hub. On prior DJI batteries, such swelling generally takes a year to develop. This is not the crisis portrayed. Some of us prioritize flying with 100% charged batteries over prolonging the life of a battery at the expense of losing out on spontaneous flight opportunities. Now that everyone knows how to get the features they want, don't ruin it for the rest of us by demanding a FW update to ruin a good feature that keeps your batteries fully charged and ready to fly any time, even if it may eventually lead to minor swelling that might ultimately require replacing a battery. Batteries are an item of consumption, and should be treated that way!

So the video doesn't actually contain many errors, but in fact simply highlights issues that you disagree with, including it seems, being acceptable to fly with swollen batteries that are undergoing catestrophic internal degradation in order for them to be swelling...?

The user manual is quite clear as shown in the video; 96% from the first day down to 72% after 5 days. Either way, after 3 weeks, mine were still at full charge.
If you think keeping LiPO batteries at full charge is a great idea, maybe DJI drones aren't for you; perhaps most people don't treat batteries as such a consumable item and wouldn't actually want their batteries to only last a year given how expensive they are, or risk failure mid-flight. Perhaps most people aren't as knowledgeable as you....

 

[izometric]

My batteries are self discharging inside the drone and inside the charger.

Checking the lights on the charger will not verify that the batteries lost 5% of charge. You have to stick the battery inside the drone and fire it up.

 

[Marcass Carcass]

I always store batteries at 60% period, if I have to be that spontaneous at home, well I have 3 of them that will give close to 60 mins of flight, funny my MA2 fly more came with one in the AC....it was hibernating though. Batteries always go in case when storing or full charged to be used within a few days....

 

[JoelP]

Having experienced 2 battery failures at about one year I have become more meticulous about storage and less trusting of the smart battery feature. For my MA batteries I do not trust the auto discharge. I fly them to a little over 50% before storage.

Given that they are LiPo batteries which, on rare occasion, can spontaneously ignite, I store them in flame resistant bags made for these batteries and put those bags in an ammo box. While I don’t expect them to spontaneously ignite I feel that I am better off sage than sorry.

 

[Rex Peters]

Hello Ian,
Great video. I also like to mention I don’t store the batteries in the case that came with the fly more package. I have noticed that during the normal discharge, they heat up a bit. When you have 3 batteries stored together, it gets fairly warm inside the bag. I don’t know if this is good or bad for the batteries or the drone but I store the batteries outside of the bag away from each other. Better safe than sorry.
Cheers,
Rex

 

[Ian in London]

Hello Ian,
Great video. I also like to mention I don’t store the batteries in the case that came with the fly more package. I have noticed that during the normal discharge, they heat up a bit. When you have 3 batteries stored together, it gets fairly warm inside the bag. I don’t know if this is good or bad for the batteries or the drone but I store the batteries outside of the bag away from each other. Better safe than sorry.
Cheers,
Rex

Yes, TBH it's easy to just disconnect the hub, with batteries inside, then put the whole hub in the carry bag and off you go. I do that as I can connect the hub to the car phone charger if I'm driving out somewhere, but you're right, unsure if 3 discharging batteries together would be getting a little too warm......

 

[Bodkin's Best Photography]

My batteries are self discharging inside the drone and inside the charger.

Checking the lights on the charger will not verify that the batteries lost 5% of charge. You have to stick the battery inside the drone and fire it up.

Mine aren't. After a flight I charged the battery in the drone via USB-C, and 3 days later it was still at 95% charge.

 

[Greasy]

Appreciate the heads up Ian, this really needs addressing by DJI.
Just knocked up a temporary cover to prevent the battery engaging the contacts in the hub - it simply hinges away when you need to charge but blocks during storage.

Just turn batteries around and put them back in that's what I do.

 

[GadgetGuy]

So the video doesn't actually contain many errors, but in fact simply highlights issues that you disagree with, including it seems, being acceptable to fly with swollen batteries that are undergoing catestrophic internal degradation in order for them to be swelling...?

The user manual is quite clear as shown in the video; 96% from the first day down to 72% after 5 days. Either way, after 3 weeks, mine were still at full charge.
If you think keeping LiPO batteries at full charge is a great idea, maybe DJI drones aren't for you; perhaps most people don't treat batteries as such a consumable item and wouldn't actually want their batteries to only last a year given how expensive they are, or risk failure mid-flight. Perhaps most people aren't as knowledgeable as you....


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I stand by my original statements. Your errors are a gross misrepresentation of the situation. I have been flying DJI drones since 2016 and have always kept all my batteries fully charged, unless they are deliberately in storage. I have never had a battery failure, and all my original batteries are still in service, despite my "abuse" of them. I don't own drones to prolong the life of the batteries. I own them to fly them, whenever the opportunity presents itself, which requires fully charged batteries. The only risk from obviously swollen batteries is potential detachment in flight. I don't fly with obviously swollen batteries. I use them for FW updates, preflight setup, and other ground based use, and swap out with an unswollen battery prior to launch. Out of 50 batteries, only 3 have swollen under this "abuse." Auto-discharging and recharging your batteries also unnecessarily reduces the life of the battery, as the expected life is 200 full charges, and every auto discharge to 72% uses up almost a third of one those 200 full charge cycles. User control over the battery discharge cycle already currently exists. Don't store the batteries in the hub or the drone if you want them to auto-discharge. Simple. Yet, you want to impose what you unilaterally believe to be best, upon all other Mini 2 owners, by demanding a DJI FW update to preclude user control! Not good!

 

[rcb]

I cannot imagine any reason why the batteries could not properly self-discharge while plugged into an unplugged charging hub or drone. Mine seem to do it fine and reduce to three lights over time. Seems like no issue to me. Please provide electrical design logic details to the contrary if you have them. Thanks for everyone’s good healthy concern.

 

[Ian in London]

. Yet, you want to impose what you unilaterally believe to be best, upon all other Mini 2 owners, by demanding a DJI FW update to preclude user control! Not good!

I've not demanded anything; the industry-standard view is that swelling batteries are a sign of internal damage that can cause failure in mid-flight. Your view seems to be that it's only an issue if you can't stuff the swollen battery in the drone.
The Mini 2's discharge functionality is different to all other Li-Po based DJI models and doesn't behave the way people expect; that's the point of my video. You are clearly way more experienced than most users, but many people do store them in the hub; if people know, then they can choose what they want to do.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I've not demanded anything; the industry-standard view is that swelling batteries are a sign of internal damage that can cause failure in mid-flight. Your view seems to be that it's only an issue if you can't stuff the swollen battery in the drone.
The Mini 2's discharge functionality is different to all other Li-Po based DJI models and doesn't behave the way people expect; that's the point of my video. You are clearly way more experienced than most users, but many people do store them in the hub; if people know, then they can choose what they want to do.

More errors. "Industry-standard view is that swelling batteries are a sign of Internal damage that can cause a failure in mid-flight" Exaggerate much? A hypothetically swollen Mini 2 battery would not fit inside the drone. It is not internal damage, but only the mild physical deformation of a Lipo battery that causes any potential electrical disconnection in flight from swelling. Swollen batteries do not fail. They still maintain an electrical charge and perform just as well as an undeformed battery, aside from impact of the physical deformation. When used as supplemental external batteries, swollen LiPo batteries perform just as well as unswollen batteries.

It's one thing to point out that an undocumented feature exists so that the user can prevent auto-discharge from occurring, but falsely claiming it is "the industry-standard view" that it will lead to crashes on the Mini 2 is alarmist hyperbole and fear mongering click bait just to get YT views! There is not a single documented case of any Mini 2 battery ever swelling, and the design of the Mini 2, unlike the Mavic 2, would prevent any hypothetical battery swelling from causing an in flight electrical disconnection. Much ado about nothing!

 

[African wildlife]

When we have had fully charged batteries unused and left in the recharging hub, they have NOT slowly discharged by themselves. From comments by others on another thread, we are not alone.

I will be taking note of what Ian in London is saying. It's appreciated, Ian. ?

 

[GadgetGuy]

When we have had fully charged batteries unused and left in the recharging hub, they have NOT slowly discharged by themselves. From comments by others on another thread, we are not alone.

I will be taking note of what Ian in London is saying. It's appreciated, Ian. ?

All due respect, I personally left 2 fully charged Mini 2 batteries in the hub and the third fully charged in the drone for 2 months in the bag in my car. After reading this I checked them. The two in the hub displayed only one remaining light of 4, while the one in the drone displayed only two lights of 4. Clearly, they are still discharging, even if only slowly over time, like any other Lipo, that loses up to 1% per day.

I am happy to know that they are not auto-discharging as aggressively as other DJI batteries, if left in the hub or in the drone! That's an undocumented feature I intend to take advantage of! Those that want the aggressive DJI discharge can simply keep the batteries out of the hub and the drone. Everybody is happy!

I have also independently verified that the onerous discharge to 96% after 24 hours is no longer present on Mini 2 batteries in the hub and in the drone. The battery in the drone loses only 1% after 4 days. Of two batteries left in the hub after 4 days, one has lost 2% and the other 3%. They are still discharging, just not under the Smart Battery algorithm. DJI claims the batteries left in the hub and the drone are assumed to be ready to be used, and therefore not discharged. I like that choice.