Advice on how to best keep Lipo Batteries Please

[Mark The Droner]

It comes from the P2V manual

That strategy seems to have been abandoned by DJI, but some of us still believe in it to be used on an "as needed" basis to balance cells. Also, some believe it will tighten up the battery percentage report on your app; as in make it more accurate. But as yorlik points out, the deep discharge kills mAh.

 

[RPP]

It comes from the P2V manual

The fact that there is nothing about 8% in the P4 manual suggests this procedure is no longer necessary (probably taken care of with clever circuitry and/or other advance in tech). Yet we keep reading about this 8% recalibration after 20 cycles.

 

[chazzm]

You could check your manual.

The precise rule tends to change craft to craft and year to year, but a good rule of thumb is around 50%.

If you have them fully charged, the auto-discharge should bring them down with time. I believe the default is three days.

If I was going to fly "in a few days" I would charge the batteries the morning of, or the evening before - for the health of the batteries.

Good advice! thank you I appreciate your knowledge

 

[KennyN]

I have the official DJI charging hub for my P4, it has a charge and storage mode. Storage mode charges, or discharges to 50%, so that's what I've been doing so far and all is well. I figure if that's what DJI provides on their original product, that that'll be good enough for me and my batteries.

All three of my batteries are perfectly balanced across all cells and report 100% life remaining in the app, that said, they're all on <20 flights, so they've not seen too much action yet. In time, if the cells do become imbalanced by more than 0.1V, then I will try a deep discharge and charge them to 100% once they've returned to room temperature.

 

[Erised]

Today flight made me a believer in calibrating a battery. I have 4 bats, a month ago one battery failed and DJI sent me a new one no charge. So having a few batteries I took my time breaking it in. dropped it only to 50% for 7 cycles. Today I took it out for ride, 30 mph, no wind went out with 65% left, used up 35% turned around and landed at 40%. ( used 25%) I had more power left then the battery though it had. Also long term storage in a fridge (not freezer) should slow down chemical reaction and help battery life.(should). I plan to place mine in a amo box with silica absorbant for the cold Canadian winter months.

 

[Cadbob]

I don't get this only charging 50% for storage and such the battery's auto discharge at user defined number of days. Course I'm not sure what the auto discharge percent is.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

 

[RémyHeli]

Whatever does the user, auto discharge battery management will discharge to 50% after defined number of days in GO app. Nothing should happen if battery is less 50.
Note checking battery status by pressing quickly it's power button will reset nbr days back to value defined in GO app and countdown will resume. Craft to be connected to change settings as stored in battery controller. Swap batteries if you got many.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[Cadbob]

Exactly, so why is everyone worried about there charging? To me it's a set and forget,but always make sure fully charged before leaving to fly


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

 

[JWH]

I understand the aircraft batteries. Should we do anything special to the controller battery?

 

[Mark The Droner]

Not really. Just don't do anything dumb, like run it down to nothing, or keep it fully charged for a year, etc.

 

[Cadbob]

Not really. Just don't do anything dumb, like run it down to nothing, or keep it fully charged for a year, etc.

That's just it you can't keep them fully charged as they auto discharge. You can thou run them down and leave them which is not good. Myself I top them off at full charge after I'm done for the day and put them up for next time. Then days or weeks later before I fly top them off as mine are set to auto discharge on third day.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

 

[Mark The Droner]

I believe you're referring to the intelligent lipos, not the controller batteries.

 

[Cadbob]

Yes that is what the thread is about. The radio is another story.[emoji3]


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

 

[John Locke]

I understand the aircraft batteries. Should we do anything special to the controller battery?

Not really. Just don't do anything dumb, like run it down to nothing, or keep it fully charged for a year, etc.

The RC battery doesn't auto discharge like the craft battery. You need to manually take care of this battery to maximize life. Such as:
1. Don't charge it fully and let it sit for weeks. Wait till the day before you fly to fully charge, or the day of.
2. Use the battery down to at least 50% before recharging.
3. Don't run the battery down to 15% (one LED)and store it for weeks.

If you plan to store the unit over winter, do this with about 50 to 65% battery, which is 2 or 3 LEDs lit when you check status.

 

[JWH]

The RC battery doesn't auto discharge like the craft battery. You need to manually take care of this battery to maximize life. Such as:
1. Don't charge it fully and let it sit for weeks. Wait till the day before you fly to fully charge, or the day of.
2. Use the battery down to at least 50% before recharging.
3. Don't run the battery down to 15% (one LED)and store it for weeks.

If you plan to store the unit over winter, do this with about 50 to 65% battery, which is 2 or 3 LEDs lit when you check status.

Thank you. That is what I needed to know. I will treat it the same as the aircraft battery.