Battery depletion???

[rsa329]

Hello all. New to Phantom Pilots, new user of a P3P.

I have two general questions to anyone that cares to answer. It involves battery depletion and aircraft behavior.


1. How low (percentage) do you allow your P3P/A battery to get before ending your flight?

2. Have you experienced strange behavior at lower percentage levels?

I ask these questions as a base for my battery knowledge...Thanks in advance to all who answer my questions

 

[fordruid]

1. I just stay above the factory RTH settings
2. Nope

 

[FotoGeek]

I leave the default settings which I believe is a warning at 30% and critical at 10%. I'm back on the ground at around 20% remaining and try not to go below that.

If the failsafe kicks in and you're in a bad location it will automatically elevate to the preset altitude which could be dangerous! It happened to be once while I was hovering under a large tree.

 

[Reed L]

You want to read the flight manual= RTFM on starting the maintenance on your batteries so you can find out how many flights in the beginning are recommended to not go below 50% and so on. Then after the first so many flights it says - every 20 charges to run the battery down to 8% and then charge up again Here's a good thread and there are plenty of others on battery care and maintenance.
LiPo Battery Charge Table | DJI Phantom Forum

 

[rsa329]

You want to read the flight manual= RTFM on starting the maintenance on your batteries so you can find out how many flights in the beginning are recommended to not go below 50% and so on. Then after the first so many flights it says - every 20 charges to run the battery down to 8% and then charge up again Here's a good thread and there are plenty of others on battery care and maintenance.
LiPo Battery Charge Table | DJI Phantom Forum

Thanks for the reply. Yep, already RTFM. My question was almost like a poll. Not really looking to be educated on what the manufacturer says. But where most pilots are taking their batteries to toward final flight, and an average of what X amount may be. Then, have pilots experienced odd behavior from their bird when nearing X amount.

Don't mean to sound arrogant, just curious.

Thanks

 

[MattyDread]

1.
As a rule of thumb I always try to land before the 30% alert goes off - not always possible, but it does add extra stress prior to landing - especially when I started out flying. Best to take shorter flights when you first start out & gradually increase flight times as you get more confident.

2.
Keep an eye on your voltages a few times during each flight - good idea to use one of the C1 or C2 buttons under the remote to access the battery info. Get the bird home gently if you get one of the cells changing to amber colour..

 

[fordruid]

Thanks for the reply. Yep, already RTFM. My question was almost like a poll. Not really looking to be educated on what the manufacturer says. But where most pilots are taking their batteries to toward final flight, and an average of what X amount may be. Then, have pilots experienced odd behavior from their bird when nearing X amount.

Don't mean to sound arrogant, just curious.

Thanks

That's the way I took it. For the money spent I hope that everyone reads the manual (twice), but then day to day usage practices vary.

 

[msinger]

1. How low (percentage) do you allow your P3P/A battery to get before ending your flight?

It's most important to monitor the battery voltage. You should land by the time the first battery cell reaches 3.4V.

2. Have you experienced strange behavior at lower percentage levels?

The battery will shut off if one of its cells dips below 3.0V (see more here). The Phantom is programmed to attempt to auto land at its current location before that happens, but it's a good idea to be mindful of this since people have managed to somehow bypass that safety precaution.