Beware of Battery LED indicators

[Philltayl]

They don't come in the box anymore? They did for mine. I have a folder full of hard copies to prove it.

To anyone: is there nothing in the box at all these days, not even a quick start guide that gives you a URL for downloading the manual?

Speck.

Bullshite!!!!!!!

 

[NHABD]

One of the biggest problems is DJI insist on taking away from owners full battery access. Any other LiPo and you can diagnose / meter / check individual cells direct and not have to go through an app. But that App is not telling you strictly true data anyway ... as you noted - 'power line' and % displayed are not strictly in line with each other.

Other factor is DJI has decided that voltage determination on charging / discharging is based on TOTAL voltage and not as should be with LiPo's - individual cell voltage.

The Battery LED's are only a very rough guide but I know that some have idea that it gives them good results. The fact that four solid green LED's as I show here is NOT full charged ... should show the folly of such.

DJI has decided to cover safety by taking worst case scenario. An owner who has no knowledge how to handle LiPo's and has built in a board to the battery to try and cover the bases. It does its job as far as that is concerned - but do not run away with the idea that it is a total answer, as it is not. Myself and others have found that some of the functions it is claimed to have - such as Balancing - are not as good as you think. In fact when it comes to Balancing - I am not only one who is trying to find out if it actually does ! as so far we have no evidence showing it does in any form.

But anyway - the point of my post was to show that charge before flight is important. Do not trust the LED's ...

Nigel

Very good points you bring up. I will start making myself aware. I like to do some testing with my fluke meter, after a battery is fully charged and green LED's all lite up when button pressed. To compare voltage values in a timeline. I noticed with my p4p batteries fully charged on day one buy come day 3, push button all green LED's lite up. Which i offen wonder how much voltage drop before reaching threshold. Which I would think instead of full green LED's lite, one should be flashing. However, loading battery into drone and the app shows low voltage value. Seems the charging threshold will not let me top off any slight lose of voltage. Which I find this strange. I plug battery into my Thor but not charging takes place. Maybe so not to overcharge? Idk... would need to true specs of the battery.

 

[NHABD]

They don't come in the box anymore? They did for mine. I have a folder full of hard copies to prove it.

To anyone: is there nothing in the box at all these days, not even a quick start guide that gives you a URL for downloading the manual?

Speck.

When I purchased my p4p ++ I received manual in box. Strange DJI would not provide?

 

[msinger]

When I purchased my p4p ++ I received manual in box.

The full manual or the quick start guide? I only received the quick start guide in my P4P+ box.

 

[solentlife]

Very good points you bring up. I will start making myself aware. I like to do some testing with my fluke meter, after a battery is fully charged and green LED's all lite up when button pressed. To compare voltage values in a timeline. I noticed with my p4p batteries fully charged on day one buy come day 3, push button all green LED's lite up. Which i offen wonder how much voltage drop before reaching threshold. Which I would think instead of full green LED's lite, one should be flashing. However, loading battery into drone and the app shows low voltage value. Seems the charging threshold will not let me top off any slight lose of voltage. Which I find this strange. I plug battery into my Thor but not charging takes place. Maybe so not to overcharge? Idk... would need to true specs of the battery.

The way to 'top-up' a charge is to SWITCH on the battery BEFORE plugging in charger. That way it then forces the battery board to accept charge ... still cuts out at full.

Nigel

 

[solentlife]

When I purchased my p4p ++ I received manual in box. Strange DJI would not provide?

As msinger says - only Quick Start Guide in the box and that is about as useful as a ***** in a ***** !!

Also take note that the manual download ... many of the sites with it fail to colour or show the LED chart correctly and when you print - all boxes look same !!
I actually took a pen to my pages to alter the chart boxes to correct.

Nigel

 

[solentlife]

Bullshite!!!!!!!

Careful Phil ... they wont like that !

Nigel

 

[VFA22Bonefish]

As most know - the battery has LED's on the front that give Charge Indication, Life indication and condition. As I have mentioned before - the LED's work on a range principle and that range is too wide to be taken as accurate.

Example - today.

I have two batterys on charge for today, as weather has finally improved and I hope to fly later. I checked by LED and both had solid 4 GREEN LED's .... so you would think ... OK - full charge ... WRONG !

I checked both and one was at 16.68V and other was at 16.72V ...... that is IF cells are balanced about 4.17V and 4.18V per cell against the full charge 4.35V per cell.

Just passing on info ...

Nigel

I'm somewhat new, but had a friend who flies racing drones just yesterday mention not trusting LiPo battery packs without testing voltages before a flight. He said that if I continually run my packs down past 15%, it hurts the batteries ability to take a full charge over time. What are you using to check voltage, the DJI GO app or an external charger? If so, which?

 

[NHABD]

The full manual or the quick start guide? I only received the quick start guide in my P4P+ box.

Both, full manual n quick guide.

 

[NHABD]

The way to 'top-up' a charge is to SWITCH on the battery BEFORE plugging in charger. That way it then forces the battery board to accept charge ... still cuts out at full.

Nigel

Cool, thank you for the tip. Will try this out...

 

[NHABD]

I'm somewhat new, but had a friend who flies racing drones just yesterday mention not trusting LiPo battery packs without testing voltages before a flight. He said that if I continually run my packs down past 15%, it hurts the batteries ability to take a full charge over time. What are you using to check voltage, the DJI GO app or an external charger? If so, which?

The best and true way is using an rms multimeter such as a fluke. I don't have much trust with apps revealing voltage readings.

 

[John Decker]

The way to 'top-up' a charge is to SWITCH on the battery BEFORE plugging in charger. That way it then forces the battery board to accept charge ... still cuts out at full.

Nigel

Did not know that - very helpful, providing no damage is being done to the battery.

As for reading the manual, for a new owner even reading the manual can leave your knowledge with holes. Not everyone can know a huge paragraph on one thing might not be as important as couple of words on another point, and besides, who can remember everything they read. I know you should read until you remember it all, but..

Just a thought cos I've seen rtfm and it's variations so many times. (I'm not a new owner and I've read the manual but this site still teaches me plenty).

Also, Litchi not noting the drop in voltage is a worry; I'll keep an eye on that. Hopefully it's just a glitch.

 

[N017RW]

The best and true way is using an rms multimeter such as a fluke. I don't have much trust with apps revealing voltage readings.

RMS is only relevant to AC voltage measurements. Any DMM will work fine.

 

[DanMan32]

1010 or 1111 is binary notation, not hexadecimal. Hexadecimal representation of 1111 is F or 0F.
Individual hexadecimal digits represent 4 bits or a nibble with digits being, in sequence, 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F where A - F represent 10 - 15 decimal or 1010 - 1111 binary.

As for what percentages mean, that depends on the range being represented. 0% depends on what you consider low. Safe usable low? Absolute low for LiPos? No voltage at all?
If safe low in terms of flight or safe general LiPo usage, we all debate this.
DJI is conservative to what deams 0%. There's still plenty of voltage and energy in the battery and probably not low enough to cause much harm even in storage for short periods in my opinion. You can go sub-0 % in terms of voltage (I have gone down to 3.6v on my P3A sitting on a table without it shutting off, to my suprise) but still shows 0%

 

[msinger]

Both, full manual n quick guide.

Got a photo of the front of the full manual? I'm just wondering what it looks like. I've purchased all of DJI's drones since the P2V+ was released and never saw a full manual in the box.

 

[solentlife]

I'm somewhat new, but had a friend who flies racing drones just yesterday mention not trusting LiPo battery packs without testing voltages before a flight. He said that if I continually run my packs down past 15%, it hurts the batteries ability to take a full charge over time. What are you using to check voltage, the DJI GO app or an external charger? If so, which?

Because I use programmable LiPo chargers, ( as well as the DJI supplied) - those LiPo chargers give me Voltage, Amps, Time and mAh readings throughout the charge / discharge phases that I choose. I can set to read just as Meter to get a reading of static voltage as well.
Its good enough ... I do have DMM and Analogue Meters as well .. and all seem to agree with the chargers display ...

Here is one of my chargers charging a DJI P3 battery .....



Dare I say a bit more informative than the one DJI give you ... and cheaper !! Plus you have DOUBLE safety. The charger will autostop if ANY fault or reaches full charge... as well as the batterys own built-in board. Unlike the DJI charger which just keeps pumping out relying on the battery board to stop the charging.

Nigel

 

[NHABD]

The way to 'top-up' a charge is to SWITCH on the battery BEFORE plugging in charger. That way it then forces the battery board to accept charge ... still cuts out at full.

Nigel

Like to thank you again. I've been very successful and noticed even when all green lights show full charge. Using your idea tops off the battery. I even used a fluke meter before n after and noticed a difference. Great tip....

 

[dodoftwogirls]

The way to 'top-up' a charge is to SWITCH on the battery BEFORE plugging in charger. That way it then forces the battery board to accept charge ... still cuts out at full.

Nigel

So Nigel, to be clear are you saying that you should turn on the battery like you do for flight, and then plug the charger into the battery to top it off?

 

[solentlife]

So Nigel, to be clear are you saying that you should turn on the battery like you do for flight, and then plug the charger into the battery to top it off?

Yes .... page 18, item 2 .... when battery is 95% or more ...

That figure 95% I have found to be very iffy to be honest ... and I'm not only one. So now I switch on my batterys always to charge whether I use DJI or my own LiPo chargers ...

I KNOW my batterys are full when I go flying !

Nigel