Good summation of proper battery practices. Especially the last sentence, "Fly with a full battery & you'll be good".I know this has already been answered but my opinions are as follows:
1 - The best storage charge for your batteries is ~40-65%. You want to store them in an intermediate state. Definitely not full or extremely low. When I say "store" I mean if you are not intending to fly for a week or more. If you are going to fly within a few days just charge them full & you should be fine. If they are going to set for a week or more then 40-65%.
Phantom 3 batteries have a self-discharge feature. The default is 10 days so, after 10 days of sitting, your batteries will auto-discharge down to ~65%. You can modify this setting from within the Go app. Note the setting is retained within the battery so you must set EACH battery individually. I currently have mine set to 5 days. Note that the discharge timer resets when you press the power button & there is no visual indication that the batteries are in the auto-discharge state. The latter is somewhat annoying & I think DJI should make the power light blink as a visual indication that an auto-discharge is in progress. The LED power draw would also aid in the discharge process.
I always charge my packs before I intend to fly. If batteries are >80% you can force them to top off by powering the battery on BEFORE attaching to the charger. With the auto-discharge feature this is a good idea.
2 - DJI recommends every 20 cycles discharging the batteries down to 8%. This aids in balancing the cells & calculating available power. I usually do this by flying & then hovering nearby until the battery drops to <8%. If your auto-land is set to the minimum of 10%, you will have to hold her in the air with the throttle manually for the last 2-3% or she will auto-land. Alternatively you can let her sit on the ground idling until the battery drops under 8%. I do not like leaving the Phantom on without props as a discharge method as it takes a lot longer to discharge & there is no air flowing over the electronics.
*Note that "cycles" calculated by the app may not exactly match the number of times you have actually charged a battery. It only seems to count a charge if the battery accepts a certain amount of charge. Several top-off charges may equate to only one actual charge cycle.
3 - Li-pos in general break in over the first 5-10 cycles before reaching maximum performance. From then on they are slowly degrading. Some folks live by a "50% break-in rule" but I've never seen this as a DJI recommendation. When any battery is brand new you want to go a bit easy since it could be a dud. You certainly don't want to send your bird out 4 miles on a brand new untested battery!
Related some folks recommend landing @ 3.4-3.6 volts-per-cell. If you are going for the maximum battery life that may (or may not) be good advice. I tend to push my batteries a lot harder & you CAN fly to 10% or even lower in a pinch, as long as you understand you have to force her to stay airborne by applying throttle once you reach 10%. I don't recommend doing this each & every flight but, on occasion, I doubt it causes any harm. The critical voltage to remember is 3.0 volts-per-cell. 3.0 volts is empty. If any cell drops below 3 volts the battery shuts down. In the battery screen be sure to enable the option to show voltage on app screen. That way you see the battery percentage as well as the voltage of the lowest cell.
If you are way out, heed your flight controller's battery advice if it indicates a low-battery RTH! I recommend long-range mission begin INTO THE WIND so you have a nice battery cushion with the wind at your back on the way back home.
4 - I ALWAYS fly with a freshly-charged full pack. If your batteries are down to 50% & you are just going to touch down for a moment & take back off that is no biggie as the battery is still warm. I do NOT recommend using a partially discharged pack if you are going to come back later & initiate a new flight on a now-cold pack. Not to say you can't do it in a pinch if you closely monitor the voltage & limit your power demands but, as a new pilot flying an expensive aircraft, you have enough on your plate already without worrying about a mid-air catastrophic battery shutdown. Fly with a full-battery & you'll be good.
Finally lost my bird after 9 months of great no issues flying.
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I've had to fly many times when the wind is gusting 30mph +. No problems, but heed the advice given earlier in the thread and set up your return with the wind behind you. It's very scary when you're way out and fighting a head wind to get back before the battery hits 10%.
These weren't gusts, these were solid 11 mph winds which had gusts also but I don't know how fast, I may buy an anemometer as a flight accessory
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I've only had a couple flights so far with my P3A so I'm concerned with this battery issue. In my case I will need to fly like so:
Take her up, snap a couple of photos of roofs, land, move down road a little and repeat for the duration of the day. Obviously I can't recharge between flights or it would take me all day to photo few roofs. I don't have an extra battery (yet) so not sure how I should handle this type of scenario.
Take her up, snap a couple of photos of roofs, land, move down road a little and repeat for the duration of the day. Obviously I can't recharge between flights or it would take me all day to photo few roofs. I don't have an extra battery (yet) so not sure how I should handle this type of scenario.
It sounds like you're using your drone in a business?? If so, it would probably be a good investment (and tax deductible business expense) to get one or two more batteries. Charge and use them in rotation. You might also consider getting a second charger.
Consider getting a low-cost inverter that you can power from your car battery and plug your chargers into. I had one that I have pressed into service that way. BTW--I don't charge these batteries inside the car unattended. These batteries are NOT totally safe.
Put a little notebook and pencil in your kit and keep records. I do--it has paid off.
Charge only the batteries that you think you'll need on your current outing. Leave them in partially discharged condition (1/2 - 2/3) between outings. Any that you have deeply discharged....pull them up to about 1/2 - 2/3 for storage, then fully charge the next time you think you'll need it.
Occasionally deep discharge you batteries. Then partially charge for storage or fully charge if you're going flying soon.
If you come home with a fully charged battery that you didn't use, discharge it if you're not going to use it very soon. I bought a little $25 discharger online. It works well (I did install a 2-position switch with two control resistors [replacing the single resistor on the pc board] to make device pull the discharge to a lower values...It came discharging to about 65-70%...my change allows me to select to about 55% and 25% for a deeper discharge). Battery swelling is basically a thing of the past.
If you suspect a battery isn't performing very well, use it cautiously or discard it. If you suspect something is wrong, you're probably right--it's probably going bad.
I think these batteries are somewhat flakey. I think you have to be consciously aware of how they're doing. They can fail suddenly and/or lose performance rather quickly or slowly. My experience has been that there's no way to predict the lifespan. Just be aware.
That's my advice.
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So, If I have two batteries, fly one for maybe 3 minutes max and then recharge while I use the second battery at my next stop, and then repeat? Continually recharging an almost full battery is ok?
Yes. There is no memory problem like the older Li-Ion batteries. You can recharge your Li-Po when it's almost fully charged - no problem.
I think people are mixing up ambient temperatures with battery temperatures. If you keep the battery warm you're OK because once you start flying the battery is only going to get warmer when flying within the operating temp range specified by DJI. DJI's spec for the bird to fly is 0C to 40C.****. That almost totally rules out flying for me. In Ireland it rarely goes above 20C. Looks like I'll get one day in the year when I can fly. Hope it's not raining that day...
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Still in the process of trying to get it out of the pier to check. I really just want the memory card. Have to find a time between weather, family and work. I doubt it was a prop tho.
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I don't deep discharge my batteries. I also didn't do any kind of break-in, I just fly to about 30% and land.....sometimes slightly less.... Would be interesting to compare the battery life I get to others that discharge. I will consider a deep discharge if and when I see any issues with cell balance and/or flight durations. Will post updates...
Any discharger up for the Pepsi challenge? I am at 22 charges each on 2 batteriess and both still indicate 100% life...thought I am not sure if I trust that...
Any discharger up for the Pepsi challenge? I am at 22 charges each on 2 batteriess and both still indicate 100% life...thought I am not sure if I trust that...
Do you mean cycles?
That's odd you show 100% life after 22 cycles.
I have a couple batteries that are at 21 cycles and they each show 93% life. Yeah I did the deep discharges - all the way down to 3%! But they are P2V batteries.
That's odd you show 100% life after 22 cycles.
I have a couple batteries that are at 21 cycles and they each show 93% life. Yeah I did the deep discharges - all the way down to 3%! But they are P2V batteries.
Yeah, whatever the app shows on the battery info screen, I check it before every flight. This is P3 batteries. I will screenshot it next time I fly....
That doesn't seem to be necessarily true - at least not in my case, but I have P2V batteries. If my batteries are around 68F and the ambient (air) temp is in the mid 30s or around 40 degrees, my battery temp drops as it discharges in flight. And since it was already borderline cold anyway, this cannot be a good thing. So I'm learning to start off with a warmer battery when flying in cold weather - something closer to mid 80s F.
I have three batteries for my P3P and they have, 28, 29, and 35 charges on them. Healthy Drones shows they are all still 100%. I might have deep discharged one of them, but I can't remember which one.
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108 87 65 are the cycles # on my third batteries , well I can delete 87 since that's the one that took the plunge. When I get back up I would not mind do the Pepsi challenge .
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That would make it appear you are doing the same thing as I am, except with 1 battery. To compare the two methods we need someone like Mark who always does a deep discharge at the same number of cycles....
Did you do the deep discharge every 20 cycles? What is the remaining life for each of those batteries?
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