What is the Best way to discharge Battery?

[Panamon Creel]

How about something like this?

http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Balancer- ... discharger

Seems like it could discharge the battery without wear and tear on our Phantom... with the added benefit of possibly diagnosing bad cells?

Likely would not work since I think this one only connects to a balancing plug which the Phantom doesn't have. Also you cannot use any charger to diagnose the P2 battery due to the lack of a balancing port. Something like an IMAX or SKYRC B6AC does the job and can be used for other charging jobs as well

 

[Snowdug]

Bring it down close to the ground and fight the landing ... in other words... after 12% it is trying to land on it's own but you can apply throttle to keep it up in the air... keep it up untill it reaches your desired % and land... i hover it all the way to 0% with no problems but you need to land immediately at 0... the battery will shut itself off if you stay at zero too long.

Just to throw my tuppence into the mix and I think this information answered by someone who know's will help not only myself but others........When the battery runs down to the point where it gives you a countdown from 10 seconds and tells you to land I don't see this as percentage as I have battery life remaining visual in minutes only for the Phantom battery. I know at this point it has 20% charge remaining as afterwards I plugged it into the software to check and that's what it told me roughly 1000Mah charge and 20% level - makes sense - right?

So two things here? How do you know what percentage is remaining whilst flying it, is it something in the settings of the DJI Software or are you using different flight software and.....

Are you saying that after my countdown from 10 ends I can still keep the bird afloat, obviously you can but as I see know percentage just mins flight time remaining I'm unsure as to what to do or what happens after the countdown ends as I have not pushed the boat that far yet? Hope all that makes sense.

Help on the matter, as always would be appreciated.

Thank you all kindly now, and DBS do mod that signature we need it bigger and we know your the man who can....Hahahahahahaha Just jestin' now.

The app shows a battery percentage in the top right hand corner of the screen.

I got so used to not having the flight time remaining before the latest firmware I actually never look at it.

**** really? So you mean those 400 AA batteries I chucked were still good??? Hahahahahha what a twat am I. IS there a battery indicator for the batteries in the remote and if not, how long are they expected to last and do we get an indication of when they are dying?

Thanks for that. ps. My re-chargeable s have arrived now.

 

[BlackTracer]

IS there a battery indicator for the batteries in the remote and if not, how long are they expected to last and do we get an indication of when they are dying?

Mine just ran low today. The remote started beeping and the light on it flashed red. Changed the batteries and it's back to steady green. I was in the kitchen draining the phantom batteries with the throttle at the time so no harm. The remote still worked in this condition BTW.

FYI I drained all three batteries until the phantom shut off on its own. Held it on the table while revving the motors with the props on. Rather painless. The motors continued to run for a couple minutes after the level reached 0% in the app. Charging them all back up to 100% right now.

I plan on storing them fully charged from now on(3 batts). Two of them have 25 cycles and the other has 35. I kept them stored at 100% up until 2 weeks ago. When I started storing them at ~50%. Then I started having problems with early red warnings. Today one of the 25s would warn low at 40% whenever I applied throttle. Then it tried to autoland at 35%. The other 25 warned at 25% and autolanded at 19%. The 35 never warned and I landed at 26%. Seems like storing them at half charge, which many have recommended, could be causing a level/memory issue. Storing at 50% then charging when I plan to fly was different than what I had been doing. Just going to try the 100% storage and see what happens. I am sure someone will have something to say about this.

 

[RipperFox]

It's there some reason you can't use an automotive lightbulb, an a couple of jumper wires with alligator clips?

 

[nedro018]

How about something like this?

http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Balancer- ... discharger

Seems like it could discharge the battery without wear and tear on our Phantom... with the added benefit of possibly diagnosing bad cells?

Likely would not work since I think this one only connects to a balancing plug which the Phantom doesn't have. Also you cannot use any charger to diagnose the P2 battery due to the lack of a balancing port. Something like an IMAX or SKYRC B6AC does the job and can be used for other charging jobs as well

which IMAX model # ? which SKYRC model # ?

unlike even Dirty Bird who is a resident pro here, im not running my motors to discharge a battery the final 5 yards...time after time. wear and tear. unnecessary.

electronic discharger is way to go. phantom doesnt have a balance plug/port.

so....

which IMAX model # ? which SKYRC model # ?

im looking for it. thx

 

[Panamon Creel]

like I mentioned before model B6AC or sometimes written B6-AC, they only discharge up to 1 Amp but it will do the job while you fly your phantom with another battery. Just make sure that the polarity is correct when connecting to the battery before you switch on the battery and charger

 

[Damon]

 

[Dadcat]

I plan on storing them fully charged from now on(3 batts). Two of them have 25 cycles and the other has 35. I kept them stored at 100% up until 2 weeks ago. When I started storing them at ~50%. Then I started having problems with early red warnings. Today one of the 25s would warn low at 40% whenever I applied throttle. Then it tried to autoland at 35%. The other 25 warned at 25% and autolanded at 19%. The 35 never warned and I landed at 26%. Seems like storing them at half charge, which many have recommended, could be causing a level/memory issue. Storing at 50% then charging when I plan to fly was different than what I had been doing. Just going to try the 100% storage and see what happens. I am sure someone will have something to say about this.

There is one thing for sure with this strategy: You keep them like this at room temperature until next year and your batteries will lose at least 25% of their capacity. Many tests of Lithium Ion or Lithium Polymer batteries have demonstrated this. That lost capacity is not recoverable through cycling the batteries the way it is for some other chemistries.

But, I do think you are on to something here which may make your strategy the lesser of evils.

The problem you are seeing is not likely to be the result of bad cells in the battery - Too coincidental - and storing at 50% can't possibly hurt the actual cells. It's more likely due to an issue with the "smart" electronics in the batteries that control charging and balancing the cells as well as reporting the level of charge, amount of discharge etc. There's something fishy going on with the smart circuitry but I don't know if it's a charging/balancing circuit problem or monitoring issue during discharge.

A couple of months ago, I saw a thread somewhere on the forum, where someone had taken apart a battery that had the "early low battery warning" problem. He found that if he wired the cells to charge from a standard smart charger, the battery itself was fine, the cells could be balanced and had a normal discharge curve.

Have you been able to determine yet whether your "store at 100%" strategy is fixing the problem?

 

[Dirty Bird]

I plan on storing them fully charged from now on(3 batts). Two of them have 25 cycles and the other has 35. I kept them stored at 100% up until 2 weeks ago. When I started storing them at ~50%. Then I started having problems with early red warnings. Today one of the 25s would warn low at 40% whenever I applied throttle. Then it tried to autoland at 35%. The other 25 warned at 25% and autolanded at 19%. The 35 never warned and I landed at 26%. Seems like storing them at half charge, which many have recommended, could be causing a level/memory issue. Storing at 50% then charging when I plan to fly was different than what I had been doing. Just going to try the 100% storage and see what happens. I am sure someone will have something to say about this.

I always store my Phantom batteries fully charged, but I always fly at least once a week. As long as you are storing them for 30 days or less you should be fine storing them fully charged.

 

[Snowdug]

It's there some reason you can't use an automotive lightbulb, an a couple of jumper wires with alligator clips?

Ripper - Your Priceless, Keep up the good work. :mrgreen:

 

[Davekyn]

Cheers -

Good to know that others are storing fully charged. I also do the same, however fly pretty often. It's nice to know that I can put them away fully charged and have a break as well. I think one month is good for that as well.

Thus far I like to always do a little flying about at the end of my runs, to ensure that I'm always finishing a flight with 30% battery life. I seldom put them back in the case at anything higher - unless I know for a fact that I will be running then down again either that day or the next.

QUESTION -> When discharging inside the house without props on - (throttle only slightly pressed) - the motors stop spinning at around 20%. I have to keep both sticks in the start position, the motors then start but then cut out again. It seems like I could damage something trying to go down to the recommended 8% in this fashion.

My question is, "does anyone else experience this and does the process of draining the battery become easier when enabling Naza mode?"

I think it's way over due for me to enable Naza mode. I also think some of the advice given here will not work unless your in Naza mode.