Battery Discharge

[WynstonFlys]

Hello fellow pilots,

So I have two P4 Batteries that I have been using for around 3 months. I have been reading some other blogs and websites saying that you should fly the drone until it is around 8% and then put the battery in the drone and let it idle and and go to 0%. From there you then charge it back up to 100% to complete the recommended battery cycle every 20 charges or so according to DJI. Other people said that going to 0% would kill the battery. I do know that you should not let the battery go below a certain voltage, but I am still a little unclear about the proper discharge cycle that DJI suggest you do every 3 months.

So what should I do to keep my batteries healthy?

Comments and help are appreciated.

 

[Fly Dawg]

I don't have the link handy but maybe @msinger could supply that for you. There are maintenance guidelines that can keep your batteries in good shape.

 

[WynstonFlys]

One of my main questions is that does letting the battery discharge to 0% really kill it?

 

[Meta4]

Hello fellow pilots,

So I have two P4 Batteries that I have been using for around 3 months. I have been reading some other blogs and websites saying that you should fly the drone until it is around 8% and then put the battery in the drone and let it idle and and go to 0%. From there you then charge it back up to 100% to complete the recommended battery cycle every 20 charges or so according to DJI. Other people said that going to 0% would kill the battery. I do know that you should not let the battery go below a certain voltage, but I am still a little unclear about the proper discharge cycle that DJI suggest you do every 3 months.

So what should I do to keep my batteries healthy?

Comments and help are appreciated.

Forget it. It's completely unnecessary.
The smsrt circuitry in the battery does everything necessary.

 

[msinger]

So what should I do to keep my batteries healthy?

Do these things:

• Don't charge your batteries unless you're going to fly (or you're trying to maintain the charge level like this).
  
  
• When done flying, charge your batteries back up to the storage level (if you're not going to use them again in the next few days) or let them auto discharge down to the storage level (if the current charge level is above that). The batteries are at the optimal level for storage when the 3rd battery light starts blinking while you're charging them.
  
  
• Store your batteries indoors (in normal room temperature).
  
  
• When not using your batteries, maintain the charge level like this.
  
  
• Power up your Phantom with each battery installed and set the "Time to Discharge" setting (see the screenshot below) to the number of days you'd like your batteries to wait before starting to auto discharge down to the storage level. You'll need to reset this setting after new firmware is installed on your batteries.
  
  When your batteries are idle (meaning you don't press the battery button), they will start to auto discharge after that number of days has been reached. It could take a few days for them to auto discharge if fully charged. Pressing the battery button at any time during this process will cancel the auto discharge process and make your batteries wait that number of days before attempting to discharge again.
  
  
  

 

[WynstonFlys]

Thanks all for the replys,

So I don't need to fully discharge the battery every three months as it states in the Intelligent Flight Battery safety guidelines?

 

[msinger]

So I don't need to fully discharge the battery every three months as it states in the Intelligent Flight Battery safety guidelines?

Try to fully charge them and fly with them at least every three months. When that's not possible, follow my storage tips.

 

[WynstonFlys]

Alright then, Thanks

 

[Erised]

To help long life try not to fly them way down all the time. My 4 batteries are 2 year old and have over 80 cycles and I still have all 4 lights on for battery life and I still get the same flight times since new. I try to land at 20% and that keeps me up in the air about 20 minutes. (longest flight 24 minutes @ 8%) I store them using the dji charging hub (auto around 50%+) and fully charge them on fly day. The rest I do like msinger posted.

 

[Unique]

Hello fellow pilots,

So I have two P4 Batteries that I have been using for around 3 months. I have been reading some other blogs and websites saying that you should fly the drone until it is around 8% and then put the battery in the drone and let it idle and and go to 0%. From there you then charge it back up to 100% to complete the recommended battery cycle every 20 charges or so according to DJI. Other people said that going to 0% would kill the battery. I do know that you should not let the battery go below a certain voltage, but I am still a little unclear about the proper discharge cycle that DJI suggest you do every 3 months.

So what should I do to keep my batteries healthy?

Comments and help are appreciated.

Ask a different person and you will get a different answer on this subject. It seems to be a frequent topic and the last thread I know of is this:

How to deep discharge batteries

I have offered my opinion on this forum previously, based on my own experience, but been aggressively "corrected" by people who clearly don't know what they are talking about, so I will not offer my opinion here. The fact is that the manuals say that you should not over discharge and the target limit for deep discharge is below 8%. I interpret that to be 7%.

You can download the user manuals from DJI website. There is even one just for the battery.

HIH

Steve