Discharging smart battery without flight?

[mikehimself]

Sorry if I missed this in another discussion thread, but couldn't find anything on the topic.

I was wondering if anyone had an effective way to discharge the smart batteries without requiring a flight?

I suppose you could idle really low without props until the battery runs down.

I come from the world of RC LiPos that can be discharged directly from a battery station.

Thanks!

Edit: As soon as I posted this I found a whole mess of related discussions.

 

[monki77]

You may have found your answer already, but if not -

For every battery you insert into the phantom you can set the auto discharge time via DJI Go app. Be aware pressing the button to check the battery level resets the timer. This way takes ages.

You can leave the Phantom in standby, sat turned on without props spinning; I don't like this way, but DJI recommend it as a way of trickle discharging when cycling batteries

Buy the 3 port multi charger, with a built in force discharge option. Still slow but quicker than the auto discharge and it involves buying something.

If your battery is between 30/50% it won't need discharging though as that's an ideal storage capacity.

 

[ROD PAINTER]

I keep my batteries at 50% when not flying. Also don't like the idea of running motors without props on as motors could overheat. Just my 2 cents.

 

[mikehimself]

I keep my batteries at 50% when not flying. Also don't like the idea of running motors without props on as motors could overheat. Just my 2 cents.

I completely agree.

Why put an unnecessary burden on your machine when you could do what monki77 said?

 

[AWD]

Is there any particular reason you need to discharge the batteries immediately?

Why not just let them discharge on their own per the 5 or 10 day schedule?

AD

 

[mikehimself]

Is there any particular reason you need to discharge the batteries immediately?

Why not just let them discharge on their own per the 5 or 10 day schedule?

AD

Not really.

I guess I should have faith in the auto-discharge feature.

Still new to all this "smart" stuff.

 

[AWD]

Mike,

Yep, the batteries will discharge on a pretty tight schedule.

I usually find when I need to jump out and grab a good shot from the house that at least half of my batteries are "discharged" a bit so I grab the only good battery and hit the charger on the way out the door. If I'm lucky I'll have at least one other battery to grab when the first one has been used up.

They do take some time to recharge for sure.

I do try to turn the charger on at least once a week to keep the three batteries sitting in it ready to go for the weekends. The other batteries just kind of are on their own until I grab the three sitting in the charger to go fly and then they get popped into the charger.

AD

 

[joeruby]

Take a look at this discharger. It works great. I just cut the DJI plug off of a spare charger and wired it to a short cable to the discharger. All automatic to 50% charge.

ISDT FD-100 80W Discharger

ISDT FD-100 80W Discharger - ProgressiveRC

Joe
KC7GHT

 

[3putts]

Son used to let the lipo batteries discharge normally before getting on a flight here. He always brought his Phantom with him coming out here as a carry-on. TSA let him through without issues. Said it was a pain though, so bought me one to have when he comes here. Great kid!

 

[Sea Pilot]

I keep my batteries at 50% when not flying. Also don't like the idea of running motors without props on as motors could overheat. Just my 2 cents.

The gimbal and camera also get pretty warm as well. Don't think that would be a good thing. I don't know if it is ok to leave the bird on "standby". Wonder if the gimbal could get hot enough to cause some damage. Prop wash seem to keep the gimbal cool as well as the outside air temperature. Would like to get some honest help on this topic.

 

[Meta4]

Take a look at this discharger. It works great.
All automatic to 50% charge.

The gimbal and camera also get pretty warm as well. Don't think that would be a good thing. I don't know if it is ok to leave the bird on "standby". Wonder if the gimbal could get hot enough to cause some damage. Prop wash seem to keep the gimbal cool as well as the outside air temperature. Would like to get some honest help on this topic.

There is no need for any of this.
The batteries discharge themselves without you having to do anything.
Just choose the time till discharge begins (1-10 days) in the app battery settings and it just happens automatically.

 

[Meta4]

Son used to let the lipo batteries discharge normally before getting on a flight here. He always brought his Phantom with him coming out here as a carry-on. TSA let him through without issues. Said it was a pain though, so bought me one to have when he comes here.

There's no requirement to discharge batteries for airplane travel.
No airline recommends it in their lithium battery/dangerous goods information.
The TSA and FAA don't and no-one has ever been asked about the charge level in their batteries at an airport.

 

[jlrsn]

There is a much easier way to properly maintain your batteries.
DJI recommends deep-discharging (cycling) every 20 cycles. The Angel deep-discharges Phantom, Inspire, and Mavic batteries safely and reliably, at a constant rate of1C ensuring minimal wear to the batteries.
I purchased a custom made dual unit from Alex last year that I use to maintain my Inspire 1V2 and Phantom 4 Batteries. I found that I can take my fully charged TB48 Battery and automatically bring it down to storage voltage in a half-hour.

See:

Phantom Angel

It's well worth looking into! You can email Alex at [email protected]

 

[Loz]

There is no evidence that these batteries need or benefit from cycling / deep discharging. The chemistry these batteries rely on is well understood, not an area of DJI specific expertise (DJI have to the best of my understanding stopped making ‘battery cycle’ recommendations for quite a while now (but I could be wrong). The battery smarts will reduce the battery charge to the ideal 40-60% charge just fine. It’s also NOT a good idea to keep batteries charged up every week incase one flies, they should be fully charged when needed (I’m obviously referring to battery care best practice).

 

[lasersbee]

Sorry if I missed this in another discussion thread, but couldn't find anything on the topic.

I was wondering if anyone had an effective way to discharge the smart batteries without requiring a flight?

I suppose you could idle really low without props until the battery runs down.

I come from the world of RC LiPos that can be discharged directly from a battery station.

Thanks!

Edit: As soon as I posted this I found a whole mess of related discussions.

DJI Intelligent batteris discharge them self to a storage voltage.
You can setup the GO4 app to let the batteries know when to
start the discharge process.

 

[Drone Rivers]

Sorry if I missed this in another discussion thread, but couldn't find anything on the topic.

I was wondering if anyone had an effective way to discharge the smart batteries without requiring a flight?

I hate wasting energy! Why not get a free cell phone charge? It will drain the battery AND give you a little more talk time!

 

[lasersbee]

I hate wasting energy! Why not get a free cell phone charge? It will drain the battery AND give you a little more talk time!

Those type of cell phone charge adapters are sold on line.
You could even build one yourself. DJI Battery connectors
and Pinouts are also available on line.

 

[solentlife]

Telsin dischargers have a USB output to utilise the discharge energy ……….. I bought one for about $5 - I use it to charge up anything USB based from a charged P3 battery.

As to discharging a DJI battery for storage … DJI have provided FW based discharge that is best way to do it … but please for most people that default 10 day setting is far too long … better to have 2 - 3 days max.

Deep discharge ? It has no benefit for the cells themselves as LiPo's are irreparable …. but what it can do is reset the battery counter. But really its wasted effort ……. use your batterys wisely and enjoy long life.

Nigel

 

[Protocrash]

Hi guys,

It is actually necessary to cycle DJI batteries. As mentioned correctly above this doesn't have anything to do with the lipos themselves (actually, full discharging is bad for them) but has everything to do with how much battery your drone thinks it has. But I'll disagree with solentlife... this is hugely important! If your "fuel gauge" is wrong then at best case the drone will get you to land earlier than you need to and worse case you'll see your battery go from, say 20% to 1% within 5 seconds... followed most likely by drama.

I will agree though that first and foremost you need to treat your batteries well and they'll serve you well. This goes for all LiPos, not just DJI ones.

As this is quite a detailed topic, you may want to read up a couple of articles I've written on this topic:
How to keep your DJI batteries happy: Top tips for happy DJI batteries
How your drone's "fuel gauge" works (and how to keep it working properly): Top tips for happy DJI batteries

Cheers
Alex

 

[With The Birds]

Hi guys,

It is actually necessary to cycle DJI batteries. As mentioned correctly above this doesn't have anything to do with the lipos themselves (actually, full discharging is bad for them) but has everything to do with how much battery your drone thinks it has. But I'll disagree with solentlife... this is hugely important! If your "fuel gauge" is wrong then at best case the drone will get you to land earlier than you need to and worse case you'll see your battery go from, say 20% to 1% within 5 seconds... followed most likely by drama.

I will agree though that first and foremost you need to treat your batteries well and they'll serve you well. This goes for all LiPos, not just DJI ones.

As this is quite a detailed topic, you may want to read up a couple of articles I've written on this topic:
How to keep your DJI batteries happy: Top tips for happy DJI batteries
How your drone's "fuel gauge" works (and how to keep it working properly): Top tips for happy DJI batteries

Cheers
Alex

It is not necessary to deep discharge any of the current DJI packs (phantom 3 onwards) and doing so will do nothing to calibrate the available capacity percentage. The battery monitoring circuitry does not perform simple coulomb counting, it is significantly more complex. In fact individual cells IR values are measured and tracked in real time so the fuel gauging circuitry can accurately allow for cell aging in determining usable capacity. Instantaneous and average current demand, loaded and open load voltage, temperature and IR are all measured continuously and inform the algorithm to depict very accurately the battery capacity in real time. You might like to update your article- the considerations you mention are of almost no application to current battery management SOC offered by TI and others in our DJI products and most other devices using LiION cells.