Is my battery faulty?

[marzipana]

I received my P3A on the 19th January and have only done a few short flights with it - it was tested by a tech on day of purchase because it was actually a replacement for a faulty unit.

So I've been doing the battery acclimation thing, where I fly until the battery hits 50% and then I let the battery cool down before recharging.

My Go app tells me the battery has only been charged 3 times, which isn't correct - I've charged it around 6 times.

But after charging, if I wait a day or two before using the P3A, the charge doesn't show as 100% when I first turn it on, it's around 97-98%. It's set to discharge every 10 days. I don't store the battery in the P3, if I'm not flying it's not in the AC.

I thought I would test it this morning - I recharged after a 13 minute flight two days ago, and this morning I put the battery in, fire up the remote, then the P3A then the Go app, and battery is at 98%.

So I thought I'll top it off and see if that makes a difference - I plugged it in and because it thinks it's fully charged, nothing happens. I've read here previously that you can press the button to turn it on to *make* it charge fully if you're only topping up (my battery is always switched off to charge in the usual way), so after the pressing and holding the on button it starts charging.

When it's done charging, I insert it fully into the P3A, turn everything on in the order described above, and the battery shows 100% - for a short time. It drops to 98% while the P3 is still warming up.

Something isn't right, it's certainly had more charges after short flights than only 3 as the App says.

Is there likely to be a problem with this battery? It's only 3 weeks old. It shouldn't drop from 100% to 98% just while warming up, should it? Warming it up take around 60 seconds or so.

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Solar Deity]

No problem, everything normal, no worries.

It counts full charges, so (6x) 50% charges = 3x full cycles. Normal counting.

It will drain a little while it's on, again normal.

Cells look great and equally balanced. You are fine.

SD

 

[marzipana]

Phew - thanks! This is my 3rd Phantom - had issues with the first two and both were replaced (2nd one had dead compass right out of the box) so I'm probably a bit paranoid. Thanks [emoji4]


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[MichaelR]

Yes, all looks spot on there. I have 3 batteries and they all behave this same way as yours. I have never taken off with 100% because of the warming up always seems to take it down to 98%
One thing I would say is that you should knock the 10day discharge down - having read a lot of battery threads on here, I believe batteries dont like always sitting at full charge, and that for both short (days) & long term (weeks/months) storage they are happiest at around the 40-50% charge mark.
I have my three set to just 2 days, and after a flight I often just briefly charge them back upto about 50% by charging for just 5/10 mins, and then leave them until i know when I'm next going to go flying. I charge them back up to full either the night before flying or on the actual day itself.
Just what I have read here on this forum about the optimum way to treat li-po batteries, not leaving them at 'full charge' until you are actually ready to fly em.
Fingers crossed not had any bad issues yet and my 3 batteries are on 37, 37, and 26 charges respectively


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[marzipana]

One thing I would say is that you should knock the 10day discharge down - having read a lot of battery threads on here, I believe batteries dont like always sitting at full charge, and that for both short (days) & long term (weeks/months) storage they are happiest at around the 40-50% charge mark.
I have my three set to just 2 days, and after a flight I often just briefly charge them back upto about 50% by charging for just 5/10 mins, and then leave them until i know when I'm next going to go flying. I charge them back up to full either the night before flying or on the actual day itself. Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

Yes, I've read a few of the posts on batteries here and people seem to differ on what the best discharge time is - some say a couple of days, others say 7 days, some others suggest 10 is fine. Gets rather confusing [emoji52]



Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[m0j0]

I think your battery is fine. Slap that dude in and run it. I had a brand new battery that I charged to 100%. Went to fly the next day.... it was at 91%... That is no bueno. I watched it brought it in checked healthy drones data... 61 major deviations.UMMMMM.. Recharged... took off and left the bird just high enough off the ground to make certain that nothing terrible would happen if it faulted watched the battery carefully landed at 50% Batt. Checked Healthy Drones...again.. 30 major deviations ... I'm done... It is going back. That sir is a bad battery.

 

[MichaelR]

Yes, I've read a few of the posts on batteries here and people seem to differ on what the best discharge time is - some say a couple of days, others say 7 days, some others suggest 10 is fine. Gets rather confusing [emoji52]



Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

Yes, i think the frequency of which you fly is a factor. If you are lucky enough to live in sunny Florida or California and have the opportunity to fly every day / any time you want, then charging em to 100% and then flying it in a day or two is great.....lucky ppl!!
But if like me, you live in crappy uk where it never seems to stop raining or blowing a near-gale it can be a while between flights [emoji36]
Right now for example, I have not had a flight for almost 2 weeks coz of the **** weather [emoji36]
So for me, leaving them most of the time at around 50% charge i think is probably better for them than leaving them at full charge and waiting a week or two for a decent enough weather day [emoji6]


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[marzipana]

I think your battery is fine. Slap that dude in and run it. I had a brand new battery that I charged to 100%. Went to fly the next day.... it was at 91%... That is no bueno. I watched it brought it in checked healthy drones data... 61 major deviations.UMMMMM.. Recharged... took off and left the bird just high enough off the ground to make certain that nothing terrible would happen if it faulted watched the battery carefully landed at 50% Batt. Checked Healthy Drones...again.. 30 major deviations ... I'm done... It is going back. That sir is a bad battery.

Wow, that's rough. I hope they replace it without question!


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[olof Ekbergh]

I always store my Lipos at about 50%.

I fly them down to 50%. Or charge them up until 2 lights are lit and third starts flashing.

It is bad to store Lipos at 100% even for a few days. It will cut down the life span. Anywhere from 40 to 70% is good storage.

DJI automation makes you lazy but it will also shorten the life of Lipos, but it is a lazy easy way to deal with Lipos.

 

[marzipana]

I'm in Australia where it's summer right now, but even the weather here hasn't been all the conducive to flying - at least two weeks of very solid clouds and/or rain. Because I'm still breaking in the battery, I tend to just fly fairly low on the spare block next to us until battery is around 50%...but as per advice, I think I'll leave it at that until I know for sure I intend to fly again and then charge that day.

Yes, i think the frequency of which you fly is a factor. If you are lucky enough to live in sunny Florida or California and have the opportunity to fly every day / any time you want, then charging em to 100% and then flying it in a day or two is great.....lucky ppl!!
But if like me, you live in crappy uk where it never seems to stop raining or blowing a near-gale it can be a while between flights [emoji36]
Right now for example, I have not had a flight for almost 2 weeks coz of the **** weather [emoji36]
So for me, leaving them most of the time at around 50% charge i think is probably better for them than leaving them at full charge and waiting a week or two for a decent enough weather day [emoji6]


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[marzipana]

I always store my Lipos at about 50%.

I fly them down to 50%. Or charge them up until 2 lights are lit and third starts flashing.

It is bad to store Lipos at 100% even for a few days. It will cut down the life span. Anywhere from 40 to 70% is good storage.

DJI automation makes you lazy but it will also shorten the life of Lipos, but it is a lazy easy way to deal with Lipos.

What about smaller lipo batteries, like for the Hubsan or Syma? How does one best take care of them? Do you need to buy a battery discharger/tester for them?

 

[olof Ekbergh]

I use lipo testers on all my Batteries, Lipos and NIMH etc it is the only way to know what is up if don't have telemetry. The only exception are the tiny 1s 70-300's they only cost $5 or so and don't last that long.

Anyway w/o telemetry, I gauge my flights by time. If it takes 10 minutes to run a Lipo down to 30%, them my max fly time will be 10 minutes, but I will always aim to land in 8 or 9. And it would take about 6-7 minutes to reach 50% so that is how long my last flight of the day would be to put the Lipo into storage mode. But I always check the Lipo before and after flying for charge and balance, you can get a good tester for $15.00, here is one:
for LiPo LiFe Li-Ion NiMH NiCd With Balance Views #GTP-61834, ,(GTP-61834) by G.T. Power Digital Battery Capacity Checker / Tester

And my favorite smart charger is:
Amazon.com: Hyperion Eos720I Net 3 Ac/Dc Balance Charger 7S 16N Store Mode: Toys & Games

Mine is 5 years old now and still in perfect working order after thousands of charges, break in cycles and storage discharge cycles. I have a few others as well but this is my favorite for all Lipos, LIFE, NIMH or lead acid batts.