Never transport ... a battery with power level higher than 30%

[one-eyed hobo]

What is "transport" intended to mean in this text from the Intelligent Flight Battery Safety Guidelines mean:

"Never transport a damaged battery or a battery with power level higher than 30%"​

Surely it does not mean "transport by car". And a similar warning in the Tavel Notice section of those same guidelines says:

"Before carrying the ... Battery on an airline flight, it must first be fully discharged".​

I am well aware of the restrictions posted by airlines, and this latter statement makes sense. So what does "a battery with power level higher than 30%" mean in the first statement? Or is it just poor documentation from the Department of Redundancy Department?

 

[With The Birds]

What is "transport" intended to mean in this text from the Intelligent Flight Battery Safety Guidelines mean:

"Never transport a damaged battery or a battery with power level higher than 30%"​

Surely it does not mean "transport by car". And a similar warning in the Tavel Notice section of those same guidelines says:

"Before carrying the ... Battery on an airline flight, it must first be fully discharged".​

I am well aware of the restrictions posted by airlines, and this latter statement makes sense. So what does "a battery with power level higher than 30%" mean in the first statement? Or is it just poor documentation from the Department of Redundancy Department?

You haven’t made it clear which actual regulations you are referring to. Very likely this is with respect to air freight. LiION is least stable at full rated charge.

 

[one-eyed hobo]

I'm not referring to regulations, I'm referring to DJI's document, "Phantom 4 Series", in the section "Intelligent Flight Battery Safety Guidelines" ... one of the foldout sections that come with a new Phantom.

 

[With The Birds]

The statement that a battery needs to be fully discharged to be carried onboard the aircraft makes no sense- it certainly isn’t a requirement. Fully discharging LiION chemistry is proven to significantly impact service life and performance.

30% would place the cell at 30% rated capacity.

The DJI instructions are probably written by the same person who created the instruction to routinely discharge the packs. A totally unnecessary operation since the TI SOC battery management was implemented- Mah counting isn’t employed so there is no need for calibration of the capacity gauging.

 

[Meta4]

What is "transport" intended to mean in this text from the Intelligent Flight Battery Safety Guidelines mean:

"Never transport a damaged battery or a battery with power level higher than 30%"​

It doesn't mean transport by car.
It doesn't mean much at all unless you want to send lithium batteries by airfreight.
Someone at DJI has taken the idea from IATA guidelines for sending lithium batteries as airfreight.
https://www.iata.org/whatwedo/cargo/dgr/Documents/lithium-battery-guidance-document-2017-en.pdf

All lithium ion cells and batteries (UN 3480 only) must be shipped at a state of charge (SoC) not exceeding 30% of their rated design capacity.
Cells and/or batteries at a SoC of greater than 30% may only be shipped with the approval of the State of Origin and the State of the Operator under the written conditions established by those authorities, see Special Provision A331.​

But this does not appear in the IATA guidelines for lithium batteries in passenger's luggage.
https://www.iata.org/whatwedo/cargo/dgr/Documents/passenger-lithium-battery.pdf​

 

[Jetjockey6]

That is total nonsense. First, you cannot “ship” these batteries in the cargo compartment of a commercial airline...they must be carried aboard in your carry-on luggage. There is NO requirement for them to be discharged to any level. There is no limit to the number of batteries of the size/mah of the P4P you can carry on a commercial airliner. I carry all five of my P4P batteries on board in my backpack and fully charged because I often have to fly shortly after arrival. Over the past year I have never even been subjected to further screening at airport security when carrying on the P4P batteries. What you are reading is DJI baloney. When transporting by car, train, bus or beaming up to the Enterprise you have ZERO restrictions. By the way, TSA has NO way of knowing what your battery charge level is...none! Put ‘em in your carry-on fully charged and travel!

 

[With The Birds]

That is total nonsense. First, you cannot “ship” these batteries in the cargo compartment of a commercial airline...they must be carried aboard in your carry-on luggage. There is NO requirement for them to be discharged to any level. There is no limit to the number of batteries of the size/mah of the P4P you can carry on a commercial airliner. I carry all five of my P4P batteries on board in my backpack and fully charged because I often have to fly shortly after arrival. Over the past year I have never even been subjected to further screening at airport security when carrying on the P4P batteries. What you are reading is DJI baloney. When transporting by car, train, bus or beaming up to the Enterprise you have ZERO restrictions. By the way, TSA has NO way of knowing what your battery charge level is...none! Put ‘em in your carry-on fully charged and travel!

I would not go with the fully charged advice if you have no immediate need to fly and/or opportunity to charge before use. There is no advantage other than putting unnecessary stress on your packs and it is well demonstrated that fully charged cells are more likely to perform an unplanned spontaneous disassembly (fully charged cells are less stable).

 

[Jetjockey6]

Let me try to understand this...”fully charged cells are...less stable). Really? Yet, we put our fully charged cells in our drones when we fly them. Do we really, really have to worry about them being less stable when in our drones than in my backpack! I think not! These are intelligent batteries and require intelligent users...for the most part. If there existed a serious, definable issue with fully charged batteries being transported thru airport security or aboard commercial aircraft both the FAA and the TSA would have the tools to deal with it. Neither Agency cares about our drone batteries (Phantom size) aboard aircraft. Charge them up, carry aboard and press on!

 

[With The Birds]

Let me try to understand this...”fully charged cells are...less stable). Really? Yet, we put our fully charged cells in our drones when we fly them. Do we really, really have to worry about them being less stable when in our drones than in my backpack! I think not! These are intelligent batteries and require intelligent users...for the most part. If there existed a serious, definable issue with fully charged batteries being transported thru airport security or aboard commercial aircraft both the FAA and the TSA would have the tools to deal with it. Neither Agency cares about our drone batteries (Phantom size) aboard aircraft. Charge them up, carry aboard and press on!

Really. The smart electronics in our battery packs goes a long way to protect the cells from the lazy and ill informed but it isn’t foolproof. LiION chemistry performance characteristics are well known. Keeping cells at full state of charge does reduce their service life and performance and they are less stable when at rated max terminal voltage. This is fact. Anyone who has used dumb LiPOS will remember the time that needed to be applied in maintaining charge levels to get a reasonable life from a pack. Keep them fully charged ready for flight and be reserved to a very limited usable life.

Have you wondered why authorities require that LIPO chemistry is transported by air cargo at 30% charge. Hint- they know they are less stable when at full charge.