Phantom regular and high capacity battery projected life cycles.

[Forgotten_Fox]

I’ve found countless contradictory threads on the overall life expectancy of the Phantom batteries, so I’m looking for the general consensus on how many cycles the standard and high capacity batteries are good for. Also, I know after a point the phantom batteries only retain 60% of their charge, but are those batteries still reliable? Or does the charge drop in huge jumps. No need to waste time explaining how li-po work or proper care, I’ve dealt with li-po batteries for many years and I just wanted to see how my projections stack with the community.

 

[wa5tef]

Good question! I just watch my battery condition on airdata.com. It seems to match what I’m seeing is close to the condition being reported on two old standard batteries that are 26 months old. They both indicate about 93% on Litchi at startup and airdata reports near 90%. I use them now for short flights and calibration and adjusting settings. My two hi-capacity batteries show 99% at startup and on airdata.

I’ll be watching your post in hopes you get good answers.

Thanks
Jim
WA5TEF

 

[With The Birds]

What are your projections?

Looked after you could get 200+ cycles.

The fuel gauging and life% reporting will remain accurate for the life of the pack.

No idea what you mean by the 60% charge retention. Useable capacity??

 

[BigAl07]

The DJI batteries are just regular LiPo cells with a SMART circuit board on top. So, under normal circumstances (no factory/manufacturing faults) they will perform very similar to the LiPo you are familiar with. I've got several packs with 150+ charge cycles on them. Now with those packs you do notice a difference in the total flight time and a softer "punch" then with a brand new pack.

Because some people are harder on packs than others you may see some huge variances in pack performance. Also the Quality Control over these packs aren't exactly GREAT so we see some degree of variance even with seemingly brand new packs from time to time.

If left charged too long (not allowed to AutoDischarge) or discharged too much (pushing the pack too far) will have immediate and lifetime effects on the DJI packs just like "regular" LiPo packs. No difference there except the software ATTEMPTS to make them dummy proof. This works well to some degree but some operators really push the limits of "Smart Batteries" LOL

 

[solentlife]

I know its being a bit touchy ... but DJI batterys on the Phantom 3 series anyway are all High Capacity LIHV series ... I have no knowledge or personal experience of Mavics etc.

Post above mention Standard and High Capacity batterys ... would it not be better to clarify what DJI model we are talking about ?

Nigel

 

[solentlife]

As regards capacity reduction with age ... this is a myth supported by misunderstanding of how the capacity is delivered.

Unless physical damage is sustained, breakdown of electrolytes ... all batterys remain nominal capacity throughout their life. But because Internal Resistance increases as they are worked and age - this means greater voltage drop in use. Greater voltage drop means increased amps to compensate. This then means the battery delivers power over a shorter period. As the resistance increases - then battery cannot deliver the required watts and you have a pack that is basically useless for flight - but OK for bench updates etc.

Nigel

 

[Forgotten_Fox]

I know its being a bit touchy ... but DJI batterys on the Phantom 3 series anyway are all High Capacity LIHV series ... I have no knowledge or personal experience of Mavics etc.

Post above mention Standard and High Capacity batterys ... would it not be better to clarify what DJI model we are talking about ?

Nigel

Topic posted under phantom 4 discussion, so I meant the phantom 4 li-po batteries.

 

[With The Birds]

As regards capacity reduction with age ... this is a myth supported by misunderstanding of how the capacity is delivered.

Unless physical damage is sustained, breakdown of electrolytes ... all batterys remain nominal capacity throughout their life. But because Internal Resistance increases as they are worked and age - this means greater voltage drop in use. Greater voltage drop means increased amps to compensate. This then means the battery delivers power over a shorter period. As the resistance increases - then battery cannot deliver the required watts and you have a pack that is basically useless for flight - but OK for bench updates etc.

Nigel

Reduction in usable capacity is a Myth? No- it is a useful meaningful indicator of expected performance. You could say IR is a myth also as it is technically a derived number (we aren’t measuring resistance directly, rather voltage drop under load). In any case for LiPO IR tends to remain stable until close to end of service life where it increased quickly. The IR measurement is less useful than tracking the usable capacity. Which is real and measurable. Knowing how many Ah a particular lack can deliver in a given application is more useful than knowing the IR value.

 

[Forgotten_Fox]

Nobody has any calculations save for those someone posten on dji’s forum a year ago?

 

[With The Birds]

Nobody has any calculations save for those someone posten on dji’s forum a year ago?

DJI states the battery warranty is 6 months or 200 cycles. There is a clue.

We don’t need calculations when we have many users with higher cycle counts who can share actual experiences.