I haven’t got to use my drone much this week. After I’ve finished flying for the day, I’ll charge my batteries up for the next time. I done this, but when putting my batteries away, I put each of them into their places in the 3 bay charger, and ensured it wasn’t swtched on.
A week later, though, when I brought them out, each of them were sitting at approx 60% charge. Since they were all charged, and not being used, I’m surprised by this.
I know that the batteries, by design, don’t charge fully, but could storing the three of them in the charger for a week really cause them to lose so much power. I used to do the same with my camera batteries, and it was never an issue.
There intelligent batteries & once fully charged if not used they start to deplete to a certain level, which is quite normal - however my drone ( different model btw ) but DJI - don’t usually drop that low after a week but they do drop if charged not used.
I’m sure the batteries do charge fully when they’ve finished charging,
Have you tried fully charging them & not storing them in the charger ?
As said sbove, they are programmed to discharge after a day or so of non use to about three quarters. I am aware that you can adjust the time of how long they stop at full charge. Then they will auto depleat to 75%.
I have heard muxed comments about leaving them in a charger. If unsure you can put coctail stick or similar between that batrer and charger, you can also get 3d printed spacers.
I personally leave the batteries in the charger. Maybe riggt or weong but ha had no problem.
Just do not let them fully descharge as this can permantly damage the battery.
Kirky, I honestly didn’t think it was as long as 9 days since they were last used, but its reassuring that they are designed to trickle down to 60%. I noted all three were exactly the same, so that’s definitely the answer.
I was just concerned that leaving them in the charger was doing this. The bag the Fly More package came in, is a tight squeeze if you leave the batteries out of the charger; even if you store one in the drone. I just want to keep everything together in one place.
Hi, My Dji Air 2S Batteries deplete to 75% every 10 Days and I store them back in My Carry Case until I get to Fly which isn’t that often! I just re-charge them every 10 days when they’re showing 75% which I have been doing for years even though I don’t use them between every charge! I have been told that this normal practice! Eventually after a few years the batteries did Swell and wouldn’t fit in the Drone anymore!
Although they appear to charge fully, ‘most’ intelligent chargers will only charge to about 80-90% even though your drone will say, 98%+, this is all in an effort to protect the batteries and get the predicted charging cycles out of them.
My years as an electronics engineer tells me this. Over charging Lithium ion batteries knackers them. Just ask my wife who left her laptop plugged into the mains for weeks and wondered why after unplugging it the battery later 20 minutes.
Do a Google search on ‘do manufacturer’s stop lithium ion batteries from fully charging’
Manufacturers design lithium-ion battery charging systems to prevent overcharging. Modern lithium-ion batteries and their charging circuits include safety mechanisms to stop charging when the battery reaches its fully charged voltage, typically around 4.2V per cell. This prevents damage to the battery from overcharging and overheating.
So, although the manufacturer’s don’t describe this in their manuals, they do it as self promotion from people who would overcharge batteries in a month and claim on the warranty.
Have a look at your mobile phone charging instructions and you’ll see (iPhone) an 85% option to protect the battery. Even if you don’t use this, the battery may say 100%, but their protection systems won’t let it.
DJI Intelligent Flight Batteries are designed to charge to 100% and will stop charging when the battery is full.
DJI batteries do have a charge management system that prevents overcharging. They will stop charging when they reach 100%
I’m pretty sure that dji’s intelligent charging system won’t let you charge your batteries until they cook,
Just to add also any problems I’ve had on the 2 occasions in the last few years as long as the battery has been under warranty DJI has replaced with no issues,
Charge control ICs monitor the voltage, current and temperature, and perform charge control from the viewpoint of safety and to extend the life of the rechargeable battery.
That was a problem with an early Mini, can’t remember if it was the original or 2. Leaving a battery in its case stopped it from discharging and that’s when the 3d-printed widgets were created. Fixed with a firmware update but took them a while.
First, there is a 100% of voltage, then there is 100% of current capability, i.e. the Ah. It is the second bit that causes the damage, and there is no way DJI will allow their batteries to be charged to 100% of their current capability, but will tell you that they’ll charge to 100% of its voltage.
And to your point on “I’m not on about an I phone we’re on about DJI”, no, we’re talking about batteries and Lithium ion batteries all have this issue, regardless of which piece of kit they are in, just that Apple let’s you take it a stage further to further protect the longevity of the battery.
But hey, I have almost 40 years as an electronics engineer, what would I know. You’re obviously right.
There is an old idioms that says, “you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.” What many ignore is the second part which says, “you can lead a man to knowledge, but you cannot make him think.”
I was trying to keep it on the original topic in the title above
Fantastic, maybe worth starting up a new topic & possibly teaching some of us things we may not know, after all the majority of us here have these “ batteries in question “ so hopefully with your knowledge our batteries won’t end up charcoaled
DJI batts are LiPo chemistry, not Li-ion. - I use the LiPos in RC Planes. They’ll charge to a nominal 4.2v / cell and I use telemetry to land when the capacity has been depleted to 20% remaining. LiPos ‘can’ be charged and left charged but most RC plane flyers use a ‘storage’ charge which drops them to around 3.8V/Cell if they’re not going to be used for a few days - this is a)safe and b) generally recommended which is why our RC hobby chargers have a ‘storage’ mode. DJI charging bays are ‘intelligent’ but simplified … and therefore they will discharge the batts to storage voltage for your drone to something like the above - it saves most ‘consumers’ from having to learn about LiPo batt management and from buying what can be expensive chargers from say iSDT or Tookit RC. Drone racers will do similar to the above too. Nothing to be worried about here at all - just charge up before you go flying the drone and land before they’re depleted. iPhone batts are Li-Ion which really don’t ‘care’ about the charge state they’re in…and aren’t relevant to the discussion thread here
The full name of a LiPo batt (the management of which I described above) is a Lithium-Ion Polymer - usually shortened to LiPo. Here’s a couple of screen shots for your perusal. A LiPo is absolutely NOT a lithium ion chemistry which is what you get in an iphone or laptop…
Basic Lithium Ion batts cannot provide the discharge current needed by multi-rotor UAS nor XA RC models) and Li-ion whilst somewhat less caring about storage and management are way too heavy to be of any use in our airborne performance powetrains and systems. The energy density of both is quite different. No one flies fpv using Li-Ion chemistry…they’re too heavy, too big and cannot discharge anything like the current required for the performance needed. Without going off piste, the reason e-bikes and scooters go on fire is often because Li-Ion is being charged as the same C or 2C rating as a LiPo. A LiPo can handle that sort of charge current but a Li-ion battery is probably going to get very hot the blow up!! As I mentioned above, DJI charging bays manage the LiPo very well and they will discharge the flight batts after around 72 hours.
The sheet is of interest but inaccurate in places - it does indeed say the mini4 pro has a Li-Ion battery but it’s in fact a LiPo - there’s a photo of mine above!!. DJI have been inconsistent in how they’re describing or shortening the chemistry name of the batteries listed
