Mavic Battery Auto-Discharge - Why? How? Which models?

Tips to Keep Your DJI Drone Batteries Healthy and Safe.

60% states in section 5 there. Interesting to know. I do charge up my DJI FPV batteries to 75% after flying, and they come down a few days later. Didn’t know there may be an option to set the time out for storage will look into (though don’t want to connect it to the Fly app for firmware reasons!)

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Same :smile:

Get it to at least the mid range of that if it’s going to be stored for a substantial period of time - so like, longer than a week or two.

Apart from the intentional auto-discharge feature of DJI intelligent flight batteries, batteries slowly seep charge out naturally like 1-2% a month so hitting just 40% will put you below that before long.

So basicaly,once you’ve done your flight and the batteries have cooled down and your home or whatever “ your suppose to half charge them ? “ if so this I never knew & or does that depend on the percentage left within the batteries I.e 25% ( after flight ) top up or is that ok

I think the answer to my own question now looking back through the posts is don’t store them fully charged & also not seriously low,if your going out day to day then I guess 20-25 % ( end of flight ) then you charge next day for your that day flight is ok ? But basically when not in use store cool dry place around the half mark maybe just a tad above & check periodically,hope I’m right :thinking::sweat_smile:

Why store them? Just fly them!

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If it’s gonna be next day for sure then just charge it all the way (it’s 24 hours before the first phase of auto-discharge in DJI intelligent flight batteries to 96%).

If it’s longer than that just top them up to half charge.

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Good question,some days I charge them up but my day or some times week becomes a problem then I have to abort sadly

Actually the price of energy these days if I have to abort due to whatever reason I’ll just set up a power bank in my garden,so peeps can charge there phones ! Fees apply :laughing:

It seems a drone owner spends most of the year complaining about the weather, and the rest of the year worrying about battery storage - particularly when it the most flyable it’s been in ages. :man_shrugging:

:rofl:

Well they can’t

And if FPV’ing add to that spending most of the time repairing/replacing and looking for the next bits to buy, or wondering who took their video feed out whilst flying their drone/wing :smiley: :smiley:

Yea I no I need to get out more ! :person_facepalming:t2::smile:

Yes and no.

When NiCad battery packs were all the rage it was advised to fully discharge the cells, this was because NiCad’s suffered from memory effect. If left with charge still available crystals would form internally and reduce the capacity of the cell.

Once in a while it is good practice to discharge smart batteries down to 3Volt per cell, SLOWLY, let sit for five hours or more, then recharge as normal and leave on the charger for 24 to 48hrs before using. This is because over time the calibration table stored in the BMS ( Battery Management System) starts to report the capacity incorrectly.

Example: Two years or so ago I bought some NIB Phantom 2 batteries. These had been sat in a warehouse for quite a few years. Once charged I put them into my Phantom 2 and put the drone into a hover. Within a few minutes the critical low battery alarm signalled even though the voltage of the pack was still at 12Volt, and the drone auto landed. In the Assistant software the BMS was reporting the battery capacity as 800mAh, the P2 batteries are actually 5200mAh or thereabouts.

I then left the drone powered up, without the motors armed, and let the battery drain until the drone would no longer switch on, approximately 2.9Volt per cell. I then let the battery sit for five hours and charged it as normal, and left it on the charger until the following day. The next day I connected the Phantom 2 to the Assistant software where it reported the battery capacity as 5200mAh. Then as a final confidence check I put the drone into a hover which it sustained for over 20minutes before the first stage battery warning came on.

The 3DR Solo uses the same kind of battery management, and in the Drone’s APP there is an automated battery calibration option which does the same as I’ve detailed above with the Phantom2.

@gunja99 and @DeanoG60 advice should also be highlighted. Aggressively discharging any battery below 3.3Volt per cell, or thereabouts, will cause permanent and irreversible damage, and could be a serious risk to your drone’s health, and possibly yours.

Is that even when the battery’s are fully charged on the hub ? Leave the power on 24-48 hours am I correct or have I read somthing wrong,we are also on about the battery’s lipo ? to your above ( ni cad ) yes I think that was the idea when I use to race radio control cars years ago,so I think that’s what made me think what I did,sorry im still learning some thing new everyday.

The 24-48hour statement is only when you are doing the calibration process.

I should emphasise that the calibration process is only done if you notice severely reduced flying times, which may happen if the batteries have not been used in a very long time. I haven’t used my Mini2 in the last four months BUT I would not class this as a long time. However I bought a 3DR Solo that had not been used in nearly three years and the batteries that came with it definitely needed calibrating.

In your profile you state you started flying Drones in 2021 so I wouldn’t worry about your batteries at this point.

Thanks - so the 24-48 hour thing is to calibrate the batteries ? Sorry just never heard of that,my batteries were replaced last year by dji x 3 of them,one of them when I go into cell status one of the green cell status is ( how can I put it ) so there’s 3 indicators in total and 2 of them say I can’t remember the volts / amps but 2 are even numbers wise and 1 of them is say 1 number differnt if that’s makes sense ( I think it’s cell status )
What brought this to my attention was the Airdata flight log not realising how clever that app is on the flight log,that also showed me the same cell status.2 in the green but1 in amber but did say lower blah blah blah higher ( then whatever it said ) but stated it was ok,sounds like a load of babble I no I haven’t got any screenshots to show which would make it easier to explain sorry,also to add the batteries they sent me were 2020 year made which I got last year 2021 so those batteries was already a year old as my replacement ( April 2020 to be precise ) but I think there ok,just trying to understand the science behind it & if or when need to worry about cell status or batteries so to speak,I hope this makes sense sorry for the poorly put together jargon.
Thankyou

As a note to the above … certainly the case with my MP batteries … if you check the battery state before auto-discharge starts, that resets the timer to the start of auto-discharge.

Not sure if this has changed in more recent models.

(Just remembered this when I … checked the state of my batteries. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:)

Am I right in saying within the go 4 app you can change how many days before auto discharge ? Within the dji fly app I don’t think that’s possible as you probaly know,I’ll tell ya what these batteries are more complicated than me :rofl: believe “ that takes some beating “ or maybe I’m just stupid :person_facepalming:t2: Lol

Earlier models MP/MA/Spark(?)/M2P … all Go4 … I think you could on them all. Certainly on the MP, and I don’t recall changes until the Fly app appeared.
Might be incorrect by a model or 2 either way.

I do keep hearing stories about setting your discharge time on MA2 / AIR 2 S batteries but I yet to find out how this is actually done if it’s doable at all.