Hello to everyone!

As an Inspire owner I firstly want to say that my drone has been amazing since February and I' never had any dangerous situation. For me is one of the most reliable drones I've ever seen.

Yesterday I was flying it at a sunset party with no problems at all. One of the batteries had a strange behaviour. From about 30% dropped to 7%...fortunately i was about 50cm of the ground! And landed safely. My concern is that I read a lot of things around this forum and I can't find any clear answer.

I will tell you the conditions of that particular flight to see if you can help me:
- Cold night, about 11 degrees celsius.
- I flew with the battery at 100% charge to about 35% and then landed and shut off the drone (without any problems). I can't be precise but aprox. half an hour later I flew again with the same battery with the rest of the charge remaining (the drone wait outside but I've put later a shirt to cover it from the cold).
- The area I've take off was saying it had interferences and the compass had an error, I've tried several times to calibrate with no success.
- Moments later when I turned on again the drone, the compass had no error but when the drone was ascending only Atti Mode was available.
- I've departed 15 meters away from that area of interferences with other battery and had no problem. Later I have even flew above that area, again with no problems at all (even though the departure are was not the same.

Any clues about what it can be?
I have 4 batteries, all of them have about 15 charges. What do you recommend to preserve them the best way, and how to do it?

Thank you in advance

Have you calibrated these batteries after the last firmware update? It is also not recommend to fly a battery that isn't fully charged.

I know you have probably done this, there is  a lot
Of postings on batteries. Did you do a search on
Battery to see if there where anything that help you?

DJI-BladeStrike Posted at 2015-9-28 22:40
Have you calibrated these batteries after the last firmware update? It is also not recommend to fly  ...

Hi BladeStrike,

Well i've updated all the DJI batteries but what do you mean with battery calibration?
I'm trying to know the most possible about this particular drone and their systems to make it the most reliable tool.

Maybe that part of battery calibration I've missed.

Then if I do a flight with a 100% battery and I reach 50% > turn off > fly again later starting at 50% (this is not recommended also?)

Thank you

jlivingston6@ve Posted at 2015-9-29 01:53
I know you have probably done this, there is  a lot
Of postings on batteries. Did you do a search on ...

Hi

Yes, my only problem is that there is many information that tells that could be like a dozen of things. So I've never reached a conclusion.

Thanks.

After you update the batteries you need to take them down to 7-8%, then fully recharge the pack. This will allow the smart circuit to relearn the capacity for that pack.

DJI-BladeStrike Posted at 2015-9-29 22:59
After you update the batteries you need to take them down to 7-8%, then fully recharge the pack. Thi ...

Can I do it now? Even though it has passed a few days and a few flights?
What is the best way to do it?

DJI-BladeStrike Posted at 2015-9-29 07:59
After you update the batteries you need to take them down to 7-8%, then fully recharge the pack. Thi ...

I had no luck taking it down to a certain percentage. The only thing that worked for me was to fly it down to a low percentage, land it it and leave it on until it shut itself off, regardless of what the % is. Then and only then did it report 100% at the correct mah after a complete recharge.

DJI-BladeStrike Posted at 2015-9-29 09:59
After you update the batteries you need to take them down to 7-8%, then fully recharge the pack. Thi ...

actually the recommended percentage to take them down to is 5%, however many people report that it doesnt work as advertised due to the fact that its based on voltage and 5% isnt 5% on these smart batteries, the counter gets out of wack.  the best way is like remltr describes and do it till they power off themselves.  this is recommended to do every 10 charge cycles anyway and it will reset the counter accuracy which gets more inaccurate after every charge cycle.  In my experience some batteries shut themselves off at 5% and some stayed on a few minutes whiles showing zero while doing this every 10 charges, so it varies which direction they get off when they lose accuracy.

sultangris01@gm Posted at 2015-9-30 16:16
actually the recommended percentage to take them down to is 5%, however many people report that it ...

What about turn on the drone without props and use the battery till get to 0, like simulating i'm flying but without moving from the ground? Can I do that?

Let me know if I'm wrong. But what I am understanding is that the battery can be at 50% but instead of having its half charge (2350mAh) it will have other value, so, the percentage could be misleading.
It will display an incorrect percentage for the current mAh... that's why we discharge till 0 so that it could learn that 0% is 0 mAh and 100% - 4700mAh.

Thank you four your responses and help.

Artiks Posted at 2015-9-30 07:52
What about turn on the drone without props and use the battery till get to 0, like simulating i'm f ...

You can do that, it will speed up the process, but not something I want to do. I just remove the props, turn on the Inspire and let it sit until it turns off.

Some people run a fan to help keep it cooled off.

The lower you fly the battery down the less time it will need to sit while discharging the remaining battery.

And if you do fly it down to a low battery level, make sure that you hover it close to the ground, Just an inch of two. Because if the battery shuts off while hovering the Insprie will drop fast. The less chance for damage if you are very close to the ground. Might even want to lay something soft underneath while you do it.

sultangris01@gm Posted at 2015-9-30 01:16
actually the recommended percentage to take them down to is 5%, however many people report that it ...

Actually if the battery has been calibrated before 7-8% will do the trick. You ONLY want to take it down to %5 or 3.3v if it fails to do it at the above levels.

DJI-BladeStrike Posted at 2015-9-30 23:14
Actually if the battery has been calibrated before 7-8% will do the trick. You ONLY want to take i ...

Never been calibrated My fault. It has only 15 cycles so I guess isn't a big deal.

I will do as you suggested, thank you for your feedback.
If you have more recommendations about the drone itself it will be welcome.

OFF Topic (Why DJI website always display my country as Romania? I'm from Portugal...not even a close country opposite sides of the EU ehehe).

Anyone try one of these dischargers?

http://www.infinity-hobby.com/main/product_info.php?products_id=12281

Artiks Posted at 2015-9-30 09:52
What about turn on the drone without props and use the battery till get to 0, like simulating i'm f ...

i was telling the guy that said 7-8% that it was 5% they actually recommended, thought i quoted him, sorry for confusion if i didnt.  however many people report that going down to 4% doesnt work either, so draining it down to 0% till it powers itself off is the best way to do it.  its based on voltage and the % can get out of wack and isnt an accurate source to go by.  one battery might hit the low voltage required for it to trigger at 8% and others might sit at 0% for a few minutes before shutting off.  the 0% power off resets this counter and makes it accurate again, its recommended to do every 10 charge cycles and the amount its off will vary depending on how many charge cycles have occurred since the last reset.

Artiks Posted at 2015-9-30 18:43
Never been calibrated  My fault. It has only 15 cycles so I guess isn't a big deal.

I will do a ...

Off topic, it was about time to have a co-national on this forum, maybe the DJI forum admins did this on purpose so I would not feel lonely
P.s on this forum it really does not matter where you're coming from, as everyone speaks DJI language

The % are completely useless. Did you look at voltage? The problem is that is can show 30% but has only 3.4 voltage so next will be 3.3 voltage and 0%. Is shows this correctly then again

Also to calibrate bring it to 3.3 volt and forget %. Everything should be set in volt and not %.

Machoman Posted at 2015-10-3 21:13
The % are completely useless. Did you look at voltage? The problem is that is can show 30% but has o ...

Wise words. Will do!

Thank you everyone. DJI Language is indeed what we need to know. Doesn't matter the country. I will do what you suggested and then I will report.

But concerning the voltage, are there possibilities of the voltage being displayed incorrectly as well? I mean, without calibration. Or that rule only fits the % ?

Hi guys.

Today I'm trying to cycle my battery. These are the stats of the battery when i turned on.

Total capacity: 4244mAH
Remaining Power: 0mAH
Battery Life: 97%
Times Charged: 14
Voltage: 3.75 (the cells are almost with equal values, some with difference of 0.01)

Any thoughts about this? Now it is at 3.68v and still running...

What's the best way to control de battery power? Since the % and the remaining power isn't accurate? I might look to the voltage as you said but is there any possibility of showing for istance 3.7mAH and the aircraft autoland imediately because of the % drop?

Cheers

Update:

I was with the motors on to discharge other battery and when i turned off one of the motors' leds started to blink yellow (front led). What is this??