I am sure this has been asked before, but how long is it ok to leave my battery charged before using it?   I charged it last night to fly this evening and I have had something come up and won't be able to go out today.  thanks

You should have an auto-discharge setting set to something.  Default might be 3 days?  I'd probably keep it at 3 days.  

Let's pretend for a moment you don't have the auto discharge.

I don't think there's a hard and fast rule as to how many days is okay and when it becomes not okay.  Different people will have different opinions.  My opinion is, if you think you'll get a chance to fly in the next three days or so, leave it.  If you can't see flying in the near future, you could consider discharging the battery with a discharge device.  But again - you also have the auto-discharge feature which will resolve the problem for you automatically.  You just have to remember NOT to check the battery's charge because then number of days until auto discharge will reset.  

It only becomes a real problem if it self-discharges, so it depends on what your self-discharge setting is configured for.

I recommend that you always give it a chance to top up to 100% no more than 24 hours before use, if it hasn't actually self discharged and hasn't got any other leakage then it may not actually do any topping up, but at least both you and it will know that it is full and the top up will prevent it doing a self-discharge between then and when you use it.

Mark The Droner Posted at 2017-3-3 13:41
You should have an auto-discharge setting set to something.  Default might be 3 days?  I'd probably keep it at 3 days.  

Let's pretend for a moment you don't have the auto discharge.

Thanks.  It is set at 3.  I am going to try to go out sometime tomorrow so will likely fly it within 48 hours of charging.   I've seen some people say not to leave it fully charged for more than 24 hours and others say different.

fans0ab4d934 Posted at 2017-3-3 13:45
Thanks.  It is set at 3.  I am going to try to go out sometime tomorrow so will likely fly it within 48 hours of charging.   I've seen some people say not to leave it fully charged for more than 24 hours and others say different.

48 hours should be OK, but not much longer. I have gone out on a voyage to shoot material and the batteries have been sitting there that long without use, so you should be OK.

I have mine set for 3 days. Never had an issue.

You can ensure a top up charge by plugging into charger and switching battery on (double press). This will ensure its at 100% and not 95% (As far as I'm aware if it's at 95% or more then the smart circuitry shows it as fully charged).

How/where do you set the auto discharge?

apparently 10 days is what dji engineers came up with as safe for the batteries. after 10 days they start the discharge cycle to 55%. it really hasnt been a problem with my ten batteries.

So what would be the harm of flying at say 95% for example?  Is it because you lose 5% of flight time or is it bad for the batteries life?

fans0ab4d934 Posted at 2017-3-3 14:25
So what would be the harm of flying at say 95% for example?  Is it because you lose 5% of flight time or is it bad for the batteries life?

If it is down to 95% then it has presumably started the self-discharge.  The problem then is that the 95% figure is not all that accurate and there is a very small possibility of it running out of power before it lands.

If you can, give it a top up, otherwise land a bit early, don't use it down to 10%.

The only problem with leaving it at 100% and not using it is that it reduces the batteries capacity/lifespan a little, if you keep it at 100% all year long then you will loose a significant % of lifespan over the year, a day or two you wont ever notice.  For a long life it is better to store it at around 50%.   This isn't a safety issue.

Nigel_ Posted at 2017-3-3 14:57
If it is down to 95% then it has presumably started the self-discharge.  The problem then is that the 95% figure is not all that accurate and there is a very small possibility of it running out of power before it lands.

If you can, give it a top up, otherwise land a bit early, don't use it down to 10%.

Thanks for the clarification.

I am new to this so maybe this is a dumb question, but how and where do you set the auto discharge setting?  So far in my flying career, I have always just topped off a battery the night before I know I am going to fly.  Other than that, I just let my other 3 batteries do their thing on their own.  Should I be doing something different?

Grizz 1 Posted at 2017-3-3 14:16
apparently 10 days is what dji engineers came up with as safe for the batteries. after 10 days they start the discharge cycle to 55%. it really hasnt been a problem with my ten batteries.

Holy smokes, do you have 10 batteries just for one drone!?
If so, why the need for so many batteries? I thought buying 3 extras was a little overkill on my part. I mainly did this so that I could fly for at least an hour at any location with 1 battery as a spare.

TPVAerials Posted at 2017-3-3 16:02
Holy smokes, do you have 10 batteries just for one drone!?
If so, why the need for so many batteries? I thought buying 3 extras was a little overkill on my part. I mainly did this so that I could fly for at least an hour at any location with 1 battery as a spare.

Probably he has some from the P4. I have 10 batteries, 8 new and 2 P4. Between fun and work you don't want to keep charging them.

TPVAerials Posted at 2017-3-3 16:02
Holy smokes, do you have 10 batteries just for one drone!?
If so, why the need for so many batteries? I thought buying 3 extras was a little overkill on my part. I mainly did this so that I could fly for at least an hour at any location with 1 battery as a spare.

I do indeed have two aircraft, a P4 and a P4P, 5 batteries for each !!

I still haven't found where to adjust auto-discharge. Can someone help?

TB12GOAT Posted at 2017-3-6 04:12
I still haven't found where to adjust auto-discharge. Can someone help?

It is in the Dji Go 4 app under battery section

There is a great website that will tell you more than you ever wanted to know about charging and storing LiPo batts:

http://www.batteryuniversity.com ... ium_based_batteries

Grizz 1 Posted at 2017-3-3 14:16
apparently 10 days is what dji engineers came up with as safe for the batteries. after 10 days they start the discharge cycle to 55%. it really hasnt been a problem with my ten batteries.

This is correct.

Cavmedic Posted at 2017-3-6 12:24
It is in the Dji Go 4 app under battery section

Thanks, found it.