I’ve always been told to recharge batteries after they have been used.

Should I recharge my drone battery after use or leave it discharged until the next time I plan on using it? Seems redundant to charge it if it’s designed to self discharge to <65% after several days of non-use and then recharging before next use.


Thanks,

Gary

Many folks say to recharge just before your next flight, i say it does not matter cause the storage mode will kick in either way, so with that in mind, i charge mine after every flight then they are ready for the next flight with a 10 day auto storage.....

Edit, thats for the P4P YMMV

Bashy Posted at 2018-7-13 20:36
Many folks say to recharge just before your next flight, i say it does not matter cause the storage mode will kick in either way, so with that in mind, i charge mine after every flight then they are ready for the next flight with a 10 day auto storage.....

Edit, thats for the P4P YMMV

And the 'many folks' are correct. The storage mode is selectable, so it need not 'kick in' until a number of days after charging. Even if set to one day, it will not severely impact the state of charge. If, for exampl,e, you plan to fly tomorrow, then charge the batteries the night before, that's the best way.

After using charge your baterry at 50 % and when you want to fly just charge completely

I didnt say they were incorrect did I?  I said it doesnt matter anyway cause the storage mode will kick in, if they dont have it set then more fool them. but i thought it was set by default at 1 day anyway.

As for me, I fly 1 one day and then maybe in two or 8 days tim, theres no telling,  but if i was to follow "the many" i would need to get up at 1am to charge all 4 batteries and be out the door in time for the sunrise, nah, doesnt quite fit for me.

Bashy Posted at 2018-7-13 20:54
I didnt say they were incorrect did I?  I said it doesnt matter anyway cause the storage mode will kick in, if they dont have it set then more fool them. but i thought it was set by default at 1 day anyway.

As for me, I fly 1 one day and then maybe in two or 8 days tim, theres no telling,  but if i was to follow "the many" i would need to get up at 1am to charge all 4 batteries and be out the door in time for the sunrise, nah, doesnt quite fit for me.

Just as long as you understand that it is best to charge the batteries just before the flight. If you charge them then fly 8 days later, then that is going to significantly reduce the available charge in your batteries.

That is not the case for me,  i have mine set to 10 days, if its been more than around 5 days i check the charge the day before and they have never needed charging to  top them up, never. this time round its been about 2 weeks due to the heat and not wanting to leave my dogs too long so ive just put the drone on the back burner for now, they will prob need a top up now as its gone way past the 10 days. If i thought i may have flown any time sooner i would have kept resetting the 10 days by hitting the button, done that in the past and they still didnt need to be topped up. Thats my experience,  not saying thats the same for every battery but it has been so far for my P4P's

Seems redundant to charge it if it’s designed to self discharge to <65% after several days of non-use and then recharging before next use.
There are two important principles to consider.
1.  It's bad for the battery to leave it mostly discharged - around 50% is best for storage.
2.  It's bad to fly with a partly discharged battery.
So do whatever fits with the time between your flights.
If you fly tomorrow, charge the batteries.
If you aren't going to fly for a week, charge to approx 50% and put them away.

This is a hashbag of peoples opinions and trust of DJI programming. Many people come to LiPo / LiIon batterys from NiCd / NiMh where the usual practice was to charge and keep charged. That discharge to near zero was OK as well - as long as you charged back up before cell went negative. This is good for NiXX based but death to a Li based cell. Lithium based cells must maintain a minimum cell voltage for physical and chemical reasons. There are many online sites to give info on maintenance of LiPo / LiIon cells ... some need updating but basically the info is generally sound.The only Li based cell that seems to survive being full charged for long periods is the LiFe variety - but they are heavy and lower max voltage. Often used as Rx power packs for other model systems.

So DJI Phantom ?

1.The default DJi setting (note the OP is a P3S owner) is 10 days till auto discharge.

This is too long in my opinion after many years of LiPo use. I fly LiPo in many different types of models and come to personal conclusion that Storage charge is best for any time not in use. That sits between 30 and 60% charge level - with it best at around the 30 - 35% mark. LiPo cells are stated by many expert sites to be best stored at 3.7 - 3.85V per cell. The following LiPo Fuel Table was created for the standard 4.2V max cell LiPo , but still applies to the LiHv because the LiHV actually once the top end voltage drops back to less than 4.2V acts exactly as the standard 4.2V cell based pack. The reason some brands such as DJi use LiHV - is to get that extra bit of run time ... it is not necessary to have the extra voltage - otherwise we would not be flying when battery is discharging !!



2. ALL batterys suffer Self Discharge irrespective of any Auto Setting you do ... the moment you unplug from charger - that battery will start self discharge - you cannot prevent this. Luckily - LiPo (actually LiIon with a polymer addition) have very low Self Discharge and this allows us to charge and use 1 day later.
But I strongly recc'd top-up charge before flight if battery has stood 1 day.

3. Pressing the button to check power level is very rough guide as the LED's work on a 12.5 / 25% indicator rule. So even with 4 full on LED's - you can in fact be down as low as 93% charge. A simple test to confirm this ... plug in and see GO battery levels ... or a simple voltmeter on the terminals. Personally - I switch on battery and plug in charger to make sure I get that last bit back in before flight.

4. There is absolutely no need to charge to 50% after a flight. If you work to landing out at 30% ... after battery has rested, it will recover slightly to about 35% - which is a very good storage level to have.

5. Periodic checks of the battery level should be made if you do not fly for some time. But remember that each time you press the battery button - you reset the auto-discharge timer. If the battery shows 1full + 1flashing LED ... then I suggest charge battery fully ... forget this 50% nonsense, use the DJI FW to your advantage. If you have set auto to 2 days (I recc'd) ... then after 2 days battery will start its discharge to ~60% and then from that point slow significantly to a very low discharge rate. It is wise then to check battery every week or so ... if you see 1 full + 1 flashing ... charge again and leave to DJI FW to auto discharge.

NOTE : I do not claim to the worlds guru on this and many will have differing views / operational experiences. I have no trouble or argumrnt with that. The above is based on a senior Battery Technician friend advise over years and my own personal observations. I currently maintain over 55 active models with majority of them E powered with many different LiPo cell sizes / capacity ... running from single cell 150mAh up to 6 cell 5000mAh ... DJI batterys are basically LiPo High Voltage 4 cell 4480mAh packs and apart from the 4.35V max cell voltage are LiPo cells with a fancy front board on.

Nigel

Thank you for all the replies, especially the detailed explanation from Nigel! I’m the kind of person that likes the “why” behind answer.

I charge my batteries to about 50% when I'm about to store my drone away, so it doesn't take long to charge to 100% when I need it.

solentlife Posted at 2018-7-14 02:04
This is a hashbag of peoples opinions and trust of DJI programming. Many people come to LiPo / LiIon batterys from NiCd / NiMh where the usual practice was to charge and keep charged. That discharge to near zero was OK as well - as long as you charged back up before cell went negative. This is good for NiXX based but death to a Li based cell. Lithium based cells must maintain a minimum cell voltage for physical and chemical reasons. There are many online sites to give info on maintenance of LiPo / LiIon cells ... some need updating but basically the info is generally sound.The only Li based cell that seems to survive being full charged for long periods is the LiFe variety - but they are heavy and lower max voltage. Often used as Rx power packs for other model systems.

So DJI Phantom ?

Mine are set to 10 days,  i always check the charge the day before i know im going to fly, but even when its been very close to 10 days, they do not need any top up, the lights are all fully lit and the charger does not charge them, so this self discharging straight from charging finish must be a microscopic amount. i did leave it about 3-4 weeks and they were well in to their discharge state and were at about 65% may be less, 2 lit, 3rd flashing....

Geebax Posted at 2018-7-13 21:39
Just as long as you understand that it is best to charge the batteries just before the flight. If you charge them then fly 8 days later, then that is going to significantly reduce the available charge in your batteries.

Just top them up, before heading out.

If they aren’t very depleted, it doesn’t take many minutes.


RedHotPoker

Bashy Posted at 2018-7-13 21:52
That is not the case for me,  i have mine set to 10 days, if its been more than around 5 days i check the charge the day before and they have never needed charging to  top them up, never. this time round its been about 2 weeks due to the heat and not wanting to leave my dogs too long so ive just put the drone on the back burner for now, they will prob need a top up now as its gone way past the 10 days. If i thought i may have flown any time sooner i would have kept resetting the 10 days by hitting the button, done that in the past and they still didnt need to be topped up. Thats my experience,  not saying thats the same for every battery but it has been so far for my P4P's

How do you check ? By pressing the battery power button ? have you read the manual where it says what 4 full on LED's means ? 87.5% - 100% charged. Page 20 of P3P manual (its same table in all P3 manuals).

Leaving auto discharge to 10 days is IMHO not a good idea as that means you are accumulating high charge state damage to your LiPo's .... in near all forms of RC where LiPo's are used - it is recc'd not to have LiPo's charged up more than 1 - 2 days between uses.

I g'tee that if you took one of your batterys ... after any number of days BEFORE your 10 day setting and SWITCHED it on first ... plugged in charger - you would find it charging up that depleted small amount that has gone while stood waiting next use.

I never use a battery without topping up if its stood more than overnight. I value my P3P too much to run partial batterys.

Nigel

That'’s not all I top up. Haha


But that’s a different cadet flight plan... ha


RedHotPoker

solentlife Posted at 2018-9-1 00:14
How do you check ? By pressing the battery power button ? have you read the manual where it says what 4 full on LED's means ? 87.5% - 100% charged. Page 20 of P3P manual (its same table in all P3 manuals).

Leaving auto discharge to 10 days is IMHO not a good idea as that means you are accumulating high charge state damage to your LiPo's .... in near all forms of RC where LiPo's are used - it is recc'd not to have LiPo's charged up more than 1 - 2 days between uses.

Wrong, i have already stated that when ever i check my batteries on the charger the day before i know im flying they NEVER need a top up unless they go over the 10 days, that i have set, like i mentioned before, when it ran in to 3/4 weeks, , that was only once during  our hot summer just gone cause i couldnt leave the dogs during the heat.  Why would DJI have settings from 1 to 10 days if it was bad it use? maybe what you are saying is with regards to the olden days, like Pre P4's,  but, i will say it again in case i wasnt clear, my batteries never need a top up if they are within the 10 days, i always check them the day before or 1st thing in the morning prior to the flight (i am up from 4am as im sure many of my replies on the forum shows lol but they never need topping up else the charger would do it and it does not, it just cycles through each battery, i always watch it too cause i only have a 3x charger with 4 batteries so i need to swap one out, I last went flying on Saturday the 25th August........ I just got my batteries out and video'ed the charge  to corroborate what i am saying, its uploading so just waiting,  gonna take 11 minutes so will come back to this....... Did i mention that i charge them straight after flight, when i get home that is, i also failed to mention that theres been times when i have reset the 10days by pressing the button, that was during the colder months, i beleive a double reset occured over 7 days and were good to fly  after 15 days since charge. I have no reason to lie or make up stories, this is just my experience with my P4P, all 4 batteries are the higher power ones.

Here ya go

Cool. Thanks for sharing that with us, Bashy.


RedHotPoker

Bashy - you obviously did not understand my post :

Your video proves that as well.

If you place a battery into a charger WITHOUT switching on first - if the charge level is over 93% - it will NOT charge. The charge control board prevents it. But if you switch on the battery FIRST then place in charger - it will charge up that missing %.

Second that checking a battery by pressing the power button and all 4 LED's light only means your battery is 87.5% or more charged !!

Third - the shorter the time a LiPo is left full charged - the better ... 10 days is too long ... simple fact. Its your money ... not mine..
Final comment ... the 3x charger you have ... pity that its a sequential unit ... personally I prefer my parellel unit I use with my P3 batterys ... means all 3 and the controller charge AT SAME TIME ...

Nigel

The one thing about your parallel charger is that it only charges at 1/3 or 1/4 the original rate depending on the number of batteries you have connected (if you are in a rush to go flying immediately).
Parallel charging might not be so safe if the batteries are at opposing states (such as one dead battery in parallel with 2 full ones).

Anonymous1 Posted at 2018-10-26 09:57
The one thing about your parallel charger is that it only charges at 1/3 or 1/4 the original rate depending on the number of batteries you have connected (if you are in a rush to go flying immediately).
Parallel charging might not be so safe if the batteries are at opposing states (such as one dead battery in parallel with 2 full ones).

The 3+1 Charger you find on Amazon, Wish, eBay etc, does not actually parellel the batterys as one ... then I would agree with you.
What it does have is 3 separate charge circuits to do the flight batterys .. and a Controller charge lead as well ...



Charges 3 batterys in same time as the DJI charger does one !

Nigel

Im not sure what to believe any more there are so many conflicting stories going around.
I've had my p4p batteries at full charge for well over a year now only once did they go into self discharge over that time.
They still work perfectly fine with no apparent degredation of flight time or performance.
I have no choice in the matter tho my batteries must be kept in a ready to go state 24/7.
I also use a parallel charger which works perfectly fine when onsite i can charge up to 10 drone batteries at a time if required, which allows me the option to keep a drone in the air at all times as required.
When traveling to an incident i always top up one battery on the way by turning battery on then plug into charger all other batteries get a top up once we arrive and get setup.
As for the op's question if flying for just hobby then trust in the dji firmware on the battery i would set your discharge time to maybe 3 days and leave them alone. If you discharge during flight to a low level then simply recharge and let the battery do its thing dont go checking the battery every day by pressing the button just leave them alone.
If left for over a month or so then check the batteries and top up to 3rd blinking led as required.

[quote]As for the op's question if flying for just hobby then trust in the dji firmware on the battery i would set your discharge time to maybe 3 days and leave them alone. If you discharge during flight to a low level then simply recharge and let the battery do its thing dont go checking the battery every day by pressing the button just leave them alone.
If left for over a month or so then check the batteries and top up to 3rd blinking led as required.{/quote]

Exactly. In fact you can charge more than the 3rd LED .. DJI system will sort it ...

DJI batterys - although its well known I would prefer access to balance lead as well - so i could maintain the batterys as i see fit ... the DJI setup makes it very simple for the non-LiPo savvy person to look after their batterys reasonably. Charge up to fly .. if you don't fly - just put aside and let the Auto-Discharge do its job.

Nigel

Nigel

You shouldn't charge your battery after a flight, the battery after the flight it's hot so, you should wait like 15-30 minutes to recharge it.

I only allow my batteries 5 minutes to cool before recharging.  I have 6 batteries for my Phantom Standard 3.  I bring them all outdoors with me fully charged.  I only have a single charger.  By the time, my fifth battery is dead, my first one is finished recharging anyway (and would have already cooled down).  My flight time for the day is really limited by my transmitter battery, hence I have to keep that connected to my USB power bank.  After 6 x 20-minute flights (consecutive), my attention span gets short anyway, and I need to take a break which gives all my other batteries time to recharge.

This thread is more important for those who only have one or two batteries juggling between.