Hi everyone,

I bought an Inspire 1 (a few years back), and enjoyed it for a good while. Then, due to work and other stuff I didn't get around to flying it much (read: not flying at all). A pity, I know.

Anyway, last year (August 2017) we were about to leave on holidays and I wanted to take the Inspire with me. Hadn't used it for months on end (probably even longer). Of course, when I took out both the TB47 and TB48 batteries which had been in the flight case all along, I noticed they were swollen and did not want to take a charge (not even after leaving them plugged in for +1 hour). I ran out of time as we had to leave on holidays so I ended up not taking the drone with me.

We're another year later now. I've given up on the old batteries as I probably killed them due to not taking the right care of them. After some trouble finding them, I ordered two new TB48s online which I intend to take on my upcoming holidays. However, now I'm paranoid with regard to taking correct care of the batteries (which, as I have found out, takes much more effort than I would've thought). I haven't touched the new TB48s (apart from pressing the power button once) and I already noticed they have slight bulges at the bottom, but I hope that's not too much to worry about. They're just sitting on my desk, waiting to be hooked to the charger for the first time.

With the first batteries, I acted like a complete newbie and didn't pay much attention to proper care and usage: just charged them to 100%, flew until (I assume, because it's a long time ago) they were almost discharged, then either charged them again or left them like that depending on whether or not I was planning to fly again...in short, not proper usage.

I've been reading around now, and would like to verify my current understanding of how to optimise battery care and usage, as well as ask some additional questions.

The battery should be 'calibrated' ~every 10 cycles according to the manual
=> I read that during the first 10 cycles, it is better not to discharge the battery too much but to apply a 'break-in' period in which the batteries are discharged to about 50%, before re-charging them fully to 100%
=> after these 10 first cycles, I should then perform a deep discharge (until around 8% or lower?) and recharge the batteries

Question 1: is the 'break-in' period correct? (i.e. better not to discharge below 50% for the first 10 cycles)? Should this really be 10 cycles, or can it be fewer as well? (before performing the first deepcycle)

Question 2: I have read that it is better to watch the voltages instead of the remaining battery % to monitor remaining power; i.e. not flying at lower than 3.45v, bringing it in around 3.65v with the aim of landing around 3.6v (which would be around 17-18% remaining battery percentage apparently). Is this correct? After the break-in period (assuming it is correct that I should avoid going much below 50% for the first 10 cycles), to which percentage/voltage can I discharge the batteries while flying without ruining them?

Question 3: How should I perform the discharge for deepcycling practically? Bring it in and keep it hovering above the ground until it reaches x%? x voltage? What amount is recommended before deepcycling?

Question 4: Storage/charging: this is how I ruined my previous batteries, probably. Apparently, I should never store batteries completely drained nor completely charged. I've read that 50% is about good. I've also read "a storage charge of around 3.86v per cell, charging them from there whenever they are needed again". However, I have no idea how to charge until 3.86v specifically. I merely have the standard DJI charger which illuminates the lights on the battery. Would the best practice here be to charge until 2 out of 4 lights on the battery are illuminated, and then store it like that?

Question 5: Storage/usage: even if I store them at a correct charge (which I currently assume is around 50% - please correct if wrong), I guess it's not good to leave them unused for months on end. What is a good practice here? How often should I use them to keep them alive? And in doing so, would this then amount to charging them from whatever charge they are left with to 100%, and then using them until they reach around 50% again, after which I can store them again for x amount of months?

I know these are a lot of questions, but I just spent almost $500 on batteries and I don't want to ruin them again. Also, given the difficulty I had in finding them and the age of the Inspire 1, I'm worrying I might not find any replacements again in the future so I'm really looking to maximise the use out of these ones.


Thanks in advance for your help/input!

Hello there. We apologize for the inconvenience. You can check this manual or safety guidelines for the Intelligent flight battery of Inspire: http://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/i ... _Guidelines_1.4.pdf