Hi all, new user here with a couple of questions. I purchased a Used Spark combo with 4 batteries. Everything works great, but I only get 8 to 10 minutes of flight time per battery. Just wondering if the batteries are just getting old or if there's some way to "rejuvenate" them. I understood that I should be getting upwards of 16 min. of flight time per battery. I know 16 is optimum but 8 to 10 seems low. Any info appreciated! Thanks....

Can you check how many cycles each battery had? Also, average time is around  11-12 minutes, even on the new batteries. I have managed to keep it up just over 15 minutes, but battery was on 2%.

From Radman: Revised info: One battery gives about 10 minutes, one about 8, and the other two between 6 and 7 minutes. Tested today....

Hi,

That "16 min" figure is some sort of "DJI minutes", it has nothing to do with real minutes.
But 10 minutes is definitely not what it should be.
How old are the batteries? With Lipo batteries, time also counts when the battery is not used...

Cheers,
Wolferl

Wolferl Posted at 5-21 02:54
Hi,

That "16 min" figure is some sort of "DJI minutes", it has nothing to do with real minutes.

Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure how old the batteries are, they came with the combo (eBay, Used). I'm not sure if fully discharging, then recharging them might bring them back to (almost) fully operational status (?).

Radman Posted at 5-23 13:46
I'm not sure if fully discharging, then recharging them might bring them back to (almost) fully operational status (?).

Hi Radman,

No, don't do that.
The "discharge, then recharge" process was a thing with NiCd and NiMH batteries to reduce the so called memory effect.
Lithium batteries do not suffer from memory effect.
Just recharge them batteries, and fly them normally. If they don't last about 12 minutes, dispose of them. There's no use in flying dead batteries, you'd just put your bird to danger crashing.

Cheers,
Wolferl

How many cycles do they have?
(in the Go4 App)
Are the "Bellies" swollen a bit?

It sounds like either they have set too long or that the previous owner ran them very low all the time.

I'd look around amazon for Spark Batteries and just replace them.