Dear DJI,

Please pay attention to this post and offer us a plausible option.

There are 2 options dealing with the discharge of the DJI batteries.

Quick discharge from full and slow discharge from full.

Quick discharge i would consider to be knock off the full charge within 24 hours and drain down to 60% charge for storage within 3 days.

Slow discharge as appears to be implemented in the Air 3, is as far as I can tell from my current experience, is knock off the top of the full charge (4.1V per cell) after 8 days then nothing I am still waiting after 2 weeks.

When the Mavic Pro was first released it had an auto discharge process that was excellent and preserved the batteries cycle count and life time.

Many members here complained that it drained too quickly and the wanted the time extended. Unfortunately these members did not understand the consequences of that change on reduced cycle count and longevity of LiPo batteries. DJI listened to the noisy wheel.

I see many posts appearing now about swollen batteries and reduced cycle counts across the complete product range.

Some people will want slow discharge capability regardless of the damage done to the battery. (mostly due to lack of understanding of LiPo operational maintenance.)

Others of us want to preserve the lifecycle of our batteries. They are not inexpensive.

Can you please offer us the option of the 2 scenarios so we your customers can configure for our own specific requirements.

Please provide us with the option to configure our own auto discharge cycle within the DJI Fly and DJI 4 Application. Per individual drone and its associated batteries.

Hi, bjr981s. Thank you for sharing your experience and insight about the Auto Discharge feature of the Intelligent Flight Batteries. We will forward your suggestion to our relevant team for evaluation. All significant suggestions will be implemented after the evaluation of our relevant team. For the latest updates please stay tuned to our DJI official website at ( www.dji.com ). Thank you for your understanding and support.

i dont even know they come with the auto discharge function. I always store them with around 50% (two solid bars on).

It would be nice to have this option as I don't like to store recharged batteries when I know I won't be flying week or two. Now I have to recharge a phone (or something) from the hub (Air 3) to lower the battery voltage.
There's another option, add the storage mode charging that stops charging at 3,85 V per cell. This would be the best option I guess.

Ok, let me throw this out there. I had four fully charged batteries. Travelled with the Air 3 but spent a week without flying the Air 3 (damn Mini 4 Pro got the work). This morning I got it out and all of my batts were discharged to 60%, including the batt in the Air 3.

What am I missing?

KLRSKIR Posted at 10-15 11:41
Ok, let me throw this out there. I had four fully charged batteries. Travelled with the Air 3 but spent a week without flying the Air 3 (damn Mini 4 Pro got the work). This morning I got it out and all of my batts were discharged to 60%, including the batt in the Air 3.

What am I missing?

Air 3 should behave like this:

DJI Gamora Posted at 10-13 21:59
Hi, bjr981s. Thank you for sharing your experience and insight about the Auto Discharge feature of the Intelligent Flight Batteries. We will forward your suggestion to our relevant team for evaluation. All significant suggestions will be implemented after the evaluation of our relevant team. For the latest updates please stay tuned to our DJI official website at ( www.dji.com ). Thank you for your understanding and support.

Thanks Gamora.

It may, also be well advised to reiterate (Remind everyone) the maintenance schedule for the Smart batteries.

Its pretty hard to find on your website.

From memory it states that you should discharge the batteries fully every 3 months then fully charge.

Its my understanding that this is for:

• Preventing the batteries from over discharging in long term storage due to the smart battery monitoring drain on the battery after the auto discharge has completed.
• To calibrate the smart battery monitoring level for amount of charge remaining by the calibration of used batteries (As they age) from fully discharged to fully charged.
  

As an additional note do not believe what the battery level lights tells you if you press the on button after they have been in storage. It records and stores the level at the auto discharge cutoff. Not what the actual battery level is after the smart metering has discharged it further. You will see that if you have left batteries for about 4-5 months it will show 3 lights. After plugging it into a charger it will show less than 25%.

KLRSKIR Posted at 10-15 11:41
Ok, let me throw this out there. I had four fully charged batteries. Travelled with the Air 3 but spent a week without flying the Air 3 (damn Mini 4 Pro got the work). This morning I got it out and all of my batts were discharged to 60%, including the batt in the Air 3.

What am I missing?

It may relate to the way you use and store the batteries. There was a bug in the DJI Mini that caused the batteries to not discharge when put in the charger box or left in the aircraft.

The bug from memory was you had to press the show level light before you put it away. If you didn't do that it did not discharge.

I will test again and see if it reoccurs. It was fixed in the Mini by a FW update. Maybe the same here.

The issue that I still do not like is the 9 day wait.

The stability / damage done to a LiPo is an inverted bell curve. Max stability / longevity is at the nominal voltage. having the battery at that voltage per cell gives it the max life and recharge cycles. As you go towards fully discharged or fully charged the life and cycle count shortens. This is dependant on the time it is left at high or low charge states. The 9 days is way too excessive a wait at the high end of the bell curve.
.

bjr981s Posted at 10-21 22:52
Thanks Gamora.

It may, also be well advised to reiterate (Remind everyone) the maintenance schedule for the Smart batteries.

You're most welcome, bjr981s. For the Battery Routine Maintenance Guide, you may also refer on this link: (https://support.dji.com/help/con ... p;re=US&lang=en).

virtual Posted at 10-16 01:49
Air 3 should behave like this:
[view_image]

sorry but what does it mean by "when the battery is let idle independently"? Do i need to take it out from the aircraft or charging hub to make it starts self discharge?

I have the same problem... I charged the batteries about 12 days ago and they don't discharge to 60% like they did in the air2s. When inserted into the drone, they are at 95%. Can you guys fix this? Keeping batteries at this level of charge will damage them.

Can someone answer my problem? My batteries do not self-discharge, neither inside nor outside the hub...

djiuser_1Xk6LosBlijC Posted at 11-20 16:11
I have the same problem... I charged the batteries about 12 days ago and they don't discharge to 60% like they did in the air2s. When inserted into the drone, they are at 95%. Can you guys fix this? Keeping batteries at this level of charge will damage them.

Hi there. Sorry about the trouble. If I may ask, may I know what is the model of the drone the batteries belong to? Thank you.

KLRSKIR Posted at 10-15 11:41
Ok, let me throw this out there. I had four fully charged batteries. Travelled with the Air 3 but spent a week without flying the Air 3 (damn Mini 4 Pro got the work). This morning I got it out and all of my batts were discharged to 60%, including the batt in the Air 3.

What am I missing?

They are suppose to self discharge

djiuser_1Xk6LosBlijC Posted at 11-23 13:03
Can someone answer my problem? My batteries do not self-discharge, neither inside nor outside the hub...

Hi there. Sorry for the late response. Please confirm what specific drone battery are you referring to. Please provide us a detailed information about the behavior of your batteries so we can further isolate the issue. Please keep us posted. Thank you.

Looks like also my batteries are not discharging (AIR3)I store them in the charging HUB
Seems to be only discharging to 96% (When installed in the AIR 3 its on 96%)
After 9 days still 4 leds burning.
Maybe firmware issue?
Or does the timer reset when checking energy level (by pressing the power button?)

As far as the discharge issues I’ve never had any issue with them not discharging with either my MA2 or Air 3. The only thing I can suggest is to use the DJI Assistant 2 (consumer drone series) PC software and check each battery as the firmware needs to be up to date and matched to the drones firmware. I have had issues where the DJI Fly app did not indicate a battery needed a firmware update but when I use the battery the next time it had the notice to update it. I always use the PC software to update all my firmware and it is also the only way to do a refresh on everything. Firmware is just software which controls hardware and like with any other software it can get corrupted. Can’t hurt to go through everything and refresh all the firmware to eliminate this as a possible reason. Just my two cents worth. Also the batteries lights are just an estimation and does not tell you the actual percentage. Each light depending on whether it's flashing or steady just estimates a percentage between two values. It's explained in the Manual for the drone which you can download a PDF file from DJI's download center if you want.. Good luck. Enjoy….

Performed via the DJI Assistant 2 a firmware refresh (3x) with one by one the batteries installed.
Lets see if that helps.

(See the latest update which was already on the drone contained a optimisation of the auto discharge function so maybe thats causing the issue or the refresh will hopefully work...)

Just a thought, how do we store our cordless tool batteries? FULLY CHARGED!! And never heard of a problem with them.

Mobilehomer Posted at 1-28 07:57
Just a thought, how do we store our cordless tool batteries? FULLY CHARGED!! And never heard of a problem with them.

Maybe because they are not LiPo batteries?
Maybe because the chemistry is completely different?
Maybe because the maintenance characteristics are different?

Yes they may both contain Lithium but are different and cannot be directly compared.

Don't confuse LiOn Batteries with LiPo batteries, or LiFe for that matter.

As a matter of interest for you a LiOn cordless tool battery will last longer and have many more available recharge cycles if they are not left fully charged or fully discharged.