Hey everyone. Just wanted to ask any long term Mini 3 pro owners how high of a cycle count have you seen in your batteries with them still working at or close to the usual flight time duration. I've seen DJI state that around 200 cycles are to be expected before funcionality begins to deteriorate but other sites say LiPo batteries that are handled properly can go 300-500 cycles.
I've had my Mini 3 pro for a little over a year but only have around 40 cycles each on the three regular batteries. My plus battery was replaced under warranty a couple months ago for a broken latch tab. The new plus battery only has 6 cyles and I cant remember how many the old one had, maybe around 20.



What has been your experience with the Mini 3 pro batteries ?

If I'm not mistaken you can see counter in settings when you are connected to the drone. But I have it now for bit more than 6 months so can not givou you relevant data, but would be intereseting to hear other.

Hi there. Thank you for reaching out. Hope that you can get the best suggestions from our fellow DJI members here about the performance of their DJI Mini 3 Pro batteries. To maintain the best performance of your battery, you may check the battery safety notice on this link https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/ ... ines_5_lan_v1.0.pdf . Thank you for your valued support.

At 180 cycles you'll start getting a large orange nag to replace the battery.  Ive got one plus battery at 330+ cycles and it's still flying well for me.   I was lucky and the rest of mine got replaced by DJI near the 180 count due to the tabs breaking.  

Yes those tabs are a design flaw.
I wonder if they have changed anything in the case construction of the mini 4 batteries or are they going to suffer the same issue.

DJI Paladin Posted at 2023-11-25 18:22
Hi there. Thank you for reaching out. Hope that you can get the best suggestions from our fellow DJI members here about the performance of their DJI Mini 3 Pro batteries. To maintain the best performance of your battery, you may check the battery safety notice on this link https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/DJI_Mini_3_Pro/SG/20230316/DJI_Mini_3_Pro_Safety_Guidelines_5_lan_v1.0.pdf . Thank you for your valued support.

Good day

Batteries has evolved quite a lot over the last few years from Nicad, Lead acid to Li-Ion. The big confusion is often the definition of a "cycle". Its not just that a discharge and a charge is seen as a cycle. A cycle means when you have discharged the battery below a certain percentage, and then fully charged it again.

My question is, what is the definition from DJI regarding a cycle on their Li-ion 4S which for example  is used in the Air 3

Riterb97 Posted at 7-17 04:55
Good day

Batteries has evolved quite a lot over the last few years from Nicad, Lead acid to Li-Ion. The big confusion is often the definition of a "cycle". Its not just that a discharge and a charge is seen as a cycle. A cycle means when you have discharged the battery below a certain percentage, and then fully charged it again.

Hi there, thank you for reaching out. The battery cycle is typically considered a full discharge and recharge of a battery. However for the Li-ion $s in Air 3, it will be counted once when the battery level is 75% consumed of the capacity mentioned in the official manual, including consumption by the battery’s self-discharge. To check the capacity, you may refer to the " specifications" in User Manual.

Hope this clarifies your questions. Thank you!

YEs thank you. So once you go below 25% capacity,  you might end up generating one cycler

DJI Natalia Posted at 7-17 20:41
Hi there, thank you for reaching out. The battery cycle is typically considered a full discharge and recharge of a battery. However for the Li-ion $s in Air 3, it will be counted once when the battery level is 75% consumed of the capacity mentioned in the official manual, including consumption by the battery’s self-discharge. To check the capacity, you may refer to the " specifications" in User Manual.

Hope this clarifies your questions. Thank you!

Hi Natalia

I have made some tests and tend to disagree with you. You are welcome to indicate where I am wrong:

Hi there, thank you for reaching out. The battery cycle is typically considered a full discharge and recharge of a battery. However for the Li-ion 4s in Air 3, it will be counted once when the battery level is 75% consumed of the capacity mentioned in the official manual, including consumption by the battery’s self-discharge. To check the capacity, you may refer to the " specifications" in User Manual.

The tests that I have done on the Air 3 batteries prove otherwise. My Cycles go hand in hand with with the AMOUNT OF RECHARGE, irrespective of the % discharge. I received my % discharge from Airdata UAV (Unless they are at fault, which I doubt) and according to the LED stripes on the battery. A 2 will mean 2 LED's on, A 2+ means 2 on + 1 flashing

Batt No1 Discharge values
67% ; LED 2+; Recharged 3x; Cycle count 3
34%; LED 1+; Recharged 4x; Cycle Count 4
43%; LED 2; Recharged 5x; Cycle Count 5

Batt No2 Discharge values
23% ; LED 1; Recharged 3x; Cycle count 3
55%; LED 2+; Recharged 4x; Cycle Count 4
34%; LED 1+; Recharged 5x; Cycle Count 5

The above indicate to me to keep to cycle count as low as possible, I should deplete my batteries as low as possible- which of course did not make sense!1

What worries me is apparently after the batteries reached a certain CYCLE count, the Air 3 will produce a constant "warning" message on the screen, which is very irritating and can not be removed or delete

Please correct me if I'm wrong!!

Riterb97 Posted at 7-25 06:56
Hi Natalia

I have made some tests and tend to disagree with you. You are welcome to indicate where I am wrong:

Could you please provide a screenshot of the error message you're encountering, so I can investigate the issue further and provide a more effective assistance?

DJI Natalia Posted at 7-25 11:43
Could you please provide a screenshot of the error message you're encountering, so I can investigate the issue further and provide a more effective assistance?

I did not say anything about an ERROR..please read my message

Riterb97 Posted at 7-26 00:49
I did not say anything about an ERROR..please read my message

Thank you for reverting back. Since you have mentioned that there is a warning message on the screen, could you please provide a screenshot of that warning message so that we can investigate it further.

DJI Natalia Posted at 7-26 13:39
Thank you for reverting back. Since you have mentioned that there is a warning message on the screen, could you please provide a screenshot of that warning message so that we can investigate it further.

I don't think you understand my English..Here is my message again.  I said I did not agree with your answer regarding cycles... and I mentioned that in some chats "APPEREENTLY" there is a message that come up after 200 cycles...I did not say I have an error.

Please read my message properly. If you don't understand, or my message is too technical,  message me direct
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The tests that I have done on the Air 3 batteries prove otherwise. My Cycles go hand in hand with with the AMOUNT OF RECHARGING, irrespective of the % discharge. I received my % discharge from Airdata UAV (Unless they are at fault, which I doubt) and according to the LED stripes on the battery.

A 2 will mean 2 LED's on, A 2+ means 2 on + 1 flashing

Batt No1 Discharge values
67% ; LED 2+; Recharged 3x; Cycle count 3
34%; LED 1+; Recharged 4x; Cycle Count 4
43%; LED 2; Recharged 5x; Cycle Count 5

Batt No2 Discharge values
23% ; LED 1; Recharged 3x; Cycle count 3
55%; LED 2+; Recharged 4x; Cycle Count 4
34%; LED 1+; Recharged 5x; Cycle Count 5

The above indicates to me that to keep the cycle count as low as possible, I should deplete my batteries as low as possible- which of course do not make sense!

What worries me is "apparently" after the batteries reached a certain CYCLE count, the Air 3 will produce a constant "warning" message on the screen, which is very irritating and can not be removed or delete (See the beginning of this forum discussion)

Please correct me if I'm wrong!!

Riterb97 Posted at 7-27 07:08
I don't think you understand my English..Here is my message again.  I said I did not agree with your answer regarding cycles... and I mentioned that in some chats "APPEREENTLY" there is a message that come up after 200 cycles...I did not say I have an error.

Please read my message properly. If you don't understand, or my message is too technical,  message me direct

Does the warning message appear when using both batteries once a certain cycle count is reached for either battery, or does it only appear for an individual battery that has reached a specific cycle count?

DJI Natalia Posted at 7-27 10:45
Does the warning message appear when using both batteries once a certain cycle count is reached for either battery, or does it only appear for an individual battery that has reached a specific cycle count?

Really..!!! I rest my case. Have never seen such bad response from an Administrator

I'll try once more:

You (Natalia) said: Hi there, thank you for reaching out. The battery cycle is typically considered a full discharge and recharge of a battery. However for the Li-ion 4s in Air 3, it will be counted once when the battery level is 75% consumed of the capacity mentioned in the official manual, including consumption by the battery’s self-discharge. To check the capacity, you may refer to the " specifications" in User Manual.

I said:
The tests that I have done on the Air 3 batteries prove otherwise. My Cycles go hand in hand with the AMOUNT OF RECHARGING, irrespective of the % discharge. I received my % discharge from Airdata UAV (Unless they are at fault, which I doubt) and according to the LED stripes on the battery.

A 2 will mean 2 LED's on, A 2+ means 2 on + 1 flashing

Batt No1 Discharge values
67% ; LED 2+; Recharged 3x; Cycle count 3
34%; LED 1+; Recharged 4x; Cycle Count 4
43%; LED 2; Recharged 5x; Cycle Count 5

Batt No2 Discharge values
23% ; LED 1; Recharged 3x; Cycle count 3
55%; LED 2+; Recharged 4x; Cycle Count 4
34%; LED 1+; Recharged 5x; Cycle Count 5

The above indicates to me that to keep the cycle count as low as possible, I should deplete my batteries as low as possible- which of course do not make sense!

NOW TRY AND ANSWER ME

Riterb97 Posted at 7-28 03:50
Really..!!! I rest my case. Have never seen such bad response from an Administrator

Hi, we deeply apologize for the misunderstanding. As for your inquiry, we will forward the information to our relevant team for further checking and evaluation. We appreciate your understanding and patience. Thanks.

DJI Natalia Posted at 7-28 13:31
Hi, we deeply apologize for the misunderstanding. As for your inquiry, we will forward the information to our relevant team for further checking and evaluation. We appreciate your understanding and patience. Thanks.

Will I be notified of the response and when can I expect it

Thx

Riterb97 Posted at 7-30 23:42
Will I be notified of the response and when can I expect it

Thx

Hi there, thank you for your response. We've forwarded the details to our engineering team and will share the updates as soon as we received. We greatly appreciate your patience in this matter.

Thank you for your support!

Wow, not called for to beat up on the admin. They responded by asking for a screenshot of the warning message as a way to get started, which you ignored. A little cooperation might get your further.

Word of caution for others: I had another brand of drone whose battery was near end of life. While flying, when I got the "battery low - return to home" warning, it gave me about 5 seconds more flight before it quit and the drone fell out of the sky. It was not a DJI drone and perhaps DJI's would not ever do that. But because of that, I'm very leery about pushing batteries beyond the manufacturer's recommended cycle count.

I protected my battery lifespan by not charging it fully, and not emptying it below 30% (usually)
This made it last until 333 cycles.  (166hrs, 6000km if spent going forward)
Around 200 cycles, DJI starts to display an onscreen nag (all the time), and you can't start flying below 40%.  It says "Battery Needs Charging" in red.
Around 300 cycles you can't start flying below 45%

At 333 cycles, you notice that the last 25% of the battery charges pretty slowly. A new battery has a much more abrupt charge shut off.
Sport mode becomes obviously unable to reach normal maximum speeds, esp at lower battery voltages.
at 45%, the climb rate is 4m/s, and forward speed may reach 13.4m/s. Side travel is pretty bad.

Random glitches start to occur more, like the screen blacking out. This is actually the most worrying thing, because the drone may just fall out of the air if a circuit board doesn't get enough juice.

I keep my drone in blue silica gel all the time, after the old Mini 3 Pro camera started to fog up. The barometer also started to get a fault: coming back from very high, the offset could often be quite large (-20). My Panasonic zoom camera has also started to grow a blotch deep in the lens. I presume it's mould.