The DJI Smart Battery

Winter is here so I have put together some tips and usage recommendations for the DJI Smart Battery used in both the Phantom 3 and Inspire 1

Following a few simple steps will help ensure your craft allways returns home safe and sound

Take it easy on your new battery pack

A brand new battery can take a number of cycles to realise it full capacity so do not fully discharge a new pack for the first few cycles, ideally try not to discharge below 50% for the first 10 cycles

Do not fly a partly charged pack

Allways take off with a fully charged battery, if you stop flying do not use the pack again for another flight use a fresh fully charged one

Only fly a fresh fully charged battery

Try to fly within 24 hours of charging, If the battery has been sitting for over 24 hours discharge it to below 90% then charge it fully again before you fly

Regularly calibrate you battery

Your battery is smart but still needs to be calibrated to give you the best performance, at least very 20 cycles you should discharge you're battery to 3.35v per cell or discharge till it turns its self off

To calibrate, fully charge the battery then discharge to 3.35v per cell then fully recharge again

Keep a charged battery warm before flight

Temps are dropping and cold weather can have an averse affect on the battery and its performance, try to keep the pack warm between charging and getting to the fly site in colder weather

For the Inspire 1 DJI have insulation pads you can stick to the packs and a heater that will warm the pack ready for flight

Be Gentle

In colder weather avoid full throttle unless its absolutely necessary, especially until the battery has warmed in flight, at take off try to use part throttle, this is when the largest load is on the battery and when its coldest  

Fly safe folks and keep those birds coming home

DJI battery manual can be downloaded

Phantom 3 Manuals

Thank You

MA

Thank you for your sharing !  Well done !

if you add couple of pictures you probably could see your post on the main page

DJI-Tim Posted at 2015-12-7 06:58
if you add couple of pictures you probably could see your post on the main page

I have updated i hope you approve

Thank you for the feedback  

Thank you for the post.  Do you have any recommendations for topping off batteries that have > 90% charge remaining?  Is there a special process?

My batterie show me I have 44% with 3.59 V power in yellow and 7.53 to fly.

Is it ok ?

GQ. Posted at 2015-12-9 07:45
My batterie show me I have 44% with 3.59 V power in yellow and 7.53 to fly.

Is it ok ?

When mine are at that point I fly the Phantom or Inspire  to discharge the battery. Just don't go wild. I keep it close by and no more than 50' in the air and fly it until the battery failsafe kicks in and lands the Quad. The let the battery cool to room temp. and give it a full charge. By doing this you will have a complete cycle. I do this the day before I am going to fly.

Dji representatives here.

Dji representatives here. Is this now the official way to handle our batteries?

dji says in the battery manual discharging below 8% will prrmenantly damage the cells. any thoughts on this?

I sent in my Inspire 1 Pro for propeller quick release repair. I have 4 batteries with the hub, and I doubt that I will get my drone back for 14-21 days. Should I discharge the batteries right now? They all should be set to discharge on their own, but I am not for certain. Also, to discharge them, could I place them in the hub without powering it on, thereby draining the battery?

Anyone have easy "Discharge" techniques. If a battery has been sitting around charges, and the advice is to discharge first, and re-charge... How do you discharge without flying?

Also, for normal Lipos, it's not a great idea to fully charge them, then leave them around charged for a week (thus the "storage" mode charge on most advanced RC chargers). However, since I can't use the P3 battery with a normal charger, I haven't been able to discharge easily. Does the "Smart" in the Smart Battery have this handled in its circuitry... In other words, will it slowly discharge itself so that if I do store a fully charged P3 battery for a long period, I'm not damaging or lowering the life of the battery?

I don't understand actually why DJI did not create also a smart charger!

Seriously, any LIPO charger on the market, even the knock-off chinese ones, are capable of cell balancing, discharge and even put your battery in storage state. This battery is not really an advantage compared to a regular LIPO just because of the charger...

I am also shocked to do not find in these tips, the warning about charging a LIPO right after a flight, charging a LIPO in a short time after a flight is the way to damage its cells and of course reduce its lifetime.
Another thing i did not understand too why on earth you can not use the same LIPO for many flights until you did not reach the critical low voltage limit?

I did my own video tutorial on how I fly and treat my batteries...     

Look into the Phantom Angel to maintain your Phantom batterys. I have one and it works great.

gmklinefelter Posted at 2015-12-9 03:21
Thank you for the post.  Do you have any recommendations for topping off batteries that have > 90% charge remaining?  Is there a special process?

There is no need to discharge a 90% or more battery to top up ....

As per the manual :

SWITCH ON battery - THEN plug in charger.

This over-rides the high charge limiter stopping you topping off the battery.

In fact for all charging I do of P3 batterys - I switch on before plugging in whether I use a Programmable charger or the DJI one.

Nigel

Michael M Posted at 2015-12-9 19:44
dji says in the battery manual discharging below 8% will prrmenantly damage the cells. any thoughts on this?

YEs ...

DEEP discharge damages LiPo's ... fact.

LiPo's are not recoverable from damage. Deep discharging risks damage and the practice of deep and recharge will incur each time you do it an increase in cells Internal Resistance because you are effectively ageing it. You are using up cycles.
As internal resistance increases - the battery when in use runs warmer .. this raises resistance more - you get effectively less flight time.

There are thousands of pages about this and why deep discharge is NOT advised for ANY LiPo / LiIon battery. Even DJI themselves have removed such advise from their latest battery docs ... but left it in the Phantom manual. Mods on here quote it as well contrary to DJI Battery doc.

Treat the LiPo with respect.

Best act you can do for them - set the auto discharge time to 2 - 3 days maximum, not the default 10.

If you fly try to not go below 25 - 30% ... at that level once rested the pack will recover to  about 35% or more and that is a very good storage level - it is NOT necessary to pump it up to 50% as some advise - again check out loads of battery advise online from manufacturers ... and such as Battery University etc.
If you do leave batterys for long periods - then its wise to give a short shot of charge to keep it in the 30 - 50% region every so often ... because they do self discharge and if it gets into Hibernation for too long - you may not get it out again.

I value my batterys highly and have many boxes of various ... DJI may have a fancy front end board - but its still a LiPo.  Storage level and care is what is needed.

Nigel

For anyone wanting a discharge solution :

Telesin Discharger - about $5 on ebay ... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Batte ... :g:iOEAAOSwOyJX5e1i


Has two settings ... 15V storage and deep discharge (please do not use that setting ...).
It has USB socket in the side - so the discharged energy can be used to charge mobile, tablet, an led lamp etc. So energy is recycled !

Guys can anyone help us.  I purchased a dji mavic pro platinum drone as a gift and the boys used it twice on the beach and managed to get sea water into it.  I cannot afford the repairs at €900euro and wondered if anyone knows which drone I should buy so that i can get use of the 2 spare batteries that came with it.  Can I use them on another cheaper make/model, or are they built uniquely for each drone?  Any advice from anyone would be most helpful indeed very much appreciated.  Its a pain because it took 2 weeks for delivery and I was abroad and had to ask a neighbour to send it to Cyprus.  That alone took another 4 weeks, so when they finally got their hands on it they were so excited it was like all their Christmasses had come at once.  Now I have 2 very sad faces to look at.