Guys,

I know we have discussed discharging batteries in posts before, but has anyone tried just powering up the batteries independently and leaving them on.

I know it will take some time to do it this way, just wondering if this will have any problem with the batteries.

Would appreciate if any Moderators can comment.

PaulKerry Posted at 2016-2-12 19:16
They power themselves back off again unless loaded.

I need to test exactly how long it takes and wh ...

Paul,

Thats what I thought also.  

As I haven't tried discharging this way before, I was just thinking if you could power on the battery independently and just leave on, it could just discharge slowly.  

I am thinking for example, we charge batteries for storage say 50%+ then if you did not want to just top them up, but wanted to discharge them further before recharging fully, could it be done by just powering on the battery.  This would alleviate having to put in the aircraft and powering on.

Any moderators tried this.  Or is this something that could be done by DJI Engineers programming the batteries to stay on and discharge themselves ?

GB44 Posted at 2016-2-12 11:40
Paul,

Thats what I thought also.  

If your battery is at 50% storage charge, why would you want to discharge it more before putting it on the charger?

Just tested it to answer you.

If you turn on a Inspire1 pack to let it discharge it will shut itself off after 20 minutes.
Then I put it in the Inspire to check the pack and it said 100% and dropped to 99% after about 1 min of turing it on. So this is not a viable way to discharge.


Dave

PaulKerry Posted at 2016-2-12 12:10
Alternatively...

Great idea!

Dave

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-2-12 21:25
If your battery is at 50% storage charge, why would you want to discharge it more before putting  ...

Ken,

Since January last year there have been many reports of batteries dropping their charge, which is why it is recommended to fully discharge before recharging.  Indeed DJI even released one of the firmware updates to address some issues relating to the battery.  

So charging batteries when they still have 50%+ charge remaining, has never been recommended.  I try to discharge down low or at least under 10%.

I just think there has to be a more efficient way of discharging batteries, by simply leaving the batteries on out of the aircraft.   Some of the ideas such as the light on the charging  strip just don't look safe.  

We need DJI to release a simple cheap solution.

Get the soldering Iron out and make a dummy load, or some other circuit that provides a useful function.

Suggestion - wire up some lengths of LED strip in parallel, make the world's most awesome USB charger, all sorts of things.
Most applications specified for a 24V supply could be coaxed into managing a 26V input.

PaulKerry Posted at 2016-2-12 15:40
It is. Not my idea though. That guy has a lot of good ideas and info about flying the Inspire.

Pa ...

Yeah that guy does have a lot of good ideas.

Dave

there has been many posts on the this subject and other companies have put out a simple load device using a resister or light bulb.... ebay or amazon has many of these listed

http://www.amazon.com/QJ-Phantom ... +battery+discharger

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Smart-Ba ... :g:0BIAAOSwfZ1WYQeQ


Rich

GB44 Posted at 2016-2-13 04:59
Ken,

Since January last year there have been many reports of batteries dropping their charge, whic ...

Other simplest way is to power the aircraft on and leave it on until it shuts itself off then you'll be around 8% or so.
I never know when I will fly so I'll charge my batteries up and leave them in the case and if they drop to 50% (I have 3 days set) then I just charge them and fly. One battery has over 75 charges and I've never had an issue but I also do the battery calibration every 20 flights.

Hey guys,

Given the discussion thought you may be interested in one more discharging option. I've made a dedicated discharger for phantom and inspire batteries and given some great feedback I'm making it available to whoever's interested in small batches. It does cycle (deep) as well as storage discharge and is a bit more robust than a lot of the other options.

If you'd like to find out more check out all the details at http://phantomangel.rocks. There's also a comprehensive independent review of it here

Wonderful option for also night flying, no need to carry a torch. For even night barbecue!

What is the recommended auto discharge cycle on the batteries? I think DJI had 8 or 10 days preset in the sw. My dealer that sold me my crafts said 6 days is recommended and now I saw that DJI-Ken has his set to three days. What is recommended? I have one Inspire Pro BE and one Phantom 3 Pro.

And one more question. I guess the batteries doesn't have to physically be inserted in the drone to get automatically discharged?

Thanks. // Mikael

mikael@ohlen.nu Posted at 2016-2-18 01:04
What is the recommended auto discharge cycle on the batteries? I think DJI had 8 or 10 days preset i ...

DJI stock is 10 days but set it to whatever you want. I use 3 days just because.
You don't need the battery to be in the aircraft to auto discharge.
BUT, if you touch the battery (push the button at all) the timer resets.
And in the manual it shows how how to calibrate the batteries, make sure to keep up with that.

PaulKerry Posted at 2016-2-18 01:31
The setting can be changed (in the Battery Status panel).

Paul,
I have one battery with tons of charges and I have 4 batteries total. I have had my aircraft for a year and have always had my timer set to 3 days and have never had an issue.

Thank you. I travel a lot, somewhere in-between might be the answer. Like 5 days or so. I guess its works the same on both the Inspire and the phantom.

Thank you

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-2-13 15:17
Other simplest way is to power the aircraft on and leave it on until it shuts itself off then you' ...

Ken

Can I ask this simple question regarding my two P3P batteries?  One has been charged up but never used  and the other has 5 charge cycles on it. Neither of these batteries show the correct full mAh rating (4480 mAh)
Why?
PS: this is my P3P batteries and I know that we are talking about the Inspire 1.  I also have Inspire 1 batteries that are not showing the full capcity rating of 4500 mAh too.. no one is stating why?  

Rich

RichJ53 Posted at 2016-2-18 09:56
Ken

Can I ask this simple question regarding my two P3P batteries?  One has been charged up but ne ...

The battery that has been never used is already being self discharged, it shows 52%.
Charge it back up and see what it reads.
Here's a screen shot I just took of mine.Even though I've had 55 flights on this battery, it still shows 98% battery life left, just a side note that if you take care of the batteries they will last a long time.

PaulKerry Posted at 2016-2-18 10:08
Whilst this has been in the manual since prior to our purchasing the Inspire, my tests have shown  ...

I'm not following how that video shows that pressing the button resets the auto discharge timer.
Charge two batteries then set them both in the aircraft at a 1 day discharge.
Then set them aside and every 12hrs push the button on one of the batteries.
After several days you will see the one battery slowly discharging to storage level and be warm and the other one will be cold and stay fully charged.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-2-17 18:21
The battery that has been never used is already being self discharged, it shows 52%.
Charge it bac ...

Thanks for the reply Ken. I guess my question is why does a new or even one that has s few charge cycles on it not showing the correct full capacity?  shouldn't they do a better job of holding the top mAh value?

I have one of my inspire batteries showing about 13% drop and it has only 14 charge cycles on it.

Rich

RichJ53 Posted at 2016-2-18 11:47
Thanks for the reply Ken. I guess my question is why does a new or even one that has s few charge  ...

I will have to ask why it doesn't give you exactly 4480 on the reading.
And are you only using 50% of your battery?
For the first 20 cycles toy condition the battery I only used 50% and I didn't fly around at full throttle for the whole battery. And I do a calibration every 20 cycles.

PaulKerry Posted at 2016-2-18 11:45
Yeah. I know that the video doesn't demonstrate it - the video is just the final result.
The descr ...

OK, I just charged three of my batteries. I will push the button on one of them every 12hrs for a few days.
If I get different results than you, the only thing it can be is I'm on 1.6 and I know you don't like updating.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-2-17 20:32
I will have to ask why it doesn't give you exactly 4480 on the reading.
And are you only using 50% ...

Thanks Ken

I use more than 50% of my batteries all the time. usually I take it down to 22--30% depending on what I am doing. I don't race the machine but I am using the full range of throttle during flight.
The battery I showed the screen shot with 5 (now 6) cycles is running about 20 min flights with the camera running about 15 mins. This tells me that the battery capacity is pretty close to the rating. The App feedback is not showing the full rating...  just not as reliable as it should be IMO


Rich

PaulKerry Posted at 2016-2-18 00:28
Interesting fact:

7 of 8 of our batteries show less than their full capacity. The only one which  ...

Hey Paul

I flew the rest of my P3P battery down today to about 9%. See the photo blelow. The capcity acually went up since the last screen shot. Also, note the cell voltage 3.66 and under load 3.5v. So this would mean the battery is not being damaged when it is dropped to the low voltage kicking in on the smart circuit.  I also, hovered the aircraft about 3 feet when the power was at 11% and then it started to auto land at 10% just like it was supposed too.



Rich

RichJ53 Posted at 2016-2-19 08:48
Hey Paul

I flew the rest of my P3P battery down today to about 9%. See the photo blelow. The capc ...

And when autoland starts you can keep increasing throttle to keep it in a hover until it won't let you anymore and it just lands.
And, if it were me I'd only run them down to 50% until you get 20 charges. I honestly think you'll get more life out of them.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-2-18 19:00
And when autoland starts you can keep increasing throttle to keep it in a hover until it won't let ...

Okay, I understand now what you were trying to tell me

Seems a bit drastic but I see what you are saying

Rich

PaulKerry Posted at 2016-2-18 17:03
I don't think that your battery met any of the conditions I mentioned, did it?

The critical voltag ...

As you know I have not been in top shape mentally lately So... I get what you are talking about (LVC) and I do not think this has ever happened with any of my batteries. I remember some posts where the battery would not start up and no LED's plus the charger circuit would not engage either.

I would like the battery to run until it drops dead and take the LVC completely out of the system. I would rather throw away a dead battery instead of the Inspire crashing to the ground in pieces

Rich

RichJ53 Posted at 2016-2-19 11:28
As you know I have not been in top shape mentally lately So... I get what you are talking about (L ...

Don't worry about it, your inspire will not crash to the ground and fall into pieces. As long as everything is setup correctly it's 100% safe to fly.

PaulKerry Posted at 2016-2-19 14:24
Is the P3P different to the I1 in this respect, Ken?

When I first performed a deep-cycle, I had W ...

I believe its the exact same, although I've landed my P3 with only a few percent left and never hovered it until it dropped to the ground.