Hello Sparkies,

Finally, my combo arrived two days ago - really a nice little drone. Not perfect, but very portable and neat.

But I am a little disappointed - both batteries of my combo were without doubt new (now one has 2 charging cycles, the other one not a complete one yet), but nevertheless both are below the manufacturer's specification of 1480 mAh (1454 mAh and 1453 mAh, to be exact). I thought well that's tolerance at my disadvantage - but with my Phantom 4 all three batteries were slightly above the manufacturer's specification. And an acquaintance confirmed that this makes sense, because by the transport and the storage the accumulators do not get better and therefore are shipped ex factory with higher capacity (not fully charged) in order to have at the customer (at least) the nominal power (advertised power). I know that the Spark batteries come in "deep sleep mode" but I wonder if this is normal?

Support explained that some tolerance is "probably" normal but did not go into the topic of P4 and the higer capacity as advertised batteries at all - now I wonder what values ​​you get displayed in the app? Especially with the very small (and relatively expensive) Spark batteries, the topic is not quite unimportant, as I think ... how do you think about it?

Thats like a few seconds of flight time, why would you worry?

dancopter Posted at 2017-7-19 23:33
Thats like a few seconds of flight time, why would you worry?

Well as I asked around nobody seems to get the promised capacity from the Spark battery - so it would be more honest to advertise the battery more realistic with a lower capacity (as DJI does with the P4 batteries). Also in all the reviews the (theoretical but advertised) flight time of 16 minutes is not achieved even close.

Maybe with a high priced drone like the Spark (compared to direct competitors) targeted at a demanding audience the users are more critical than with a drone for say 200 USD?

LiPo battery capacity is not something you can directly measure instantaneously, like battery voltage. You have to estimate it based on other factors like a discharge curve. What you are seeing is an estimate of the remaining battery capacity. To measure it accurately you need to actually discharge it. An error of <3% is not worth worrying about.

Sorry for the trouble has been caused, as I'd confirmed, this is normal, and the total capacity will change with the usage the battery. The advertised capacity is for customers' reference, We always recommend that users can use the battery according to the instruction of the user manual. And we also have some tips on maintenance, here's the tutorial: