Please help me to remember ...

The problem with battery drop outs ...
Has that always been there?

As I remember it ... reports about this problem started emediately after one of the updates ... or am I remembering this wrong?

If that is the case ... DJI would be able to solve it.
You really should be able to use a battery even if it´s only partially charged ... don´t you agree !?

I wonder if they are working on this ... or if they are happy with the "charge before you fly" sollution to the problem?  

I know a lot of people on here use their inspire for personal uses but I am getting a license and every time I fly the battery has to be above 90% according to start up procedure, if not I can't use it.

I think making sure that you only ever use a battery above 90% is good practice.

Updates on the batteries where if you leave a fully charged battery for more than 10 days not used it discharges itself to 60% is a good thing to help keep the battery in good health. We just all need to put in to good practice making sure our batteries are fully charged the night before and then a good 2 hours before flying.

ctomo88 Posted at 2015-7-26 18:17
I know a lot of people on here use their inspire for personal uses but I am getting a license and ev ...

Yes of course ... but for some there will be missions where you travel for hours or even days to remote places ... and also if you bring your Inspire along when you are hiking for a couple of days where electricity isn´t available.  

As I understand it this "bug" may trigger with the Inspire 1 battery even if you are taking of at 90% ...
The instructions as of now is ... never take off unless the battery is at 100% and newly charged!
This really narrows the way you can use your equipment!

We don´t really know how long it is safe to store and use a fully charged battery before you have to "top fill it" ...

I had this happen to me and I am very happy I was flying close at about 10-15 meters out ... as you really don´t get much time to land after the warning!

The battery bug appears to have appeared after one of the past firmware updates.
The issue appears to be related to the feature where the battery self-discharges to a safe storage level when left unused for a number of days.
One possible way to avoid the self-discharge function from starting is simply to press the power button - that resets the idle counter and will extend the time before the self-discharge cycle commences.

In your example of hiking with the Inspire (where there is no opportunity to recharge), I'd just press the button on each battery daily. That will prevent self-discharge starting and hopefully avoid any issues.

Farnk666 Posted at 2015-7-26 19:32
The battery bug appears to have appeared after one of the past firmware updates.
The issue appears t ...

There is a setting in the pilot app where you can give each battery instructions on how many days it should wait until initiating the self discharge.


This question is for Farnk666 ... First of all ... thank you for crefreshing my memory ...
You are suggesting that this setting is not working as it is intended and that I need to do a manual reset each day to avoid the problem ... and by doing this I would be safe from any unwanted battery drop out during my flight ...
... have you done tests that confirm this?


This question is for all of you with experience of LiPo batteries ...
Beside the Inspire 1 batteries ... looking at a "normal" battery ... without any "intelligens" ...
How many days (stored "fully charged") could one consider a battery to be "healthy" to use for a flight?

Well, my use for the Inspire 1 has been slightly different. I am shooting chalets in ski resorts for promotional purposes.  I am doing maybe 15 to 25 a day, plus scenic shots.  When I'm doing the chalets, I am only doing short flights of maybe 3 to 5 minutes.  I have 3 TB47 batteries and can do about 3 or 4 chalets per battery, depending on the shots I'm doing.  This means that sometimes I'm taking off with 40% left.  My warning is set to 30% and I am performing the dance at every new location and all the other pre-flight items.  I would never take off at 30% or lower.  Most of the time I am charging back up from more than 30% but sometimes less, but not much less.

So far, no issues, although I do have one battery that says that it needs discharging to 5% or lower and then fully recharging.  It's done this several times.  As such, and after reading some of your experiences, I'm a little more careful with this one and monitor the voltage a bit more.  I don't send the inspire up with this battery if it's just had the warning at 40%...

How to discharge the battery to 5% or lower is a bit of a mystery to me, because you can't safely fly it to those levels...  So I just fly it to 25% or so, then charge up the remote with that battery until it shuts down.

Anyway, my point is, that for me personally, it is not practical to always have batteries fully charged before each flight.

Cheers

Roastie Posted at 2015-7-27 00:09
Well, my use for the Inspire 1 has been slightly different. I am shooting chalets in ski resorts for ...

This is interesting ... THANKS FOR CHARING!

If I may ask ...
How long prior to your shoots do you charge your batteries ... ?

You say that you divide your batteries into multiple shoots ... how long in between each shoot in average ?
Is this executed during the same day or have you ever flown on a partially charged battery over several days?  

Roastie Posted at 2015-7-27 00:09
Well, my use for the Inspire 1 has been slightly different. I am shooting chalets in ski resorts for ...

Regarding the deep discharge ...

When you can´t fly any more (because the pilot app wont let you start the motors) you are supposed to just leave the bird on until the battery drains and finally shuts itself off (this may take as long as 30 minutes or more - going from around 12-13% down to 5-8% depending on how well calculated the battery is) ...

w1der Posted at 2015-7-26 23:39
There is a setting in the pilot app where you can give each battery instructions on how many days i ...

Not suggesting that anything is not working as intended w1der, just suggesting that you trigger a reset of the self-discharge timer to avoid potential issues arising from partial self-discharged batteries suddenly dropping percentage while in flight. There appears to be some consensus that self-discharge and sudden drops in reported capacity may be related.

I only have 3 batteries and am not flying much at present due to weather, so opportunity for a definitive test is not really possible for me right now.  (it's our turn for winter here in Australia)  

Farnk666 Posted at 2015-7-27 09:26
Not suggesting that anything is not working as intended w1der, just suggesting that you trigger a  ...

OK ... Thank you for clearing that out ...
Your theory on this matter is fully noted!

w1der Posted at 2015-7-27 04:22
This is interesting ... THANKS FOR CHARING!

If I may ask ...

"If I may ask ...
How long prior to your shoots do you charge your batteries ... ?

You say that you divide your batteries into multiple shoots ... how long in between each shoot in average ?
Is this executed during the same day or have you ever flown on a partially charged battery over several days?  "

Usually I am doing this all in a weekend because I have a real job   This means that I have the batteries charged up either from the last time (could be a week or more ago) or more usually, the night before.

In between flights, there could be 2 minutes or there could be 30 minutes.  The I1 may or may not have been powered off and location completely changed. (no more than a few Km) .  If new location, Compass cal and full pre-flight check list.  If take off from nearby, and no unusual large metal objects around or HT lines etc., just take off and go.

I don't believe that i have flown on a partially charged battery over several days.  Normally I would start a shoot out with a full set of fully charged batteries and then by the time I run out, head off for lunch whilst they all recharge, and then do the afternoon.  Typically, bad light stops play after that so full recharge overnight and start again in the morning.

Sorry for late reply...

And thanks for your info re discharging.

Cheers
Roastie

Roastie Posted at 2015-7-28 16:16
"If I may ask ...
How long prior to your shoots do you charge your batteries ... ?

No worries ... I´m just happy you did ... as you "break protocol" with the way you use the batteries and still don´t have any problems I find your answer very interesting.

There might be some over concerned users on this forum ... easy to understand ... but I am trying to be as relaxed as possible about my Inspire 1 and this is why I appreciate you taking the time to answer my question!