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Deep cycle for recalibrating the battery
13333 23 2017-3-20
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fansf27541a8
lvl.3
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Brazil
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Hi Guys,

What is the percentage that should I drain the battery to a deep cycle?

I have read some threads saying about 8%, others to 5%.

Thanks a lot,

Eduardo
2017-3-20
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Mark The Droner
Captain
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United States
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Some say 3%.  Lots of opinions.  Many say don't do it at all.  

It's really up to you to research and do what you think best.  
2017-3-20
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DLX734
lvl.1
United States
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Here's a nice video from DJI on their batteries:



and here is a link to a thread on this subject where DJI says you don't need to deep cycle their batteries.

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... mp;page=1#pid678957
2017-3-20
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Mobilcams
First Officer
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I can't remember where but I remember on here some where at one point even one of the DJI moderators suggested draining till the craft turns off.  The manuals say cycle to 8 percent or until the battery does not turn on anymore.
2017-3-20
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DJI-Jamie
DJI team
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Equal or slightly less than 8% is the ideal percentage, like what's been mentioned thus far.
2017-3-20
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DJI-Jamie
DJI team
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DLX734 Posted at 2017-3-20 11:41
Here's a nice video from DJI on their batteries:

https://youtu.be/siE2j6Ruj2k

At least not as a scheduled maintenance, as mentioned for older aircrafts. You should only consider a deep cycle if you encounter some voltage reading issues or something to that effect.
2017-3-20
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mic75
Second Officer
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Australia
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The deeper you take it the shorter it's life will be, at least if you intend to do this most of the times you use it. All battery chemistries have different cycle life based on DOD (Depth of Discharge) and temperature. Lithium batteries are very popular because they are one of the most resistant to decreased cycle life through deep discharge.
2017-3-20
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blackcrusader
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Taiwan
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mic75 Posted at 2017-3-20 19:15
The deeper you take it the shorter it's life will be, at least if you intend to do this most of the times you use it. All battery chemistries have different cycle life based on DOD (Depth of Discharge) and temperature. Lithium batteries are very popular because they are one of the most resistant to decreased cycle life through deep discharge.

I have one battery with 50 flights.  So I did a deep discharge.  Wait a day then charged the battery.  Went for a flight 18 hours after charge. Battery cells all nicely balanced and increased capacity back above 4500ma

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... mp;extra=#pid741513
2017-3-21
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mic75
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blackcrusader Posted at 2017-3-21 21:40
I have one battery with 50 flights.  So I did a deep discharge.  Wait a day then charged the battery.  Went for a flight 18 hours after charge. Battery cells all nicely balanced and increased capacity back above 4500ma

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=89101&page=1&extra=#pid741513

What I'm talking about is deep discharge almost every time will shorten your battery life.
All batteries capacities are based on a given discharge rate and ambient temperature. The faster you discharge them the less capacity you will get, so a slow dicharge by leaving your drone on will net more capacity from the battery, followed by a full charge is probably why you have an increase in capacity in the data. Doing this from time to time will help balance the cells and as long as you don't leave the battery this low without charging it it will bo ok.
2017-3-21
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Quamera
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Australia
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blackcrusader Posted at 2017-3-21 21:40
I have one battery with 50 flights.  So I did a deep discharge.  Wait a day then charged the battery.  Went for a flight 18 hours after charge. Battery cells all nicely balanced and increased capacity back above 4500ma

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... mp;extra=#pid741513


Before you did the deep discharge were the cells out of balance and/or were you seeing any warnings. Or did you just do the deep discharge because your manual said you should (or you were advised to) after a certain number of cycles.
2017-3-22
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blackcrusader
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Quamera Posted at 2017-3-22 02:42
Before you did the deep discharge were the cells out of balance and/or were you seeing any warnings. Or did you just do the deep discharge because your manual said you should (or you were advised to) after a certain number of cycles.

I had one hard flight for the drone on a full battery.  Had to come in and end the flight due to a critical warning at 35% battery. I had been hovering in a strong wind it seems because I had gone from the warning to green levels by the time I landed.  Was interesting though.  I floated back at a gentle 52pmh on the return leg.  

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... mp;page=1#pid738918
2017-3-22
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Quamera
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blackcrusader Posted at 2017-3-22 03:36
I had one hard flight for the drone on a full battery.  Had to come in and end the flight due to a critical warning at 35% battery. I had been hovering in a strong wind it seems because I had gone from the warning to green levels by the time I landed.  Was interesting though.  I floated back at a gentle 52pmh on the return leg.  

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=89101&page=1#pid738918

Ah yes I did read your post about the critical warning on 35% battery, not something you want to see a long way from home in the mountains!! Well done on flying into the wind to start with, although it was common sense that was a lifesaver for your Phantom.

Did you by any chance try a normal charge first or just go straight for a deep discharge.
2017-3-22
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blackcrusader
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Quamera Posted at 2017-3-22 03:48
Ah yes I did read your post about the critical warning on 35% battery, not something you want to see a long way from home in the mountains!! Well done on flying into the wind to start with, although it was common sense that was a lifesaver for your Phantom.

Did you by any chance try a normal charge first or just go straight for a deep discharge.

Actually I had charged my batteries and was planning on some flights but not the best conditions for photos or videos.  So I took off the props and put battery in drone and let them discharge.

It took perhaps 7 or 8 hours from a full charge.  I charged up my prime battery 18 hours later and the others a bit after that.

Anyways all the levels are good.  I know there is a life for them.  I've done 100 miles of flying in 2 months since I had the drone. The drone and the batteries have been well used.
DJI make a good product.  Good thing even when I had to land I had plenty of time to control the drone to fly it back to home point and land.  So I was reducing both height and distance on the way back.  IT's only when I saw the logs later on I saw that it was at 50mph.  

By the way I could hear the drone for the whole flight even at max height and some distance.  
That's a first also. So if you fly off into the yonder and can hear your drone, it's because there is a strong wind blowing your way.  
2017-3-22
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Quamera
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blackcrusader Posted at 2017-3-22 04:00
Actually I had charged my batteries and was planning on some flights but not the best conditions for photos or videos.  So I took off the props and put battery in drone and let is discharge.

It took perhaps 7 or 8 hours from a full charge.  I charged up my prime battery 18 hours later and the others a bit after that.

OK so you did recharge it but may not have seen if the cells rebalanced properly before draining them right down gently. I am guessing that you didn't see any warnings during the discharge but if you had gone for a flight instead then some warnings may have popped up.

That is interesting that you could hear the AC a fair way off upwind, I would have guessed that the wind itself would have drowned out the swarm of bees. I know that deep sounds like trucks on a highway 20 km away can be heard best early on a still, damp, cool morning.
2017-3-22
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blackcrusader
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Quamera Posted at 2017-3-22 04:21
OK so you did recharge it but may not have seen if the cells rebalanced properly before draining them right down gently. I am guessing that you didn't see any warnings during the discharge but if you had gone for a flight instead then some warnings may have popped up.

That is interesting that you could hear the AC a fair way off upwind, I would have guessed that the wind itself would have drowned out the swarm of bees. I know that deep sounds like trucks on a highway 20 km away can be heard best early on a still, damp, cool morning.

In the other thread you will see all 3 batteries with cell levels posted after recharge. Yup I did check them.
Always do.
2017-3-22
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blackcrusader
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mic75 Posted at 2017-3-21 23:50
What I'm talking about is deep discharge almost every time will shorten your battery life.
All batteries capacities are based on a given discharge rate and ambient temperature. The faster you discharge them the less capacity you will get, so a slow dicharge by leaving your drone on will net more capacity from the battery, followed by a full charge is probably why you have an increase in capacity in the data. Doing this from time to time will help balance the cells and as long as you don't leave the battery this low without charging it it will bo ok.

OK Here is the upshot of  doing a deep discharge on my batteries.

I did a few flights today, reasonable distance and mileage and height.  Not pushing to the max just flying around in the sunset.  Anyways my flight logs now say my batteries are good for near 25 minutes, up from the 22 minutes before.  To fly 17 mins 37 seconds and land with 26% is nice.  

So my battery is now charging to 4700ma plus and my flight time is now near 25 minutes available.  Maybe it's just a coincidence but my batteries are performing very well now.

FLIGHT

FLIGHT
2017-3-24
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blackcrusader
First Officer
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Taiwan
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My battery is now charging to a higher level than when I first got it.  It has done 23 charges when I did the discharge.  I am not saying you all should do this but for me I do some hard flights and this seems to have helped.  
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2017-3-24
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mic75
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blackcrusader Posted at 2017-3-24 03:32
OK Here is the upshot of  doing a deep discharge on my batteries.

I did a few flights today, reasonable distance and mileage and height.  Not pushing to the max just flying around in the sunset.  Anyways my flight logs now say my batteries are good for near 25 minutes, up from the 22 minutes before.  To fly 17 mins 37 seconds and land with 26% is nice.  

That's good crusader, man I'm really missing not being able to fly my drone. Controller is on route to hong kong for warranty repair.
2017-3-24
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blackcrusader
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mic75 Posted at 2017-3-24 03:40
That's good crusader, man I'm really missing not being able to fly my drone. Controller is on route to hong kong for warranty repair.

Also interesting in the details now on your battery that can be found. This is on what people know as the healthy drones site before it changed name. I am not sure if this information was available before but it seems the battery has all these details in there.  

Associated Drone:        BLACKCRUSADER      Change
Associated Battery:        Battery #1           Change
Take Off Location:        23.488803,120.891459
Above Sea Level: 8626.2 ft
Address:        556, Taiwan, Nantou County, Xinyi Township, 玉山景觀公路水里玉山線145號
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Last Known Location:    23.487419,120.890037 at log time of 17m 03s and altitude of -3.3 ft
Log Duration:        17m 03s (time in the air and on the ground)
Air Duration:        15m 25s (time in the air only)
2017-3-24
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Esc4p3
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Philippines
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hi guys, this would be off topic, but just a quick question, is 717 cycle count is still good for macbook pro retina 13inch 16gb RAM. should i buy this 2nd hand item?
2017-3-24
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blackcrusader
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Esc4p3 Posted at 2017-3-24 05:34
hi guys, this would be off topic, but just a quick question, is 717 cycle count is still good for macbook pro retina 13inch 16gb RAM. should i buy this 2nd hand item?

Is is  DJI Drone?  I don't know if yours thingy flies or not but I suspect it might if you bought it.

I would be looking on a macbook pro forum and asking there.
2017-3-24
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AG0N-Gary
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DJI-Jamie Posted at 2017-3-20 13:28
At least not as a scheduled maintenance, as mentioned for older aircrafts. You should only consider a deep cycle if you encounter some voltage reading issues or something to that effect.

Hi Jamie - Way back, there were posts on the Phantom forum about deep cycling now and then.  There was mentioning of it recalibrating the percentage scale (i.e. resetting what is 0 and what is 100%).  I tried it on one of my used P3A batteries at the time, and it seemed to gain some usage.  I did, however, notice that it ran until WELL past 8%.  In fact, it ran down to 0 percent and kept going.  I let it go until shutdown.  After completely cooling down, I gave it a full charge.  Cells looked much nicer balanced when I was done.  It worked so well, I decided to do my second battery.  That one ran until about 7-8% and was done.  It shut down at that point.  Similarly, I let it cool and recharged completely.  I'm still using them today.  I don't get a lot of flights due to my weather and lack of interesting places to fly, but wanted to bring up the low-end calibration idea to introduce into this conversation.  Do you have any DJI studies backing up any of this, or for that matter, debunking it?

I'm loving my new Mavic.  I've got two batteries for it and I'm holding one of them back, not using it, to kind of preserve it.  I've done now deep discharge on it and won't until I think there is something not quite right.  It appears in the above paragraph that the main thing it did was to 'reset' the calibration points and more equally balance the cells.  So far, no issues with the Mac.

Thanks for any info you might be able to bring to the table on battery usage.  I don't care about "DJI's official recommendation", but care a lot about getting the maximum life out of my batteries.

Gary - AG0N
2017-5-29
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Nigel_
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AG0N-Gary Posted at 2017-5-29 09:57
I'm holding one of them back, not using it, to kind of preserve it."

They are supposed to like a bit of exercise occasionally, you would do better to alternate them.
2017-5-29
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jason8612
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Poland
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hmm. I have the Phantom 3 standard. Haven't used it in a month and went to charge the batteries today. Both batteries are flashing the 3rd LED which would seem to signal a over-voltage charger detected. This is odd as I'm using the original charger included and never had this issue before. Batteries were charged 10 times and looking at the cells they are all the same voltage.
I tired to discharge it down to 8% and tried to charge it again, but still the same issue. Not sure what to do next.
2017-10-15
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