Battery Re-Calibration

[AMCR]

This has been covered a few times already - you need to take your batteries down to 3.3v per cell which can be below 5 or even 3% depending on how they are calibrated currently.
Basically, run them down until they turn off and cannot be turned on.
Then allow the packs to cool, then fully recharge them.

Thanks Editor, I ran them down to 3% (dji app) and the batteries turned off themselves and wouldn't turn back on - I let them cool and re-charged and I am still getting the warning. This happened 2x on 2 different batteries and I am still getting the warning. I am at a loss

 

[Ward Paterson]

I was getting a warning stating that my batteries needed to be discharged to 5% then recharged. I flew until 10%, landed and left the copter on until 3%, powered down and recharged and still have the same warning. I have done this 2x per battery now and still getting the warning ??? any advice on this. Thanks in advance

Read my posts above...

 

[RJ Evans]

I'm currently trying to discharge one of my 5 TB47's and at 0% I'm still showing 3.64V per cell. I'm letting it run down from there until it shuts off. The battery definitely needs the recal.

4 more TB47's and 1 TB48 to go! It's going to be a long night.

 

[RJ Evans]

BTW.. Special thanks to QuadPilot and The Editor for clarifying the procedure. Much appreciated gentlemen.

 

[The Editor]

Thanks Editor, I ran them down to 3% (dji app) and the batteries turned off themselves and wouldn't turn back on - I let them cool and re-charged and I am still getting the warning. This happened 2x on 2 different batteries and I am still getting the warning. I am at a loss

OK, if you are sure your batteries are updated to v1.3 and you are sure you took the cells down to 3.3v then I would be inclined to fly the packs as you would normally and get 2 or 3 flight cycles into them.
The message can sometimes take a couple of cycles to disappear....I have no idea why that is though.

 

[LockMD]

I was getting a warning stating that my batteries needed to be discharged to 5% then recharged. I flew until 10%, landed and left the copter on until 3%, powered down and recharged and still have the same warning. I have done this 2x per battery now and still getting the warning ??? any advice on this. Thanks in advance

Instead of powering down at 3%, just let it sit until it powers itself off, then let the battery cool before charging.

 

[photobeauty]

I was getting a warning stating that my batteries needed to be discharged to 5% then recharged. I flew until 10%, landed and left the copter on until 3%, powered down and recharged and still have the same warning. I have done this 2x per battery now and still getting the warning ??? any advice on this. Thanks in advance

In my experience with six batteries, unless they were discharged to 0% they did not go back to full power when recharged. Just discharging to 5% did not do it. This was mentioned by another poster a few days ago and it furned out to be true for my batteries. I discharge to 0% by flying until the AC will fly no more (at less than 10%) and then leave the AC on until the charge on the battery shows 0%.

 

[AMCR]

Thanks to everyone for the help. It has been raining for a few days so I have not been able to drain the batteries again. Good news is that they have been performing fine on the flights even with the warning. I just kept the bird closer than I normally would have just in case. Now that the new firmware is here I am updating everything and hope to have a report soon. Thanks again for all the info.

 

[Kevin Cabral]

I find the TB48 batteries to be poorly constructed. Recently bought a new TB48 battery. It currently has 4 charges on it, with 99% health battery. Why is the health dropping so quickly already? I use to have a P3P before my Inspire 1. The batteries seem to last longer than the Inspire batteries. Why is that? I had 55 charges on a P3P battery, health was at 95%. My one TB48 battery has 25 charges, health 94% :|. I calibrated the battery at charge 10. The 30th charge I'll run it down till the battery shuts off by itself. I'm starting to think this may be a software issue? False readings regarding battery health? What do you all think?

 

[Scotflieger]

I find the TB48 batteries to be poorly constructed. Recently bought a new TB48 battery. It currently has 4 charges on it, with 99% health battery. Why is the health dropping so quickly already? I use to have a P3P before my Inspire 1. The batteries seem to last longer than the Inspire batteries. Why is that? I had 55 charges on a P3P battery, health was at 95%. My one TB48 battery has 25 charges, health 94% :|. I calibrated the battery at charge 10. The 30th charge I'll run it down till the battery shuts off by itself. I'm starting to think this may be a software issue? False readings regarding battery health? What do you all think?

The current battery firmware logic (from FW1.6?) reduces the battery life by 1% for every 4-5 charges. This implies a life of 200+ charges. Your figures align with this algorithm.

 

[Kevin Cabral]

The current battery firmware logic (from FW1.6?) reduces the battery life by 1% for every 4-5 charges. This implies a life of 200+ charges. Your figures align with this algorithm.

Oh I see. I'm running 1.9 on my aircraft. So I assume my 4th charge 99% health is accurate? Just crazy how quick it drops in health. I was taking it easy on my new pack. My other 2 batteries I'm trying to stay above 40% until I reach 30 charges on those 2. The new battery only has 4 charges and never went under 50%

 

[Donnie Frank]

There seems to be a lot of confusion about re-calibrating batteries with the release notes of FW 1.3.0 stating to take batteries down to 5% then fully charging back to 100% to bring batteries back up to full capacity (4500mAH for a TB47). In my experience, 5% does not work, since after doing 5 TB47s that way with FW 1.3.0 I saw anywhere from 4100-4400 mAH capacity after charging them back to full.

So I did some research and found a post by @mixmaven on RCGroups Inspire thread here who stated that he found out from a DJI battery expert that the trick is to get the lowest cell voltage down to 3.30V, which in my case meant bringing the batteries to 0% (This has been confirmed by RCGroups DJI Forum Support @blade strike). Even then, once my motors stopped, lowest voltage climbed to around 3.40-3.45V before the voltage drained to 3.30V.

Easiest way I found to do this: Fly a fully charged battery down to around 20% (turn your battery warnings down to 15% and 10% respectively), then hover just above ground with LG down and wait for the RTH message, cancel it, and when you get the critical battery warning at 10% and the craft wants to land, just hold the throttle up to hover until it shows 3.3V (probably lower than 5% showing) and let it land. Once the motors stop, the cells will probably increase about .10V, so just leave it powered on until you see 3.30V on the lowest cell. Be mindful of battery temp while doing this, it did climb pretty high in this procedure. If in the field and once the motors stop, take off the props and put Inspire in front of the A/C vents in your vehicle. The trick, once again, is to discharge in one cycle down to the desired voltage, leaving the battery on the whole time.

That worked for me. Upon recharge to full, all my batteries showed a full 4500 mAH capacity. As mentioned elsewhere, battery life will probably drop a couple percentage points from previous value after the calibration. Since calibration, my impression is that I've gained about a minute or so in flight time on my batteries.

Don't forget to reset your battery warning levels once you go fly again!

I've been dropping my Inspire 1 batteries to 0% every 10 charges since day 1. The instructions USED to tell the user to do this, but perusing through their latest manual iteration, I see it's no longer there. Interesting.

D

 

[cjc1103]

All this for 1 minute of flight time! Seems like a true waste of time and effort. Just change batteries and move on.

To add to this, everything I've read about Lithium batteries says to maximize battery longevity, you should not discharge them completely, and minimize exposure to high temperatures. The more you use them the hotter they get. At 40% I'm returning home, land no less then 30% and accept some loss of flight time. Change batteries and resume the mission. Also you have to wait until they are cool before recharging, do not charge below freezing, store at 60% charge (DJI makes this easy, I set the self discharge option to 5 days). On my 5 battery packs with 20 or so cycles each, no problems so far, all cells within 0.02V. I've heard of others trying to add more batteries to an Inspire 1, but you run into diminishing returns with the increased weight. Other people with more Inspire 1 flight time, please chime in.

 

[Donnie Frank]

To add to this, everything I've read about Lithium batteries says to maximize battery longevity, you should not discharge them completely,

I see guys go back and forth with this, but not because they disagree. It's more because there is a disconnect.

DJI recommends running batteries down to 0% every 10 flights. I've been doing this for years with great success. Now 0% in the app is NOT 0 volts. Not even close. If memory serves, 0% in any of the DJI apps essentially translates to about 3.4 volts per cell.

and minimize exposure to high temperatures. The more you use them the hotter they get. At 40% I'm returning home, land no less then 30% and accept some loss of flight time. Change batteries and resume the mission.

Agreed.

Also you have to wait until they are cool before recharging,

Yes and no. The DJI smart batteries won't allow the DJI smart chargers to charge the batteries until they cool off. So you can plug them into the charger immediately upon landing. If you observe, the first LED closest to the power button will blink until the battery has cooled off enough to be charged. Once it has cooled off, the LED furthest from the power button will blink, indicating that the battery is charging.

do not charge below freezing, store at 60% charge (DJI makes this easy, I set the self discharge option to 5 days). On my 5 battery packs with 20 or so cycles each, no problems so far, all cells within 0.02V.

Agreed. I have batteries with 70+ charges on them all running 100%.

I've heard of others trying to add more batteries to an Inspire 1, but you run into diminishing returns with the increased weight.

Again, agreed. You can bet the engineers at DJI spec'd out the maximum battery weight before seeing diminishing returns. I'm going to guess that the TB47 is at the top of the efficiency bell curve, and the TB48 is just slightly to the right. This is pure speculation, but I bet I'm not far off.

Other people with more Inspire 1 flight time, please chime in.

I just did....<;^) I fly my Inspire 1 professionally every week and have for a couple years now.

Most gigs I use the X3, but I have an evening gig coming up the 29th that I will use the X5. I love the Inspire 1.

D

 

[InspireEagle]

I see guys go back and forth with this, but not because they disagree. It's more because there is a disconnect.

DJI recommends running batteries down to 0% every 10 flights. I've been doing this for years with great success. Now 0% in the app is NOT 0 volts. Not even close. If memory serves, 0% in any of the DJI apps essentially translates to about 3.4 volts per cell.





Agreed.






Yes and no. The DJI smart batteries won't allow the DJI smart chargers to charge the batteries until they cool off. So you can plug them into the charger immediately upon landing. If you observe, the first LED closest to the power button will blink until the battery has cooled off enough to be charged. Once it has cooled off, the LED furthest from the power button will blink, indicating that the battery is charging.





Agreed. I have batteries with 70+ charges on them all running 100%.





Again, agreed. You can bet the engineers at DJI spec'd out the maximum battery weight before seeing diminishing returns. I'm going to guess that the TB47 is at the top of the efficiency bell curve, and the TB48 is just slightly to the right. This is pure speculation, but I bet I'm not far off.




I just did....<;^) I fly my Inspire 1 professionally every week and have for a couple years now.

Most gigs I use the X3, but I have an evening gig coming up the 29th that I will use the X5. I love the Inspire 1.

D

Donnie whats the best way you've found to discharge to 0%

 

[Donnie Frank]

Donnie whats the best way you've found to discharge to 0%

Hovering is the quickest way to drain juice quickly, but most times I just leave the drone powered up until it shuts down on its own. If I know a battery is due, I'll land with 10% instead of 30%. I then take the drone home, remove the props, power her up and just leave her there until she dies. This takes the battery down to 0%.

D