Charger that stops at Storage Level

[nicopter]

Hi,
Has anyone heard about a charger for Inspire 1 that charges until the storage level is reached?
I'm looking for that.. Now I stop manually my DJI charger at around 50% charge (3.85V).

I don't know if charging in two times (low bat --> Storage, then the day before use Storage->Full charge) has some drawbacks, like breaking the batt capacity calculation. That's why I make full charges every 5 times.
This system limits the number of cycles of the battery: you avoid all the "discharge for storage" phases.

(maybe I could make a simple electronic stuff that beeps when the third led of the battery switch on while charging! )

 

[SanCap]

I don't know of a charger that does what you are looking for this but this device will discharge to storage or deep cycle. Phantom Angel

 

[IrishSights]

Hi,
Has anyone heard about a charger for Inspire 1 that charges until the storage level is reached?
I'm looking for that.. Now I stop manually my DJI charger at around 50% charge (3.85V).

I don't know if charging in two times (low bat --> Storage, then the day before use Storage->Full charge) has some drawbacks, like breaking the batt capacity calculation. That's why I make full charges every 5 times.
This system limits the number of cycles of the battery: you avoid all the "discharge for storage" phases.

(maybe I could make a simple electronic stuff that beeps when the third led of the battery switch on while charging! )

Personally I don't think there is anything wrong with the auto discharge to storage function from full if it's set short. I have mine set to 2 days incase I forget to discharge using the Phantom Angel.

PfCO Holder
BNUC-S Qualified

 

[Florida Drone Supply]

There actually is a charger that does what you are asking about. Here are a couple thoughts for you:

First, depending on how low you fly your batteries, it may not be necessary to do the "two step charge" as you described. If you are under 20% I would say you should probably add a little extra charge in case you do not plan to fly anytime soon. If you are over 20% but below 50% I think they can stay just the way they are until you fly next (assuming you don't put them on the shelf for the winter or something like that). A number of people we know target 30% for their landing. We do the same thing when we fly and leave them at their landing voltage until they are charged again.

As for the Smart Power Charge (Smart Power Charge - Inspire 1 and Matrice), this does charging, deep cycling and store charging. When you initiate storage charge, if you are low it adds voltage and if you are high it discharges to get to storage voltage. Pretty easy - works on Inspire 1, Matrice 100 and Matrice 600 batteries. There is also a different unit for Phantom 4.

I think the M600 batteries are the toughest to discharge because there are so many of them. If you have 2 or 3 sets left from a day, thats 12-18 batteries to discharge. This product makes it pretty easy. Since an Inspire 1 only uses 1 battery at a time, you obviously have substantially less batteries to worry about...making this product quick and easy to get the job done.

There are also less expensive products out there like the one SanCap mentioned - I personally do not have experience with it but it sure looks like it would get the job done. The Smart Power Charge is $499.

Hope that helps a little!

www.FloridaDroneSupply.com

 

[SanCap]

There actually is a charger that does what you are asking about. Here are a couple thoughts for you:

First, depending on how low you fly your batteries, it may not be necessary to do the "two step charge" as you described. If you are under 20% I would say you should probably add a little extra charge in case you do not plan to fly anytime soon. If you are over 20% but below 50% I think they can stay just the way they are until you fly next (assuming you don't put them on the shelf for the winter or something like that). A number of people we know target 30% for their landing. We do the same thing when we fly and leave them at their landing voltage until they are charged again.

As for the Smart Power Charge (Smart Power Charge - Inspire 1 and Matrice), this does charging, deep cycling and store charging. When you initiate storage charge, if you are low it adds voltage and if you are high it discharges to get to storage voltage. Pretty easy - works on Inspire 1, Matrice 100 and Matrice 600 batteries. There is also a different unit for Phantom 4.

I think the M600 batteries are the toughest to discharge because there are so many of them. If you have 2 or 3 sets left from a day, thats 12-18 batteries to discharge. This product makes it pretty easy. Since an Inspire 1 only uses 1 battery at a time, you obviously have substantially less batteries to worry about...making this product quick and easy to get the job done.

There are also less expensive products out there like the one SanCap mentioned - I personally do not have experience with it but it sure looks like it would get the job done. The Smart Power Charge is $499.

Hope that helps a little!

www.FloridaDroneSupply.com

How do you get this to initiate storage charge?

 

[Florida Drone Supply]

You hold down the red button (Deep Cycle) for 5 seconds - the light will change from solid red to flashing red. Then you turn on your battery before putting it into the charging slot. Once its in, the screen will display the battery voltage and either add or subtract charge until its at storage voltage.

 

[nicopter]

Ok, I did not see "charge to storage" in the spec of the Smart Charger but right, as soon as there was a storage functionnality mentionned, I could conclude there was a charge to storage.

You're right Florida: a good idea is to land around 20%, then we are maybe around 3.7V (on the ground), which is close to storage.

Irish, there is not technical problem in using the disharge, but it increases by 33% the cycles: battery low, full charge, 50% discharge, 50% charge before fly. You have 1.5 times a charge for each cycle, if you fly every week for example and setup storage to 2 days. Ok this is a slow disharge, less ageing than fast disharge, but it makes cycles.

There could be a special action on batts before charge with DJI chargers, that stops the charge a storage level..

 

[JimBinDallas]

I’ve been dealing with LiPos since I built my first Naza2 quad in 2012. When you have 25,000 mAh batts that cost $500 each, you learn.

All the commercial balance charger systems have a “storage” function which will go up or down to 38% as needed. When I started using my Phantoms2s, Inspire 1s and 2s, I started originally just using my commercial chargers to do it. I would use alligator clips until I found the adaptor in the picture which goes from banana leads to the DJI connector for Phantoms and Inspire 1.

Using power from the commercial charger set to storage with the DJI quad battery adaptor worked for 4 at a time (sequentially) for the Phantoms & Inspire 1.

Since I’m not in a hurry when going to storage, I now use the setup shown. It is an inexpensive bench power supply I bought when building my own birds where I can lock the voltage (I use 23.30v) and the amps float from 2A to zero as the batts reach that voltage where everything stops automatically. Picture shows it doing Inspire 2 batts, but works identically for 1s and older Phantoms.

The triple charger DJI sells for my Phantom 4 Pro has a magic little switch on it for Storage or Charging. Why this isn’t available on the Inspire 2 chargers is baffling.
Jim