Simple Question on Battery Maintenance

[Maverik]

Silly question: Say you have a battery that you've fully charged but not flown for a few days and it has now drained to 75%-80% (I know I'm not suppose to look at the % but rather at the voltage, but this is just for reference) Prior to flying, how would you proceed?

1.) Recharge the battery to 100% before flying.
or
2.) Drain the battery to 30% before charging.
or
3.) Some other method I have not thought of.

Just curious...

 

[Florida Drone Supply]

For a battery that has been self discharging for a few days, I think I would feel best having you charge it back to 100% before you fly it. Having already come down 20 or 25% I think you should just top it off and use it.

If you ever want to dig in and read about all the in and outs of Lipo batteries, there are some very good tests that have been done by batteryuniversity.com - not claiming that its edge of your seat stuff - just useful.

 

[AeroMirage]

Definitely top it off! NEVER take off with a battery that is less than fully charged. You will read many tales of crashed birds that took off with less than a full charge. Sometimes I will fly for only 5-6 minutes then land to change lenses. I also change the battery. Better safe than ...... sorry.

 

[Maverik]

I agree.. I would never fly without it being topped off.. but was just curious if I should drain it more first before charging back to 100%.

 

[AeroMirage]

I agree.. I would never fly without it being topped off.. but was just curious if I should drain it more first before charging back to 100%.

Not unless it is time to. Every 15 flights is often enough to keep them conditioned. I have a few batteries with 150+ charges on them and they still work like new. If you go to recharge it and it won't start (less than 10% depleted) turn it on and it will charge.

 

[Inspire1vision]

I have mine set to discharge every two days.


Sent from my iPad using InspirePilots

 

[The Editor]

Silly question: Say you have a battery that you've fully charged but not flown for a few days and it has now drained to 75%-80% (I know I'm not suppose to look at the % but rather at the voltage, but this is just for reference) Prior to flying, how would you proceed?

1.) Recharge the battery to 100% before flying.
or
2.) Drain the battery to 30% before charging.
or
3.) Some other method I have not thought of.

Just curious...

As has been said already above - never ever fly with a battery that has sat for a few days without topping it off first. Always take off with a 100% charged battery.
Batteries that are 95% or more charged already need to be turned on first before they will take a further charge (this is documented in the manual.
Lipos do not need to be 'excercised' or taken down to a specific level before charging since they suffer no memory effect and can be charged from any state.