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Battery Life / Output Question

Joined
Jan 10, 2017
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Any advice on whether the below is normal or if the batteries are damaged?

Bought a used Inspire 1 with 4 batteries (3x TB48 1xTB47). The 48s have 20, 40 and 40 charges respectively and the 47, 30.

When I test flew the a/c in P mode, I got some prompt from DJI Go that the engine output was limited to preserve life of the battery. Is that normal or caused by the state of the batteries?
Voltage dropped down to 3.2 to 3.4V for each battery while in operation. Flight times I got ranged from 15 to 20 minutes.

I don't know if the batteries had been sitting for a while before the Inspire was shipped - I simply charged them up from flat and got going.

If batteries are damaged, is there a way to "recondition" them?

Thanks
 
Any advice on whether the below is normal or if the batteries are damaged?

Bought a used Inspire 1 with 4 batteries (3x TB48 1xTB47). The 48s have 20, 40 and 40 charges respectively and the 47, 30.

When I test flew the a/c in P mode, I got some prompt from DJI Go that the engine output was limited to preserve life of the battery. Is that normal or caused by the state of the batteries?
Voltage dropped down to 3.2 to 3.4V for each battery while in operation. Flight times I got ranged from 15 to 20 minutes.

I don't know if the batteries had been sitting for a while before the Inspire was shipped - I simply charged them up from flat and got going.

If batteries are damaged, is there a way to "recondition" them?

Thanks

It sounds like you may have just run the batteries down towards the end of their capacity while flying. I am guessing you got the warning towards the later part of the flight and not the earlier part. When a batteries is fully charged the voltage is higher than when the battery has discharged a portion of its energy.

If you have a v1 Inspire 1 (instead of a v2) those motors spin at a lower RPM per volt (this is the KV of the motor) and RPM of the propeller is what provides the thrust to keep flying. So if you were trying to do a quick climb as a battery is nearing the end of its charge, you may have the power limited by the Inspire to keep the battery from dropping too far in voltage and damaging a battery cell. Dropping below 3 volts per cell is where damage begins to happen. If you dropped down to 3.2 or 3.4 volts per cell and got 15-20 minutes of flying time your batteries seem quite normal in their performance.

Based on the cycles on the batteries, if they had been maintained well you should still have a lot of life left in them. As for "re-conditioning" them, whats more likely beneficial to the battery is a re-calibration. This is a process where you discharge the battery very low (5-8%) and then fully charge the battery. Doing this calibrates the battery to understand how much charge it is capable of storing and makes your battery percentage indicator more accurate (the capacity will lower over time). It is recommended that you do this every 10 or 20 charging cycles. You can find lots of information about this process online - and some chargers are capable of doing this process for you.

I hope you are enjoying your new Inspire 1 and if you have any more questions, feel free to reach out to me or any of the rest of us here on the Inspire Pilots forum.

Michael
www.FloridaDroneSupply.com
 
It sounds like you may have just run the batteries down towards the end of their capacity while flying. I am guessing you got the warning towards the later part of the flight and not the earlier part. When a batteries is fully charged the voltage is higher than when the battery has discharged a portion of its energy.

If you have a v1 Inspire 1 (instead of a v2) those motors spin at a lower RPM per volt (this is the KV of the motor) and RPM of the propeller is what provides the thrust to keep flying. So if you were trying to do a quick climb as a battery is nearing the end of its charge, you may have the power limited by the Inspire to keep the battery from dropping too far in voltage and damaging a battery cell. Dropping below 3 volts per cell is where damage begins to happen. If you dropped down to 3.2 or 3.4 volts per cell and got 15-20 minutes of flying time your batteries seem quite normal in their performance.

Based on the cycles on the batteries, if they had been maintained well you should still have a lot of life left in them. As for "re-conditioning" them, whats more likely beneficial to the battery is a re-calibration. This is a process where you discharge the battery very low (5-8%) and then fully charge the battery. Doing this calibrates the battery to understand how much charge it is capable of storing and makes your battery percentage indicator more accurate (the capacity will lower over time). It is recommended that you do this every 10 or 20 charging cycles. You can find lots of information about this process online - and some chargers are capable of doing this process for you.

I hope you are enjoying your new Inspire 1 and if you have any more questions, feel free to reach out to me or any of the rest of us here on the Inspire Pilots forum.

Michael
www.FloridaDroneSupply.com
Thank you Michael for the very comprehensive reply. I'll look to applying your suggested methods.
 

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