Deep Cycling Help

[Kevin Cabral]

So I deep cycled my 1 battery today. For the amount of charges I put into the battery... Is 5444mah total capacity correct? I hovered the inspire till I saw 3.33v, then landed. Had it idle with motor's off till I saw 3.30v and turned battery off. For the first time I didn't see 'low voltage protection' in the battery history. I wonder why it didn't show up this time... The error DJI Go gave me for deep cycling disappeared so I assume all is well.

 

[Mad_angler1]

Looks fine, the Inspire battery fw is very aggressive at reducing capacity, all of my packs dropped capacity after less than 5 cycles.

For 36 that's ok on a TB48 it's only a few hundred mah. You have to understand this may not be the actual pack capacity but what the fw deems is available.

 

[Kevin Cabral]

Looks fine, the Inspire battery fw is very aggressive at reducing capacity, all of my packs dropped capacity after less than 5 cycles.

For 36 that's ok on a TB48 it's only a few hundred mah. You have to understand this may not be the actual pack capacity but what the fw deems is available.

Oh okay I was worried the deep cycle was done wrong. It seems the software is aggressive like you said. Other times I have done the deep cycling, low voltage protection would show up in the battery history. This time it didn't. This why I was confused if I did it right or not. Good to know I did it right. Thanks for the reply.

 

[Rich Sugden MD]

Oh okay I was worried the deep cycle was done wrong. It seems the software is aggressive like you said. Other times I have done the deep cycling, low voltage protection would show up in the battery history. This time it didn't. This why I was confused if I did it right or not. Good to know I did it right. Thanks for the reply.

Should be no reason to "deep cycle" LiPo batteries ... they are not like NiCad, as they have no 'memory' of charge cycles ...

 

[The Editor]

Should be no reason to "deep cycle" LiPo batteries ... they are not like NiCad, as they have no 'memory' of charge cycles ...

Yes there is a reason and it's simple.
A lipos chemistry means as it ages its internal resistance increases along with a decrease in capacity and a larger potential difference drop across the cells.
By deep cycling you are effectively teaching the algorithms that take care of monitoring battery guage levels and display of percentage what 'Empty' and what 'Full' is. These points change as the pack ages and without calibration the fuel display would show incorrect estimations of proportional battery capacity.

 

[Rich Sugden MD]

So, not so much "deep cycling", as 'calibrating' the monitoring system ... makes sense.

 

[The Editor]

So, not so much "deep cycling", as 'calibrating' the monitoring system ... makes sense.

But that's what deep cycling does - you have to go from Empty to Full. You deep cycle to Calibrate

 

[Rich Sugden MD]

But that's what deep cycling does - you have to go from Empty to Full. You deep cycle to Calibrate

Deep cycling batteries started w. NiCad batteries, which develop a 'memory' if only a small portion of the charge capacity is used repeatedly. Nothing to do with a monitoring system... I know because I had several aircraft w. NiCad batteries, and the many $$$ deep cycle inspections every year caused me to go back to lead acid...

 

[The Editor]

Deep cycling batteries started w. NiCad batteries, which develop a 'memory' if only a small portion of the charge capacity is used repeatedly. Nothing to do with a monitoring system... I know because I had several aircraft w. NiCad batteries, and the many $$$ deep cycle inspections every year caused me to go back to lead acid...

I know, but we are talking about DJI's intelligent flight packs here and the need to deep cycle to calibrate the fuel guage estimations.

 

[Chinglish]

I recently bought an Inspire 1 and done a lot of reading. But some deep cycle facts are still confusing to me:

1.Everybody speaks of deep cycling after 20 charges. In DJI's 'Intelligent Flight Battery Safety Guidelines' it says discharge completey every 10 cycles. Which is correct?
2.Should I wait until a message prompts about the deep cycle or should I do it anyway after the 10 or 20 cycles?
3.I read somewhere in DJI's paperwork (can't find it right now) that after every flight you should fully charge the battery. After reading you guy's posts I now understand this probably helps to keep the calibration on track. So if I want to fly once a week or two weeks: should I, after flight, charge my battery fully again (to keep calibration ok) and then discharge to 65% to keep it at storage level? Or can I just charge it half after flight and take the risk of messing up the calibration?
4.What is the correct minimum temperature (In Celcius) for the battery? I got a message when it was below 15C. I let it hover for a while and it came right up. But I also read somewhere that 25C was a minimum.
5.What about the calibration of the level indicator of the remote controller, should it be deep cycled as well?

Sorry if these questions already have been asked and answered. And I did find the 'search' button on the forum , but found no answers to my questions.

Thanks!

 

[The Editor]

I recently bought an Inspire 1 and done a lot of reading. But some deep cycle facts are still confusing to me:

1.Everybody speaks of deep cycling after 20 charges. In DJI's 'Intelligent Flight Battery Safety Guidelines' it says discharge completey every 10 cycles. Which is correct?
2.Should I wait until a message prompts about the deep cycle or should I do it anyway after the 10 or 20 cycles?
3.I read somewhere in DJI's paperwork (can't find it right now) that after every flight you should fully charge the battery. After reading you guy's posts I now understand this probably helps to keep the calibration on track. So if I want to fly once a week or two weeks: should I, after flight, charge my battery fully again (to keep calibration ok) and then discharge to 65% to keep it at storage level? Or can I just charge it half after flight and take the risk of messing up the calibration?
4.What is the correct minimum temperature (In Celcius) for the battery? I got a message when it was below 15C. I let it hover for a while and it came right up. But I also read somewhere that 25C was a minimum.
5.What about the calibration of the level indicator of the remote controller, should it be deep cycled as well?

Sorry if these questions already have been asked and answered. And I did find the 'search' button on the forum , but found no answers to my questions.

Thanks!

OK, last things first.....
No need to deep cycle or do anything special with the remote control. If you are not going to be flying for months probably a good idea to store it around 50% charge though.

With regards to the batteries, there is no hard and fast rule but around 20 uses (charge/discharge cycles) will be fine unless the app tells you to calibrate prior to that.

If you go fly and then will not be flying for a while, just bring them home, charge them to 50% and leave them there until you are ready to fly again (which is what I do) - although do check the charge by pressing the button on the battery every 3 weeks or so just to make sure it hasn't dropped low.
When you come to next use the packs, charge them up to full (balancing will be done during the charge) - and go fly.

Temperature at which point current limit kicks in is 15 degrees - so make sure your packs are warmer than that before flying. They will then increase in temp as soon as you take off.

Hope that helps.

 

[Rich Sugden MD]

I recently bought an Inspire 1 and done a lot of reading. But some deep cycle facts are still confusing to me:

1.Everybody speaks of deep cycling after 20 charges. In DJI's 'Intelligent Flight Battery Safety Guidelines' it says discharge completey every 10 cycles. Which is correct?
2.Should I wait until a message prompts about the deep cycle or should I do it anyway after the 10 or 20 cycles?
3.I read somewhere in DJI's paperwork (can't find it right now) that after every flight you should fully charge the battery. After reading you guy's posts I now understand this probably helps to keep the calibration on track. So if I want to fly once a week or two weeks: should I, after flight, charge my battery fully again (to keep calibration ok) and then discharge to 65% to keep it at storage level? Or can I just charge it half after flight and take the risk of messing up the calibration?
4.What is the correct minimum temperature (In Celcius) for the battery? I got a message when it was below 15C. I let it hover for a while and it came right up. But I also read somewhere that 25C was a minimum.
5.What about the calibration of the level indicator of the remote controller, should it be deep cycled as well?

Sorry if these questions already have been asked and answered. And I did find the 'search' button on the forum , but found no answers to my questions.

Thanks!

Chinglish ...

This whole "deep cycling" of Inspire batteries is a misnomer ... there is no need to "deep cycle" LiPo batteries ... BUT, DJI has a 'sophisticated' monitoring system built into the battery that keeps track of the battery's capacity ... call it a "battery full -> empty meter" ... LiPo batteries very gradually lose their energy storage 'capacity' over time and charge cycles ... So, to tell the monitoring system what is "full" and what is "empty" (which also is a misnomer, as over-discharging a LiPo battery will destroy it forever" you cycle the battery periodically so the monitoring system can see how much charge capacity is available, and can accurately display "percent charge" on your DJO GO display ... that's all.

Another problem I've written about on this forum is this "sophisticated charging/monitoring system" in the batteries can, and has, destroyed a lot of batteries due to the constant, albeit small, discharge it imposes on the battery. As I said above, if you discharge a LiPo battery beyond a certain point the battery is destroyed and cannot be charged again ... So, many of us have expensive DJI paperweights ... I have $600 worth sitting on my desk holding down papers. If you are going to store you batteries for more than a couple of months, then I'd suggest checking them every month and charging them back to 50%. Hopefully DJI will install a switch, or firmware, that will turn off any drain on the battery after a few weeks of storage ... otherwise more batteries will be destroyed ...

Re. the battery temp before flying, DJI has insulators you can install on the batteries to keep them warm when flying .. One problem is if you fly in very cold temperatures (it gets to -40° where I live) the batteries will cool rather than warm while flying ... the insulators keep the heat in the battery ...