Inspire 1 Battery Management for Search and Rescue

[scoutcamper]

Hey All,

Our Search and Rescue team just received the Inspire 1. I actually took it on its maiden flight last night, it is working great!

I have a different battery maintenance question than most people do. We have 2 batteries for it currently, as well as the Multi Charger.

Our drone needs to be ready to be deployed with 5 minute notice, so we cannot very well keep the batteries at 50%, but at the same time I dont think we want to leave them on the charger 24/7 with the risk of damaging them.

Can anyone provide some guidance? The drone could go anything from a week to a month without being used, so we need to just keep it ready to deploy.

Thanks,
Matthew

 

[hoodlum1]

You should do the battery mod gives you more flight time if needed.50% battery not going to give you much time in the air when they return home @ 30 % so if you hook up 2 battery with a mount they feed the main battery.it takes a while before they drain down to 50% when they are not in use.just check them every few days oust the button on the top see how many lights are lit.when they are down to two charge them.

 

[scoutcamper]

The battery mod is definitely on the to-do list. I am mostly worried about the batteries draining down to 50% and then us needing the drone for a multi-hour op, starting that with half charged batteries would not be ideal.

 

[Florida Drone Supply]

Is it possible for you to have a couple more batteries? Ideally you could rotate the batteries that are charged with the ones that are not charged every 48 hours. Just charge the 2 up that were at 50% and then discharge the 2 that were fully charged. 2 days later, repeat. I think all police, fire, search and rescue users, etc just need to have enough batteries and an easy to follow battery management routine.

One thing that will help make this easy to do is the SmartPower Charger. In addition to charging, it will also put batteries to storage voltage for you. That eliminates the wear and tear you put on the machine using it to discharge batteries every couple days. This charger can manage 4 batteries in the main slots (any combo of charging or discharging) and has 2 ports on the side that can also be used for battery charging or remote controller charging. Here is a link to the charger on our site if you are not familiar with it. We keep them in stock.

Smart Power Charge - Inspire 1 and Matrice

Let us know if you have any more questions - we are definitely battery people.

www.FloridaDroneSupply.com

 

[CMS]

Hey All,

Our Search and Rescue team just received the Inspire 1. I actually took it on its maiden flight last night, it is working great!

I have a different battery maintenance question than most people do. We have 2 batteries for it currently, as well as the Multi Charger.

Our drone needs to be ready to be deployed with 5 minute notice, so we cannot very well keep the batteries at 50%, but at the same time I dont think we want to leave them on the charger 24/7 with the risk of damaging them.

Can anyone provide some guidance? The drone could go anything from a week to a month without being used, so we need to just keep it ready to deploy.

Thanks,
Matthew

I think your first problem will be the limited number of batteries you have. Any continuous long term operation will require enough batteries to fly while charging the dead ones and that means at least 4 and probably 6 batteries. Also remember that you have to factor in that these are smart batteries and they will not allow you to charge them until the internal temps come down. You can speed this along by placing them in front of an air conditioning vent but it will only help a little. An Inspire will only have about 15 to 18 minutes of real world flight time especially if you are carrying a FLIR on an after market rig while carrying the Z3. The Smart Power Charger is a nice charger no doubt but it only charges 4 batteries at a time. That might be enough unless you add another Inspire in the mix. Most departments are adding a second bird for backup or to train with because the prices have dropped so much. Bottom line is that you will have to manage these batteries and have a way to charge them, there is no easy way around this problem. The big issue is to always have at least one or two batteries that has over 90% charge. Cycle all the batteries every 10 to 15 flights and that means taking them down to near zero %. Mark all the batteries and keep a log. You should be keeping a log of all UAV activities anyway. Store the batteries at about 50% as DJI instructs us to do. Make sure all the batteries are stored in such a way that anyone with a little training can start the charging process ASAP. I know you said that the UAV needs to be deployed within 5 minutes notice. I don't know how that could be done safely in 5 minutes. Maybe you meant leaving the house or fire station in 5 minutes. Most of the time you will have 10 to 15 minutes at the scene before you could physically be airborne so starting the charging process is one of the most important things you can do besides properly storing the batteries. You might want to look at the new DJI HEX charger. Purchased one or those a few weeks ago and it makes life easy when charging 6 M600 batteries. AT about 20% charge it took just under 90 mins to charge all 6. It will work with the Inspire 1 batteries. So, if you had the HEX charger with 6 Inspire batteries at about 50% charge if would take about 45 minutes to have all of them at 100%. With about 5 to 10 minutes to leave the station and travel to the location, another 5 to 10 to establish the landing zone and perform a compass calibration along with one fully charged battery you can see that 45 minutes don't look so bad. Hope this helps.

 

[Florida Drone Supply]

I think your first problem will be the limited number of batteries you have. Any continuous long term operation will require enough batteries to fly while charging the dead ones and that means at least 4 and probably 6 batteries. Also remember that you have to factor in that these are smart batteries and they will not allow you to charge them until the internal temps come down. You can speed this along by placing them in front of an air conditioning vent but it will only help a little. An Inspire will only have about 15 to 18 minutes of real world flight time especially if you are carrying a FLIR on an after market rig while carrying the Z3. The Smart Power Charger is a nice charger no doubt but it only charges 4 batteries at a time. That might be enough unless you add another Inspire in the mix. Most departments are adding a second bird for backup or to train with because the prices have dropped so much. Bottom line is that you will have to manage these batteries and have a way to charge them, there is no easy way around this problem. The big issue is to always have at least one or two batteries that has over 90% charge. Cycle all the batteries every 10 to 15 flights and that means taking them down to near zero %. Mark all the batteries and keep a log. You should be keeping a log of all UAV activities anyway. Store the batteries at about 50% as DJI instructs us to do. Make sure all the batteries are stored in such a way that anyone with a little training can start the charging process ASAP. I know you said that the UAV needs to be deployed within 5 minutes notice. I don't know how that could be done safely in 5 minutes. Maybe you meant leaving the house or fire station in 5 minutes. Most of the time you will have 10 to 15 minutes at the scene before you could physically be airborne so starting the charging process is one of the most important things you can do besides properly storing the batteries. You might want to look at the new DJI HEX charger. Purchased one or those a few weeks ago and it makes life easy when charging 6 M600 batteries. AT about 20% charge it took just under 90 mins to charge all 6. It will work with the Inspire 1 batteries. So, if you had the HEX charger with 6 Inspire batteries at about 50% charge if would take about 45 minutes to have all of them at 100%. With about 5 to 10 minutes to leave the station and travel to the location, another 5 to 10 to establish the landing zone and perform a compass calibration along with one fully charged battery you can see that 45 minutes don't look so bad. Hope this helps.

This is all very good advice. I would only add that if you go with the DJI Hex charger you need to consider how you take your batteries to storage voltage (50%). You can set the battery to do it automatically after a day or two, but if anyone presses the button to check the battery it resets the countdown before it starts to discharge. If a shift change happens and the new shift wants to check batteries, this could become a problem. I know a few clients who use the Phantom Angel for discharging. Its a simple device that uses the battery to power a very bright light bulb until the battery gets to 50%. The SmartPower Charger also can put the batteries to storage voltage very easily and will do the full cycling / calibration (takes them to near zero and then to a full charge). You can also fly them down, but thats a lot of extra wear on the copter for no reason.

If we can help further just ask...

 

[Steve Reid]

If you're seriously doing search and rescue you need at least 6 batteries with 2 charged @ all times and 4 charging when called. JMO!!

 

[bluelight.support]

An in-vehicle charging system would be able to perhaps have a set on standby even at low voltage which you could rotate with others. By the time you get on scene maybe 10-30 minutes, add a pre-flight site survey which you would have to do for insurance and liability 10-30 minutes - thats potentially 60 mins or so which I think is time to charge a set from scratch. You dont say how far you will be form an incident - but I cant foresee you would be that close subject to callout