Infrequent use of batteries - best practice

[brian bwin]

We'll be flying somewhat infrequently (once every 2-3 weeks would be my guess) until the spring picks up and we start to more actively market our aerial services. I was unsure if we should be charging the batteries fully after flights and letting them self-discharge down to 50% or just charge them to 50% and stop there.

I asked Autel customer service what the best practice for us in terms of charging would be and this was the reply:

"We recommend to always charge them to at least 50% before storage in order to allow the "smart" functions to operate correctly and slowly discharge down to the correct voltage. If you were to drain the battery to a very low level before storage, the battery might not be at the correct level or the cells may be unbalanced. This could result in uneven aging.

So in short, if you are charging solely for storage, you can stop at 50%."

Hope this helps anyone out there dealing with winter conditions or just infrequent use!

 

[AlohaDrone]

You can change how fast your batteries discharge...the StarLink app has a setting you can change from 1 -10 days to discharge to 50% automatically. Also per the Autel Video below they recommend charging the battery at least once every 3 months

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[brian bwin]

Yup, but assuming I will be going well past 10 days (and well under 3 months) between flights I wanted to know if I should even bother charging them past 50% since that's what they'll self-discharge back down to anyway.

 

[Jim Jenkins]

U should fully cycle them when using. Fully charge , fly and discharge then fully charge. If you were going to store them after that then just let em discharge on their own. Storage temp is important they don't like the cold. Smart batteries like cycling. Hopefully someone will make a smart charge/discharge station like what is available for DJI batteries and you could run the cycles without flying. Until they do you will have to go through the process. Just my 2 cents.

 

[brian bwin]

Just going by what Autel says on this one: As long as you charge past 50% after use it will self discharge the cells evenly down to that point for safe storage.

I'll report back periodically on this charging regimen as my batteries age.