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Battery care for long term storage

Of course 'your' post is better. Everyone thinks their opinion is better.
I speak from experience -- not from something I think I saw on the Internet. If you're not interested in my expert opinion though, then at least take the time to read the Battery Safety Guidelines to see what the manufacturer recommends.
 
Probably a dumb newbie question, but what is the best way to discharge these batteries, if can't do so via flying the Spark? Just read the manual cited above, and says to discharge to 40-65% but not HOW to discharge. All I can think of so far is just turn on the Spark and let it run without flying it?
 
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Probably a dumb newbie question, but what is the best way to discharge these batteries, if can't do so via flying the Spark? Just read the manual cited above, and says to discharge to 40-65% but not HOW to discharge. All I can think of so far is just turn on the Spark and let it run without flying it?
Who said you can't discharge via flying spark?
 
Of course 'your' post is better. Everyone thinks their opinion is better.

Gee, and your opinion is so "fact" based !! Please provide us a link to some DJI publication that supports your opinion..... as has msinger :)

While we're at it, I'm a Mavic customer who recently purchased a Spark. I scoured theDJI documentation and video tutorials, including matters of intelligent battery care and feeding. It appears that the Spark batteries have less intelligence than those of the Mavic. With the Mavic I'm able to set the number of days before the batteries start their discharge cycle. When I look at the battery settings via Go 4, there is no such option for the Spark.

Similarly I was looking for some reference that, by pressing the on/off battery button I would be delaying the discharge cycle. Has anyone read anything that clarifies this?

One last matter regarding the Battery Safety Guidelines under "Battery Storage." There seems to be a contradiction between item 2. and 3.

" 1. DO NOT store the battery for an extended period after fully discharging it. Doing so may over-charge the battery and cause irreparable battery cell damage."

....while:

" 2. "The battery will enter hibernation mode if depleted and stored for a long period."

I'm looking for some more consistent information. While this document is dated 2017, there have been a few battery firmware updates that may have changed this.
 
With the Mavic I'm able to set the number of days before the batteries start their discharge cycle. When I look at the battery settings via Go 4, there is no such option for the Spark.
That setting defaults to 10 days. For some reason, DJI has not exposed that setting in DJI GO for the Spark.

by pressing the on/off battery button I would be delaying the discharge cycle
Like other DJI batteries, pressing the Spark battery button will also reset that 10-day period.

One last matter regarding the Battery Safety Guidelines under "Battery Storage." There seems to be a contradiction between item 2. and 3.

" 1. DO NOT store the battery for an extended period after fully discharging it. Doing so may over-charge the battery and cause irreparable battery cell damage."

....while:

" 2. "The battery will enter hibernation mode if depleted and stored for a long period."
@nutsnbolts and I were discussing this earlier today in this thread.
 
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That setting defaults to 10 days. For some reason, DJI has not exposed that setting in DJI GO for the Spark.


Like other DJI batteries, pressing the Spark battery button will also reset that 10-day period.


@nutsnbolts and I were discussing this earlier today in this thread.

Thank you, learned sir :) ... Great minds think... I've been working my way down a "Search..." list on "Intelligent Batteries" and hadn't gotten to that one yet!

As an aside, Engineer Rick, author of the Drone Valley youtube channel ( referenced earlier in this thread ), does talk about forcing into the hibernation mode. He states that you can get it to happen by flying your battery down to 5%, then letting it sit. He claims the battery will slowly discharge further and, at some point, re-enters sleepy time. The context of this process is to help re-balance cells with voltages that are out of sync, essentially 'resetting' the battery. And, then by waking the battery with a full charge, the cell balancing would return to normal.

I'm not an engineer, and can't evaluate his claims-of-process and outcome. As such I doubt I'll be following his opinion. I enjoy watching his video's and have learned a great deal, if nothing else, how to ask questions and weight various opinions and facts.

Thanks again for your reply.
s2
 
He states that you can get it to happen by flying your battery down to 5%, then letting it sit. He claims the battery will slowly discharge further and, at some point, re-enters sleepy time. The context of this process is to help re-balance cells with voltages that are out of sync, essentially 'resetting' the battery. And, then by waking the battery with a full charge, the cell balancing would return to normal.
While this might be helpful for some batteries, I've never seen any evidence that it's beneficial for DJI batteries.
 
While this might be helpful for some batteries, I've never seen any evidence that it's beneficial for DJI batteries.
I would agree... particularly because of my "other world experiences with LiPO's ... In the world of RC cars & trucks there are no "smart" or intelligent batteries. Only chargers that can be depended upon to discharge batteries, and ways to monitor the balancing and discharge balancing of cells. In that world there are endless cautions about over and under charging as well as chapters written on storage. All of my LiOP's are stored in metal ammo cans inside of LiPO bags! I welcome the business effort (DJI) that has made the effort to create the intelligence that the RC world lacks :) [ I will still store my quad batteries in ammo cans! ]
 
Do you store them together or each battery in separate cans?

If stored together and one decides to catch fire, would the other ones be at risk?

I have two ammo boxes. One has a half dozen multi-celled "standard" LiPo's ( used for RC cars and trucks ) in one, and one containing 9 batteries: 6-DJI ( 3 each for Mavic and Spark ) 3-Parrot ( Bebop 2 ) and 9 other single cell LiPo's from "toy" quads. Both are stored in 60+ degree basement area away from anything that might be damaged. Because it's my woodworking and bike shop area, there are multiple smoke and CO2 detectors. FWIW, you can purchase these heavy duty ammo boxes from Harbor Freight for around $16. They are very heavy duty and rated to actually hold live-round ammunition. More than sufficient for storing LiPo's.

Harbor Freight Ammo Can link:
.50 Cal Metal Ammo Can
 
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The company I work for make high performance LiPO battery cells, they can be stored for very long periods of time between 40 - 70% SOC, with little degradation. This is based on extensive life cycle testing and chemical analasis of dismantled life tested cells and those that have been in extended storage.
 
Wow my mind is just blown. I have to reread everything again. :) So is it safe to store long term or not lol :)
 
Yes it’s safe to store them long term, charge them to 70% then check them each month, when they get below 40% charge them to 70%. This is the sweet spot for LiPo. The intelligence circuits take a tiny amount of power so they will eventually discharge completely, if you find that after 2 months they get down below 40% then charge to 70% every 2 months. They should be fine.
 
Yes it’s safe to store them long term, charge them to 70% then check them each month, when they get below 40% charge them to 70%. This is the sweet spot for LiPo. The intelligence circuits take a tiny amount of power so they will eventually discharge completely, if you find that after 2 months they get down below 40% then charge to 70% every 2 months. They should be fine.
I agree with JohnC. I have numerous "stupid" LiPo's and I keep them between 50% and 70%.
This is indeed the sweet spot for LiPo's where internal resistance is at it's lowest. I understand that the circuitry in the dji batteries will cause them to run down perhaps a bit quicker than dumb ones which can go about 3-3.5 months before needing a maintenance charge. Bi-monthly strikes me as about right unless they are stored in a high heat environment. It could be that dji batteries may be more tolerant but I prefer to be safe, rather than sorry, considering how expensive the dji batteries are.
 
Never seen the evidence means there must be none.
Some people have done it and compared batteries where it has not been done. The results have also shown there is no benefit.

Will it hurt your batteries if you do it? Probably not. Will you waste time doing it? Probably. And if you've got notime, you probably shouldn't do it ;)
 
What is the longest you guys keep a battery at 100%? I charged both my batteries last week but only wound up using one. I haven't discharged the full one yet - I was waiting to see how the weather would be next weekend.
 
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