How to store and maintain high-rate drone batteries?

Best practices for battery care and upkeep to ensure maximum battery life.

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Your drone's lithium-ion batteries' tightly packed power is necessary for flying. To get the maximum usage out of your lithium-ion batteries, following best practices and manufacturer instructions when charging, discharging, moving, or storing them is crucial. In addition, it's critical to comprehend the fundamentals of how a high-rate battery operates before continuing.

Consider your battery cell's interior having two sides, an anode and cathode, to keep things simple. Lithium ions will transfer from the anode to the cathode inside the battery during discharge. However, electrons must follow a separate path as electrical current outside the battery. The converse happens when the battery is charged, and lithium ions return to the anode. The lithium-ion batteries' useful life eventually ends due to this continual back and forth and other variables.

Expert tips and advice for maintaining and storing high-quality drone batteries. 

Read and adhere to the instructions in your user handbook.

We assume that after receiving your new high-rate drone, the first thing you did was read the official documentation that was provided. We cannot emphasize enough how crucial it is for pilots and operators to internalize the information included in these publications about battery use, charging, maintenance, storage, and disposal.

Regularly update your firmware. 

Always keep your batteries' firmware up to date, ideally with both running the most recent official firmware. Dual-battery drones must have both batteries running the same firmware version to take off.

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Watch out for high temps.

The worst enemy of a battery is extreme temperatures. Therefore, drone batteries shouldn't be used, charged, or kept outside the manual's recommended temperature ranges. In addition, because exposure to and use in severe temperatures can result in irreversible losses in battery capacity, longevity, and stability, operators should be aware of where batteries are left and stored. Avoid, for instance, keeping batteries in a car during the winter or summer or in other places that may undergo high temperatures.

Charge Cautiously

High-end drone batteries have communication ports for their corresponding chargers. Therefore, always use an authorized charger.

●What's wrong with external chargers, exactly? 

Charge rates higher than 1C are possible with third-party drone chargers. Although a battery can be charged at this rate more quickly, doing so will shorten the battery's lifespan and harm the cells' lithium plating and internal temperatures.

Third-party chargers may also harm your battery terminals due to incorrect alignment, safeguards, and guidelines.

●Ideal Methods for Charging

We advise letting your batteries come to a tolerable internal temperature before charging to provide the greatest care for your batteries.

In some circumstances, charging your batteries as quickly as possible after a flight may be crucial, even if they are still warm from the drone. If the charger and battery are put in a well-ventilated environment (i.e., not covered or heated), it is safe to use a DJI charger even when the battery is still hot. However, it is recommended practice to wait for the battery to stay cool down before putting it on the charger if charging is not urgent.

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Intelligent flight batteries are made to end the charging process once full. However, we advise you to monitor the charging progress and disconnect the batteries when fully charged

Best Battery Storage Practises 

●Storage Situation

Batteries should be stored between 71.6°F and 86°F to reduce capacity loss. Always keep batteries in a room with good ventilation, away from heat sources and sunshine. When storing drones, remove the batteries. Batteries must not be exposed to water.

●Avoid Storing at 100%.

It is advised to only partially charge your batteries after storing them. In most instances, you can program between 1 and 10 days for the batteries to begin self-discharging down to 60% on the app. The battery will default to 10 days if no option is available in the app. It should be charged up to 40 to 60% of its capacity when storing a battery.

Avoid 0%

Your batteries may suffer severe harm from over-discharge. To extend the life of your drone, it is advised to land it while the battery is at least 15% charged. Please recharge your battery as soon as possible if it has been used beyond 15% of its capacity.

Keep pairings paired off.

To maximize the service life and guarantee flight performance for dual-battery-equipped aircraft like the M300 RTK and M200 Series, mark two batteries as a pair and keep using them as a pair (charge and discharge them together). Pairs of batteries will maintain an internal resistance that is relatively similar using this technique.

Keep Up with Maintenance

Ensuring your batteries are calibrated and ready to go requires crucial actions. First, a precise digital display of the battery %, a crucial metric when controlling your drone, is ensured by charging and draining the battery. If this procedure is disregarded, other operations will increase the battery percentage margin of error.

Complete the following every 50 cycles or every three months, whichever comes first.

1.According to the directions below, charge and discharge the batteries.

2.After the battery is fully charged and stationary for 6 hours, check if the cell voltage differential is less than 0.1V.

3.Check if the battery has any swelling, leaks, or other damage. More "Common issues to watch out for" are listed below.

4.Ensure the battery terminals are clean by wiping them down with a dry cloth.

5.Ensure the most recent firmware for the battery is installed.

6.Instructions for charging and discharging:

1.The battery should be fully charged and left in place for more than 24 hours.

2.Put the battery inside the plane. Fly the airplane, land it, and remove the battery when the remaining power is less than 20%.

3.More than six hours should pass with the battery stationary.

4.The voltage of the cell.

5.The battery should be fully charged.

6.Repetition of stages 1-4 above.

7.Safe Battery Disposal and Retirement

Retirement Requirements

Before a battery needs to be retired, proper use, charging, maintenance, and storage should provide 200 charging cycles.

Disposal of Batteries

The battery should be completely discharged before being submerged in saltwater for 8–12 hours as part of proper disposal. Please consult the Battery Maintenance Guide for further information.

The Last Say:

Maintaining and caring for your batteries will ensure your drone's safe operation and lifespan.

Drone batteries have undergone significant advancements but are still LiPo or lithium-ion batteries and must be properly cared for.

Utilizing your batteries to their full potential requires you to abide by the advice above.

Remember that a fresh battery is fairly inexpensive compared to the cost of your drone overall. Avoid flying with a battery that is defective or whose quality you are unsure of.