Six Principles For Drone Battery Care

The duration of the battery is one of the essential factors to ensure a pleasant flight.Therefore, getting to know how to lengthen the lifespan for your drone is needed to be explored by every drone owner. As everyone knows, it is very time-consuming to get a complete aerial photography or a video tapping for a limited battery capacity. The battery capacity may support only one-third of a complete aerial video tapping for a great power needed for the the motors, ESC, OSD,or receiver etc. As the number of flight increases, the less flight time the battery may support. Today, Gens ace’s going to show us how to lengthen the lifespan of your battery by following the six principles. Following these six rules will help to keep you away from an improper use of your battery.

1.No over discharging

The discharge curve of the battery shows a rapid voltage decrease for the first few seconds, and the voltage drops slowly when it is discharged between 3.7V and 3.9V. Then an accelerated decrease when the voltage gets below 3.7V. If the battery’s over-discharged, you may get your battery damaged or even get your drone crashed. Some RC hobbyists often get their battery over-discharged because of having not enough batteries for replacement, which would get you a short-lifespan battery. I would suggest landing your drone a minute earlier before running out of battery. This is quite a good way to protect your battery. As for me, I would rather buy another two batteries for replacement than over-discharge the battery and get my drone crashed. Remember always try to land your drone as fast as you can when there is a low-battery alert.  

2. No over-charging

  A. Use a specialized charger to charge your battery. This can be a charger designed for li-ion or lipo, because both of them are quite close to each other. Even some chargers for the mobile phones can be used for charging your lipo battery without damaging the battery itself. B. A precise setting for the cell amounts is a necessary. You have to make sure the cell amounts of your battery are perfectly matched with the one on your charger screen before your charging. Don’t charge your battery if you’re not sure of it. C. Check the voltage for each cell of your battery pack if this is your first charging for the pack.Every 10 cycles of battery charging and discharging should also give the same job for your battery pack. This is an absolute must for safety concerns. Charging in a good match of the cell amounts would also lead to an explosion as a result of an unbalanced cell voltage. When exceeding 0.1 voltage difference for each cell, you should have the battery pack balance-charged to 4.2V. If the voltage difference exceeding 0.1V after every discharging, in this case, it is indicating that your battery should be replaced. D. Don’t leave your battery pack charging without a look after. E. Store your battery charger and battery pack in a safe place where it is fire or explosion proof. F. If there isn’t any special requirements for the factory, an exceeding 1C rate current charging will be not suggested. A battery that supports high C-rate discharging would also support a fast charging over 1C. But this would greatly shorten the lifespan of a battery, therefore three batteries for replacement would be more cost-effective than fast charging a battery for an emergency use.  

3.No full-charged storage

You should not store a fully-charged battery for over 3 days. If not being discharged,the batteries would get puffed after being stored over one week. However, some batteries would not get puffed temporally, but they may out of work after you store them fully charged for a few times. Therefore, you may fully charge your battery when you need a flight immediately. Charge and store your battery cells between 3.80V and 3.90V when there needs to be a flight within 3 days. If there isn’t any needs for the battery within three months, charge and discharge around 3.8V to prolong the lifespan of the battery. Batteries should be placed in a cool environment and better sealed in a hermetic bag or an explosion-proof box for a long term storage. The recommended storage temperature’s from 10°C to 25°C. And keep the battery in a place where is dry and out of any corrosive gas.  

4.No package damaging

The battery film is designed and packed to prevent any explosion or liquid leakage. If the aluminum film is damaged, the battery may catch on fire or even explode. Make sure your battery is tightly fastened when you are fixing your battery on your drone, or the battery would be damaged by any intense flight or drone crash.  

5. No short cut

Shortcuts always happens during the wire bonding and transportation. A short-cut of the battery would also make the battery on fire or explode. When there needs to be another wire bonding for your battery after period use, you should be noticed that connectors are not allowed to get connected.The best way to transport the battery is to seal and place each battery in the explosive-proof box in case of short-cut or damaged caused by the car bumps.  

6.No low temperature

  The discharging performance of the battery will greatly drops when the battery is in a extreme cold weather, which is normal to see in the high altitude locations. This would do great harm to your battery when you still having a same flight time as what you always done in a normal temperature. The voltage of the battery would drop very quickly when the alert starts. You should set the alarm voltage higher in case of a drone crash caused by a dramatically voltage drops. So what we need to do is to keep our battery in a warm place before any flights, and keep an eye on the flight time for your drone to a safety flight.

In conclusion

Brand, popularity, performance evaluations and other aspects are all suggested to be taken into consideration when you are choosing a right battery for your drone. It is not suggested to just blindly follow and choose without thinking any of it. Both drone industry and drone battery industry are sunrise industries with very promising prospects. And the usage for lipo batteries are becoming wider and wider for they are safer, more intelligent and more widespread. Shenzhen GREPOW Battery Co., Ltd. will continue devoting to the research and development of the battery with a combination of electronic and battery techniques aiming at developing the important product like Tattu to satisfy different needs of the standard battery and smart battery for different types of drone customers.