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Longterm Storage Battery Management - Cell Voltages

Liger 1956

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I have not flown my Anafibsince the middle of February, when I was on holiday in Australia, and it does not look like I will be able to it now for a few months due to the Covid-19 virus I wondered what other members opinions are on keeping the Anafi batteries in good condition. All of my LiPo batteries for my fixed wing planes and home built multi rotors are discharged to a storage voltage of about 11.7v/cell. I know that the Anafi battery is "intelligent " and discharges the cells after 12 days of non use but does the monitoring circuit inside the battery shut down completely when a storage voltage is reached? I feel the need to check at least monthly the voltage in the cells with a multimeter which would mean connecting the battery to a USB charger to wake it up if it has gone into hibernation mode.

Do other members trust the circuitry inside the battery to keep it in tip top condition or do you think that regular checking is a good idea?
 
I have not flown my Anafibsince the middle of February, when I was on holiday in Australia, and it does not look like I will be able to it now for a few months due to the Covid-19 virus I wondered what other members opinions are on keeping the Anafi batteries in good condition. All of my LiPo batteries for my fixed wing planes and home built multi rotors are discharged to a storage voltage of about 11.7v/cell. I know that the Anafi battery is "intelligent " and discharges the cells after 12 days of non use but does the monitoring circuit inside the battery shut down completely when a storage voltage is reached? I feel the need to check at least monthly the voltage in the cells with a multimeter which would mean connecting the battery to a USB charger to wake it up if it has gone into hibernation mode.

Do other members trust the circuitry inside the battery to keep it in tip top condition or do you think that regular checking is a good idea?
I think it's unnecessary. It switches off and does not respond to button presses because it disconnects itself from the battery without draining it. At the beginning of hibernation, 65% charge, even with slow self-discharge throughout the winter, not to go below 50%. This is best for the battery. Trust it and do not press for 12 days as the counter will restart (clock).
 
Of my 4 batteries I have one for some reason keeps discharging even when its in hibernation. It is my first battery and has the lowest total capacity reading so I make sure I check on it every couple of weeks and top it back off at storage voltage. The others seem fine for long periods of time.
I was reading over the Zino 2 manual the other day and it states for their smart batteries if it has not been used in 3 months you need to cycle them. Which is pretty much what all manufacturers recommend.

Opera Snapshot_2020-03-25_083131_www.hubsan.com.png
 
Even hibernating, they discharge deeper as just to the 10+2 days auto discharge rate.
And if it is just 1-2% (in theory)/month , the big drone company suggest to charge/decharge the intelligent batteries once every 3 month.
Since I have not had such long "no flight" times, yet, I have no own experience.
And with only 3 batteries on my Anafi, I can easily get minimum one cycle every month on either one.

But in case I would have to, I'd charge the Anafi batteries every 2 or 3 month to 100% and charge my phone/tablets, even another battery/powerbank afterwards with them.
I mean, in case there is really, really no chance to fly it.
And, of course, would get the Anafi a startup circle and a check, indoors, too!
 
As I have a lot of spare time I thought that I would check the voltages in my two Anafi batteries that entered hibanation state a while ago. There was no voltage measurable at the battery pins so I needed to put them on a USB wall charger for about 15 seconds to wake them up. Both batteries showed 2 lights when the on/off button was pressed.

I then measured the voltage on the battery terminals and got readings of 7.59 volts and 7.60 volts for the 2 batteries. As this would equate to 3.8 volts per cell if they were balanced I thought that the battery management system was doing a good job. I will state at this point that I am still on the 1.6.3 Anafi firmware and as such I have not updated the batteries with the firmware that was available in 1.6.4/5.

I then decided to measure each cell voltage as I found, from a thread here, that in the bank of 8 sockets on the battery the second one down on the left hand side (battery socket facing you and right way up) appears to be the centre tap pin. I was suprised and worried when I got the follong readings:-

Battery 1 (original with Anafi): +ve to tap pin = 4.29v, tap pin to -ve = 3.28v. Total = 4.29 + 3.28 = 7.57 v
Battery 2 (bought of a forum members): +ve to tap pin = 4.30v, tap pin to -ve = 3.30v. Total = 4.30 + 3.30 = 7.60 v

It appears that one cell of both batteries is down to 3.30v which is a lot lower than I would like. I am currently charging battery 1 on a 2.1A USB plug in charger and I will check the cell voltages again when I have 3 solid lights and when the battery is full.

Can anybody else please check their batteries and report back the cell voltages stating whether they have updated the battery fiirmware recently?
 
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Battery is now charged to 3 steady LEDs, one flashing. Figures are:

Total voltage = 7.87v, =Ve to tap pin = 4.58v, tap pin to -ve = 3.28v.

If the battery is a LiPo Hv cell, as I seem to rember reading, then it should not be charged over 4.35v/cell. As the second cell has not increased in voltage it leads me to believe that the pin that has been identified as a center tap for the battery is in fact supplying 3.3v to the Anafi to run some of the electronics e.g. could be used for the GPS module.

I have stopped charging the battery for the time being as flying anytime soon looks unlikely. My conclusion is that there is currently no way to be able to measure the actual voltages of the cells only the total battery voltage :(
 

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