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Total Flight Time On My Oldest Battery

Jagerbomb52

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It would be nice to figure out why some are having battery issues when others are not on the latest firmware and App. My Anafi is right up to date. Lots of flights since updating and not one problem. I know some of you have problems but I wonder if these people do proper battery management. Are they using the proper type of charger. Some people have been using those cheap three port chargers from China. Could that be part of the problem. Just throwing some thoughts around.
Here is my info for my test today. To me it performed just as it should have.

Old Parrot Anafi Battery. Total Capacity is 96% 2,700 mAh
**Spent the winter of 2018-2019 lost in the snow**
Temp outside -3C
Wind 14.24 km/h
Voltage Begin: 8.62 V End: 6.55 V
Current Max: 10.34A Average: 7.03A


 
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You didn't state how many flights and what your flight time is.

I have one of those cheap 3 port chargers, don't use it much unless I need a cashe of batteries for work.

Kinda doubt it's part of the reason for the losses, but who knows.

I've got a couple batteries from summer of 2018, fortunately I didn't do the battery firmware update on my 8 batteries, as said, not flying for a while to see if a new firmware is put out in the coming days.
 
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You didn't state how many flights and what your flight time is.

I have one of those cheap 3 port chargers, don't use it much unless I need a cashe of batteries for work.

Kinda doubt it's part of the reason for the losses, but who knows.

I've got a couple batteries from summer of 2017, fortunately I didn't do the battery firmware on my 8 batteries, as said, not flying for a while to see if a new firmware is put out in the coming days.

Number of flights would be 9 since the last update. Average time of each flight is about 9 minutes. This was the first time I ran the battery down to auto land. People are guessing on what is causing some to just die. I just threw out some maybe's. I suspect bad battery management is one of the problems. Many new pilots that don't have a clue on how to take care of Lipo batteries.
 
Number of flights would be 9 since the last update. Average time of each flight is about 9 minutes. This was the first time I ran the battery down to auto land. People are guessing on what is causing some to just die. I just threw out some maybe's. I suspect bad battery management is one of the problems. Many new pilots that don't have a clue on how to take care of Lipo batteries.
true that, I'm very anal about battery rotation, flight logging, and since I have 5 Anafi's rotating for equal flight time.

The most flight time ever was 21 min, landing with 10%.
 
You didn't state how many flights and what your flight time is.

I have one of those cheap 3 port chargers, don't use it much unless I need a cashe of batteries for work.

Kinda doubt it's part of the reason for the losses, but who knows.

I've got a couple batteries from summer of 2017, fortunately I didn't do the battery firmware on my 8 batteries, as said, not flying for a while to see if a new firmware is put out in the coming days.

Well if you have a summer 2017 prototype Anafi then I am pretty sure they will give you some free batteries as well :)
 
Average flight time 9 minutes, longest flight time ever 21 minutes... these are very short flights ! I almost never fly less than 20 minutes... 23 minutes today.

No serious "battery" issues yet, but my battery has only 35 cycles, and latest updates. I'm just trying to not leave the battery empty for too long, as advised in the manual, neither do I charge it fully if I don't intend to fly the next days. And I never recharge it when it's still hot.

Do you expect your batteries to last more than twice the number of charging cycles with ~10 minutes flights, than if flying regularly to the RTH discharge level ? In this case using 2 batteries in paralel would make sense for the same flying times.

Parrot doesn't mention anything about the benefit of shorter flights, neither do they make any connection between the use of USB-PD power bank and shorter battery life... I mostly use my laptop's to recharge the drone (for some reason my phone's USB AC adapter takes just as long to recharge it), so my idea was that maybe charging with a powerbank could preserve the battery, in the sense that you don't need to recharge it the day before and keep it fully charged all night (I haven't bought one yet) ?
 
If your always flying your batteries down to the last minutes of flight you are over stressing your batteries just by how hot they get over time. Not a great idea. You really should read up on battery management from some of the better battery sites like this one. Not many people put the time into actually reading about batteries. Don't blame them as it is pretty dry reading but could save you some problems down the road.
Oh and do I expect my batteries to last more than twice the number of charging cycles with ~10 minutes flights? Seems to be working as this battery is almost 2.5 years old and only at 96% capacity. Looking back on the history of this battery I would say its doing excellent and expect to get many more flights out of it.
 
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If your always flying your batteries down to the last minutes of flight you are over stressing your batteries just by how hot they get over time. Not a great idea. You really should read up on battery management from some of the better battery sites like this one. Not many people put the time into actually reading about batteries. Don't blame them as it is pretty dry reading but could save you some problems down the road.
Oh and do I expect my batteries to last more than twice the number of charging cycles with ~10 minutes flights? Seems to be working as this battery is almost 2.5 years old and only at 96% capacity. Looking back on the history of this battery I would say its doing excellent and expect to get many more flights out of it.

With that said, I'm not impressed with the ANAFI advertised flight time or battery durability.

I've had a total of 12 batteries since Anafi came out, to include three lost Anafi's, all of which had more than 30% battery remaining when the screen went black and which they never found. My "battery" #3 & #4 charge to 100% but I will not take them below 20% which is around 15 minutes.
 
If your always flying your batteries down to the last minutes of flight you are over stressing your batteries just by how hot they get over time. Not a great idea. You really should read up on battery management from some of the better battery sites like this one. Not many people put the time into actually reading about batteries. Don't blame them as it is pretty dry reading but could save you some problems down the road.
Oh and do I expect my batteries to last more than twice the number of charging cycles with ~10 minutes flights? Seems to be working as this battery is almost 2.5 years old and only at 96% capacity. Looking back on the history of this battery I would say its doing excellent and expect to get many more flights out of it.

I can believe there would be a benefit to preserve the batteries this way, although I expect Parrot's battery management to be efficient, but it means I should have at least 3 batteries, only to fly longer than the ~20 minutes/day I can afford with a single battery ! I'm not against the idea of owning 3 batteries - and it means I could paint the 2nd one in blue, the 3rd in green maybe (just joking, but the Anafi is really cute with a colored battery) - but that's too much charging time for me, at least without a USB-PD power bank...

With that said, I'm not impressed with the ANAFI advertised flight time or battery durability.

I've had a total of 12 batteries since Anafi came out, to include three lost Anafi's, all of which had more than 30% battery remaining when the screen went black and which they never found. My "battery" #3 & #4 charge to 100% but I will not take them below 20% which is around 15 minutes.

How long does it take to fully charge the older batteries if you don't use a power bank, but a computer or standard AC converter ?
 
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With that said, I'm not impressed with the ANAFI advertised flight time or battery durability.

I've had a total of 12 batteries since Anafi came out, to include three lost Anafi's, all of which had more than 30% battery remaining when the screen went black and which they never found. My "battery" #3 & #4 charge to 100% but I will not take them below 20% which is around 15 minutes.
I have owned several UAV's over the last 5-6 years. None of the advertised flying time is true. The closest for me is the Anafi. When I first got mine I wanted to see if the 25 minute flight time was even close. I would get 22-23 minutes when it was hovering. All of my other UAV's where 4-5 minutes out from the advertised time. My Yuneec UAV was the worst. The batteries on them are terrible. 6 months and you need to get new ones.
 
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I can believe there would be a benefit to preserve the batteries this way, although I expect Parrot's battery management to be efficient, but it means I should have at least 3 batteries, only to fly longer than the ~20 minutes/day I can afford with a single battery ! I'm not against the idea of owning 3 batteries - and it means I could paint the 2nd one in blue, the 3rd in green maybe (just joking, but the Anafi is really cute with a colored battery) - but that's too much charging time for me, at least without a USB-PD power bank...

How long does it take to fully charge the older batteries if you don't use a power bank, but a computer or standard AC converter ?

Sorry I can't answer that.

The way I charge is: after each flight I wait until cool down and then put in on the USB cable, I have never "timed" the charge but I look at them often while doing other things in the shop and stop charging when it the 3rd light starts blinking around 50%. That battery may go a long time without use until it is rotated back in the cycle of 8 batteries.

If I need a cashe of batteries for multiple flights I will top them off with the power bank.
 
I have owned several UAV's over the last 5-6 years. None of the advertised flying time is true. The closest for me is the Anafi. When I first got mine I wanted to see if the 25 minute flight time was even close. I would get 22-23 minutes when it was hovering. All of my other UAV's where 4-5 minutes out from the advertised time. My Yuneec UAV was the worst. The batteries on them are terrible. 6 months and you need to get new ones.
The problem with the battery times is part of the FCC/CE "thing":
FCC has better/further connections, CE can stay a bit longer in the air!
 
[...[ - but that's too much charging time for me, at least without a USB-PD power bank...
[....]

In case you just fly 2 batteries for, lets say 12 minutes, the charging time is not even that much longer, as one battery from empty to full.
Aside, in case you get 3 and just fly them 10 minutes, each, you does not even need to "squeeze" the last 10% into them. And still can land with about 40ish% in them.

But it is, imho, not so easy to stay ALWAYS on just 10 minutes, in case the battery gets you to 20+. At least for me ;-)
 
It would be nice to figure out why some are having battery issues when others are not on the latest firmware and App. My Anafi is right up to date. Lots of flights since updating and not one problem. I know some of you have problems but I wonder if these people do proper battery management. Are they using the proper type of charger. Some people have been using those cheap three port chargers from China. Could that be part of the problem. Just throwing some thoughts around.
Here is my info for my test today. To me it performed just as it should have.

Old Parrot Anafi Battery. Total Capacity is 96% 2,700 mAh
**Spent the winter of 2018-2019 lost in the snow**
Temp outside -3C
Wind 14.24 km/h
Voltage Begin: 8.62 V End: 6.55 V
Current Max: 10.34A Average: 7.03A


In addition, it is not a flight time, but a hovering time which is always less than the actual flight. (a physical phenomenon caused by turbulence under the rotors)
 
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Wasn't hovering using more battery, as flying with a "normal" speed around, most likely no wind at all??
I (think I) can remember, at least on the DJI Spark, it is a "flown with 20 kph" for max flight time, but hovering one battery in full is emptying the batts quicker?

Edit:
Just checked for the Mini:

  • Max Flight Time
  • 30 minutes (measured while flying at 14 kph in windless conditions)
 

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