If you own a DJI FPV drone, you’ve no doubt been impressed with its incredibly immersive flying experience and unbridled speed. But to make sure that your drone continues to be amazingly fun to fly, you need to take care of the powerhouse that allows your quad to stay airborne: its battery.
The DJI FPV drone has proven to be a sensational addition to the FPV world. It’s the only preassembled, ready-to-fly first-person view drone combo that you can buy off the shelf. And it comes loaded with all sorts of safety features that are to be expected from a DJI drone, giving even complete noobs the confidence to fly around safely on day one. Heck, we even spotted a 4-year-old giving it a go (under parental supervision, of course)!
But the DJI FPV drone battery is not inexpensive. Though it does come with a built-in intelligent battery management system that keeps tabs on the juice in real time for more worry-free flights.
The bottom line is, even intelligent drone batteries need care. And when they do, you should see this prompt appear on your FPV goggles: “Intelligent Flight Battery requires maintenance.”
If that happens, the first thing to do is initiate Return to Home (RTH) or land swiftly. After that, follow these steps:
- Fully charge the battery.
- Leave the battery for 24 hours.
- Insert the battery in the FPV drone and hover at an altitude of up to 2 meters after takeoff. When the battery reaches 20%, land the aircraft, power it off, and remove the battery.
- Leave the battery for six hours.
That should fix it. However, if the maintenance prompt continues to appear in the goggles, repeat the above steps. For best battery life, DJI recommends you complete these steps every three months or after every 50 charging cycles, whichever comes first.
Must read: DJI FPV drone gets firmware update for better goggle function
Common battery issues
As a rule, you should also look out for some common issues that can hamper battery health. If any of the following occurs, know that it is time to replace the battery:
- Visual swelling, leaking, or damage (cracks, dents, etc.)
- Bent terminals (can cause a short circuit)
- An in-app notification or prompt regarding battery cell damage or over-discharge
- A battery that has reached 200 charging cycles
- Maintenance prompt still exists after following the abovementioned charging and discharging instructions twice consecutively
- Crash or hard impact
A good landing pad should be able to protect the battery from some impact, considering the DJI FPV drone uses the back of its battery as its landing point.
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Overcharging and over-discharging DJI FPV drone battery
It’s worth noting that over-discharging or reaching 0% is one of the biggest enemies of your FPV drone battery. Normally, DJI advises that you land your drone when the battery level is about 15% or greater to maximize its life. But for FPV flights, depending on how far you are from the launch point, you may want to initiate RTH when the battery level is about 20-25%.
Similarly, it is not recommended to charge your batteries to 100% before storage. DJI drone batteries automatically discharge to protect the integrity of the battery cells. In FPV drones, the battery automatically discharges to about 97% when it has been idle for a day. By day five, the battery self-discharges itself down to 60%, its ideal storing range.
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