8000mAh Battery...

What is happening chief?! Good to see you over here!

soloinig your theories about the battery are mostly correct. the smart battery circuitry only cares about the lipo battery when it comes to reporting telemetry and charging. if you connect a larger battery to the chip, telemetry is still reported but some of the information will be inaccurate. and of course if you are charging, it will get under charged because the chip is still using the stock battery parameters.
Thanks for confirming...

...but as far as powering solo directly, it works with only pos and neg applied and can even be armed. the problem is that failsafe will kick in because capacity isn't being reported. you can get around that by disabling battery failsafe. i currently use a 12v power supply connected to solo with a female molex ten60 connector (pos and neg only) and i can power solo. if i boost the power to 15v i can arm.
Now that you are mentioning it, you are right! I forgot about the fact that I was able to arm the Solo, and THEN the "alarm" went off. But I was still able to arm. Well, that should make it way easier to use a different battery, if you can simply disable the battery failsafe. However, I wonder if you can disable the battery failsafe, but still change the capacity and at least get an accurate percentage reading of your pack?! BTW, how do I disable battery failsafe?

...i've not seen any specifics on the self discharge either way. i do know that if i leave my batteries for 2 weeks, they lose charge. so i'm assuming that they self discharge and won't go past a specific level.
I haven't read anything about it either. I just figured the same thing as you. I leave my batteries lying around and the charge goes down. My "regular" batteries do not do that...

Thanks.
 
Unfortunately, unlike the Phantom batteries, the Solo batteries do not discharge if left sitting around.

Mine do... for sure. Just checked them now and they are not full anymore, even though I charged them a week ago or so.
No, what you are seeing is a natural depletion that all batteries experience. I emailed and spoke with an engineer at 3DR about this. The Solo batteries DEFINITELY do not auto-discharge after a certain number of days. For me, its actually a pretty decent selling point for going with DJI. Anyway, if you are not going to use your Solo batteries for more than a week, you should discharge them to 40%-50%.

Check out @franknitty69 's post for interesting info.
 
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What is happening chief?! Good to see you over here!

Thanks for confirming...


Now that you are mentioning it, you are right! I forgot about the fact that I was able to arm the Solo, and THEN the "alarm" went off. But I was still able to arm. Well, that should make it way easier to use a different battery, if you can simply disable the battery failsafe. However, I wonder if you can disable the battery failsafe, but still change the capacity and at least get an accurate percentage reading of your pack?! BTW, how do I disable battery failsafe?

I haven't read anything about it either. I just figured the same thing as you. I leave my batteries lying around and the charge goes down. My "regular" batteries do not do that...

Thanks.

even if you modify the capacity in mission planner, the reading in the solo app will never be accurate because the voltage, remaining capacity and amps drawn are being reported by the chip. the chip would need to be reprogrammed to reflect the new battery. the good news is that the chip isn't 'locked', so theoretically, it could be reprogrammed with SMBUS commands.

to disable battery failsafe use tower or mission planner and change FS_BATT_MAH = 0 which will ignore capacity as a failsafe or you can set FS_BATT_ENABLE = 0 which will disable failsafe (voltage and capacity) completely. FS_BATT_MAH is definitely the better option for what you want to do because voltage will still be reported correctly regardless of what's connected to the chip.
 
No, what you are seeing is a natural depletion that all batteries experience. I emailed and spoke with an engineer at 3DR about this. The Solo batteries DEFINITELY do not auto-discharge after a certain number of days. For me, its actually a pretty decent selling point for going with DJI. Anyway, if you are not going to use your Solo batteries for more than a week, you should discharge them to 40%-50%.

Check out @franknitty69 's post for interesting info.

i wish 3dr would offer up so more info on these damn batteries. for $150 this is important information.
 
No, what you are seeing is a natural depletion that all batteries experience. I emailed and spoke with an engineer at 3DR about this. The Solo batteries DEFINITELY do not auto-discharge after a certain number of days. For me, its actually a pretty decent selling point for going with DJI. Anyway, if you are not going to use your Solo batteries for more than a week, you should discharge them to 40%-50%.

Check out @franknitty69 's post for interesting info.
This thread made me dig out my original Solo battery. I had totally forgotten about it. Anyhow, I found it and right away checked the voltage as I was going to use it with the Solo's battery circuit board. That is when I remembered that one cell has gone bad. 0.9V. However, all other cells were at around 4.12V. Man, I don't even remember when I charged this battery the last time?! A few weeks ago? A month ago? No idea. All I know is that it was a long time ago. Somehow the battery did not go as far down in voltage, as the Solo batteries that are still in stock condition [in the case, hooked up to the battery board, whereas this is JUST the LiPo part of the Solo's battery].

Having said this, I have plenty of LiPo batteries, and I have never ever had a battery deplete as much as my Solo batteries do. NEVER. Not even close. I don't even know how many times I planned on going flying, charged my batteries and forgot about them... Never ever did I find a battery at Storage Voltage. Actually, if you think about it, why would they make you discharge batteries and store them at 3.5V - 3.8V if they get there on their own within a week? Makes no sense.

I have a feeling we are not going to agree on this one. I know how my batteries have acted in the past.

Thanks.
 
even if you modify the capacity in mission planner, the reading in the solo app will never be accurate because the voltage, remaining capacity and amps drawn are being reported by the chip. the chip would need to be reprogrammed to reflect the new battery. the good news is that the chip isn't 'locked', so theoretically, it could be reprogrammed with SMBUS commands.

to disable battery failsafe use tower or mission planner and change FS_BATT_MAH = 0 which will ignore capacity as a failsafe or you can set FS_BATT_ENABLE = 0 which will disable failsafe (voltage and capacity) completely. FS_BATT_MAH is definitely the better option for what you want to do because voltage will still be reported correctly regardless of what's connected to the chip.

Copy that. Thanks for the info!
 
If solos batteries don't auto discharge than they must be very poor batteries, just like soloing mine will deplete in a week or two. I've had tons of lipos and never seen this so fast no matter how they're treated. In 2 weeks mine get to 87 percent, both of them exactly 87 percent. Left longer they discharge or degrade down below 50 percent. I've got surface packs I've not used since summer that still have nearly full cells.

I know we're supposed to discharge, but I usually don't cause I'd rather have them charged when I want to use them. It rarely hurts them at all anyway in my experience. I'm sure other will disagree, I can only go by my packs and what they do. I think I lost one pack out of ten or more last year and it wasn't newer so that could have just been from use. I'd rather buy an extra pack a year than have to charge up every time I decide to fly and miss all I want to shoot. My phantom and solo batts are all still fine too and phantoms a couple years old and solos are from release.
 
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I have to believe your right, I'm sure there's truth to whoever said they asked 3dr, but this wouldn't be the first time one of us was misinformed by service.
 
This thread made me dig out my original Solo battery. I had totally forgotten about it. Anyhow, I found it and right away checked the voltage as I was going to use it with the Solo's battery circuit board. That is when I remembered that one cell has gone bad. 0.9V. However, all other cells were at around 4.12V. Man, I don't even remember when I charged this battery the last time?! A few weeks ago? A month ago? No idea. All I know is that it was a long time ago. Somehow the battery did not go as far down in voltage, as the Solo batteries that are still in stock condition [in the case, hooked up to the battery board, whereas this is JUST the LiPo part of the Solo's battery].

Having said this, I have plenty of LiPo batteries, and I have never ever had a battery deplete as much as my Solo batteries do. NEVER. Not even close. I don't even know how many times I planned on going flying, charged my batteries and forgot about them... Never ever did I find a battery at Storage Voltage. Actually, if you think about it, why would they make you discharge batteries and store them at 3.5V - 3.8V if they get there on their own within a week? Makes no sense.

I have a feeling we are not going to agree on this one. I know how my batteries have acted in the past.

Thanks.
I don't know what to tell you man. This has actually been discussed before. Contact 3DR yourself and ask them. That's what I did. Let's see how this new chat support system works.

And all batteries die over time. If you do come across a battery that holds a charge indefinitely, let me know. With that technology we could be billionaires!
 
I'm pretty sure your other lipo packs don't have the SMBus smart circuitry inside. It's the same technology laptops and other high end batteries use that store the battery parameters (charging voltage, number of cells, cell chemistry make up, design capacity, design voltage, manufacture date, serial number, etc) and report stats back to the system (current battery draw, capacity remaining, time remaining til empty, current charging state, time til fully charged, battery errors, state of battery health, number of charging cycles, etc). It's always on, so it's always drawing a little current from the battery. All batteries discharge over time on their own. Batteries with SMBus circuitry draw a little more to run the circuitry (even when the battery is "off"), so they will discharge slightly faster than a battery without it.
 
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I'm pretty sure your other lipo packs don't have the SMBus smart circuitry inside. It's the same technology laptops and other high end batteries use that store the battery parameters (charging voltage, number of cells, cell chemistry make up, design capacity, design voltage, manufacture date, serial number, etc) and report stats back to the system (current battery draw, capacity remaining, time remaining til empty, current charging state, time til fully charged, battery errors, state of battery health, number of charging cycles, etc). It's always on, so it's always drawing a little current from the battery. All batteries discharge over time on their own. Batteries with SMBus circuitry draw a little more to run the circuitry (even when the battery is "off"), so they will discharge slightly faster than a battery without it.

This explains things better than, but it's a decent amount more power being consumed seems like. Makes sense, but wouldn't it be bad to store these for any length of time then and worse to discharge them below 50 percent like most other lipos recommend? If mine drop 13 percent in a couple weeks that's of some concern. Lucky I rarely go a couple weeks without using solo I guess, another excuse to fly more.
 
This battery talk is obviously way above my pay grade...but. Could a comparable battery pack be placed in series with the stock battery? Could it even use the smart parts of the existing battery in tandem?

@PdxSteve - You've seen this document - Smart Battery Data Specification that 3DR links to from the DEV pages
 
If solos batteries don't auto discharge than they must be very poor batteries, just like soloing mine will deplete in a week or two. I've had tons of lipos and never seen this so fast no matter how they're treated. In 2 weeks mine get to 87 percent, both of them exactly 87 percent. Left longer they discharge or degrade down below 50 percent. I've got surface packs I've not used since summer that still have nearly full cells.

I know we're supposed to discharge, but I usually don't cause I'd rather have them charged when I want to use them. It rarely hurts them at all anyway in my experience. I'm sure other will disagree, I can only go by my packs and what they do. I think I lost one pack out of ten or more last year and it wasn't newer so that could have just been from use. I'd rather buy an extra pack a year than have to charge up every time I decide to fly and miss all I want to shoot. My phantom and solo batts are all still fine too and phantoms a couple years old and solos are from release.

I totally agree.

The amount of discharge with the Stock Solo battery is WAY higher than with any other LiPo battery I ever had. Again, all my LiPo batteries lose charge over time, but nothing close to what the Solo battery loses. That said, I am making a ruling on this one right now:

A Solo battery discharges in the same amount of time, way more than a "regular" LiPo battery, due to the SMBus smart circuitry inside. It either does so, because the battery has a "storage mode" build in, or because the smart circuit board is always drawing a little bit of power. We don't know that. Some people say this, others say that. Think about it though. If the battery would lose charge due to the board pulling power, why does it stop at a certain percentage? That makes no sense. If it draws power and nothing is stopping it, it should go way lower than it does.

I use a Taranis radio and Taranis telemetry. For measuring the voltage, you can use little voltage sensors that you connect to the balance port. Well, guess what?! I forgot several times to unplug that tiny little sensor, and it would suck the life right out of the battery. I forgot how low the pack went, but let me tell you, it was low. Really low.

Anyhow, I feel the same about my packs. I leave them charged way more often than I "should" and I never had an issue.

Thanks.
 
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I think they discharge because of their "smart" circuitry. They're always draining.
They do, but like I said, it it would drain and drain and drain, why does the battery seem to stop at the "right" spot?
 
I have to believe your right, I'm sure there's truth to whoever said they asked 3dr, but this wouldn't be the first time one of us was misinformed by service.
I never ever believe just one guy, no matter where I call. You call three times and you will get three different answers, ha ha.
 
I don't know what to tell you man. This has actually been discussed before. Contact 3DR yourself and ask them. That's what I did. Let's see how this new chat support system works.

And all batteries die over time. If you do come across a battery that holds a charge indefinitely, let me know. With that technology we could be billionaires!
There is nothing more you can tell me, that will make me change my mind. : )

You are just taking it to the extreme, and you like to twist things around. No one ever said that LiPo batteries hold their charge indefinitely, and we all know that LiPo batteries die over time. But that is not the point. The point is, how much discharge is "normal" for a given time frame.

The Solo battery goes from full to 50% in two weeks. No other pack does that. I had packs sitting around full charged and they may have lost a few volts here and there, but nothing like the Solo battery...
 
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I'm pretty sure your other lipo packs don't have the SMBus smart circuitry inside. It's the same technology laptops and other high end batteries use that store the battery parameters (charging voltage, number of cells, cell chemistry make up, design capacity, design voltage, manufacture date, serial number, etc) and report stats back to the system (current battery draw, capacity remaining, time remaining til empty, current charging state, time til fully charged, battery errors, state of battery health, number of charging cycles, etc). It's always on, so it's always drawing a little current from the battery. All batteries discharge over time on their own. Batteries with SMBus circuitry draw a little more to run the circuitry (even when the battery is "off"), so they will discharge slightly faster than a battery without it.
Correct.
 
This battery talk is obviously way above my pay grade...but. Could a comparable battery pack be placed in series with the stock battery? Could it even use the smart parts of the existing battery in tandem?

@PdxSteve - You've seen this document - Smart Battery Data Specification that 3DR links to from the DEV pages
Good question. Aren't some DJI Phantom guys doing that... hook up a second/third little battery to the main pack?
 
Just checked and can confirm, that all three my batteries are holding charge at about 50% for about 40 days. I left them at that level for storage (because still waiting for replacement motor pods to arrive and cannot fly) and they are not discharging further.
 
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