Maybe you have a lot of lipo batteries for drone, use to charge them when they run out of energy. You are familiar with drone but do you know how long to charge drone battery? and how to make the fullest use of batteries? If you have enough quantity drone batteries, no need to worry about this question, but for many pilots, who only have a few batteries, therefore I suggest that you should need to know how to calculate the charge times.
For more case like this, you received a project to shot aerial videos, which require to flight 45mins, but the problem is that you only have 4 lipo packs for your AP drone, therefore the total flight times for aerial video is 30 mins at most. How to deal with this question?
In addition to purchasing more lipos, the only one way is that you need to charge a pair of lipo batteries after run out of them, then continue shoting videos with anther pair of batteris. But you should know how long to charge a pair of batteries? then utilize that time wisely.
If you want to know , you are come to the right place, I will try to explain the calcuate fumla of charge times as easy as possible. Read on.
Image from DJI
How to calculate the charge times?
Charge times calculate formula:
Charge times = Charge coefficient * Battery capacity / Charge current
That is to say, charging time depends on battery capacity and charge current, the larger capacity, the longer charge times will be needed. Similarly, the biger charge current is, the less charge times will be needed.
Normally, the charge coefficient is between 1.1 to 1.5, depends on the charge current, the charge current is more bigger the value is more smaller, conversely, the charge current is more smaller the value is more bigger.
Mostly,For the vast majority of LiPos, the Charge Rate is 1C, therefore the charge coefficient value is 1.1 and charge with 0.2C then coefficient value is 1.5.
Take an example:
Then assuming you are using the 11.1V 1800mAh Lipo battery, use 1C and charger current is 1.8A, the math works out to 1.1 hour (1.1 hour =1.1 * 1.8Ah /1.8A ) to charge. This is not perfect as the charging process can vary, but it is the simplest way to get an estimated charge time.
How long to charge drone Intelligent battery?
| Drone | Intelligent battery | Flight time | Charging Power | Charge time |
| Phantom 4 | 5350 mAh 15.2 V 4S | 28 mins | 100 W | 1.5 h |
| Inspire 1 | 5700 mAh 22.8 V 6S | 18 mins | 180 W | 1h 30-45mins |
| Yuneec Q500 | 5400mAh 3S 11.1V | 25 mins | 30W | 2 h |
Tips for charge drone battery
- Never charge LiPos unattended.
- All new chargers now come with a balancing feature which is essential for both safety and battery life reasons.
- The most recommended and safest charge rate for most LiPo batteries is 1C, or 1x capacity battery in Amps.
- The cell shall be charged within 0 °C ~40 °C range in the Product Specification
- The number of cells per battery doesn’t impact to this discharge limit, as the limit is per cell. LiPo batteries usually should only be discharged to 20% of their capacity to prevent the battery from dropping voltage unexpectedly and sustaining damage that can’t be fixed.
- No over-charging. Discharging cells below 3 volts will invariably cause irreversible damage and charging above 4.2V is dangerous and easier to achieve than you might think!
After reading this article, knowing about the calculate formula of charging battery time, now do you how long to charge your drone battery? If have any questions, please leave your messages on here.
