How to choose the right battery, charger & discharger

Flying your favourite DJI drone further and conquering new heights is a product of a lot of factors. One of the most crucial ones is their LiPo batteries. With your LiPo batteries charged and well maintained, you can enjoy flying longer, further and safer!

First of all, a reminder of some basic LiPo battery do’s and don’ts for long and safe flights

Never charge warm batteries
Store them at ~50-60% their charge level, if you are going to leave them for more than 24h
Deep-discharge (cycle) them every 20 cycles for more accurate capacity readings
Store in a cool and dry place
If your battery is damaged or misshapen (puffed), stop using it and dispose of it safely

Battery

Although there are some 3rd party batteries out there, it is highly recommended to stick with DJI batteries, especially given the amount of “intelligent” circuitry they use. Choosing the right battery depends on how you like flying and your budget!

Charger

Choice of charger depends on whether you’re happy to charge batteries with the default DJI charger or upgrade to a more feature-rich or faster charger. If you own dozens of batteries and fly many times each week it may make sense to invest in a charger than can charge multiple batteries at the same time.

Discharger

Whether or not you need a dedicated discharger depends on how many batteries you need to maintain. If you fly occasionally and have a handful of batteries then you may be OK to use manual discharging (i.e. insert the battery in the drone and let the drone drain it) or the batteries’ automatic discharge.

However, if you need to maintain tens of batteries then these options are unlikely to be appropriate for you. The built-in automatic discharge doesn’t perform cycling/calibration discharge while storage discharge taken many days to reach the 50-60% level, which is not ideal. In this case a dedicated discharger such as the handmade Phantom Angel may be appropriate.

Model	Battery	Charger	Discharger
Inspire 2	DJI I2 IFB TB50 (6S, 4280 mAh)	DJI I2 Charger I2 charging hub (needs I2 charger)	Inspire 2 Angel
Inspire 1	DJI I1 IFB TB48 (6S, 5700 mAh) (discontinued) DJI I1 IFB TB47 (6S, 4500 mAh) (discontinued)	DJI I1 Charger (discontinued) DJI I1 Charging Hub (discontinued) I1 Smart power charger Xmipbs 4in1 I1 Charger DJI Hex charger (needs I1 charger)	Inspire 1 Angel

Model	Battery	Charger	Discharger
Mavic 2	DJI M2 IFB (4S, 3850 mAh)	DJI M2 Charger DJI M2 charging hub (needs M2 charger) Smartree M2 Charger Fstoplabs M2 Charger	Mavic 2 Angel
Mavic 1	DJI M1 IFB (3S, 3830 mAh)	DJI M1 Charger DJI Mavic charging hub (needs M1 charger) Smartree M1 Charger Fstoplabs 4in1 M1 Charger (needs Mavic charger)	Mavic 1 Angel
Mavic Air	DJI Mavic Air IFB (3S, 2375 mAh)	DJI MA Charger Fstoplabs 4in1 M1 Charger (needs Mavic Air charger)	Mavic Air Angel

Model	Battery	Charger	Discharger
Matrice 600	DJI M600 IFB TB47S (6S 4500mAh) DJI M600 IFB TB48S (6S 5700mAh)	DJI M600 Charger DJI Hex charger (needs M600 charger) DJI Battery station	Matrice 600 Angel
Matrice 200	DJI M200 IFB TB50 DJI M200 IFB TB55	DJI M200 Charger DJI Battery station	Matrice 200 Angel

Model	Battery	Charger	Discharger
Phantom 4	DJI P4 IFB	DJI P4 160W Charger DJI P4 100W Charger Smartree P4 Charger Fstoplabs 4in1 P4 Charger	Phantom 4 Angel
Phantom 3	DJI P3 IFB (discontinued)	DJI P3 Charger (discontinued) P3 Smart power charger	Phantom 3 Angel P3 Smart power charger

About the author

Hi I’m Alex and I’ve been an RC and FPV addict for two decades now. Having spent a lot of the time doing long range FPV flights I've come to know a lot about what it takes in terms of batteries, antennas and aircraft...

I often feel the urge to share what I've learnt and this has led to a number of contributions to the community including the Phantom Angel drone battery calibrator, 8 ways to increase your drone's range, “The Beginner’s Guide to FPV” the number one guide to FPV, and maxmyrange.com and whentoland.com, online tools used by the FPV community.

I am also the proud owner of a long range Zephyr, Firefly6, Phantom, Inspire, Mini Wraith, FPV ladybird… you get the picture (yes, I’m an addict!).

I hope you enjoyed this short guide to all things LiPo.

If you have comments or suggests please do write at [email protected]

Comments and discussion