DJI Mini 2 Battery – Everything You Need to Know

DJI released the Mini 2 in November 2020 and it has been their hot selling drone since then.

Apart from other high-end features, it packs a 2250 mAh battery that gives it an impressive flight time of 31 minutes.

In this blog post, I am going to explain everything about the DJI Mini 2 battery, how to properly charge it, how to take care of it and how long it lasts.

DJI Mini 2 has a proprietary Intelligent flight battery. Depending on which version of the Mini 2 you buy, you either get one battery or a combo of 3 batteries with an additional charging hub.

Let’s look at the DJI Mini 2 battery in detail.

DJI Mini 2 Battery – Features & Specs

The Mavic Mini series won the market because of their one unique feature that was missing in all the other high-end drones i-e they weigh less than 250g and hence didn’t need registration.

To reduce the weight to such an extent, proper battery selection was crucial.

When the first DJI Mini came to market, it was using a battery based on Li-ion cells. Lithium-ion cells are very popular in electronic devices because of their long track record and slightly cheaper cost.

However, they are a bit heavier compared to the newer Li-Polymer technology aka LiPo cells.

The DJI Mini 2, therefore, came with the newer LiPo battery cells and achieved an astounding weight reduction to just 237g.

Li-Po cells are a bit expensive but they are lightweight and hence have higher energy density. That means, for each gram of battery weight, they can store more energy than the Li-ion battery used in the Mavic Mini 1.

Read more about Mini 2: Does Mavic Mini 2 Have Remote ID?

The DJI Mini 2 battery has two Li-Po cells connected in series. Each individual cell produces 3.7v and hence the total voltage of the battery is 7.4v when fully charged.

This configuration of 2 cells connected in series is called 2S configuration.

The battery has a built-in intelligent battery management system (BMS) that makes sure the battery is charged and discharged properly without damaging the cells.

The BMS also ensures the battery goes into hibernation during long storage times (more on this below).

The Intelligent BMS is the backbone of the battery’s safe operation and your drone. It monitors the battery status in real-time and reports back to the IMU.

It helps with stable energy dispatch and accurate calculations of remaining battery time in the air.

How do I charge DJI Mini 2 battery?

There are essentially two methods to charge your Mini 2 battery. You can either charge it via the drone or by using the 2-way DJI mini 2 battery charger aka the charging hub.

If you have bought the normal Mini 2 version (not the fly more combo), you won’t get the charging hub and the additional 2 batteries with it.

In this case, you will have to charge your battery using the drone itself. However, you can buy the charging hub separately as well on Amazon (Amazon Link)

If you have bought the Fly More Combo version of the Mini 2, your drone will already come with the 2-way charging hub and two additional batteries to give you 3 times the flight time.

You can use the charging hub to charge all 3 batteries overnight.

Charging Mini 2 battery via 2-way charging hub

The DJI mini 2 two way charging hub is designed to charge your batteries in sequential order.

If you are leaving for an early morning flight session, you can put all 3 batteries inside the charging hub overnight, and they will be fully charged in the morning.

The charging hub charges the batteries in sequential order. The battery with the highest charge level is charged first, then the next one, and then the last one.

It is called a “two-way” charging hub because it can also charge other USB-powered devices with your drone batteries. It has a standard USB outlet port through which you can charge your phone or any other device.

To charge your drone batteries with the charging hub, follow the following steps.

1. Put all batteries inside the charging ports securely. You should hear a click sound when the battery is properly docked in.
2. Connect the charging hub via USB-C to any 18 watt adaptor. Any iPhone or Android charging brick will do the job.
3. Leave the charging hub overnight to run a full charging cycle on all batteries in sequence.

Charging Mini 2 battery via drone

If you don’t have the charging hub or you have purchased the basic model of the Mini 2 without the charging hub and extra batteries, you can also charge your battery via the drone.

Just put your battery inside the drone compartment and connect the drone to any charging brick via the USB-C cable.

The USB-C cable should come with your drone, or you can use any other USB-C cable for this.

How long does it take for DJI Mini 2 batteries to charge?

Like your mobile phone, charging your drone batteries is a time taking job. For better results, you should always use the recommended 18 Watt charger

If you are charging your Mini 2 battery inside the drone, it will take approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes to fully charge with an 18-watt charger.

This time is under ideal conditions when the temperature and humidity are under normal range.

If you are charging with a two-way charging hub, all the 3 batteries will be fully charged in 4 hours with an 18-watt charger. If you are using a different charger with less power output, it can take longer than that.

Since the Intelligent battery management system supports quick charge, if your batteries are charging in quick charge mode, your LED lights on the charging hub or drone will flash rapidly.

If it is charging in normal mode, the LEDs will flash more slowly.

If you want to go a step further and charge all your batteries in parallel to get them fully charged quickly, you can use a third-party charging hub like this one that supports parallel safe charging.

How do I know when my DJI Mini 2 is fully charged?

Both the drone charging port and the two-way charging hub have LED indicators that flash and tell the batteries’ state of charge.

On both the drone and the charging hub, there are arrays of 4 LEDs, each indicating a 25% charge status.

Once you plug your battery in, the LEDs will start flashing.

Counting from the left side, if the first LED is flashing, your battery has less than 25% charge. If the first LED is solid and the 2nd LED is flashing, your battery has between 25% – 50% charge and so on.

As your battery is filled up on a charge, the LEDs will stop flashing from left to right until all LEDs are solid.

Once all LEDs are solid and stop flashing, your battery is fully charged and you can unplug them now.

How to check the charge level of Mini 2 battery?

You can check the charge level of your Mavic Mini 2 battery both inside the drone as well as the charging hub.

If your batteries are inside the charging hub, just press the button on the side of the charging hub, and the LED indicators will light up, showing the current charge level of the batteries in each slot.

Each LED indicates a 25% increment in charge level. So, if 3 LEDs light up solid, that means the battery has a 75% charge.

If your battery is inside your drone, single press the power button, and the LEDs on the bottom will indicate the charge level same as the ones on the charging hub.

For a more accurate reading of your battery level, you will have to turn your Mavic Mini 2 ON and connect it to your Fly App.

Inside the App, you will see the current charge level at the top right corner of the screen.

Features of Intellegent Flight Battery

One of the many features of the Intelligent Battery Management System built into each battery is that it protects the battery from all kinds of risks that can damage the battery’s health and reduce its life.

Here are a few smart features of the DJI Intelligent Flight battery:

• BALANCED CHARGING: It ensures balanced charging so that all the battries are equally charged.
• AUTO DISCHARGE: Its auto-discharge function makes sure the battery is self discharged to below 70% when stored for a long time.
• OVERCHARGE PROTECTION: The overcharge protection prevents any harm to the battery if you leave it on charge overnight. Once the battery is fully charged, the charging automatically stops.
• TEMPERATURE MANAGEMENT: Charging your battery when its hot damaging. The Integgelent BMS make sure the battery is charged only below 50 degree celcius.
• HIBERNATION MODE: The BMS put the battries in sleep or hiberanation mode to prevent over-discharge damage during shipping or long storage times.

Apart from these smart features, the BMS also communicates with the aircraft to share critical battery stats for accurate flight management like calculating remaining flight time or battery health warnings.

How to store your DJI mini 2 battery properly?

The LiPo cells used in Mavic Mini 2 need to be stored properly at an appropriate voltage to minimize battery aging and damage.

Fortunately, you don’t have to do anything special as the Intelligent Flight Battery takes care of this issue for you.

If you are storing your drone for a long period (maybe you are going out of town for a month), all you have to do is put your battery inside the drone or the two-way charging hub after charging them to 100%.

The auto-discharge feature will kick in and discharge the battery to below 70% and keep it there.

If the storage time is very long, the battery enters into hibernation mode to prevent discharge to 0%. This makes sure the battery is not damaged if stored for a very long time.

To get the battery out of hibernation, you have to charge it directly via the drone for a few hours to reactivate the battery.

How many charging cycles the Mini 2 battery can last?

Just like any other smartphone or laptop battery, your MM2 battery also degrades a little with each charge-discharge cycle.

The question is, how many cycles does it take to completely wear out the battery to the point where it is dead?

DJI Mini 2 battery will last between 300 to 500 charging cycles if it is used as per manufacturer recommendation. If you don’t discharge it to critical levels, the life expectancy will be maximum.

Ideally, a LiPo battery should be used between 50% & 80% charge levels. But this is not always possible.

Another important factor is the discharge rate, i-e how hard you usually push your drone to extreme speeds and maneuvers where it draws the maximum possible current from the batteries.

If you are a mellow flyer and fly for short intervals before recharging your battery, you should expect up to 500 charge cycles.

But if you regularly discharge the battery below 30% or less, your battery won’t last more than 200 cycles.

The battery life also depends on the temperature it is used at. Flying in extreme hot or freezing cold weather can reduce the life of your LiPo battery significantly.

If you want an in-depth read about LiPo batteries life, this article from battery university is a good resource.

When should you replace your DJI Mini 2 battery?

If you have been using your Mini 2 battery following the best practices, it should last for a good 2 – 3 years, depending on how often you fly and how deep you usually discharge the batteries during flight sessions.

But it’s going to deplete sooner or later.

The battery capacity starts decreasing with each cycle and you will see a reduced flight time as time goes on.

Once the flight time is too low for a practical flight session, you should go for a replacement and get a new battery from the official DJI store or from Amazon (Amazon link).

If you somehow end up damaging your battery, it should be replaced as well. The damage can be from wrong charging that might lead to swelling or from a recent crash that physically deforms the battery.

Flying with a physically deformed battery poses danger to your drone and yourself. In such a case, it’s good to replace the battery with a new one and safely dispose of your old drone battery.

Best practices to improve your battery life

To keep your battery in peak condition for as long as possible, always follow the charging/discharging best practices.

Here are a few practical points to improve your battery life and make it last longer.

• Never discharge your battery to a critically low level. Make a habit of landing your drone when the battery is below 30%. It will increase your battery life as well as prevent any crashes due to critically low battery.
• Try not to fly your drone at full throttle at all times. Full throttle drains a lot of current from your battery in a short time. This massive discharge reduces the battery life.
• Do not fly your drone when it is too hot or too cold outside. Batteries are temperature sensitive, and extreme temperatures affect their performance and their life.
• Always store your batteries inside the drone or the charging hub so that they can self discharge properly to normal voltage range.
• Always fly safe and avoid any crashes to prevent any physical damage to your batteries. If that happens, immediately replace the damaged batteries.

I hope this article answered your questions about DJI Mini 2 batteries. If you still have any questions, do let me know in the comments below, and I will answer them. Fly safe!

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