FES BATTERY PACK GEN2 Version 1.18 September 2017
Page 18 of 25
6. Maintenance
With proper and carefull use of FES battery packs, there is practically no maintence
required. FES battery packs are built from the most suitable cells available, so that they
are able to provide high power and good endurance and will serve you for many years and
charging cycles.
Unfortunately, some capacity deterioration will occur due to aging of the
cells whether the battery packs are in use or not. The useful life of a lithium
cells is based on several factors which can prevent the battery from
providing sufficient current draw due to increased internal resistance.
Suitable uses and threatment that will reduce this deterioration include:
1. During powered flight, use low power settings as much as possible and practical.
2. Do not discharge cells below 3,4V (total voltage at 95V), if is not really neccesery.
3. Store battery packs at suitable temperatures when they are not in use (review next
chapter 7. Storage)
4. Store battery packs at suitable charge levels (around 50% SOC, see next chapter 7.
Storage)
Good indication of the battery packs condition is SOH – State Of Health %
parameter, which can be read in lower right corner of BMS control software. It is
calculated from average internal resistance of the cells, measured during charging.
With poor threatment of the battery packs, their cells internal resistance will be
rising faster, and so calculated SOH % level will become lower. When it will be as low as
50%, it would be time to think about replacement of the battery packs (at least the cells,
BMS electronic could be reused).
Poor condition of the cells can be recognizable also during powered flight:
-much deeper voltage drops at max power settings
-much reduced maximum achievable power (with fully charged packs)
-much reduced usable capacity – altitude gain and range of level flight
-temperature rise gradient of the battery pack will become much faster
We suggest replacing FES battery packs, when maximum available
range of level flight (to reach 90V or 55°C, whatever first), is
reduced to one third of the range experienced when they were
new. Probbably there would be not much sense to utilize them
further on in such conditions.
Please handle FES battery packs very carefully, in order to avoid any mechanical
damage of housing. Only if battery packs are free of any damages it is allowed to charge
them and then put them into the glider. So they must be always visually inpected before
each charging and before installation to the glider. This is even more important when
glider is used by a syndicate of pilots or in aeroclubs.
If housing is found to be damaged, somethimes also cells inside might be
damaged, which could be dangerous. In such case please contact manufacturer, for
evaluation of damage and further steps.