Battery issues / battery styles

[Michigan_PI]

My Phantom came with 2 batteries, one has large rectangular contacts and the other has smaller round contacts.
Is there a correlation to the style of battery when it comes to the issues with premature forced landings?

My battery with the small round contacts has been going into Low Battery Warning and causing "forced" landings right around 45% although I have been rather close when this happens and been able to bring it back and land. I have also noticed that when the load on the battery is less, such as in a descent, the alarm clears and all green again until I put a load on it (increase the throttle).

The software shows the battery at 93% life with 23 discharges and the cell voltages are relatively close ( battery at 38% charged, 1-3765, 2-3784, 3-3766). This was checked about 2 minutes after an incident without power cycling the Phantom and the battery showed 2 solid green lights.

For those that have had this issue with batteries, which style were they?
I purchased the Phantom from B&H Photo in May. Should I contact them or go straight to DJI?
How has DJI responded to the battery issues?

 

[Dirty Bird]

I would suggest running the battery down below 8%, allowing it to cool, and then fully recharging. You may have to do this as many as five times to condition the batteries. If you are still having the issue after 5 cycles, then the battery needs to be replaced.

One thing I wish DJI would incorporate into the charger or battery is a controlled "Discharge" feature, as is found on many stand-alone LiPo chargers. My primary LiPo charger is programmable for number of cells, standard/balance charge, charge rate, and a discharge/charge cycle which can be set to automatically perform up to five times. Unfortunately it cannot be used on the Phantom's battery as you require access to the main charge contacts and a balance port.

 

[BlackTracer]

My Phantom came with 2 batteries, one has large rectangular contacts and the other has smaller round contacts.
Is there a correlation to the style of battery when it comes to the issues with premature forced landings?

My battery with the small round contacts has been going into Low Battery Warning and causing "forced" landings right around 45% although I have been rather close when this happens and been able to bring it back and land. I have also noticed that when the load on the battery is less, such as in a descent, the alarm clears and all green again until I put a load on it (increase the throttle).

The software shows the battery at 93% life with 23 discharges and the cell voltages are relatively close ( battery at 38% charged, 1-3765, 2-3784, 3-3766). This was checked about 2 minutes after an incident without power cycling the Phantom and the battery showed 2 solid green lights.

For those that have had this issue with batteries, which style were they?
I purchased the Phantom from B&H Photo in May. Should I contact them or go straight to DJI?
How has DJI responded to the battery issues?

You have described to the letter the problem I was having with one of my three batteries. It was one with round contacts. I discharged and charged it three times and it made no difference. I called the dealer I bought it from in AZ (All e RC), and they had me send it in. They then sent me back a brand new battery with square contacts.

Maybe you can do the same.

Two FYIs. FYI my battery was bought in April and replaced in September. So the warranty is not three months. FYI I made the same post in this forum a month ago and Geert locked my thread. Go figure.

 

[Michigan_PI]

I know there are several battery threads out there but could not find them.
I tried searching but the search function refused the word "battery" as it was too common so I looked back several pages and still couldn't find anything.

 

[juangelb]

I had also had an issue with a rounded contacts battery.
It failed at 39th discharge.
Full discharge / recharge did not solved the proble.
Had it replaved by local dealer.
I Have 4 batteries at this time all with square contacts and no more issues till now.
Best regards : Juan

 

[Panamon Creel]

I would suggest running the battery down below 8%, allowing it to cool, and then fully recharging. You may have to do this as many as five times to condition the batteries. If you are still having the issue after 5 cycles, then the battery needs to be replaced.
.....

Hmmm conditioning (C-D-C-D....) is something done with NiCd, NiMh batteries that have a "memory" effect or with NEW LiPo packs that are used in high discharge rate applications since new LiPo packs won't have full discharge rates until they had something like 10 charge/discharge cycles but it's not something that's done with LiPo packs that alrady had been through several cycles since it just ages/degrades them more. It's worth a try for a LiPo pack that's not working good anymore but not something that should be done with an OK working battery pack.
Just want to put this out here since I can see already someone reading about the conditioning and thinking that it's a good thing to do to extend battery life of their P2 batteries which it is not.

 

[Michigan_PI]

The bad DJI battery was replaced under warranty. It took 15 days from the day I sent it until I received the new one.
The new one has the larger square contacts.