BATTERY ISSUES (Early Autoland)??? POST HERE

[Deadmeat]

My P2 dropped out of the sky over a week ago. Starting with a fully charged battery 6 mins into the flight the Osd reported the battery percentage level as 67% although strangely the actual battery icon was showing empty ?!? ( i can`t remember if it flashed ) Seconds later it was in freefall.
On finding the P2 the battery had ejected on impact. The battery showed 2 solid greens and a flashing third. I contacted the seller who promptly directed me to DJI Europe Support. Only confirmation of received email so far.
My battery type has the small circular terminals. I see my nephews P2 battery terminals are square and larger. I haven`t tried to recharge the battery as i can`t be sure of it`s integrity ( body damaged ).
In limbo right now. Zenmuse damaged and bent off the square and it would need repair or replacement as it`s not fit for purpose. Legs and props replaced too. The airframe looks 100% but i`ll not know till she`s in the air again.


This issue appeared literally out of a clear blue sky.I would advise owners to look at your screen icons and if the values contradict each other get her landed asap. I fly and land as fluidly and softly as possible. No heavy landings or aggressive flying so if this could happen to me it could happen to you.

Link to crash below. Perfect evening, no wind to speak of.
http://youtu.be/z3sDW9aMLEg

 

[Outtahere100]

Just got off the phone with DJI in Los Angeles. I got an RMA number for two batteries that exhibit the same symptoms that others have described on this thread. Both of my batteries are the older style, with the small contact pads. Has anyone had the newer style battery fail?

John (grounded until replacement batts arrive)

I don't know if the smaller contacts on the old battery are to blame or if those are just the older more used batteries. I hope it is not the older battery that has the issue because i just got my replacement battery from DJI in LA and it was the older one with the small contact pads. :? I guess i will find out in abot 70 discharges. :|

That's if they make it to 70 cycles. Mine only made it to 20+

+1

Only 16 and 17 discharges on my two bad batts

 

[Sanababit]

I am up on the 30's, charges i mean, just make sure that every 20 or so charges you completetly drain the batteries, go lower than 8% on battery or until heli turns off by itself, then recharge. It seems that this procedure brought life back to both batteries

Sana

 

[shartlza]

I am up on the 30's, charges i mean, just make sure that every 20 or so charges you completetly drain the batteries, go lower than 8% on battery or until heli turns off by itself, then recharge. It seems that this procedure brought life back to both batteries

Sana

All of us have done this and it did not help. Most of the issues people are having are due to bad cell or cells in the battery.

 

[pete dobson]

I have just posted the exact same problem my phantom 2 vision goes into auto land mode at 48% charge.
I have requested a replacement battery from my dealer "Flying Hobby" it will ne inetresting to see what comes back.

 

[Zinnware]

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=17324&start=130#p177174
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=17324&start=140#p177225
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=17324&start=140#p177981

This is a follow-up to my previous posts about failures of two of my batteries after 31 and 41 discharges.
I contacted my dealer B&H Photo and they accused me of discharging my two batteries over 1000 times based on my provided screen shots from the assistant software clearly showed 33 and 41 discharges for the two. Their confusion was that each discharge equated to the number of times the battery was fully discharged below 8%. OR 74 complete discharges x 20 = 1480. This is comical since I have only be flying he Phantom 2 for 110 days. That is 13.5 discharges per day. You can do the rest of the math on how long it would take to recharge the batteries for 13.5 flights per day. After providing even more additional information they stated that my purchase was beyond the 30 day purchase period and I should contact the manufacturer.

The good news is that I contacted DJI North America by phone and they provided me with a RMA. I'm sending these batteries back and hope to have replacements soon.

 

[tyson0317]

Mine did this an ended up at the bottom of a river for a few seconds. Luckily appears to have dried out and recovered fully; GoPro also. Was showing upper 70's percent battery and just started fast-blinking red and going down down down. Stupid feature should be configurable so that one of the radio switches could disable it if needed. Battery was plenty strong - showing 3 bars after this flight. Simply idiotic! Let us turn this feature off!

 

[Xrover]

Maybe this has already been mentioned but I i'd thought i'd share this link.
Apparently there is an issue with a short lifespan on the P2 Batteries. Real Short!

I found this video from an Aussie company describing it.
http://youtu.be/QgCp7_O2WJI

Just yesterday I had a battery sit on the charger for over 10 hours with the last Green led blinking. It would not fully charge anymore. It only had 7 Flights on it and the P2 Assistant Software showed it had an 87% Charge.

 

[gecarey]

If you have the patience and time , call DJI..... If you get someone on the phone.... Tell them you have a defective battery.
They will ask some questions and most likely will issue a RMA for the batteries. Read, warranty replacement.... They have quietly bumped up the 6 month warranty period on the batteries to a full year. I got that from DJI directly when I called.
They gave me a RMA # and I sent the batteries off with proof of purchase.
I should see them within a week or so.....

 

[Petr_K]

Batteries are really poor quality. I have 3 batteries. On one battery a few months ago stopped working internal electronics, did not go to recharge. The battery was replaced with a new one. The other two batteries are puffed up in one day. The battery had 21 and 23 recharge cycles, which not a lot to battery inflated. I always charge the battery using the charger and flies rather quiet years, so there should be no extreme conditions. Now, both the battery claim. I took them to my sellers about 10 days ago. I wonder how the claim goes, and when it will deal with it, because to go out with only one battery has almost no sense.
When the prices of these batteries, I think that should be the quality somewhere else. ... Not to mention that the real price of the batteries in this version should be in the level of $ 30 up to $ 40 per piece.

 

[J.James]

Not to mention that the real price of the batteries in this version should be in the level of $ 30 up to $ 40 per piece.

I'd even say as high as $50-$60 would be right price. IF they worked right and got rid of the stupid internal charger circuits faults but still keep the over all design of the cage and the way it locks in. Along with the on/off switch and level indicator.

Tho it would be nice if they also had a real balance plug on them so they could be properly charged and balanced with out the internal charge circuit locking out any of the cells if they ever go above or below the cut out voltages that they set in the internal safely circuit. Having a protected cell that can shut off a cell to protect a battery is not the best idea on some thing that is flying and can crash. and the reason why things that fly don't normally ever use protected circuit lipos.

on things like a rc cars or even a flashlight or other devises that wont fall out of the sky then they dont pose a crash hazard if the protection circuit cuts the battery or a cell off.

 

[wkf94025]

Completely agree with your comments about misguided logic of "lose the aircraft (and camera and gimbal) but save the cell".

Kelly

 

[J.James]

I just received one of the new DJI battery's yesterday. Even tho this one actually works and charges right un like the first one I got that was shot and never took a full charge from day one. I'm still wondering how long it will be before the new one starts flaking out or if they ever bothered fixing any thing that was any thing to do with the real cause of the flaw which had nothing to do with the contact pads being round or not big enough surface area. as a as them losing contact it was because the pads are not sticking out far enough to press up against the pins hard enough. Tho I do notice the new battery fits a lot tighter. Which may solve the contact issues.. But it still dont address the main flaw in all of the battery's internal charge circuit not balancing the cells right or charging the cells that go low voltage. So I'm hoping they actually did make some sort of internal change to the so called smart circuit. Tho im not to sure they did being they dont seem to understand what the real cause is and only have mentioned the new square pads as if square things contact better then round. Or else the same problems are going to start all over again soon as far as the cells flaking out.

 

[J.James]

So after 6 or 7 minutes flight time the Phantom came home.
I do not think this had something to do with the data pins or the internal charge circuit.
Just my thoughts.

Definitely not any thing to do with the data pins.

But I bet if you look at the battery details in the naza after a charge it will say its charged 99 or 100% but will show way less then 5200mah and the voltages for 1 or ore cells will also be wrong. My crappy battery also swelled right away to. I think it was like the 2nd or so charge that it started to puff some. Which is usually from charging to fast or discharging to fast.

Other then the one thats crappy that has 2 cells blown out it would go from 100% to 0 in a few minutes just running the motors and not even flying. and the % of life after 6 cycles says 98% life remaining even tho the thing is basically toast being its shot. the % of life is just an arbitrary count of the charges. Every 3 charges just tics 1% off that number. So that after 300 charge cycles it should show you have 0% life left. Regardless of if it was still a healthy battery or a toasted one.

My toasted battery tho it turns out besides the bit of mild swell it got. When I took it apart and charged the cells individually to 4.20v each it actually took a full charge and showed the right mah capacity again. Tho I frigged up the cell balance lead that goes from the battery's bottom board to the top circuit board. So now I cant turn the battery on or do any thing with it till I get or make a new 5 cell 6 pin balance lead that it uses for that cable. Tho I actually intend to make a split lead that will be like a Y connector and have on end routed to the out side. So I can charge it with a regular balance charger. Tho I have to figure out which 4 of the 6 wires are the ones that are the ones that balance the cells.

 

[J.James]

Dont worry Im not really an expect in battery's either esp lithos tho I do have some experience in some of the different flavors of them. But these DJI battery's did force me to learn more then I ever wanted to or should of ever needed to.

THo I was wrong on the type of internal plug that is inside them for the balance leads and just a few minuets ago had it side by side to a standard 5 cell lipo plug and it turns out I was mistaken and I need to find out what its called. Tho I knew I had seen that same plug before and it dawned on me were it was and it turns out its the same plug that is used on the white cable for the camera were it plugs in to main board inside the vision. So I'm going to have revise my cable plan so its one of them on each end and the regular lippo balance plug on Y But when i get it all straightened out and a full round of testing If It works I'll be sure to let every one know that might still have some frigged up battery's they were not able to get exchanged for new ones.

 

[csivet]

Here is my battery issue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj9xsKdVv98

 

[csivet]

hi,

warranty 3 months or 1 year ? which one is correct ? cause someone fro the dji customer service told me that is only 3 months.

tnksx

Good news regarding these battery issues !

I just received an email from DJI, I copy paste the content here :

"Hello Mr.....,
Like we spoke on the phone we recommend you to go to your dealer and replace the two faulty batteries because you have one year warranty on them! Your dealer must help you with that. If he will replace it or repair it for you we cannot decide but he must help you in this case.

Regards, Heiko (Support3)"

I forwarded this email to my dealer, so I hope to have some good news from him coming soon.

Geert.

Also received a message from the dealer yesterday. He will replace my 2 batteries.
Hope that all the others with battery issues can get an exchange too.

Geert.

Hi guys,

Today I received 2 brand new batteries from my dealer.
Thank you DJI.

Geert./.

 

[monil]

I have phantom 2 with latest 3.2 software yesterday when i was flying it started giving me battery warning and started descending and on IOSD it was showing 60% so should i consider this battery is bad and need to change

 

[Damon]

What did the iosd say for voltage? What does the battery properties show in assistant? You might be able to discharge it down to 8% and get a better charge afterwards.

 

[ToddSmi]

I have phantom 2 with latest 3.2 software yesterday when i was flying it started giving me battery warning and started descending and on IOSD it was showing 60% so should i consider this battery is bad and need to change

Unless you were flying at a really high altitude like 7500 ASL or higher, then it does sound like a bad battery. I would try Damon's suggestion on the full discharge and recharge, but if that doesn't help, time to get a replacement.