Battery - "Major Deviations" reported

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HealthyDrones is reporting that the original battery that came with my first Phantom 3 Advanced, (purchased Jun 18th, 2015), is showing "Major Deviations".

The battery life sez 93%, with 44 total flights, 38 total charges, and 5h 20m 43s of flight time. I've calibrated the battery three times over it's 78 week life, the last time was a couple weeks ago after the "Major Deviations" were reported after each flight. On the (very careful) flight immediately after the last calibration it flew without "Major Deviations" being reported. But "Major Deviations" popped up again on the next two flights, so I've grounded that battery (not electrically, I just won't fly with it any more ;o)

Max. temp recorded for the battery is 129.2°f which is about average for my other three. The battery is clearly out of warranty, so I'm mainly concerned if I can expect the same problem with my other 3 batteries as they approach 5 hours of flight time.

For a replacement: I see that the newer 3rd party batteries from Powerextra are getting some pretty good reviews lately. I'm not quite convinced, but would love to hear any fresh opinions on that. With my authentic DJI battery unusable at 93% life after 44 flights, I wonder if Powerextras could be any worse and still be in-business.

Cheers, -RF
 
I bought a powerextra battery on eBay for my P2V and P2v+. I've flown it 8-10 times and it seems to behave just as I would expect from a normal DJI battery for the P2 series. Cells are balanced, flight time is normal, works fine with my app. The lamps aren't as bright, but that's the only difference I can see so far.
 
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I bought a powerextra battery on eBay for my P2V and P2v+. I've flown it 8-10 times and it seems to behave just as I would expect from a normal DJI battery for the P2 series. Cells are balanced, flight time is normal, works fine with my app. The lamps aren't as bright, but that's the only difference I can see so far.

Thanks MtD, that's good to hear. I just got an Amazon holiday gift card from a vendor -- I think I'll get one and use it on lower-risk flights for a while (mainly when I'm not over water).
 
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I did a bit more research, and some are saying that HealthyDrones may be overstating deviation problems, flagging deviations > 0.7v, and DJI uses a less conservative >0.1v value.

Although HealthyDrones reports a deviation in cell 1 every few seconds, the worst is 0.85v. Maybe that battery is not as bad as I thought...
 
Might I suggest you upload the log to phantomhelp log viewer and you can make a more informed judgement then. HD is pretty sparse in the logging intervals reported.

There is more to the story on battery health than age, flight hours and charge cycles. How they are stored, particularity SOC (terminal voltage and %capacity) are more important however generally 18 to 24 months for a LiPO is a pretty good innings irrespective of cycle count.
 
I did a bit more research, and some are saying that HealthyDrones may be overstating deviation problems, flagging deviations > 0.7v, and DJI uses a less conservative >0.1v value.

Although HealthyDrones reports a deviation in cell 1 every few seconds, the worst is 0.85v. Maybe that battery is not as bad as I thought...
whisperingsmiley.gif
I believe you mean to say .07v
 
I bought a powerextra battery on eBay for my P2V and P2v+. I've flown it 8-10 times and it seems to behave just as I would expect from a normal DJI battery for the P2 series. Cells are balanced, flight time is normal, works fine with my app. The lamps aren't as bright, but that's the only difference I can see so far.
Is that a good off brand battery? I froze my DJI battery for a week in my car and may need a new battery.
 
I see you can check battery life status by holding down the button on the battery for 5 secs until it blinks red, and if it shows one green light blinking means it has 80-90% life left and so on.....anybody know how accurate this is?
 

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