Dead Cell on original Battery. Only 8 charges

[dysan911]

Wow I guess it's time I replace my original Phantom 3 flight battery. Glad I had a 2nd one. About a little over a week ago I charged both batteries up with no issues in anticipation of possibly needing the 2nd one for some photos I was getting of a new location. Turns out I never needed to use the 2nd battery so it remained in my travel case back home for over a week. I went to update my firmware yesterday and when I put that fully charged battery in I got the message about a weak cell.

After the FW update I let my phantom hover over some tall grass in the yard until it ran so low and auto landed. The blinking warning about the battery was going the entire time..

Recharged the battery and now only one of the LED's blinks. I really expected to get a lot more life out of a battery. Guess it's time to buy another one.

 

[Oso]

Did you try to recharge the battery immediately after that hover? Could it be LED 4 blinking for charging temp too high?

 

[dysan911]

Did you try to recharge the battery immediately after that hover? Could it be LED 4 blinking for charging temp too high?

No I let it cool down for over an hour in front of a floor fan.

 

[Oso]

No I let it cool down for over an hour in front of a floor fan.

Bummer. I was hoping for you that it was something simple.

 

[exit 4]

Wouldn't that be covered under warranty?

 

[dysan911]

Wouldn't that be covered under warranty?

I sure hope so. I bought my p3 April of 2015. I'll have to check with DJI Support on Monday

 

[m0j0]

Send it back


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[dysan911]

They told me the battery is out of warranty.


You get 6 months on it.
Battery 6 Months and Charge Cycle less than 200 Times.

 

[happydays]

AFAIK, batteries only have 3 month's warranty.

 

[dysan911]

AFAIK, batteries only have 3 month's warranty.

Yeah it's actually 6. DJI - After-sales Service Policies - Look at "After Sales Warranty Period".

I"m just wondering was it something I did wrong that led to battery failure after only 8 recharges or are the batteries that lame to begin with that you'll be lucky to get 6 mos out of one.

ALSO: I think DJI should NOT restrict the use of 3rd party batteries if they're own won't even last a year.

 

[rmfa]

Its possible you just could have gotten a bad battery. Also, 8 charges in over 6 months isn't much flying at all. Did you leave the battery fully charged or discharged for any extended periods of time? Something is off here...

 

[dysan911]

Its possible you just could have gotten a bad battery. Also, 8 charges in over 6 months isn't much flying at all. Did you leave the battery fully charged or discharged for any extended periods of time? Something is off here...

I bought a 2nd battery early on that I alternate with my flights. Here's what I normally do.

I will rotate the 2 batteries so that they both get equal usage. I will fully charge only 1 of them the night before a planned flight. The last time I had a flight I wasn't sure if I would need 2 batteries so I charged both of them. I only ended up using one of them though so the other battery was stored with a full charge. I believe the default discharge on my DJI Go app is 7 days, so on the 7th day my 100% full battery should have discharged 10% or so I believe.

When I discovered the bad cell it was still showing a full charge and that's when it indicated the "Weak Cell" message. Honestly I don't believe it was a full 7 days had expired so the 2nd battery technically should have stayed at 100%.