Fell Out of Sky - Total Loss

[WetDog]

So if this theory is true, I'd like to know what the difference is between a battery that was run down from 100% to 50% vs one that was sitting at 50% for a few days.

Again, remember, the 'battery' is doing something all of the time. The microprocessor is active as long as there is any current in the cells. The processor is keeping track of bog-knows-what from various sensors. If something (magical, unknown to anyone outside DJI) is happening during the period of time when you are not actually stuffing the battery in the bird or pushing on the button, things could go wrong. It seems like in some cases, things (unknown things) ARE going wrong. Then the Phantom and / or the battery gets all twizzed out when put under a load and a Rapid Unintentional Disassembly ensues.

 

[rotax91]

There is a difference.

P3 FW knows how to compute the remaining charge at any point if started discharging at 100% charge. Discharge curve is not linear and needs good onsite into batteries. It's unable to compute if you start, say at 51% and is therefore unable to initiate fail safe mode. The net result is fliers are questioned for not taking precautions. Who doesn't make a mistake but that should not result into total crash of P3. System should generate enough alarms and initiate corrective actions before worst happens.

Makes sense to me on what you said. I'm not blaming DJI if that was the case. I was in a hurry to capture this house fire. Lesson learned. I have around 30 charges per each of my packs. Nothing dumb like this has ever happened. My new policy is to only charge the day that I know I will fly. I think I'm going to pick up the DJI charger that allows charging of 4 packs at the same time.

If this is the case with these drops out of the sky, it does seem like some simple code could be put in to not allow take off unless the battery is of full charge. This was already mentioned earlier in this thread by someone.

 

[0000edgar0000]

My question is: is it then not advisable to fly the P3 at x-location with a 100% battery charge. Then after 5mins of flight and lets say 80% battery charge move to y-location?

I just want to clarify because sounds like by reading some posts in here, one has to commit to fly the bird until the battery is discharged without turning off.

Otherwise it means that you started to fly with a discharged battery?

 

[WetDog]

Makes sense to me on what you said. I'm not blaming DJI if that was the case. I was in a hurry to capture this house fire. Lesson learned. I have around 30 charges per each of my packs. Nothing dumb like this has ever happened. My new policy is to only charge the day that I know I will fly. I think I'm going to pick up the DJI charger that allows charging of 4 packs at the same time.

If this is the case with these drops out of the sky, it does seem like some simple code could be put in to not allow take off unless the battery is of full charge. This was already mentioned earlier in this thread by someone.

I have the charging block. The ergonomics aren't the best but it works. I've gone to keeping one battery on 'hot status' - plugged into the charger so I can top it off by pushing the button just before use. Yes, I will likely lose some battery life that way but sometimes things pop up that you want to photograph. I do the same for my DSLRs - keep at least one battery fully charged. Never know when aliens will stop by.

 

[rotax91]

My question is: is it then not advisable to fly the P3 at x-location with a 100% battery charge. Then after 5mins of flight and lets say 80% battery charge move to y-location?

I just want to clarify because sounds like by reading some posts in here, one has to commit to fly the bird until the battery is discharged without turning off.

Otherwise it means that you started to fly with a discharged battery?

Exactly. If you have to halt your flight for some reason and you are at 80% for example as you mentioned. You need to treat that battery as if it was fully discharged. You should no longer treat it as an 80% battery that you did during the initial flight you took. Put it back on the charger.

 

[WetDog]

My question is: is it then not advisable to fly the P3 at x-location with a 100% battery charge. Then after 5mins of flight and lets say 80% battery charge move to y-location?

I just want to clarify because sounds like by reading some posts in here, one has to commit to fly the bird until the battery is discharged without turning off.

Otherwise it means that you started to fly with a discharged battery?

This does not SEEM to be the case. Again, we're operating largely in the dark here. But the various threads tend to trend around a battery that has been partially discharged (but typically over the 50% level that DJI recommends) AND has set for some unknown period of time, likely more than 12 - 24 hours. People that have started out on a full battery, landed the bird and then took off again the same day seem not to have this issue.

Does everyone agree with that?

That said, I typically do what rotax91 says - once the bird lands, the battery gets pulled and a fresh one inserted. A little paranoia goes a long way. It would be nice to get a technical bulletin from DJI about this. Do they even do that?

 

[0000edgar0000]

Exactly. If you have to halt your flight for some reason and you are at 80% for example as you mentioned. You need to treat that battery as if it was fully discharged. You should no longer treat it as an 80% battery that you did during the initial flight you took. Put it back on the charger.

Well that sucks [emoji23][emoji107] i want my money back [emoji44][emoji24]

 

[WetDog]

Well that sucks [emoji23][emoji107] i want my money back [emoji44][emoji24]

I think DJI does owe us an explanation. It's happening with some frequency. They are really the only people with enough info to do more than stab at things in the dark (like we're doing here).

 

[Reed L]

And what do you mean by "pull the two parts together"? Are you referring to the battery main power contacts that the male spade connector on the bird side slide into? Also, the two lower pins detect the batteries data.

I'm referring to both sets of contacts, but one set is the P3 computer. Basically what I am saying in theory is that with less power, the main terminals aren't getting a full contact to report in to the P3 computer, so the intelligence connection isn't receiving a full signal and with in a few minutes it auto shuts down the P3 whether in the air or not. Just from other threads that I have read, it looks like the P3 with a battery in discharge mode usually shuts down with in 2 minutes of take off. So my thinking is that there is a fail safe built in that is causing them to fall from the sky. So... a good experiment would be to take a few batteries that have gone into discharge mode and are showing 60% + or -, put them into the P3 and start it up. Then time it to see if they all shut off at the same time or if it is just a random shut down. If it's random , then would tell us that it's not the on-board computer that is shutting the power down. In tcope's logs it was 44 seconds if I remember until it shut down, so if we have say 4 batteries that all shut down at 44 seconds then this would prove that the intelligence or computer is in fact shutting the P3 down.

TJ said - "I use DeoxIT Gold on all my electrical connections other it be my UAV's, RC crawlers, my DSLR, etc. Well worth the few bucks for the tube as a little goes a long ways."
Thanks, I will pick some up as well

 

[phantom13flyer]

I'm glad I'm usually running 2 extra lipos on the side . Makes a great backup system .

 

[alokbhargava]

This does not SEEM to be the case. Again, we're operating largely in the dark here. But the various threads tend to trend around a battery that has been partially discharged (but typically over the 50% level that DJI recommends) AND has set for some unknown period of time, likely more than 12 - 24 hours. People that have started out on a full battery, landed the bird and then took off again the same day seem not to have this issue.

Does everyone agree with that?

That said, I typically do what rotax91 says - once the bird lands, the battery gets pulled and a fresh one inserted. A little paranoia goes a long way. It would be nice to get a technical bulletin from DJI about this. Do they even do that?

Moderators, is it possible to have sessions with DJI reps directly on to this forum? Many have unanswered questions? Can you help us dialogs with DJI tech guys and not marketing/ business guys?

 

[mirrorimage]

There is NO firm evidence that this is the problem!
What about a battery that is at 97% or 98%?
I ALWAYS charge mine up but I dont think you will do a battery any favours trying to get that last drop of power into it.
There do seem to be a higher than average number of these crashes happening at say 50% charge but this isnt proof. DJI should sort this out. Why does the battery have to be "intelligent"? Surely losing power gradually so you can just bring it down is preferable to a sudden switch off and drop?

You should be able to fly your drone with less than a full battery. However you don't see planes at the airport leaving the ground with

I doubt you really hate it.

There is nothing wrong with being right. I wouldn't mind reading a technical paper on these batteries if you know of any.

Lithium Polymer

Who gave you that info? Does DJI believe that P3 has design problems? Why would they improve if there are no problems?

Any issues with the current battery can easily be fixed by firmware and quality control.

 

[ukglyn]

So, if I have had a battery sit for a 2 days charged & it has gone into its discharge cycle, as long as I recharge up to 100% the day im flying it SHOULD be ok, have I understood that right? Or do I have to wait for the 2further days for ther discharge cycle to end so my battery will be around 50% before I can charge up again ready for use?

 

[mirrorimage]

There is a lot of FUD and speculative voodoo going on in this thread. Most of it centers around people not understanding how batteries, electricity or firmware works. Don't start doing a bunch of crazy OCD stuff because of one thread off the internet. Batteries provide power, if it has 40% left in a battery it's still providing the same flow of power as before. However, if the firmware on the battery (almost all lithium poly batteries have a firmware chip) has software written by DJI telling it to automatically drain the battery after 10 days, there very well could be a fault in the software that keeps track of 10 days. You could also just have a defective hardware battery, but that's most likely not the case if you flew with it for a long period of time before.

You wouldn't takeoff in an airplane with half a tank of gas… So even though your battery should perform, just don't take chances.

 

[LuvMyTJ]

Moderators, is it possible to have sessions with DJI reps directly on to this forum? Many have unanswered questions? Can you help us dialogs with DJI tech guys and not marketing/ business guys?

No, this forum is in no way affiliated with DJI. They may read it, but we don't know that to be true. There were a couple members here from DJI but after someone disrespected them, unfortunately they no longer participate.

Also, as of this time there is no known issues with the batteries and everything here is pure speculation.

 

[alokbhargava]

Any issues with the current battery can easily be fixed by firmware and quality control.

Very general statement. Who is doing it and what's ETA?

 

[alokbhargava]

No, this forum is in no way affiliated with DJI. They may read it, but we don't know that to be true. There were a couple members here from DJI but after someone disrespected them, unfortunately they no longer participate.

Also, as of this time there is no known issues with the batteries and everything here is pure speculation.

Thanks for the info.

 

[LuvMyTJ]

You wouldn't takeoff in an airplane with half a tank of gas… So even though your battery should perform, just don't take chances.

Actually, they do all the time. Flight planners normally wish to minimize flight cost through the appropriate choice of route, height, and speed, and by loading the minimum necessary fuel on board.

 

[LuvMyTJ]

Which version of the Deoxit product do you use? Pen, brush or bottle?

DeoxIT® Gold G100L, Squeeze Tube, 100% solution, 2 mL,
(Applications = 50 +/- drops, 0.04 ml/drop)

Part No. G100L-2C (2 mL)

DeoxIT® Gold G100L Mini-Brush Applicator, 100% solution, 1.6 mL
(Applications = 100 +/- brush strokes, 10mm long)

Part No. G100L-16BX (1.6 mL)

 

[syotr]

Moderators, is it possible to have sessions with DJI reps directly on to this forum? Many have unanswered questions? Can you help us dialogs with DJI tech guys and not marketing/ business guys?

There are other forums where DJI reps frequently read and post. They are keeping pretty quiet about the battery problems though. Some users are doing some testing and have discovered some evidence of the problem. I am still sticking with my Phantom 1 until this is sorted out. If I launch with a partially charged battery, I will just get red light flashing with plenty of time to land.