I Dropped my battery and this happened...

[LuvMyTJ]

Lipos are not your household alkaline... be sure you know the proper way to handle them. I would just glue it and watch it carefully. Especially when charging. Never charge them unless you are in the same room... any limo. Also, that appears to be a clone battery... am I wrong, is it a real DJI?

 

[With The Birds]

Get a soldering iron and run it along the crack to melt/weld it up. That way your using the same materials to bind it together

You would likely get a better outcome if using a polystyrene filler rod, the cross section provides that addition of heat only would leave you worse off (bigger crack).

 

[1tomany]

Reminds me of a story...

Go on....

 

[daveleeds]

Reminds me of a story...

I have pop corn and coke, sitting comfortably.

 

[Mark The Droner]

This was a good 35-40 years ago. I drop by my buddy Pete's house to see what's up and he and another buddy Dave were in his Dad's garage trying to repair his truck battery which had a tiny hole in it so that one of the cells was leaking. He acquired the hole because the battery wasn't secured properly in the engine compartment of his old pick up truck and went airborne when the truck caught air at an infamous intersection at high speed. Pete didn't have the money to buy a new battery so they thought it would be a good idea to take a torch and try to melt the plastic of the battery just above the small hole so that the melted plastic would flow down, cleverly sealing the hole. It might work. Right?

BANG!

The battery blew up - violently spraying a large amount of battery acid in both their faces.

 

[With The Birds]

This was a good 35-40 years ago. I drop by my buddy Pete's house to see what's up and he and another buddy Dave were in his Dad's garage trying to repair his truck battery which had a tiny hole in it so that one of the cells was leaking. He acquired the hole because the battery wasn't secured properly in the engine compartment of his old pick up truck and went airborne when the truck caught air at an infamous intersection at high speed. Pete didn't have the money to buy a new battery so they thought it would be a good idea to take a torch and try to melt the plastic of the battery just above the small hole so that the melted plastic would flow down, cleverly sealing the hole. It might work. Right?

BANG!

The battery blew up - violently spraying a large amount of battery acid in both their faces.

I am very wary of lead acid batteries, they produce hydrogen gas.

 

[epicdoom]

crazy glue it, it will be fine use the glue sparingly as it spreads out alittle goes a long way

 

[Jthomp]

The crack is only in the shell of the battery. If you set the battery on end so that the lights and the on/off switch are facing upward, the tops of the 4 cells which actually have the li-po material in them are just about where the lower end of the crack is. No matter what technique you use to make the repair, you want to keep heat away from those cells as much as possible. If possible, find a thermo-plastic adhesive that is not exo-thermic (i.e., does not create heat when applied to the surface(s) being repaired). Start your repair with a small drop of adhesive at the upper end of the crack and check to see if you can feel heat coming off from it. If you feel heat, then apply adhesive only part way down the rest of the crack, but not to where the heat affected zone in the plastic touches the cell plates themselves.

 

[epicdoom]

the cells will be wrapped in a protective thin aluminum case same as all lipo batteries are, each cell will be like this. then a wrap around the whole thing to make it a pack and whatever the cover is on the pack to permit the writing that's on it, Probably cardboard, so even something like epoxy that goes through a heat to bond will be fine. I would not use any direct heat as in from a flame or a soldering iron to plastic weld it, though I don't think a soldering iron would do any harm if done properly. I don't know what the skillset of the OP is to perform the repair with one.

 

[gklugie]

repair with plast aid. it adheres on a molecular level. it did wonders for a few developing arm cracks on my phantom.

 

[zaheed]

It's NOT safe to use a LiPo battery that has been physically damaged. You might get lucky and nothing bad might happen but it's not worth the risk.

In general, handle LiPo batteries like glass - you don't drop them and hope you'll get to continue to use them. The big difference though is with glass you immediately see the damage, with LiPo batteries you don't and also upon further use it can lead to serious damages, or worse, physical injuries, which makes it even more dangerous.

 

[JTorsrud]

Remember to make sure it is smooth after melting together. These batteries do fit snuggly in the Quads. If there is any material sticking up, it may not go into your Phantom smoothly.

Plus, use the soldering iron sparingly. A little at a time, then let it cool, so you don't put any excess heat on the battery.

You need to also watch it carefully when charging and make sure it doesn't begin to swell. Of course any swelling you should dispose of the battery immediately.

If you are gonna use the soldering iron, I would do it outside and not in your house!

Please be careful.

All in All, these batteries are volatile time bombs and can do allot of damage. The cost $149, some places cheaper. I would just dispose of it! Not worth burning your house or apartment down.

Take Care.

JT

 

[N017RW]

They are not volatile time bombs, they are a high energy density source.
As such they need be respected but not feared.

Based on the OPs supplied photos there is nothing to fear. Any subsequent 'event' would have occurred immediately.

 

[Eddie258]

You would have to be a dead set moron to puncher a battery on purpose surely?

Really! If you want to dispose of it just discharge and throw away. Read the manual that come with the battery. That was stupid.

 

[Mark The Droner]

Tossing a used lipo in the trash is not the best way to retire it. I like to give mine to the county recycling center.

 

[N017RW]

I've punctured an old P2 battery with a 3" nail.
It was fully charged but it had very little capacity thus a candidate for the test to destruction.

It was not too spectacular as the puncture of the nail eliminated the possibility of explosion. It got hot, some small flame and then the plastic caught. There was an odd odor as well which I would suspect can't be good for your health.

Moron-ic???
NO.
It was done in controlled conditions with adequate precautions. Now I know what to expect should such occur in the field.

 

[Budman]

Show a picture of the point of impact.
Mine did the same thing but the plastic was hiding a dent on the battery itself and it wouldn't slide into the compartment easily.
Not worth it IMO.
I recycled mine at Lowes.
Looks like aftermarket too. You have 2 strikes against you.

 

[PixelDoc]

Just my thoughts. BUT
It seems to me that the plastics that DJI are using are rather low on the evolutionary scale of plastic. Seams coming apart; stress cracks here and there withOUT crashes or dropping.
I do realize that you dropped your battery here, but a drop from 2-3 feet as you describe is not really severe trauma. A good quality plastic should have enough resilience to sustain its integrity -- particularly when it involves a lipo battery!

I have had three DJIs, the Mavic and Phantom 4 Pro are still flying. Only the Mavic's plastic seems 'hearty' enough to be up to the task of flying. The Phantoms have, and have had cracks in the plastic, usually along seam lines.

Personally, I think that DJI needs to up its plastic quality; the current plastics, excluding the newest Mavic, seem like "cheap Chinese junk"; and sorry, I honestly don't mean to offend any of our Chinese friends on this. There also used to be "cheap Japanese junk", and now , more and more often, I come across American 'junk'!

 

[epicdoom]

They are not volatile time bombs, they are a high energy density source.
As such they need be respected but not feared.

Based on the OPs supplied photos there is nothing to fear. Any subsequent 'event' would have occurred immediately.

exactly Right They are safe if used and cared for Properly

I've punctured an old P2 battery with a 3" nail.
It was fully charged but it had very little capacity thus a candidate for the test to destruction.

It was not too spectacular as the puncture of the nail eliminated the possibility of explosion. It got hot, some small flame and then the plastic caught. There was an odd odor as well which I would suspect can't be good for your health.

Moron-ic???
NO.
It was done in controlled conditions with adequate precautions. Now I know what to expect should such occur in the field.

I've also punctured them but I also have an old extension cord that's 10feet long I put alligator clips on it and a home type 110 switch I connect it up and short them out. I dispose of all my own batteries after shorting them I take them to work and chuck them in the incinerator. I've worked with these lipo's since they came on the market and I have pretty close to 100 cells from single cell 10Mah up to 6 cell 5000Mah

 

[1tomany]

You people who have punctured batteries with a nail, are you under 25, just curious as the brain hasn’t fully developed until then.