Low Battery Warning at 60%, would not climb..

[Outtahere100]

I just about put my P2V in the ocean today. About 10 minutes into the flight (over water) the 1st low batt warning sounded on my Galaxy S2. This really surprised me, so I headed back immediately. It took less than 1 minute for the P2V to reach my position, when it made it back, it was about 4' above the water and would not climb. I was able to hand catch it safely.

When I got home, I plugged in the assistant and the battery looked fine, 11551 MV, 57% capacity left, cell 1 - 3842mv, cell 2 - 3851mv, cell 3 - 3858mv.

I have 16 flights on this battery, about 35 flights total and have never experienced anything like this. Any thoughts?

At least I got some nice pics.

 

[Geoelectro]

I will offer battery data pins. They seem to be a possible problem with unexpected battery errors. Clean them and try again in a safe area.

BTW. I know DJI uses the data pins to verify an authentic battery as well as determine the remaining charge. However, why should the loss of data connection in mid flight cause the Phantom to come down? Can't they put in the firmware that once launched, the Phantom will fly whether or not it has data from the battery as long as it has power?!? Come on guys...

Geo

 

[Outtahere100]

I will offer battery data pins. They seem to be a possible problem with unexpected battery errors. Clean them and try again in a safe area.

BTW. I know DJI uses the data pins to verify an authentic battery as well as determine the remaining charge. However, why should the loss of data connection in mid flight cause the Phantom to come down? Can't they put in the firmware that once launched, the Phantom will fly whether or not it has data from the battery as long as it has power?!? Come on guys...

Geo

Thanks, I was going to fly the same battery today in an open field, the rain changed my plans. Maybe tomorrow.

I have no previous experience with battery problems, but isn't it odd that the app showed 60% while the low batt warning was sounding?

 

[Outtahere100]

Hi,

Low battery warning at 60% battery left indicates that there is a problem with your battery rather than with your data pins.
Then your Phantom will start auto landing as you described.
There were several reports about "low battery warning".
I had 2 batteries with that problem. I emailed DJI and they emailed me back to exchange these batteries for new ones.


See this topic : viewtopic.php?f=19&t=17324#p159001

Geert./.

Thanks for the link, Geert, I will check it out. On the batteries that you had problems with, did the remaining cell voltages vary a lot?

John

 

[socaljohn]

I had the same issue, but thankfully over land. Contacted DJI by phone only now, no more e-mail accepted for RMA. After contact, I sent in the battery and have been notified that a new one will be on the way. So far the process has been about 2 weeks and I am located in Southern California. They did say it could take up to a month to resolve, but I think it will be more like 3 weeks max.

 

[socaljohn]

Update, I received a confirmation e-mail with tracking number. I should have my new battery today, so took just over 2 weeks start to finish. I can't complain, customer service was really quite easy on this one. The worse part was being number 30 on hold for the initial phone call to obtain an RMA.

 

[Outtahere100]

Update, I received a confirmation e-mail with tracking number. I should have my new battery today, so took just over 2 weeks start to finish. I can't complain, customer service was really quite easy on this one. The worse part was being number 30 on hold for the initial phone call to obtain an RMA.

Glad you got your battery so quickly.

I have not called DJI yet, I did some more testing and am not sure what is going on. Using the same battery that I had the problem with, without recharging, I flew again and had the same symptom. I tried my 2nd batt, fully charged, and flew until about 70% and got the warning, but no auto land. I'm wondering if I have a wiring/connection problem at this point. Oh well, I guess I will go the workshop this afternoon and screw with it instead of flying it

 

[J.James]

Charge it fully and see what it is showing in the naza for how many mah it is showing for the full and the currant capacity. adn also what voltage it shows for all 3 of the cells when its fully charged.

 

[MikeON]

I had similar problems this past winter. The problem seems to have cleared itself up. Here is the thread about it:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6488

 

[BrewserB]

I was just flying my Vision. Got home, charged battery. Went out to fly and it wouldn't even start the rotors. I would get a red light every time I tried to start. After reading this thread I just hooked it up to the assist program and it says I have zero percentage of life and I have discharged it 425 times. I haven't even flown it 20 times. See screen shot.

 

[BrewserB]

I was just flying my Vision. Got home, charged battery. Went out to fly and it wouldn't even start the rotors. I would get a red light every time I tried to start. After reading this thread I just hooked it up to the assist program and it says I have zero percentage of life and I have discharged it 425 times. I haven't even flown it 20 times. See screen shot.

Contact your dealer or DJI. Impossible you discharged 425 times.

Geert./.

I called DJI and they said the battery only has a 3 month warranty so they won't replace it. I just went flying today with my other battery. I noticed the battery level never changed from 95%. I decided to lower it close to me and see if was some type of connection issue. The red light started going off and making the low battery level sound as I lowered it. It then started falling fast. I had the stick all the way up. When it got to about 10' from earth I was able to make it hover with the stick straight up. If i let go of the stick it started to drop. I still have about 50% batter juice left. I then hooked it up to the Assist and I was shocked at the results. See photo. Is my Phantom eating batteries or are these batteries garbage? It's pissing me off.

Look at the number of times discharged. Yesterday it said 5. Look at the red battery life on the iPhone. Still at 95%.

 

[J.James]

Is my Phantom eating batteries or are these batteries garbage? It's pissing me off.

From all I can gather about the battery's and this issue many are havering its the former and not the latter. Cause I got stuck with on that was that way straight out of the box before it ever even got a chance to fornicate with the phantom.

 

[richparry]

I also have the battery problem discussed in this thread. I have 3 batteries for my Phantom 2 and did some tests. Here are my results. See the chart.

Battery #1 is defective, at 5.5 minutes the battery reaches 65% and decays quickly forcing an emergency landing
Battery #2 is defective, at 2.5 minutes the battery reaches 80% and decays quickly forcing an emergency landing
Battery #3 is best, but not great, I can fly 10 minutes before I must land

In summary, with my batteries I can fly no longer than 2, 5, or 10 minutes. The batteries are all about 10 months old and have been recharged 35 times. I am very disappointed. Others in this thread say they contacted DJI and some say they got replacements. Can someone give me the DJI contact information.

When I connect the batteries to the Phantom Assistant and look at the details, all battery metrics look good.

 

[joejoda]

Something else is wrong with this message. All of a sudden, numerous people are having the same issue. I too was flying today. When the battery got to 67%, got a discharge battery message and the phantom started to land. Switched batteries, and I had the same message. This does not appear to be a battery problem but something else. Firmware update? Something?

 

[richparry]

Joe Joda,

What you are seeing is not a software issue, although there are new updates. But if you have "LOADER" 1.4 installed like I did, you will NOT be able to upgrade to the latest 2.6.0.0 release, you must have LOADER 1.5.

One of my batteries has loader 1.4, I can't upgrade, I am trying to return it for a replacement.
Two of my batteries have loader 1.5 and I have upgraded but it is too late. The batteries are damaged, they are SWOLLEN. You should not use batteries that are SWOLLEN.

I got a brand new battery yesterday, it landed at 20% which is they way it should work, however, the flight was only 15 minutes which was disappointing.

Flight times for my bad batteries are 2,5, and 10 minutes, see my post above with the graph.

My bet is that your battery is swollen and you should not use it. That's just an educated guess.

 

[BrewserB]

I'm not really sure what to do now. I bought a new battery after 2 failed. I'm scared to fly it now because there is a chance I could lose it or destroy it on impact. I don't trust it so I can't have it hover over areas I can't access it such as around rugged terrain or water. It sucks.

 

[richparry]

Brewser,

I completely agree. If I learned about my 2 minute limit on battery when it was over the Ocean or on the top of a mountain, the Phantom would be lost. I got very lucky.

I decided to buy new batteries and in the process of returning the defective batteries.

I also suggest you do what I did, test flight times on your batteries, mine are good for 2, 5, 10, and 15 minutes. I use only the 15 minute battery.

 

[BrewserB]

Brewser,

I completely agree. If I learned about my 2 minute limit on battery when it was over the Ocean or on the top of a mountain, the Phantom would be lost. I got very lucky.

I decided to buy new batteries and in the process of returning the defective batteries.

I also suggest you do what I did, test flight times on your batteries, mine are good for 2, 5, 10, and 15 minutes. I use only the 15 minute battery.

I can only test the newest battery because the other 2 won't work any more. Look at my screen shot above. It shows I charged it over 30K times. That is impossible.