Phantom 4 Battery recovery

[Athl0nm4n]

Was given a Phantom 4 with a bit of crash damage. Drone still flies so I will eventually get replacement mid and upper shell parts to repair the damage. Gimble and camera still function. I was given 3 unresponsive batteries, one of which has red dot (water damage), One extended battery with puffed cells and the third was a standard battery.

I was able to recover the cells of the third battery however when dealing with the sda and slc pads... they of course pulled away from the board. Are there any other pads for SDA OR SLC?

Swaped boards with the extended and was able to get the PF flag removed and battery now lights up properly. The pack is fully charged, plugged it into drone and no power or tones. Removed to find there is no power from the battery plug (with battery on). Attempted to reattach SDA and SLC and those pads pulled... pfft.

 

[quaddamage]

If your precision level is such that you've damaged test pads, there's little chance you'll be able to attach wires without them.

But if you really want to focus and try, check pinout of the BQ-series BMS chip from TI - that's where these paths were going.

 

[Athl0nm4n]

The wires I had available where a bit too heavy for the pads, Precision level has nothing to do with it. Luckily these batteries where freebies...

 

[RodPad]

Welcome to the forum!

Rod ..

 

[Athl0nm4n]

Thanks RodPad.

Any chance procuring replacement BMS boards? The extended battery BMS only had 16 charge cycles however the cells where puffed. Checked eBay and noticing $20+ for non-functional batteries. If the cells are still good, then its worthwhile but seems steep for taking a gamble. Did attempt soldering a lead to the TI chip with no luck (jewelers magnifying glasses) only pad that pulled on both boards was the SLC pad. The SDA pad is fine on both. Future attempts I do have more flexible wire I will use.

 

[ne14Yah]

P4 battery problem newbie question: What is the process to reset the PF code? I have a standard and extended pack that has the #1 LED flashing code issue. Thanks for any help anyone can provide!

 

[WingDude]

I have done a bunch of research in the past. Here's what I "learned". The battery pack's BMS has some programing that when the volage of the pack falls below a certain voltage, (not sure what that level is), it sets a flag in its Operations Register called PF, (Permanente Failure). Once this happens, the pack will no longer take a charge through the connector. Not all is necessarily lost. If the pack is not bloated, and one of the lights on the pack lites up when you push the button, it can be recovered. I've done this process on a few batteries now that I've picked up on eBay, as well as the one that came with this P4P v2, but you need to be a little bit handy with soldering and dismantling the pack case.

The process requires a little soldering, so you'll need a soldering iron. Preferably one with a very small tip. You'll need a CP2112 debug board off Amazon, ($12.92), software called DJI Battery Killer to clear the flag in the BMS, (Free). You need to connect the SDA, SCL, and ground pads to the board. I had to play around a bit with the software connection options to find the one that worked.

Here's a youtube video that shows the process well.

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I did use a different software and board than what's in the video but if you get into it this far, you're in good shape.

once you get the software connected to the debug board, you can clear the PF flag.

You're more than welcome to DM me for questions

 

[ne14Yah]

I have done a bunch of research in the past. Here's what I "learned". The battery pack's BMS has some programing that when the volage of the pack falls below a certain voltage, (not sure what that level is), it sets a flag in its Operations Register called PF, (Permanente Failure). Once this happens, the pack will no longer take a charge through the connector. Not all is necessarily lost. If the pack is not bloated, and one of the lights on the pack lites up when you push the button, it can be recovered. I've done this process on a few batteries now that I've picked up on eBay, as well as the one that came with this P4P v2, but you need to be a little bit handy with soldering and dismantling the pack case.

The process requires a little soldering, so you'll need a soldering iron. Preferably one with a very small tip. You'll need a CP2112 debug board off Amazon, ($12.92), software called DJI Battery Killer to clear the flag in the BMS, (Free). You need to connect the SDA, SCL, and ground pads to the board. I had to play around a bit with the software connection options to find the one that worked.

Here's a youtube video that shows the process well.

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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

I did use a different software and board than what's in the video but if you get into it this far, you're in good shape.

once you get the software connected to the debug board, you can clear the PF flag.

You're more than welcome to DM me for questions

I attached the CP2112 to the pads on the BMS board, the battery has 14.5v and turned the battery on, but the Battery Killer program reports the following:

ERROR: Could not write Word to 0x00
----------------------------------------------------------------
ERROR: Could not perform SMBus read 0x00

I changed the ground wire to the negative battery post and still received the same results. I double checked for proper connections, but so far negative results. The BQ30Z55 chip is selected. Any ideas what might be wrong? The battery continues to turn on with the #1 LED blinking.

 

[WingDude]

Did you Unseal the battery?

I did have to play around with the 2 settings that I underlined in the attached screenshot of DJI_Battery_Killer

Once you connect successfully, you should be able to unseal the battery, clear the PF flag and then reseal the battery.

 

[ne14Yah]

Did you Unseal the battery?

I did have to play around with the 2 settings that I underlined in the attached screenshot of DJI_Battery_Killer

Once you connect successfully, you should be able to unseal the battery, clear the PF flag and then reseal the battery.

I selected the serial number (9999 other choices, selected the BQ30Z55 CHIP and then selected Read Info. That is where the errors showed up at the bottom of the log.

 

[WingDude]

I don't have one available to hook up right now.

Try all the different variations of those settings.

 

[ne14Yah]

I don't have one available to hook up right now.

Try all the different variations of those settings.

I finally figured out what was wrong. First, the leads needed to be on the inside pins on the CP2112. Second, I found some information on how to remove the PF flag by manually writing with OO OO24 command in the bottom window and then again with 00 0029 write commands. The reset was a success and is now taking a charge.

Thanks so much for the help! I hope this might help someone else trying to do the same with a P4 battery.

 

[a1selecta]

I finally figured out what was wrong. First, the leads needed to be on the inside pins on the CP2112. Second, I found some information on how to remove the PF flag by manually writing with OO OO24 command in the bottom window and then again with 00 0029 write commands. The reset was a success and is now taking a charge.

Thanks so much for the help! I hope this might help someone else trying to do the same with a P4 battery.

Can you explain what you meant by

"I found some information how to remove the PF flag by manually writing with OO OO24 command in the bottom window and then again with 00 0029 write commands"?

How did you do it?

 

[a1selecta]

I have done a bunch of research in the past. Here's what I "learned". The battery pack's BMS has some programing that when the volage of the pack falls below a certain voltage, (not sure what that level is), it sets a flag in its Operations Register called PF, (Permanente Failure). Once this happens, the pack will no longer take a charge through the connector. Not all is necessarily lost. If the pack is not bloated, and one of the lights on the pack lites up when you push the button, it can be recovered. I've done this process on a few batteries now that I've picked up on eBay, as well as the one that came with this P4P v2, but you need to be a little bit handy with soldering and dismantling the pack case.

The process requires a little soldering, so you'll need a soldering iron. Preferably one with a very small tip. You'll need a CP2112 debug board off Amazon, ($12.92), software called DJI Battery Killer to clear the flag in the BMS, (Free). You need to connect the SDA, SCL, and ground pads to the board. I had to play around a bit with the software connection options to find the one that worked.

Here's a youtube video that shows the process well.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

I did use a different software and board than what's in the video but if you get into it this far, you're in good shape.

once you get the software connected to the debug board, you can clear the PF flag.

You're more than welcome to DM me for questions

Can you help me? I have my 3 leads soldered. I can clear my PF fault. I can seal, unseal, and reset using the battery killer. But I can't get any lights to show on my battery. Battery will not turn on. All cell voltages are good and balanced. Nothing happens when I connected the power adapter to charge the battery and no lights still come on. I also charged the battery with an IMAX B6

 

[ne14Yah]

Can you help me? I have my 3 leads soldered. I can clear my PF fault. I can seal, unseal, and reset using the battery killer. But I can't get any lights to show on my battery. Battery will not turn on. All cell voltages are good and balanced. Nothing happens when I connected the power adapter to charge the battery and no lights still come on. I also charged the battery with an IMAX B6

I later discovered that one of the cells was low, showing a battery cell failure warning in GO 4. I balance charged the battery with a balance lead I made for the battery. It took 2 days to complete the balance charge - 1 cell @ 3.4v and other 3 @ 4.1v. Now that it is fully balance charged I am now unable to read the battery with DJI Killer. Have checked all the connections and all appears good, so am now at another dead end.

The "00 0024" and "00 0029" codes were placed (in the Commands tab at the bottom of the window) in the Write command line. 00 0024 Write then 00 0029 Write. The "00" goes in the far left small box and the "00xx" goes in the longer box to the right.

I am unable to locate the source of where I found the information on the write codes. I'll keep looking and post if I do.

 

[ne14Yah]

After removing leads, cleaning the board with alcohol, inspecting the board/pads for issues and resoldering them back onto the SDA, SCL and NEG pads I was able to connect this time to DJI Battery Killer using the CP2112. However, I was unable to clear the PF flag after several attempts. All the LED's dimly flash every 6 seconds and will not respond to power button presses. Any ideas out there what might be the problem? Does the dim flashing indicate hibernation mode, perhaps?

 

[a1selecta]

I later discovered that one of the cells was low, showing a battery cell failure warning in GO 4. I balance charged the battery with a balance lead I made for the battery. It took 2 days to complete the balance charge - 1 cell @ 3.4v and other 3 @ 4.1v. Now that it is fully balance charged I am now unable to read the battery with DJI Killer. Have checked all the connections and all appears good, so am now at another dead end.

The "00 0024" and "00 0029" codes were placed (in the Commands tab at the bottom of the window) in the Write command line. 00 0024 Write then 00 0029 Write. The "00" goes in the far left small box and the "00xx" goes in the longer box to the right.

I am unable to locate the source of where I found the information on the write codes. I'll keep looking and post if I do.

Thanks for responding. I was able to get my P4 battery to charge to 100% by disconnecting the balance cable from the battery for 15 minutes. Then, reconnecting the balance cable. Then I "jumped" the "ground and reset" contacts together, then the battery blinked. This will create a
PF flag again, which I removed in the DJI BATTERY KILLER with the CP2112 debugger. After, unseal, clear PF, seal, and reset I was able to get 100% charge on the battery. But now after placing the battery in the drone, I am getting a low battery temperature warning. And of course, the drone will not take off with that alarm. I think that I honestly broke the battery temperature sensor cable. But I have to check again.

I still have 2 other P4 batteries that I have to test and one of them for sure I can read with the DJI Battery Killer and it is charged, (I can see the 4 cells in DJI Battery Killer) but no lights come on with that battery.

 

[Sergio M]

Hello, I would like to know if you can help me?
I managed to connect a dead battery to the Battery Killer as instructed in the topics above. Cells charged at 3.8 volts each. The entire process was completed. I opened the PF "BQ30Z55 Unseal / FAS successful!" Then !PF clearing...Write Word 0x00 <= 0029 - OK
Then "Reset chip successful!" Then Seal appears "
Write Word 0x00 <= 0054
Read Block 0x23 => 00631000
Chip is sealed = SEC3 = xxxxxx11
The battery does not turn on or charge. Does anyone know the solution? Thank you