received my “broken” phantom 3 pro

[bterrier]

Just received my phantom 3 pro. It was listed as non-working, but I didn’t pay much for it so I am looking to repair it to get it up and running.

I have built my own quadcopters, hexacopters, as well other drones and aircraft so I am comfortable tinkering with it. That being said, I am not familiar with the phantom.

My first issue is that the battery it came with is not turning on. I press is once for battery level, then press and hold for 2 sec to turn on. The battery level is at 1 bar, but I would assume it should still turn on?

When I attempt to turn it on all the lights light up as well as the red light, but only for a second or two.

I am waiting for the dji battery charger to arrive so I cant charge it yet, but I do own a hyperion eos720i charger. Can I charger the battery with this charger somehow?

Or is it possible to power the phantom with any of my regular lipos? I don’t intend to fly with my other lipos, I just want to to this for testing purposes.

Can I just use jumpers from my battery to the connector on the phantom? Or am I overlooking something?

 

[Darth SHO]

Hi -
First, the battery might be toast, or not have enough of a charge to complete the power on cycle.
The lights turning on is encouraging and hopefully it will power up completely once you get a fully charged battery.
As far as charging, be very careful since DJI batteries are "Intelligent" and have a circuit board in them. I only use DJI Chargers but some other RC battery chargers will work if you can get an adapter to fit the battery.
I wouldn't recommend trying a look from another craft, again because of DJI's Intelligent battery technology.
Patience, get a freshly charged DJI battery and then troubleshoot.
Best of luck!

 

[Oso]

then press and hold for 2 sec to turn on.

Unless I am misunderstanding your post, it doesn't sound as if you are turning it on correctly. Below is a bullet point from my tips post.

> The battery button serves several purposes. Double press (press, release, press and hold) to power on the battery. Press once and release to check the current level of charge. Press once and hold for a full 5 seconds to check the remaining battery life.

 

[bterrier]

Unless I am misunderstanding your post, it doesn't sound as if you are turning it on correctly. Below is a bullet point from my tips post.

Yes I am turning it on correctly. Apologies if I didn’t explain the process correctly

 

[bterrier]

Hi -
First, the battery might be toast, or not have enough of a charge to complete the power on cycle.
The lights turning on is encouraging and hopefully it will power up completely once you get a fully charged battery.
As far as charging, be very careful since DJI batteries are "Intelligent" and have a circuit board in them. I only use DJI Chargers but some other RC battery chargers will work if you can get an adapter to fit the battery.
I wouldn't recommend trying a look from another craft, again because of DJI's Intelligent battery technology.
Patience, get a freshly charged DJI battery and then troubleshoot.
Best of luck!

Thanks for the reply. While I do agree with the patience aspect as well as to be careful with DJI batteries, I am under the impression that the all the “genuine dji charger” does is supply voltage. In this case, doing the same with a standard lipo charger should work right?

I don’t want to damage anything and if needed will wait for the proper charger.

Also to power up the aircraft, can i just attach leads from a standard lipo to the battery connector of the phantom? just for testing? or will this not work?

 

[higherperspective]

I think that DJI makes all their products SO proprietary that they recognize third party accessories including batteries and depending on the AC's firmware it may not even power up with a "standard lipo". Be patient.

 

[Bairdata]

As an R/C hobbyist with several LiPo battery chargers I too had this same charging question. I found this video, and it makes perfect since to me. I have not however tried it out, none of my LiPo chargers are LiHV (high voltage LiPo), so I have not been able to try it.

 

[solentlife]

Its total BS about needing a DJI power brick to charge a DJI battery ...

A Phantom 3 battery is a LiPo High Voltage pack with a charge control and telemetry board stuck on the front.

eBay is full of adaptor leads to connect a P3 battery to a LiPo charger. The trick is because the liPo charger builds up its voltage in first stage of charging based on the resistance it finds ... the board refuses to let it charge. A DJI charger is a dumb brick and just thumps 17.5V at the battery regardless ... THAT is what the board expects.

So how to beat this ? Simple ... Turn on the battery .. one press followed by the long press. Charger set to LiHV 4S, 5A and no balance lead ... plug in ... and let it do its job.

Here's a display of charging DJi P3 battery with a Accucel 6 80W charger :



Nigel

 

[solentlife]

Thanks for the reply. While I do agree with the patience aspect as well as to be careful with DJI batteries, I am under the impression that the all the “genuine dji charger” does is supply voltage. In this case, doing the same with a standard lipo charger should work right?

I don’t want to damage anything and if needed will wait for the proper charger.

Also to power up the aircraft, can i just attach leads from a standard lipo to the battery connector of the phantom? just for testing? or will this not work?

You cannot power up with standard LiPo because it cannot 'talk' via the smaller data transfer contacts ... the DJI battery has two sets of contacts .... main power for flight and the smaller which are the data contacts to power telemetry and to read battery state. The AC will default out to no power state.

Nigel

 

[bterrier]

Thanks everyone for all the info. Great to know that the batteries can be charged using a standard lipo charger.

Does anyone know the name of the battery connector? I would like to order a few male connectors from digikey or mouser if available to make up some adapters/harnesses.

 

[bterrier]

As an R/C hobbyist with several LiPo battery chargers I too had this same charging question. I found this video, and it makes perfect since to me. I have not however tried it out, none of my LiPo chargers are LiHV (high voltage LiPo), so I have not been able to try it.

Thanks for this, will definitely try this out soon!

 

[bterrier]

Its total BS about needing a DJI power brick to charge a DJI battery ...

A Phantom 3 battery is a LiPo High Voltage pack with a charge control and telemetry board stuck on the front.

eBay is full of adaptor leads to connect a P3 battery to a LiPo charger. The trick is because the liPo charger builds up its voltage in first stage of charging based on the resistance it finds ... the board refuses to let it charge. A DJI charger is a dumb brick and just thumps 17.5V at the battery regardless ... THAT is what the board expects.

So how to beat this ? Simple ... Turn on the battery .. one press followed by the long press. Charger set to LiHV 4S, 5A and no balance lead ... plug in ... and let it do its job.

Here's a display of charging DJi P3 battery with a Accucel 6 80W charger :



Nigel

Thanks for clarifying. Glad to know it can be done. I will definitely be using my lipo charger for my phantom batteries. Just need to track down a connector first

 

[bterrier]

You cannot power up with standard LiPo because it cannot 'talk' via the smaller data transfer contacts ... the DJI battery has two sets of contacts .... main power for flight and the smaller which are the data contacts to power telemetry and to read battery state. The AC will default out to no power state.

Nigel

Just an fyi, not that I didn’t trust your input......but I gave it a shot and it powered up. I had a 4000mah 4s lipo staring at me on the bench and had to know if it would work. I just used some alligator clips to temporarily power it up, and from what I can tell it did.

A few beeps, and a blinking red light which I believe is the linking light.

 

[With The Birds]

Just an fyi, not that I didn’t trust your input......but I gave it a shot and it powered up. I had a 4000mah 4s lipo staring at me on the bench and had to know if it would work. I just used some alligator clips to temporarily power it up, and from what I can tell it did.

A few beeps, and a blinking red light which I believe is the linking light.

No surprise there- see if you can link the controller and get an image from the camera. You might get that far before the app reports a battery issue.

 

[solentlife]

Thanks everyone for all the info. Great to know that the batteries can be charged using a standard lipo charger.

Does anyone know the name of the battery connector? I would like to order a few male connectors from digikey or mouser if available to make up some adapters/harnesses.

eBay is your friend on this .... just search Phantom 3 battery adaptor lead ... about $5 ... with banana plugs ready for a charger ... I actually removed the banana's and connected to a common harness that has all my plugs required for all my different set-ups.

Ladekabel Kabel für DJI Phantom 3/2 Quadcopter Battery to Charger Lead Adapter | eBay

Nigel

 

[solentlife]

Just an fyi, not that I didn’t trust your input......but I gave it a shot and it powered up. I had a 4000mah 4s lipo staring at me on the bench and had to know if it would work. I just used some alligator clips to temporarily power it up, and from what I can tell it did.

A few beeps, and a blinking red light which I believe is the linking light.

That's interesting as I based my answer on anothers post a way back on another forum ... shows you cannot trust everyone !!

I am surprised though given the telemetry board etc. ...

Its actually good info ...

Thanks

Nigel

 

[solentlife]

Thanks for clarifying. Glad to know it can be done. I will definitely be using my lipo charger for my phantom batteries. Just need to track down a connector first

Take note though that a LiPo charger will only charge these DJI packs IF you switch on pack first. It will not charge without that.
DJI charger brick will charge without switching on pack first.

This is important if you ever drain the battery down so low it won't switch on. The DJI charger is only only one that will lift it back up ....

I found out when I did a deep discharge test series (disproving the Deep Discharge claims DJI and others made).

Nigel

 

[chazz]

Just an fyi, not that I didn’t trust your input......but I gave it a shot and it powered up. I had a 4000mah 4s lipo staring at me on the bench and had to know if it would work. I just used some alligator clips to temporarily power it up, and from what I can tell it did.

A few beeps, and a blinking red light which I believe is the linking light.

@With The Birds is correct...You'll get an error "unofficial battery" or something like that and the motors wont start. The attached pics is what i had to do to get it to work. Its very finicky and not for the faint of heart. IMO being you don't know what is wrong with your P3 i would just go the official way and not add anything that can cause additional problems and when you do get it flying then, hell yes! cut this apart and start modifying stuff after reading all 130 pages of this thread Dual Battery Mod

 

[solentlife]

@With The Birds is correct...You'll get an error "unofficial battery" or something like that and the thing wont start. The attached pics is what i had to do to get it to work. Its very finicky and not for the faint of heart. IMO being you don't know what is wrong with your P3 i would just go the official way and not add anything that can cause additional problems and when you do get it flying then hell yes! cut this apart and start modifying stuff after reading all 130 pages of this thread Dual Battery Mod

I think there is a major difference here ............. other guy croc clipped to the AC contacts ... not to the battery board.

Your modification was to the battery board which of course has DJI FW and other in it.

................ on a note about LiPo's and whether a standard 4.2V per cell LiPo could work ... of course it can if the AC accepts it ... the fact its a LiPo and not a High Voltage LiPo only means a lower starting voltage.

People do in fact create the Z contact plates to carry a second LiPo on board ... so it does work.

Nigel

 

[bterrier]

Received the charger today. Battery works fine now.

Secondary issue is the controller which i started another thread about a few days ago.

Blinks red and beeps. Now that I have the charger, I am attempting to charge it.

First white led blinks while charger is plugged in. How long does it take to charge controller? I have had it plugged in for about 30min and still just 1st white led blinking.

If I power on controller while charging, no beeping but solid red light.