Red lights after 4 min flying??

[cralikebm]

Hi all had my phanton 5.8ghz fc40 for 3 - 4 days done 6-8 flights and today have seen red lights all the time unsure why??

I have 3 batterys 2 original phantom batterys and a overlander 2900mah all were fully charged as i have a volt tester showed 12.5v

After 3-4 mins flying i saw the red light flashing none stop so came near me and landed, changed battery and went up again after 3-min max red lights again? last battery and same maybe 2 mins

When i initially started up had yellow red flashing lights so was aware this had something to do with compass so i moved well out the way in field callibrated compass and all lights were as normal yellow green flashed 20 green the red red red green until 1 red and green and then 20 green again. I went out 30' and turned round and tried home lock (2 down) and came back to me as should but never stopped went over my head.

I landed near me and tried to resest failsafe lock put s2 left toggle up down 10 or so times but no lock came on maybe to near previous position not sure but anyway decided to stay very low and go a bit further out thats when i started seeing the red lights? so came back to land. changed battery twice and all seemed to boot up fine green red and 20 green very quick then red red green until another 20 green. Oh my transmitter just beeped twice while in naza flshed green i have duracell in them and only done a few flights?

Got home checked voltage and 11.9, 11.8, 12.1 the battery with 12.1 the overlander 2900mah which is 3s 11.1v (which i bought from RC shop tier 1 dji dealer who said battery is fine with phantom) I used this battery last anyway so sure nothing to do with battery the phantom would not even take off not enough power in motors even though 11.9v now in battery.

Pluged in laptop and naza says no errors (or where do i look to see them??) all buttons work on transmiter and move in naza says IMU doesn't need calibrating? shows 0.2 + -3 on gyroscope. and -114 and -1449 on compass and mod.

Oh my transmitter just beeped twice while in naza flshed green i have duracell in them and only done a few flights? only other thing is callibrate transmiter?? but all buttons seem to work fine??
Battery voltage says 11.7 and is set at default 11.55 and 11.10 no load and loaded?

What could it be all i can think to do that i have not done is magnets over the compass but i don't even know if this has anything to do with it. The compass is fine when i do the callibration pre flight yellow then green and then starts flashing as it should.

Just been in back garden and same only when in air red lights come on when land goes back to red green. Apart from 1 battery which was flashing red all the time.

Any ideas???

Thanks

 

[IflyinWY]

Welcome to the forum cralikebm. I sure hope your first name isn't Cra. :lol:

That's about how much flight time I get when I go up the mountain, about 8,000 ft Msl, and fly around with Prop Guards, a 200 gram gimbal and the GoPro.

What is your elevation? I don't see where you are offering any location info. What's the air temp? Were the batteries cold?

Are your batteries difficult to unplug from your bird? Could you have pulled some strands of wire loose from the connection?

If you have a voltmeter you may want to test your controller batteries. Could you have left it on for an extended period? Do you have children who may have "borrowed" them?

How is your bird equipped? Props, mods, extra stuff that adds weight?

When you initially started up and had yellow red flashing lights and then moved, calibrated, got green, flew and tried home lock, you say it went over your head.
1. Was it trying to return to where you initially started?
2. Did you unplug the battery prior to relocating?
3. Did you give it enough time to complete its return to home.

If your 3S batteries are new, or nearly new, it sounds like a poor connection. Does the plug get warm/hot when you finish your brief flights?

I'm sure folks smarter than me will chime in in case none of this sounds like a solution to your problem.

 

[cralikebm]

Hi my batterys are 3-4 days old i only have stock fc40 camera fitted.

It all starts correct colours etc when starting after 2 mins on a ful battery i have a tester you plug in and shows 12.5v 4.1 etc on each cell. after 2 mins red lights come on i plug into nazam with red lights showing and it says low volatege error even though nazam says 11.8v and my warnings are set at 11.55 and 11.10. i get 4 mins hovering in back garden at 6 foot high. The batterys are cold and will not even take of the ground when down to 11.4v. Before i got 10-12 min aggressive flying and the batterys were warm when i took them out.

Im starting to think there is a problem with the phantom . Its only 4-5 days old so will be able to exchange or have it fixed if its broken. I have 3 batterys all with 3-4 flights max all show correct vaults etc. but red lights start flashing at 11.9, 12.1, 11.8v on each battery i tested.

Only other thing maybe i charged on Life instead of Lipo at 3am, could this have done it?

Im not near fly zone etc im in UK north west

Thanks
Jay

 

[Joesrevolution]

Sounds a bit interesting to me... It could depend on how you are flying also. If you are really hoofing it around the batteries voltage will drop lower. You can see these settings under the low voltage limits under load. If you are flying under full throttle and forwards as fast as possible it is a possibility that the voltage of the battery dropped below these limits kicking in the low voltage protection. I have experienced this once but is was on an old battery so it may well have been that.

Check out this flytrex live report (note the low voltage at one point!)
http://www.flytrex.com/mission/quadcopt ... -8FYADQ3P/

When that happened the status light went into flashing red right up until I landed it. So it might be worth trying the battery just hovering/slow movements if you have been going like a bat out of hell

As for the Life cycle, did it actually complete the cycle? I have set mine to charge on that cycle by accident and it just seemed to do nothing to the battery charge at all... However mine was only ever charged at 2 amps. Dji recommends that you only charge your batteries on the 2 amp cycle so the 3 amp cycle may have done damage although I cant really speak for that...I wouldn't have thought it would cause issues.

As for the temperature of the batteries if I am flying out in the cold I keep the batteries that I am going to use in an inside coat pocket to keep them near body temp. Either that or use a heat pack in whatever you store them in to keep them warm.

The only other thing I can think of has already been mentioned by IflyinWY and could be if you have pulled a battery connector too hard and damaged the solder join to the distribution board in the phantom. I have completely pulled this connection of before with a particularly stubborn battery connection! To check this take the top shell of the phantom being careful with the compass connection lead and gps connection lead which are attached to the top shell. The solder joins to the distribution board should be smooth ball shaped joins sat flush against the board. If it looks damaged we may have our culprit. As the smaller surface are on the board will mean that you will get higher resistance through the join which may be the problem. To combat the cable pull issue I have now cable tied the battery cable to a post that holds the distribution board up. Just prevents the solder being tugged so hard.

Finally how have the batteries been stored? If you have taken a long break from flying leaving the batteries either fully charged or empty it can cause oxidation on the lithium surfaces in the battery which may also be your problem, although pretty much everything I have said is speculation!

Hope this helps though but outside what I have mentioned I'm at a loss. Maybe someone more experienced with what the batteries actually go through will be able to help.

 

[cralikebm]

Hi i may have charged on Life but unsure i have oly had 4-5 days so only charged 4-5 times each max. Before they lasted 10-12 mins depending on how i flew. Now just hovering at 5' they last 2 mins before protection light comes on but when i plug in nazam they show 11.8v approx and all have approx same volts in each cell as i have a little tester to plug in them. My nazam is set to default 11.55 and 11.10 waringings but red lights well before this.

So to me seems nazam is reading wrong and putting warning lights on to early as not reachedd 11.55 yet. But that said just hovering within 5 mins i am 11.3-11.4 volts so somehow it seems to be draining my battery super fast and they are not warm when i take them out as before they are cold?

I am going to call DJI tomorrow i have a service number in Necastle it may be batterys but i have 3 all not even a week old or the unit.

Can't think what else it could be

 

[Joesrevolution]

Have you checked the battery connections onto the distribution board inside? Also has it been crashed? Any un-ushall circumstances that occurred when it went from 12 mins to 3 mins?

 

[cralikebm]

Only other thing i could do is buy a new battery tomorrow and try that and see how long it lasts if the same then defo the phantom. But why would warning lights come on at 11.8v even 12.1v on another??

"Joesrevoultion" never crashed had 6-8 flights put in back garden to show my son friday but put near metal table maybe 4' away and saw red yellow light moved further away and turned back on an lights were as normal just hovered in garden then went out to field for a flight and lasted 2-3 mins before red lights so thought i had took a dead battery with me next day when went back out with all batterys fully charges and same 2-4 min flying with each battery but when tested back home had 11.8, 11.9, 12.1 in all batterys with equal volts in each cell. Don't really want to take apart as only a few days old and i may need to return it.

Only had 5 days and today is first sunny day great for flying ahhaaaahaaa

 

[Joesrevolution]

Fair enough, well aside from checking connections I'm at a loss. The metal table shouldn't cause problems like that, if anything it would cause erratic flight but not reduced flight times... When you say red light is it repeatedly flashing or only when you apply throttle?

 

[cralikebm]

Hi yes repeated flashing red all the time, my mates just here with his phantom and tried my battery inside it and it hovered in back garden for 12.5 mins compared to 2 mins on mine before red lights came on. I have googled "dji phantom low vol 4" which is error mine says and a few others have similar problems with red lights and some say same board conections etc so i think this is why will call DJI first tomorrow and see what they say as only 5 days old before i start taking to bits but seems like conection somehwere telling phantom is on low voltafe when its not.

Thanks all will see what DJI say

 

[IflyinWY]

Sure sounds like the bird has a whacky brain. Hard to believe all your batteries are acting the same goofie way. Unless, you charged them incorrectly through the LiFe thing. I know nothing about what will happen there, thank goodness.

Please keep us posted. I'd like to know what is wrong.

 

[battlecat]

Hi! I am having the exact same problem with my fc40 everything you have described 2- 3 minutes in it flys down on its own... my guess is that it was compass related not battery related. I can't figure this out either. please please please post if you get any answers form DJI!

thanks!!

 

[battlecat]

I'm having the same exact issue with my fc40 and i thought it could be a compass issue ....never thought it could be the battery. I've been reading your posts and i seriously have the same experience and i'm equally as perplexed .... i posted a thread too about this and perhaps thought it was my fpv frequency but tried to fly my fc40 today without fpv and the same thing happened with different batteries all fully charged and with all the correct light LED configurations.. two minutes in it flashed red repeatedly and sat right down on its own.. (head scratch) I've had this phantom for 8 months now and this problem has been around for the better part of 3 weeks now... still cant figure it out .... hope DJI helps

 

[cralikebm]

Hi i only had mine 4 days so spoke with model shop where i bought it from they said it sounds like the flight controller (nazam v2 brain) i should find out tomorrow if its sorted the problem as they have it now and should be fixed tommorow, they are going to call me to confirm when its fixed and that im back to 1o mins flight time as before.

I will post an update once i get a call from them.

You should still be under warenty so i would speak with where you bought it and get it sent back.

Thanks

 

[IflyinWY]

I've only been around these whacky flying machines for about 2 weeks longer than I've been in this forum, but this sounds like a rare issue. I'm looking forward to finding out what went wrong.

Just think if we were flying one of those newfangled P2 things. Now those folks have some serious issues what with the updates changing the brain around.

Love my FC40, it does what I tell it to do. Well, usually.

 

[cralikebm]

Got back FC40 today tried it garden just hovering 6 mins and red lights couldnt belivie it another battery and back to 3 mins tried a new battery again 3 mins and red lights spoke to model shop and they said send back they will see what they can do. I said no i want a new one don't want this one back again they was ok and said yes if its only 3mins again then will send a new one. They put a new flight controller in so they said no point keep wating time and money on it. He also said they have to send to Germany and DJI fix it and return it to them so they will have lost on it as need to sell as used but i think its just a demic.

So still not sure what the problem is or was. So glad i bought new from model shop.

So hopefully Tuesday will have new one and no more problems.

 

[jerrymac12000]

If you are using the standard FC40 battery charger, the battery settings should be; switch on left side should be on LIPo. The right switch should be on the center position, S3.

When you were setting up the quad on the computer, did you change any of the voltage settings in the software? If the settings were set too high, the quad will land earlier than it should. 3 min vs 8+ minutes.

 

[cralikebm]

Just had a call from model shop they say they get 9 mins hovering in warehouse, they have also set a loss of 0.60 on the volts so its 10.95 and 10.50 on volts settings???

I was getting 12mins just hovering at least on 11.55 and 11.10 volts which are the default settings and 10.5 mins flying around.

The phantom is bare no camera at all fitted just the shell and a standard phantom 2200mah battery.

Can any other members let me know what flight times they get with a bare phantom 1 (fc40) with or without camera and what volts settings they use.

I basically don't want the same phantom back and have more probs. I think the flying times are very short to say just hovering and bare shell with the loss of 0.6 as well.

Thanks

 

[IflyinWY]

I've loaded my FC40 with a 200 gram gimbal, a GoPro, Prop Guards and flown it for that long at 8,000 feet with a 2700 battery.

Something isn't right, unless you are flying at the top of the Alps.

I think you got a LEMON.

 

[jerrymac12000]

Flying my quad bare, that is without camera and mount and using a 2200 ma battery I get between 8 - 10 minutes flying time. My elevation is àbout 6500 feet above sea level. It also depends on the amount of wind blowing in the area at the time. I have set my second battery warning to 10.65 volts in the software. That helps also.

 

[cralikebm]

Does anyone know what the default settings are??

11.55 and 11.10

The shop say it should have a loss as 0.60 10.95 and 10.50 as standard and have put that in but i am saying there was no loss when i had it, it was 11.55 and 11.10 default??

Thanks