What's Up With My Battery's ??

[harmudge]

Hi Guy's, a little queerie I have regarding a couple of my battery's.

I went out after work today to have a little play and get some video etc, I installed my first battery which I was sure was fully charged a day or two ago....I lift off and within about 30 seconds or so, the Red light was flashing so I started to bring her down
and it was fairly obvious the power was pretty much out as she came down hard and fast.
I checked her over and all seemed o.k bar a couple of little scrapes on the props.
So I installed another battery and got her up and the same thing happened again after about 30 seconds or so.
Once again checked her over and all seemed o.k bar another scrape or two on the props.
So I installed battery 3 and eventually I get my little time in the air.

So I was puzzled on the way home thinking...."I'm sure those battery's were charged"....so indoors I go and put the first battery on charge and within a minute or two the charging light was green, so I swap over to battery 2 and the same again, within a minute or two the green charge light is on ??
On with battery 3 and all was normal....the battery had been depleted after my flight earlier today and was charging.

Has this sort of thing happened to any of you guy's or can anyone explain why a seemingly full battery or the Phantom would react like that ?

Best Wishes.

 

[landwomble]

Have you got anything to check the cells are balanced? I've seem similar when one cell (there are 3 in each pack) was low

 

[harmudge]

Thanks for the reply landwomble, no means of checking at the mo'....but the first battery had only been used once previously and the other, a standard DJI Phantom battery has only been used a few times as I received the Phantom and two battery's for Christmas...so these cells are not old....but you may have a valid point.
I need to get me a battery checker...

Anyone else any idea's ??

Edit, to add -
On the standard charger should the LED's for the 3 cells change from Red to Green as the single LED does that is under the three LED's for the cells or should they just remain Red ?

 

[Jesse_M]

Those 3 just remain red.

 

[harmudge]

Thanks Jesse.

I think I may have solved the problem....I have just been out the front of my house testing again, only this time still keeping a hold of the phantom so as not to have the heavy landing, and it happened again...the rapid red lights....so because I like to get to the bottom of things, if I can....I re-connected the battery to the charger and ensuring that all leads etc are connected correctly and the charging lights remained red and are still red and that's been at least 20-30 min's....so what I think I have done, being the numb-nut I am, I presume that I had inserted the balance lead in the wrong socket, possibly...."Doh"....and the battery has not taken a full charge.
I will re-asses the situation again on the next flight....hopefully tomorrow....lol.

So a word of warning to any fellow newbie like myself...."Don't be a plum and insert your balance lead in the wrong socket of your charger or you will end up with chipped props or even worse...a smashed copter".

 

[landwomble]

If you can borrow a fancier charger and charge at 0.2a or so, if its a rogue cell it may well sort it. The balance checkers that plug into the balance cable on the battery are only a few quid on eBay and worth having though

 

[harmudge]

Thanks for the wisdom landwomble....and I will indeed be buying a balance/voltage checker in the very near future

 

[harmudge]

Just as an update to my battery problems yesterday, I was out again today to see how things were and the battery's were fine....no rapidly descending quads so I must have just been a bit daft and hooking the balance lead in the wrong slot.

Incidentally, would this error have damaged the battery at all ?

 

[landwomble]

Thanks for the wisdom landwomble....and I will indeed be buying a balance/voltage checker in the very near future

This kind of thing works well. You can also get for a similar price ones that have a low voltage buzzer and you can leave them connected as you fly.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LiPo-Volt...sGames_RadioControlled_JN&hash=item4aded5b36a

 

[harmudge]

Thanks for link landwomble.

 

[MikeTess]

It's obvious your gf/spouse/significant other is flying your Phantom when you aren't around.
Hide the batteries.

 

[IflyinWY]

Harmudge, please take a picture of your charger, with a clear view of the balance port receptacle. I don't think it's possible to plug it into the wrong slot. Any additional pics will just make it easier to figure out what the heck was/is going on.

 

[IflyinWY]

It's obvious your gf/spouse/significant other is flying your Phantom when you aren't around.
Hide the batteries.

MikeTess gets the funnier than Shirt award for the day... Nice.