What's wrong with my battery??

[neil21]

Hi all.
I have a battery for my P2 that's been working just fine. However I went to use it last week and after about 4 minutes of flying, I got the low battery warning on the Phantom and had to land it.
I've never run the battery exceptionally low and charged it to 100% withe the standard charger after using it. Now I have a battery that shows 4 lights when I press the button, measures 12.3v on a multimeter but only powers my P2 for about 2 minutes before I get the red lights again. When the Phantom lands, the battery is still showing 4 green lights..
I've tried running it down and charging up again, and also given all of the contacts a clean, but no change. The batteries not getting hot or out of shape in any way.
All out of ideas, can anyone help?

Thanks
Neil

 

[WessexWyvern]

Have you upgraded to v3.04 firmware recently? If so there seems to have been a spate of spurious LED indications possibly linked to the upgrade.

 

[neil21]

Have you upgraded to v3.04 firmware recently? If so there seems to have been a spate of spurious LED indications possibly linked to the upgrade.

Nope. I haven't changed a thing. Still on 1.08. I think the LED's are correct as the battery is reading 12.3v.

 

[OI Photography]

Are you sure the red indicators you saw were for low battery (constant red blinking) and not just part of the GPS sequence indicating you lost a few sats for a moment?

 

[Redman]

Did you figure out what was wrong with your Battery? My Battery does the same thing. I even did the same steps you done and couldnt figure it out. Im still having the same problem with it.

 

[WessexWyvern]

Me? Nope - every time at 30% as indicated by the iOSD the lights go from green to rapid flashing red. Home lock and course lock work work; they rely on GPS, right and I've tested it right the way through to autoland.

Regarding the OP the problem sounds like a battery fault to me but I'm no expert on LIPOs.

 

[PetePerrim]

Are you sure the red indicators you saw were for low battery (constant red blinking) and not just part of the GPS sequence indicating you lost a few sats for a moment?

That would be my first avenue to explore as well. To test if it really is the battery perhaps you should wait until you get the red flashing lights then descend to say a metre off the ground and just hover. If it really is a faulty battery the Phantom will self-land when the battery reaches it's critical point. If not, and it keeps on hovering for another 10 minutes then I'd say its a GPS or IMU issue. Like almost everything with these, problem solving is often a process of elimination.

 

[neil21]

Are you sure the red indicators you saw were for low battery (constant red blinking) and not just part of the GPS sequence indicating you lost a few sats for a moment?

I'm sure. The P2 will slowly decend if I take my hands off the sticks it will try to land. It's definitely low battery mode..

 

[Windy Pig]

Have you tried a different battery to see if it does the same thing?
Cheers,
Steve.

 

[neil21]

Have you tried a different battery to see if it does the same thing?
Cheers,
Steve.

Actually I have, and the second battery also had this problem. This made me think it might be a problem with the P2 itself, however I gave the two small contacts a clean and I'm now getting more like 10 minutes out of that one. Not the best, but a lot better.
The problem battery is still a 1 minute wonder, even after lots of cleaning, charging etc. I just can't understand why it's showing charge but the phantom doesn't like it. Perhaps its something to do with load? Once the P2 takes off maybe the battery can't deliver enough power. How would I test for this??

Thanks
Neil

 

[shartlza]

I'm having this same issue on a battery that has only been discharged 74 times now. When the battery is at 30% it auto lands. I have tested on 1.08 and 3.04 firmware and both do the same thing. Also my flight time reduced from 17 minutes to now 14 minutes. I have emailed DJI to see if I can get my battery warrantied, but that probably will not happen. I should be getting a new battery in a few days and I will see if I am getting the same issue with a new battery.

 

[erico]

I have been having the same issues so I have tried to work out by elimination the problem I am having. I have two batteries I purchased with my Phantom 2 in April.

Last night I put the suspected faulty battery into my phantom and turned it on . I watched the battery levels drop and on my iosd all went as should of done as per manual . When it came to my pre-set !st level charge of 26% the rapid flashing lights came on when it was NAZA mode and when I changed it to Phantom mode the lights were a slow red flashing . When the charge dropped to 15% ( my second pre-set ) the lights then started to flash rapid. I thought all was well.

So today I took out my Phantom and put my suspected faulty battery in set up my timer and flew it around watching the lights etc. I noticed that it was hard to fly and not responding and not staying in a stable hover. I put it down to a slightly more windy day that I have flown before. ( I was flying in Phantom mode.)

At 34% the red flashing lights came on and it started to auto land. I tried to keep it up but it still descended and I was lucky it did so in a safe place not far from me. When I picked it up the green lights were flashing steady again so I thought I would see if I could get it in the air again . I did so but a few seconds again the red lights came on and it started to descend. I thought ok this must be a faulty battery.

I then put in my other battery and tried the same thing . The first thing I noticed was how stable the Phantom was and it was a lot easier to fly around. I was really enjoying myself on how well I was able to control it. It was day and night compared to 20 mins ago in the same conditions.

I thought great I have sorted out my problem . The red slow flashing lights came on at the 26% and then at 19% the red rapid flashing lights came on and it started to auto land . ( i had my second level set to 15% ) I tried to keep it up using the controller but it kept descending although as it was not far away I got it to land on my take off spot.

I was a bit disappointed that it had not started red rapid flashing at the pre-set 15% and let me still keep it in the air till I was able to land it under control .

Can anyone give me any suggestions if I am doing something wrong. When I first got it it seemed to work a lot better.

 

[WessexWyvern]

I'm having this same issue on a battery that has only been discharged 74 times now. When the battery is at 30% it auto lands. I have tested on 1.08 and 3.04 firmware and both do the same thing. Also my flight time reduced from 17 minutes to now 14 minutes. I have emailed DJI to see if I can get my battery warrantied, but that probably will not happen. I should be getting a new battery in a few days and I will see if I am getting the same issue with a new battery.

I found that conditioning my P2 batteries has added around 4 mins to my flight times.

From the DJI wiki : 3.It’s recommended to charge and discharge the battery thoroughly once every 20 charge/discharge cycles. Users should discharge the battery until there is less than 8% power left or until the battery can no longer be turned on. Users should then fully recharge the battery to maximum capacity. This power cycling procedure will ensure the battery is working at its optimal level.

 

[dutchdigitaldude]

I am not sure but it can be a bad connection of the battery wires, as you cleaned the contacts you got more flight time it is a possibility.
How are the low voltage warning settings in the software? 15 and 30 % ? I had a bad connection after a crash. I hope this helps

 

[EMCSQUAR]

With a fully charged battery. go into assistant software -> Advanced -> voltage -> under battery calibrate your batterys voltage and check your 1st and 2nd battery warning levels. (make sure it's also showing Lipo 3s under battery type) I've seen 2 recently voltages were off and battery was listed as 2s after firmware upgrade. I'm finding you have to double check ALL your settings after a firmware upgrade.

 

[Browneee]

Hi there all, I'm new to the forum & Phantoms .

I've had my P1 two weeks now... Flown it a bunch of times (only had one battery:-(). I purchased three "zippy 20C series 2200 Lipo's. I also purchased a Feiyu Tech G3 (what a pain to install, still can't get tilt to work properly, can't upgrade firm ware as I have a Mac....).

Before the new batteries & gimbal I was getting a little over 10 minutes flight time. Now I get 4 may be 5 mins max before auto land . I upgraded the NASA firmware today also.

Obviously the gimbal will drain power for itself, but will it cut flight time by half?, or is there a problem with the firmware upgrade , how do I roll it back to original firmware?.

Also, can you play around with the voltage limits ?. What's the lowest safe level you guys are going to ?. I'm too scared to touch these settings.....

Regards Rob