Bad Battery Thread

[TheGrumpster]

So how many here have had the dreaded "bad battery" error? My (old ) friend, QNYLA, had this problem with his first set the very first day he got his I2 (how discouraging is that). I never thought much about this since I've been flying my I2 since late December, but this morning, guess what. And I'm a bit of a weirdo in that I shoot stills of moving trains, which means timing is VERY much of the essence (i.e. you get ONE chance and that is it). Wouldn't you know it, here comes my train, a couple of miles out, I power up the I2, all goes fine, the app connects, and bam, "bad battery". As if I care for a mission that will last all of 90 seconds, but DJI being the good authoritarian father that they are, won't let you arm the motors with this error.

But's here's how I got around it. I quickly power-cycled the I2 while leaving the controller and app running. Still the same error. So I pulled the left battery, which was the "bad" one (these were fully charged, mind you). Now that error clears, but up pops the "insert more batteries" error. Motors still don't arm. I pop the bad battery back in. Boom! Green status. Arm motors and get the hell up there. Flew that sucker 10min without any issues. Landed at about 65%, battery status showed fine, but the offending cell was still about 0.1V lower than the others. Maybe a bad cell, maybe a bad balance job during the charge. Damned if I know.

Just curious how many others have had batteries go bad. Not happy at all (as I mentioned in a different thread) about having to drop $330 for one set of batteries that goes bad in 3 months after roughly 30 flights. Way too expensive for me. And yes, I am a cranky old fart that only gets 4 hours sleep per night.

 

[Greg R.]

So how many here have had the dreaded "bad battery" error? My (old ) friend, QNYLA, had this problem with his first set the very first day he got his I2 (how discouraging is that). I never thought much about this since I've been flying my I2 since late December, but this morning, guess what. And I'm a bit of a weirdo in that I shoot stills of moving trains, which means timing is VERY much of the essence (i.e. you get ONE chance and that is it). Wouldn't you know it, here comes my train, a couple of miles out, I power up the I2, all goes fine, the app connects, and bam, "bad battery". As if I care for a mission that will last all of 90 seconds, but DJI being the good authoritarian father that they are, won't let you arm the motors with this error.

But's here's how I got around it. I quickly power-cycled the I2 while leaving the controller and app running. Still the same error. So I pulled the left battery, which was the "bad" one (these were fully charged, mind you). Now that error clears, but up pops the "insert more batteries" error. Motors still don't arm. I pop the bad battery back in. Boom! Green status. Arm motors and get the hell up there. Flew that sucker 10min without any issues. Landed at about 65%, battery status showed fine, but the offending cell was still about 0.1V lower than the others. Maybe a bad cell, maybe a bad balance job during the charge. Damned if I know.

Just curious how many others have had batteries go bad. Not happy at all (as I mentioned in a different thread) about having to drop $330 for one set of batteries that goes bad in 3 months after roughly 30 flights. Way too expensive for me. And yes, I am a cranky old fart that only gets 4 hours sleep per night.

I constantly get battery errors too. The worst one caused a crash costing $1700 to fix a Pro. DJI said it was warranty but they never would credit me back what I prematurely paid either. Every time I would call they would say it is being processed. A year later I guess its still being processed.

 

[SteveFPV]

So how many here have had the dreaded "bad battery" error? My (old ) friend, QNYLA, had this problem with his first set the very first day he got his I2 (how discouraging is that). I never thought much about this since I've been flying my I2 since late December, but this morning, guess what. And I'm a bit of a weirdo in that I shoot stills of moving trains, which means timing is VERY much of the essence (i.e. you get ONE chance and that is it). Wouldn't you know it, here comes my train, a couple of miles out, I power up the I2, all goes fine, the app connects, and bam, "bad battery". As if I care for a mission that will last all of 90 seconds, but DJI being the good authoritarian father that they are, won't let you arm the motors with this error.

But's here's how I got around it. I quickly power-cycled the I2 while leaving the controller and app running. Still the same error. So I pulled the left battery, which was the "bad" one (these were fully charged, mind you). Now that error clears, but up pops the "insert more batteries" error. Motors still don't arm. I pop the bad battery back in. Boom! Green status. Arm motors and get the hell up there. Flew that sucker 10min without any issues. Landed at about 65%, battery status showed fine, but the offending cell was still about 0.1V lower than the others. Maybe a bad cell, maybe a bad balance job during the charge. Damned if I know.

Just curious how many others have had batteries go bad. Not happy at all (as I mentioned in a different thread) about having to drop $330 for one set of batteries that goes bad in 3 months after roughly 30 flights. Way too expensive for me. And yes, I am a cranky old fart that only gets 4 hours sleep per night.

Got bad battery error today. Almost new at 9 charges. 3 cells show 4.15v and the other 3 show 4.24v.
Error goes away if I let the inspire sit powered up for about 5 minutes, then pull out and reseat. Really pisses me off!
Also notice on the good battery after a full charge it reads 4.3v per cell, which is high, so I'm not sure what is going on there either.

 

[qnyla]

I am FINALLY getting my replacement battery tomorrow for the original that was DOA on March 30th. Backordered for almost a month.

 

[The Editor]

Also notice on the good battery after a full charge it reads 4.3v per cell, which is high.............

No it isn't. 4.35v per cell is normal for HV Lipos which DJI have been using for a while.
4.2v was the older standard lipo fully charged voltage.

 

[SteveFPV]

No it isn't. 4.35v per cell is normal for HV Lipos which DJI have been using for a while.
4.2v was the older standard lipo fully charged voltage.

Ya I saw that after I wrote. Read the writing on the pack max charge just over 26 v.
Have an rma number for the other one, getting it exchanged

 

[Sharif@Forged]

Running latest firmware? Isn't part of the firmware update...also a battery firmware upgrade or am I mis-remembering things?

 

[SteveFPV]

Its the latest firmware. Its paired battery is fine as is my other sets.

 

[TheGrumpster]

I guess misery loves company. Good to know I'm not merely unlucky I suppose. The thing is, as best I can tell, there is no warranty on these **** things (batteries), so what I really want to know is what is going to be the TCO (total cost of ownership) for the I2 over some period of time, given that you have to buy a new set of batteries every 3 months.
I'm still flying the bad set, though this is probably a really bad idea. As I mentioned in my first post, the way I do it is to put in the one good battery of the pair, power up, get GPS lock (but also "need more batteries" error), then jam in the bad one in the empty slot, wait for my green light, then fly.
The weird thing is that if you do this and let it sit on the ground for a while, you'll once again get a "damaged cell" error and won't be able to fly, but if you do it like I said, quickly, you can fly without any errors at all.
The dumb thing is that I've probably flown at least 10 missions on this bad set, one of which was more than 10 minutes long, no problems at all (other than the annoying trick at power up). It makes me wonder if the DJI charger even bothers to balance these packs during a charge. I come from the old-school world of LiPo batteries, and I often had cell imbalance issues that worked themselves out over a few charging cycles by using a decent charger that did a good job of balancing the packs. Just one more reason I don't like this proprietary BS. Maybe when I'm in Shenzhen next month I'll see if I can find some hackers to reverse engineer the DJI batteries. That would get some attention, eh?

 

[SteveFPV]

Hi there. Yes I also dont like these smart battery contraptions, but that is where DJI will make a lot of cash.
I returned my set under warranty. Both the bad battery and its paired good one. Just waiting for them to return me the replacements.
If you could let me know what you find to hack these batteries in China, that would be great.
Cheers

I guess misery loves company. Good to know I'm not merely unlucky I suppose. The thing is, as best I can tell, there is no warranty on these **** things (batteries), so what I really want to know is what is going to be the TCO (total cost of ownership) for the I2 over some period of time, given that you have to buy a new set of batteries every 3 months.
I'm still flying the bad set, though this is probably a really bad idea. As I mentioned in my first post, the way I do it is to put in the one good battery of the pair, power up, get GPS lock (but also "need more batteries" error), then jam in the bad one in the empty slot, wait for my green light, then fly.
The weird thing is that if you do this and let it sit on the ground for a while, you'll once again get a "damaged cell" error and won't be able to fly, but if you do it like I said, quickly, you can fly without any errors at all.
The dumb thing is that I've probably flown at least 10 missions on this bad set, one of which was more than 10 minutes long, no problems at all (other than the annoying trick at power up). It makes me wonder if the DJI charger even bothers to balance these packs during a charge. I come from the old-school world of LiPo batteries, and I often had cell imbalance issues that worked themselves out over a few charging cycles by using a decent charger that did a good job of balancing the packs. Just one more reason I don't like this proprietary BS. Maybe when I'm in Shenzhen next month I'll see if I can find some hackers to reverse engineer the DJI batteries. That would get some attention, eh?

 

[TheRider]

So how many here have had the dreaded "bad battery" error? My (old ) friend, QNYLA, had this problem with his first set the very first day he got his I2 (how discouraging is that). I never thought much about this since I've been flying my I2 since late December, but this morning, guess what. And I'm a bit of a weirdo in that I shoot stills of moving trains, which means timing is VERY much of the essence (i.e. you get ONE chance and that is it). Wouldn't you know it, here comes my train, a couple of miles out, I power up the I2, all goes fine, the app connects, and bam, "bad battery". As if I care for a mission that will last all of 90 seconds, but DJI being the good authoritarian father that they are, won't let you arm the motors with this error.

But's here's how I got around it. I quickly power-cycled the I2 while leaving the controller and app running. Still the same error. So I pulled the left battery, which was the "bad" one (these were fully charged, mind you). Now that error clears, but up pops the "insert more batteries" error. Motors still don't arm. I pop the bad battery back in. Boom! Green status. Arm motors and get the hell up there. Flew that sucker 10min without any issues. Landed at about 65%, battery status showed fine, but the offending cell was still about 0.1V lower than the others. Maybe a bad cell, maybe a bad balance job during the charge. Damned if I know.

Just curious how many others have had batteries go bad. Not happy at all (as I mentioned in a different thread) about having to drop $330 for one set of batteries that goes bad in 3 months after roughly 30 flights. Way too expensive for me. And yes, I am a cranky old fart that only gets 4 hours sleep per night.

Agree that the bad battery bug is a frustrating one. I bought my I2 in Feb and have only flown it about 20 times since then. After finishing my 10th flight I had a battery that I drained down to 9% upon landing and after cooling off I threw it and its partner on the charger only to see the dreaded RED LIGHT! For some reason it decided it was time for a dirt nap. I checked the manual, tried any troubleshooting advice I could find online, tried charging it anyway, tried running it but no solution. I ended up calling DJI Support and they walked me through a diagnostic process over the phone. We spent about 15min of back and forth and they finally said to send it back and they would replace it. Within 24hrs I had a FedEx notice saying something was on its way. Day after that FedEx leaves a notice saying signature required. Following day I stayed home...Fedex guy shows up and says he is there for a pickup not a drop off....news to me but all good. Packed up the faulty battery and left it for FedEx next day. They took it. Its been about a week and haven't seen any notification of new battery being shipped back yet but Im sure it will make its way back to me. Summary: 1) It happens, 2) DJI Service was actually not too bad to work with in this case, 3) Buy extra batteries. I bought 2 sets of extra with initial purchase and recently upgraded to 4 sets + for continuous flight ability. I figure if you are going to spend on an I2, might as well spend a little more to keep that bugger in the air. Good Luck!