Battery Error? (or not)

[APost]

I was just logging battery data from yesterday's flights, and saw that two out of 5 sets of batteries showed an Error on the battery data screen. The cell deviation seems normal at .01 on each of the batteries, they weren't hotter than the sets that displayed as "normal". I just don't see anything wrong with them.

The only difference between the sets that displayed the Error was that they were only flown to around 30% where the others were flown until the GoApp started whining at me.

Do you think there is really something wrong with the batteries, or is DJI just calling me a woos because I didn't fly until the bitter end?

 

[Mad_angler1]

Battery errors can be caused from everything from poor connections to minor cell deviations. How are all the cells looking when sitting on the ground, can you post a screen shot ?

Some folks have had packs fail in pairs too which is very odd but then again Lipo batteries can just fail and they are completely unpredictable, DJI are not alone either with batteries going as Yuneec 920 users also experience some failures and poor life spans.

A battery will always be a weak link to a point.

 

[APost]

Sorry...just deleted the screen shots of the batteries. There as 0.01 volt deviation between the cells on both batteries on both sets, and each battery in the pairs were at the same voltage.

 

[APost]

I've dozens of other lipos, from 1300mah MōVI bats to 10,000mah 6s for our octo's n never had one fail that I didn't kill by letting it run down too low. Have had two of these fail after only a few cycles. I'm recharging
G all of them now n will see how the go app feels about them afterward. Oh....we've been waiting a month for the replacement batteries DJI promised. Hope these aren't entering the que

 

[The_Learning_Curve]

I’ve had great luck so far. Only batteries I’ve bricked is a tb48 from being dropped and a TB47 That mysteriously stopped functioning altogether for no reason. But for about a year and a half of flying 3 or 4 batteries a day 3 to 5 days a week and recently having a dramatic increase doing animal rescues, I’d say I’m impressed. But I do wonder when stuff will hit the fan since all my batteries are the same age.

 

[APost]

Sounds like you're flying the I1, I've got the I2 and the batteries have to work in pairs. Wonder if that's an issue.

 

[Steve@AerialImagesPro]

It’s most likely just a little build up on the serial communication pins. There are those 4 little Pins that compression connect to the Inspire when you slide the battery in.

Use a pencil eraser or contact cleaner to clean the contacts.

 

[APost]

I'll try that. Too easy, and what's the worse that could happen....I'd be right where I am now

 

[APost]

Hmmmmm checked batteries after recharging and now had THREE sets that returned the error. Cleaned the battery terminals on the I2 and one of the errors went away. I've attached a screenshot of one of the error sets

 

[Mark Taylor]

Hmmmmm checked batteries after recharging and now had THREE sets that returned the error. Cleaned the battery terminals on the I2 and one of the errors went away. I've attached a screenshot of one of the error sets

Not sure if this is the problem, but I've seen the 'error' message displayed if you reboot the aircraft without restarting the app as you can see the error displayed if you get to that screen before the I2 completes its start-up sequence.

 

[APost]

At this point I'll try anything. This AM I was just shutting down the I2, switching batteries and leaving the app running. But that's what we usually do. So you're saying that every time I change batteries I need to restart the app? Can you share your process? FWIW the original error status showed after we had flown and just before we shut down, so all was apparently well as we had no warning messages in the GoApp. But honestly, that thing is so wordy I may have started ignoring the messages that are forever popping up.

 

[Mark Taylor]

Just for the purposes of testing your battery packs, exit from the app back to the initial screen which shows the photo of the I2 and wait there while it starts up and goes through the firmware check each time you put on a new set of batteries.

This gives the I2 a chance to boot up completely.

If you still see the battery errors after that then they are 'real' rather than an initial boot timing problem.

 

[Retired2Fly]

GO4 app start sequence has nothing to do with I2 battery errors. The Go4 app is irrelevant. The rear AC status LED will blink red when there is a battery error that prevents arming the A/C for takeoff regardless if the Go4 app is running or not.. It is either: battery a contact issue (the most common) or a real error in one of the cells. You can tell which by cleaning EACH contact on the suspected battery. If that does not fix your issue you need to install the suspect I2 battery pair, turn on the A/C and let the battery pair drain to 50% or lower. If the battery error goes away then it is a single bad cell in one of the paired packs.

 

[APost]

GO4 app start sequence has nothing to do with I2 battery errors. The Go4 app is irrelevant. The rear AC status LED will blink red when there is a battery error that prevents arming the A/C for takeoff regardless if the Go4 app is running or not.. It is either: battery a contact issue (the most common) or a real error in one of the cells. You can tell which by cleaning EACH contact on the suspected battery. If that does not fix your issue you need to install the suspect I2 battery pair, turn on the A/C and let the battery pair drain to 50% or lower. If the battery error goes away then it is a single bad cell in one of the paired packs.

I'll try that as well. It's really hard to believe all these are bad. That would make 50% of the batteries we've bought bad. Maybe I could get a job as a product tester...If I can't find the flaw then you're good to go ;-)

 

[APost]

I"m headed out to try the two methods listed above. I cleaned the contacts, but I cleaned the ones on the vehicle. I'll try the ones on the batteries as well. FWIW, this is what Tech Support Suggested. I'll try the methods here first as this would take a LOT of time, and it didn't work on the first set that reported the much more serious "BROKEN CELL", and I'm still waiting for replacements two months later. And those were broken as each had cell voltage variance greater than .1V

 

[APost]

How do you clean the battery terminals? They are quite recessed....

 

[Mark Taylor]

GO4 app start sequence has nothing to do with I2 battery errors. The Go4 app is irrelevant...

It may be hard to believe, but you are wrong in this case...


This is what you get if you stay on the battery screen and power cycle the I2...

The packs in question may well be faulty, but when testing them it is important not to just stay on this screen and change the packs or you will end up thinking all your packs are faulty...

If you do this you can wait for the start-up sequence to complete and then exit this screen and go back in, that will usually clear the false error.

 

[APost]

OK..I think this is just an APP glitch. I still don't know why I was getting the errors after a successful flight. The Screen Captures prior to takeoff showed no error conditions.

Anyhow. I tried the boot order method as I didn't see how to clean the battery terminals themselves as they are so recessed. At first I was getting error conditions on sets that previously had not shown them. I simply exited the battery screen, and immediately reentered and twala...error be gone. Batteries are just fine.

Thanks for all your help. I hope it's just a glitch after all. But now I'll be hyper aware.

 

[Mark Taylor]

OK..I think this is just an APP glitch.

Good, I was hoping it was only a test methodology issue rather than a real problem.

It is just something to be aware of, you will see all sorts of errors if you stay in the app during a power-up sequence, but most clear themselves as the power-up sequence progresses, the battery error does not.

Closing the battery screen will generally clear it though as you have found.

 

[APost]

It may be hard to believe, but you are wrong in this case...

View attachment 16693
This is what you get if you stay on the battery screen and power cycle the I2...

The packs in question may well be faulty, but when testing them it is important not to just stay on this screen and change the packs or you will end up thinking all your packs are faulty...

If you do this you can wait for the start-up sequence to complete and then exit this screen and go back in, that will usually clear the false error.

I did the test as you suggested, and exited to the Photo-of-the-vehicle screen, waited for the checking-versions badge to clear, tapped go-fly, let everything settle and checked the batteries and saw an error there. I'd exit that screen and re-enter it and the error was gone. Maybe I'd still rushed it on some sets more than others???.

At any rate, it does look like a reporting issue and not a bad battery issue. At the very least I know to not panic when I see that red Error and to restart that screen. Although "Best two out of three" is not the data collection method to which I generally subscribe.