DJI Charge Hub bricks DJI's TB47/TB48 Batteries

[Jeroen van Craaikamp]

Due to the bad weather I did not fly for a couple of weeks. I left my 2 TB47 and 2 TB48 "SMART" batteries in the DJI Charging Hub, assuming the over/under charge feature of the SMART batteries would ensure that the batteries would be left charged, at least up to 60%.

This weekend I wanted to fly with my Inspire-1 and checked the batteries. All 4 SMART batteries (that are 6 months old) were bricked!!!

Under European Cosumer Law, DJI has to replace the batteries at no charge since a consumer may expect that a SMART battery of 6 Months old with over/under charge protection is not to be damaged if it is left in a DJI provided charging Hub for a couple of weeks. In EU legally it is not allowed to lower the warranty period to 3 months for a consumer product. The thing is called a SMART battery and as consumer I paid 200 Euro per battery, hence i may expect more than a dumb-brick.

DJI EU Support states repeatedly that DJI will not replace the bricked batteries, hence we now have a legal dispute. If my lawyer supports my believe that DJI should replace the batteries at no charge, I intend to take DJI to court as a matter of principle.

For those that have a charging hub it is recommended to take the batteries out of the charger immediately after the batteries are charged.

 

[The Editor]

Leaving Lipos connected on ANY kind of charger/power supply for a couple of weeks is unbelievably irresponsible. I'm surprised you still have a house!

I am totally with DJI on this and can see why they refuse to replace your batteries - I would as well!

Enjoy your time in court, I wouldn't mind betting DJI's pockets are deeper than yours when it comes to legal fees

 

[Joola]

Why would you leave your batteries in the charger? The manual advises against this.

I wonder if the battery kept charging and discharging. The SMART battery auto discharges after a set period of time but since it was connected to a charger, it probably went into a never ending charge/discharge loops and fried itself.

 

[DaBone]

I´m with The Editor on this.. But DJI say´s this in their "Battery Safety Guidlines".

"DJI intelligent battery is designed to stop charging when it is full. However it is good
practice to monitor charging progress and disconnect the batteries when fully charged."

http://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/inspire_1/en/Intelligent_Flight_Battery_Safety_Guidelines__en.pdf

 

[Jeroen van Craaikamp]

I left the battery in the charger since previously I had a situation where i thought i had full batteries but they turned out to be near empty (discharged after 10 days). By leaving the batteries in the charger i thought this would not happen again.

Probably i'm not the only one who has not read the manual line by line. Hence i share my rather expensive experience i just had.

 

[DaBone]

There have been many incidents, where LiPo batteries caught fire while charging.
It's the biggest reason why you should not leave them in the charger and why to oversee during charging.

I found a nice list of what you should think about, when it comes LiPo batteries.
http://thedronegirl.com/2015/02/07/15-things-every-lipo-battery-user-should-know/

 

[Jeroen van Craaikamp]

There have been many incidents, where LiPo batteries caught fire while charging.
It's the biggest reason why you should not leave them in the charger and why to oversee during charging.

I'm not saying i made a smart move by leaving the batteries in the Hub. In hind-side, it is probably just as SMART as the batteries itself. However, the DJI Hub should not have bricked the DJI batteries and DJI may not walk away from its legal obligations to replace them at no charge.

 

[EMCSQUAR]

I'm not saying i made a smart move by leaving the batteries in the Hub. In hind-side, it is probably just as SMART as the batteries itself. However, the DJI Hub should not have bricked the DJI batteries and DJI may not walk away from its legal obligations to replace them at no charge.

Not pointing who's at fault, but to unbrick your batteries pull top off them disconnect small cable for roughly 10 secs then reconnect.

 

[Jeroen van Craaikamp]

Not pointing who's at fault, but to unbrick your batteries pull top off them disconnect small cable for roughly 10 secs then reconnect.

Thanks for the tip. I tried that (leaving the connector out for a couple of seconds as well as a couple of hours) without positive results. I suspect the battery cels have drained well below the minimum of 3V per cell that a LiPo can handle. No matter how SMART the PCB and its Firmware is, I would consider it highly unlikely that a TB47/TB48 can recover from having fully drained battery cells.

I may do some surgery on the inside of the battery to establish if the cells are indeed empty beyond minimum level. On the other hand, what would that bring me, besides a rather tricky operation that may give me confirmation that the DJI batteries are indeed not so SMART? Instead, I may also see this as an expensive lesson learned, take my loss and buy 4 new TB48 batteries plus a Smart Power Station.

 

[Joola]

Instead, I may also see this as an expensive lesson learned, take my loss and buy 4 new TB48 batteries plus a Smart Power Station.

Are you going to get a smart power station because you want one or because you think it will prevent this from happening to you in the future.?

If it's the latter, just remove your batteries when they're charged, know how many days you've set before they auto-discharge, and verify they are charged the day before you intend to fly. You should never ever store fully charged LiPos for extended periods of time. You will severely diminish their lifespan.

 

[Jeroen van Craaikamp]

Are you going to get a smart power station because you want one or because you think it will prevent this from happening to you in the future.?

If it's the latter, just remove your batteries when they're charged, know how many days you've set before they auto-discharge, and verify they are charged the day before you intend to fly. You should never ever store fully charged LiPos for extended periods of time. You will severely diminish their lifespan.

You are right, this is exactly why I may buy a Power Station since it will allow me to swiftly load 4 TB batteries in parallel. Then, I can go back storing my batteries on ideal battery level at home in my fire-proof LiPo-safe and get the batteries outm an hour before going out to fly. It will be safer, better for the batteries and keep my life simple.

By periodically using the deep cycle feature of the i can keep the batteries on good condition without having to hover my inspire until all my batteries are at 8%. Whilst on the road i can use the SMART Power Station to quickly reload the TB, RC and IPAD batteries during a break. I also intend to mount a shoulder strap on the Station and take the station with me as hand-lugage on planes, together with batteries. Currently, i use a padded aluminum LiPo casing which is not so rugged and quite heavy on long walks on airports.

btw: I'm a hobby drone pilot, so I don't have to schedule my drone flights like the pro's have to. I just look at the sky and go out to play on evenings and in the weekends, when the weather is right and when i have a couple of hours of free time.

 

[m00se]

Leaving Lipos connected on ANY kind of charger/power supply for a couple of weeks is unbelievably irresponsible. I'm surprised you still have a house!

I know lithium Ion isnt Lithium polymer, but it still has the same safety shortcomings if misused. Yet millions of cells are left connected and unattended on a daily basis, I for one have never had a laptop burn my house down.

 

[Stinkys]

I just did this update maybe an hour ago which is why it is fresh in my mind, but the DJI charging hub had an update v 1.1.15.0906 for "Fixed a bug that occurs during extended charging, e.g. leaving batteries in the Hub for over one week.". That's all I have on the matter, but going on this, regardless of the safety aspect, if you are running the stock hub firmware then this could be classed as a known fault to DJI that you were not aware of. And should probably receive replacement batteries. I certainly didn't get any emails saying I should upgrade my Hub, I just stumbled on the update today.

See update here - Inspire 1 - Specs, FAQ, manual, video tutorials and DJI GO | DJI Charging Hub Upgrader v1.1 dated 2015-09-09.

Hope this helps.

 

[Jeroen van Craaikamp]

On September 21st 2015 DJI released V 1.1.15 for the DJI Charging hub. This fixes the bug that ruins batteries that are left in the hub for over one week. It appears that my batteries were bricked due to the combination of me leaving the batteries in the hub plus the bug that i have in my hub.

 

[Magicman98445]

I plugged my charging brick into my USB port and all 4 led flash red, but status in hub update program shows device not connected. Used other cables, ports and same result. "Device disconnected" Please help.

 

[Stinkys]

Magicman, did you have the hub connected to power? The updater says you don't need it but maybe your computer isn't outputting enough voltage - especially if you are using an older laptop. I had mine connected to power and via USB.

 

[Magicman98445]

Yes, I've tried several different USB ports and other microUSB cables with my new desktop and the 4 red LED's flash like the instruction says so I know it's getting USB power, but the update program on windows 7 still reports device disconnected. Hmmmmm

 

[Stinkys]

I would try another computer if you haven't already. You don't need to install any drivers as far as I am aware. If it fails on another computer then I would say that maybe it has a fault.

 

[Magicman98445]

I connected the charge hub to my laptop and it successfully updated the firmware. Thank you for the suggestions.

 

[CCTPREZ]

You mentioned trying to prevent the batteries from draining themselves every 10 days due to them being discharged when you thought they were charged after said 10-days. Did you read the manual AT ALL? They're supposed to discharge at a preset (in the Go APP) amount of time. If you'd have learned a little more about your flying lawnmower before irresponsibly throwing money at it, maybe you'd have saved a lot of frustration. It's probably a sign from above that your batteries are dead, otherwise you'd probably have hurt someone or yourself with your complete lack of judgement, safety, or concern for others in mind. The saddest part is you've had this for over 6-months and still haven't figured out how to operate it. You'll LOSE in court! Just due to the fact that you didn't bother opening a manual that clearly states to not leave batteries unattended, do not leave on charger, etc etc. You obviously have money, as do most of us on here, but the difference is, the majority of us care about the well being of our family, ourselves, and others, and do our best to keep the hobby out of the hands of people who are going to ruin this hobby!