Inspire 2 Battery Station Issue

[FlyaDrone]

I stored my packs in the charging station. I put them in there at 50% charge each. The case with batteries was left for about a month or little longer. I went to charge them up today. Oh no!
They are all on the latest firmware. Eight were plugged in and four in the side slots. The four in the side slots are still at 50%. Looks like they discharged completely. The charging station was closed and never plugged in during the month or so.
Looks like a big $ loss. Also, I thought there was discharge protection in each battery.
Very disappointed. Anyone else had this critical problem?
Help

"month or a little longer" seems indefinite so 32days or fill in the blanks. Accurate as possible information might be the difference in an engineer being able to help you recover your losses or not. Perhaps your estimated time left connected in the charger extended to 6 weeks or more? We all get busy or distracted and it is easy to loose track of days or in this case perhaps weeks?

Any time you leave the contacts of a battery connected to any device the potential for either battery or device damage occurs. Ever find battery crud in a flashlight that you left alone for a year?

Just saying that any engineering forensics analysis which is not provided as accurate a set of information that can be provided, might derive either erroneous or no results at all.

I too own the accused battery charger and even asked my premier vendor if leaving the battery in the charging slot for extended periods would harm the battery. Answer was, don't know, DJI gave us no guidelines. This subject is not addressed in the charger manual.

So the bottom line for me is that I hope you are able to help us all define proper operational parameters for this new device. The bottom line for you is that I hope DJI is able to help you recover your loss. However as most of us know, I have absolutely no hope that DJI will share any post mortem analysis to you or all of us.

We can all hope you are awarded replacement products due the the fact that DJI could have made just a very little effort to insert one sentence in their charger user manual stating that users should remove batteries from charging slots soon after charging is completed.

If your approach to replacement strategy is to gen up negative feelings against DJI in posting on more than one forum, well there is universal disdain for hundreds of anti customer actions perpetrated upon us by DJI throughout the world, and to date negative feedback from thousands of customers does not seem to have made any difference in how DJI interacts with us.

Good luck in getting replacements, but unlike the aircraft flight logs, I doubt the charger has any memory set aside to record how you used it.

 

[DED Reckoner]

I find your post very offensive.
Yes, I’m a stupid idiot, newbie in this field and have the education of a five year old. Thanks for rubbing it in. Can’t you give us stupid guys a break. We are just doing our best to be good citizens. Your intelligence is overwhelming and very challenging to me. If I could only be like you.

"month or a little longer" seems indefinite so 32days or fill in the blanks. Accurate as possible information might be the difference in an engineer being able to help you recover your losses or not. Perhaps your estimated time left connected in the charger extended to 6 weeks or more? We all get busy or distracted and it is easy to loose track of days or in this case perhaps weeks?

Any time you leave the contacts of a battery connected to any device the potential for either battery or device damage occurs. Ever find battery crud in a flashlight that you left alone for a year?

Just saying that any engineering forensics analysis which is not provided as accurate a set of information that can be provided, might derive either erroneous or no results at all.

I too own the accused battery charger and even asked my premier vendor if leaving the battery in the charging slot for extended periods would harm the battery. Answer was, don't know, DJI gave us no guidelines. This subject is not addressed in the charger manual.

So the bottom line for me is that I hope you are able to help us all define proper operational parameters for this new device. The bottom line for you is that I hope DJI is able to help you recover your loss. However as most of us know, I have absolutely no hope that DJI will share any post mortem analysis to you or all of us.

We can all hope you are awarded replacement products due the the fact that DJI could have made just a very little effort to insert one sentence in their charger user manual stating that users should remove batteries from charging slots soon after charging is completed.

If your approach to replacement strategy is to gen up negative feelings against DJI in posting on more than one forum, well there is universal disdain for hundreds of anti customer actions perpetrated upon us by DJI throughout the world, and to date negative feedback from thousands of customers does not seem to have made any difference in how DJI interacts with us.

Good luck in getting replacements, but unlike the aircraft flight logs, I doubt the charger has any memory set aside to record how you used

 

[FlyaDrone]

I appreciate you sharing your opinion of my human deficiencies.

Now back to the facts, leave a battery connected to anything for long enough and it will self discharge. DJI did not invent this reality with the creation of their battery charger station.

How about cockpit error having something to do with your circumstances? I have plenty of sympathy for anyone who owns up to a self created problem. But DJI did not leave your batteries in your charging slots for over 6 weeks therefore they do not owe you anything as far as free replacement of all the batteries that you ruined.

As I stated, DJI should have written in their battery charger not to leave the batteries in the charging slots. But that is all they could have done. However since most users do not read the manual, it probably would not have created a different outcome for you.

Good luck with coming to terms with your reality.

 

[DED Reckoner]

I appreciate you sharing your opinion of my human deficiencies.

Now back to the facts, leave a battery connected to anything for long enough and it will self discharge. DJI did not invent this reality with the creation of their battery charger station.

How about cockpit error having something to do with your circumstances? I have plenty of sympathy for anyone who owns up to a self created problem. But DJI did not leave your batteries in your charging slots for over 6 weeks therefore they do not owe you anything as far as free replacement of all the batteries that you ruined.

As I stated, DJI should have written in their battery charger not to leave the batteries in the charging slots. But that is all they could have done. However since most users do not read the manual, it probably would not have created a different outcome for you.

Good luck with coming to terms with your reality.

Good points, there may be some members interested in the outcome.
I was impressed with DJI’s customer support. They spent more time on this than I ever expected. After testing multiple scenarios with me it was decided to ship the station and eight packs to DJI.
It was determined that two packs had shorted and the remaining six were undetermined what actually went wrong. The station was reporting the packs as “Permanent failure”. So only obvious speculation on my part.
Really no root cause was passed to me however it was made clear there was no user error. I was told there is a firmware update almost ready for release but no information if it addresses this failure.

Of course I reconstructed the time line and actual steps taken when working with the Engineers. I was an IT Principal Engineer and now manage a team of Engineers that provide technical infrastructure solutions for one of the largest non-government EMR’s in this country. So providing them important information is second nature.
For those interested, the batteries were discharged to 50% by using the case discharge function the morning of 6/3. The switch was left in the discharge position. (They asked me that many times but didn’t say why. Hmmmm.)
The batteries were in the charging slots undistrubed until discovered dead in the late afternoon of 7/3 when preparing for a big shoot in the California sierra’s on 7/4.
Everyone that I interacted with at DJI stated that storing them in the charging slots for that amount of time should not have caused this. But no one committed to what was to long.
Final outcome:
DJI replaced the eight batteries with new at no cost even though they were out of warranty.
DJI returned the same battery station back to me with no documentation as to what they did with it while in the shop. It has the same firmware on it.
I inquired through multiple communication channels and only get told it was repaired. I’m having trouble accepting that they actually repaired anything since there was no documentation and it probably would have been easier to replace than repair.

Bottom line, I have not received any replies from the different forums that this issue happened elsewhere. So hopefully this is an isolated incident.
Obviously, I now store the packs outside of the slots regardless what DJI says about storing them in the battery station.

All is well now.

As for how you work with others..... Bite Me and eat my shorts

 

[Drone_Video]

...It was determined that two packs had shorted and the remaining six were undetermined what actually went wrong. The station was reporting the packs as “Permanent failure”. ….

This part of your posts concerns me... I have not left my batteries in the battery station, I have only ever used the discharge once. I have only 17 cycles on the battery, but I get this error when its in the charging station "Short Detected". in one of the batteries in the pair.

However charging it on the charging hub works fine.

Did you every notice any issues charging the batteries before you say them move to "permanent failure" status?

 

[FlyaDrone]

That is a great reply and the outcome which all of us had hoped for on your behalf. And as a highly technical engineer you realize the importance of valid information when seeking a root cause analysis so this most recent of you postings is the more factual of any I have previously read. I for one am happy to read the details of this report, very factual and it seems like you have moved past the oh s_ _t what did I do to my batteriesm phase.

And if you truly believe that any of my prior posts were disparaging or rude to you, then here is my apology, I apologize!

In hind sight your original post was probably made while you were in the posted off at yourself mode. I don't know for sure. But if not then your last post directed at me was obviously made when you were posted off at me. So again here is my apology, I apologize.

Even after you composed your emotional self and wrote the information that you shared with us the FACT remains for us that own this charging station DJI has not given you or us any precautions or guidelines on how to prevent this from happening. WOW no one of us should be surprised.

Thanks again for taking your time to give us a detailed report and status update! If getting your feelings hurt for no reason at all is what it took to elicit this report then so be it. That is the problem with written word, intentions are so difficult to convey. It would be nice for you to know my direct approach taken in my posts was not intended to bruise your pride nor demean your life time spent as an engineer studying how to fix or design stuff.

You are obviously much more involved with engineering than I am, but the small difference in us is that I could not care less on your opinion of how I interact with others. So if you are prone to taking offense when people point out potential issues relevant to a problem no matter how basic and elementary their points are then pause to reflect. No one on this forum had any idea that you are an engineer of high repute and experience when you posted a thread full blame shift from you to DJI which tended to read how you were absolving your self from leaving a battery connected to a potential source of current drain.

Again glad to know DJI by their actions has by default admitted to sending you faulty products. I hope your or our chargers do not still have problems as we await the firmware upgrade.

Have a great day!

 

[Drone_Video]

I have observed another strange behaviour with the charging station today

I put two sets of batteries on in silent to charge. One set was around 50 percent full the other was down to 10. I happen to catch the 100 percent full message on the display for both sets. However I was doing something else and then forgot to come back to remove the batteries for about 4 hours. In that time, on a completed 100 percent charge while the station was still plugged in and on but not charging as was a completed charge, the battery percent fell by 2 percent.

Is this expected? I don’t think I have the courage to let it sit longer on purpose.

 

[Gregg Smith]

Another issue I found was that they advertise the ability to upgrade all your batteries at the same time to latest firmware by charging them using the station. However, there's no indicated option that I could see to do this nor does the station even show up if I try to connect it to my Mac or Windows PC using DJI Assistant 2.

I contacted DJI Support and they had to escalate to Tier 2 support for this. They came back and indicated that this is a future release feature and isn't available yet and since there isn't any updated firmware out for the station, DJI Assistant 2 hasn't been updated yet to recognize the station that's why I can't see it.

Has anyone else been able to plug the station into their computer and see it in DJI Assistant 2 app? I tried 2 different computers and I tried to download the Assistant 2 app from several places on their website, since they actually have different versions posted at the same time depending on where you download it from, but still couldn't ever get it to recognize it.

 

[NickU]

@Gregg Smith nope, as they said on their website/docs, it's "coming soon"™ - it apparently needs an update to Assistant 2 (probably needs a battery station firmware too).

@Drone_Video, I'd expect it to do that - 100% indicated charge batteries seem to quickly drop to 97%+ even when they've been charged on the included round charger unit, so I'd expect the battery station to do the same. Also, the battery station doesn't seem to want to bother charging batteries if they are at or just above 96% from what I've noticed - i.e. it won't top it up to exactly 100% if it's only a few % under full.

 

[Gregg Smith]

@Gregg Smith nope, as they said on their website/docs, it's "coming soon"™ - it apparently needs an update to Assistant 2 (probably needs a battery station firmware too).

Thanks. Glad it isn't just me. With DJI you never know. I've seen where some folks have issues with something and others never see that issue with the exact same model.

 

[Gregg Smith]

I have observed another strange behaviour with the charging station today

I put two sets of batteries on in silent to charge. One set was around 50 percent full the other was down to 10. I happen to catch the 100 percent full message on the display for both sets. However I was doing something else and then forgot to come back to remove the batteries for about 4 hours. In that time, on a completed 100 percent charge while the station was still plugged in and on but not charging as was a completed charge, the battery percent fell by 2 percent.

Is this expected? I don’t think I have the courage to let it sit longer on purpose.

I just experienced a similar effect. I was discharging my batteries to 50% and had to leave them on for longer than they needed to finish due to being tied up and when I went back to check on them, they didn't stop at 50%. I had several that were 47%. So they appear to keep discharging, especially if you the switch is in discharging position. Watch out for that gotcha. That may have been what happened to the original post where they were left in and the switch was in discharge position.

I did have it plugged in and turned on, and they kept discharging.

 

[NickU]

the battery %age thing isn't always 100% accurate, sometimes it's only 99% accurate (see what I did there )

You can put a set of batteries in to charge and on some occasions they'll hit 100%, on others 99%. There's a bit of rounding error in their algorithms, and the methods of calculating 100% don't always give the same result for the same batteries in the same charger at different times . behaves exactly the same in the coke-can charger, just you don't see it so readily.

 

[Drone_Video]

the battery %age thing isn't always 100% accurate, sometimes it's only 99% accurate (see what I did there [emoji1] [emoji1] [emoji1] )

You can put a set of batteries in to charge and on some occasions they'll hit 100%, on others 99%. There's a bit of rounding error in their algorithms, and the methods of calculating 100% don't always give the same result for the same batteries in the same charger at different times [emoji57] . behaves exactly the same in the coke-can charger, just you don't see it so readily.

I agree. And the percent full after full charge wasn’t what I was referring to. It’s after it’s charged and hits its peek before the charger turns off the cycle was at 100. Then several hours later it fell by a few points while still on the charger.

I tried another cycle but pulled it off after it was done right away. An hour later I put it back on the charger and it would not start the cycle and reported 100 percent full. The next day I repeated putting it back on the charger to check it with got same 100 percent result. No drop in voltage or percentage.

But when I left it on the charger there appears to be a discharge even when the charge cycle is complete and the charger is left plugged in. I may get brave and try a time lapse for a few days to see if it drops more than the few points while still on the charger. I think it will not harm the battery unless it drops to zero is my understanding.

Does that help clarify what I’m seeing ?

 

[Force Aerial]

Hell yes..... way to simple.
I nice positive latching clickerty click switch would do nicely.

Will a spacer between the battery and battery station connectors help?