Inspire Battery Drop from 44% to 7% SCARY!!!

[DRONEONER]

I had a very scary flight today, Flying over the coast (water) my battery dropped from 44% to 7% and started to descend and controls started lagging. Managed to bring back to land JUST but it was a hard slide landing as i had maybe 10% control input. in video you can see right as battery drops to 7% controls go weird and i start having to major course correct to fly home, On app i was losing video signal in and out was not constant and lagging with pixalation.
I will have to speak with DJi in the morning about this, as this was almost catastrophic. And on hard landing it cracked the white plastic cover over spring landing strut and needs repair as it ran into small concrete piece on ground. haven't tested out since crash as I have other work i have to do but wow SCARY moment flying. I cant believe i managed to get it back to shore safe and somewhat land. I even called out to my friend it was toast and going to go into water when it was at 5% cause i could not raise up anymore... lol

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[Mossie]

Hi there

What happened to you sounds exactly what happened to me. I couldn't believe it so I ran the flight again in 'User' and there it was showing the battery drop off.
The good news is I think I found what caused it.
It was a second battery I had bought and being impatient I didn't charge it fully on it's first charge, only about 89%. I have subsequently charged and fully discharged it a couple of times and fault has never reappeared after more than 3 hrs flying that battery. It was also a coolish day, about 6 degrees so I don't think that helped either.
It gave me a hell of a fright though and the first indication I got was "landing gear lowering". Luckily I wasn't over water or unsuitable terrain

http://www.inspirepilots.com/threads/battery-fault-the-evidence.1442/#post-14812

 

[Mazz]

Scary stuff glad you got it in. I'd have probably brought it straight to land and hiked for it. You had a bit more drive to get it close or maybe just not enough time to think about it.

This is why you should always let them charge fully. The last part of the charge balances your packs and the numbers could be off on the battery metrics. Notice if you unplug your battery early it may still read 100%. I like to let it finish doing its thing before I unplug.

 

[The Editor]

Yup......as Mazz says.....Always charge your packs to 100% (and let them finish their balance) when the LEDs extinguish.
Also, every 20 flights or so calibrate your batteries as per DJI's instructions. This is what enables the software to guage accurately the depletion levels of the pack during flight.
It's also a good idea to pop into the battery screen a couple of times during a flight just to visually check the individual cell voltages whilst under load. It takes probably around 5 seconds to do and may save your bacon if one of your cells is going faulty.

 

[AerialJerseyDevil]

Yup......as Mazz says.....Always charge your packs to 100% (and let them finish their balance) when the LEDs extinguish.
Also, every 20 flights or so calibrate your batteries as per DJI's instructions. This is what enables the software to guage accurately the depletion levels of the pack during flight.
It's also a good idea to pop into the battery screen a couple of times during a flight just to visually check the individual cell voltages whilst under load. It takes probably around 5 seconds to do and may save your bacon if one of your cells is going faulty.

Great info. Love this forum for bits of info like this. Fly safe!

 

[The_0perator]

Yep, same happened to me as well. Stock warning settings still at 30%, I hit 28% and was just buzzing around close by and chatting with another friend who was flying his Inspire 1 for the first time when suddenly I turned back around and mine was landing on its own. It went from 28% to 7% in an instant. Luckily I was just horsing around and it was literally 10 feet in front of me in a nice safe place to land, it could have been disastrous.

So I marked that battery as "Tester" and use it for doing updates and very close range stuff. Honestly I'm not sure I could ever really ever trust that battery again.

 

[Jason Mezinko]

Right along with what The Editor stated also don't forget to break in your new batteries with the 10/10 rule. Basically, run down new batteries to 50-60% 10 times. This helps break in the battery and perform well throughout its life. I normally on do this 5-6 times with each battery and it has always served me well.
Does anyone else follow this rule?

 

[DCGOO]

Great info. Love this forum for bits of info like this. Fly safe!

That is nearly verbatim from the manual.

 

[Paul K]

I had a very scary flight today, Flying over the coast (water) my battery dropped from 44% to 7% and started to descend and controls started lagging. Managed to bring back to land JUST but it was a hard slide landing as i had maybe 10% control input. in video you can see right as battery drops to 7% controls go weird and i start having to major course correct to fly home, On app i was losing video signal in and out was not constant and lagging with pixalation.
I will have to speak with DJi in the morning about this, as this was almost catastrophic. And on hard landing it cracked the white plastic cover over spring landing strut and needs repair as it ran into small concrete piece on ground. haven't tested out since crash as I have other work i have to do but wow SCARY moment flying. I cant believe i managed to get it back to shore safe and somewhat land. I even called out to my friend it was toast and going to go into water when it was at 5% cause i could not raise up anymore... lol

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Obviously you didn't insert fully charged battery . (could you confirm that?), I replied many times on " Phantom forum" regarding this issue.
If the battery is not fully charged even if it indicates 80% battery power ,it might take less than one minute and it will drop to low battery level.
There is nothing wrong with battery itself but the battery electronics are making the design.If you interrupt a flight and not remove the battery from craft , you can execute another flight with no problem ,but if you remove and reinsert the battery ,you should expect this kind of behaviour.
I would recommend to fly only on fully charged battery ( specially over or around the water).
It is very good idea to have enough spare batteries ,but I understand ,because of a shortage of the supply everyone wants to use the only one us much as possible.
Do some tests with half charged battery close to you and to the ground and judge the results.

 

[DRONEONER]

Obviously you didn't insert fully charged battery . (could you confirm that?), I replied many times on " Phantom forum" regarding this issue.
If the battery is not fully charged even if it indicates 80% battery power ,it might take less than one minute and it will drop to low battery level.
There is nothing wrong with battery itself but the battery electronics are making the design.If you interrupt a flight and not remove the battery from craft , you can execute another flight with no problem ,but if you remove and reinsert the battery ,you should expect this kind of behaviour.
I would recommend to fly only on fully charged battery ( specially over or around the water).
It is very good idea to have enough spare batteries ,but I understand ,because of a shortage of the supply everyone wants to use the only one us much as possible.
Do some tests with half charged battery close to you and to the ground and judge the results.

It was a full charged battery, I just played around with the app for a bit looking at settings and moving camera around just playing, then turned off for a bit then turned back on to fly. I guess dont do that but i did not think that should cause a problem.
other factors. was nice and warm out about 17' c
battery was broken in used and discharged about 10 times before this flight.

To mazz - you are right i probably should have just gone to shore, but there were kids around and when battery dropped video feed got laggy and Pixely bad. so i did not want to crash into kid or other on beach lol. wanted to get back to me but it was super scary and my first instinct was to come to me not beach. All i thought was water=bad=piss me off=swim in Canadian ocean=cold=more pissed off = soggy ride home lol

I will try the click into battery screen in flight for cell check from now on like "THE EDITOR" says

Tested out Inspire tonight with 2 batteries (including the one that had the drop) and it seemed to work just fine no problems i could see (other then cracked spring landing gear piece but can be fixed when i get a chance to send in.

 

[BrianSelf]

mine did this on the 40th use of the battery, and it was only charged halfway when i took off. i have always charged mine 100% the one time i didnt, it shot down from 48% to 3% within 1min of take off. I dont know why it did it..

 

[Paul K]

It was a full charged battery, I just played around with the app for a bit looking at settings and moving camera around just playing, then turned off for a bit then turned back on to fly. I guess dont do that but i did not think that should cause a problem.
other factors. was nice and warm out about 17' c
battery was broken in used and discharged about 10 times before this flight.

To mazz - you are right i probably should have just gone to shore, but there were kids around and when battery dropped video feed got laggy and Pixely bad. so i did not want to crash into kid or other on beach lol. wanted to get back to me but it was super scary and my first instinct was to come to me not beach. All i thought was water=bad=piss me off=swim in Canadian ocean=cold=more pissed off = soggy ride home lol

I will try the click into battery screen in flight for cell check from now on like "THE EDITOR" says

Tested out Inspire tonight with 2 batteries (including the one that had the drop) and it seemed to work just fine no problems i could see (other then cracked spring landing gear piece but can be fixed when i get a chance to send in.

I don't thing it maters how many % is left on the battery , but if it is previously used you should expect that behaviour.
I wouldn't even use the heat bag (released by DJI ) ,and than using the battery to fly the craft.
I have some quads that are power by regular LiPo batteries ,and no mater the percentage ,that problem is not existent.
This was experienced only with "smart batteries".

 

[Dorian]

The failure at 47% happened to me during one of my first flights with the DJI Inspire 1. I tried recharging, and it STILL happens. I thought something was wring day one when the firmware update was apparently interrupted during upgrading, but it seemed that the upgrade was not taking and one cannot wait forever. Since then the problem continues. IS THERE ANY WAY to save this batter? Anyway to RESET the firmware, trick the battery into correctly seeing true charge again?

I can try fully charging and fully discharging over and over, but is seems that I get about 2-3 minutes and down it goes again.

Need help. Any advice from anyone with the solution? Thanks in advance!

 

[Dorian]

The failure at 47% happened to me during one of my first flights with the DJI Inspire 1. I tried recharging, and it STILL happens. I thought something was wring day one when the firmware update was apparently interrupted during upgrading, but it seemed that the upgrade was not taking and one cannot wait forever. Since then the problem continues. IS THERE ANY WAY to save this batter? Anyway to RESET the firmware, trick the battery into correctly seeing true charge again?

I can try fully charging and fully discharging over and over, but is seems that I get about 2-3 minutes and down it goes again.

Need help. Any advice from anyone with the solution? Thanks in advance!

 

[Kirk Pleasant]

The failure at 47% happened to me during one of my first flights with the DJI Inspire 1. I tried recharging, and it STILL happens. I thought something was wring day one when the firmware update was apparently interrupted during upgrading, but it seemed that the upgrade was not taking and one cannot wait forever. Since then the problem continues. IS THERE ANY WAY to save this batter? Anyway to RESET the firmware, trick the battery into correctly seeing true charge again?

I can try fully charging and fully discharging over and over, but is seems that I get about 2-3 minutes and down it goes again.

Need help. Any advice from anyone with the solution? Thanks in advance!

Hi,

Have you checked your cell levels?

It happened to me yesterday and I found that I have one cell that is not balanced with the rest.

http://www.inspirepilots.com/thread...-your-battery-cell-levels-before-flight.2206/

I am fortunate enough to have 6 more batteries... but I will be watching them very closely.

My trust in this machine is gone....

 

[Dorian]

No, it's not cell levels. They're fine. The problem lies in the NOT-SO-SMART electronics of the battery. It worked fine and held its charge for the first flight we used it for. THEN we were forced (thanks DJI) to upgrade ALL firmware. The first battery updated fine, but the second never did seem to finish the update (we might also have accidentally disconnected it before tit was done, and screwed it up, can;t remember how ling ti took now?).

However, the fact that this is NOT fixable is a crying shame! I wish I had an answer, but the only one I know of is to re-purchase yet another battery. This becomes one EXPENSIVE hobby when $150-200 parts can become so easily worthless!

 

[Kilrah]

Why repurchase? They take returns under warranty.

 

[Dorian]

I'll have to review the warranty and contact DJI. Does anyone know which dealer or office to contact, or whether I need to send this through the seller. The DJI contact issues are new to me, but I've read about disinterest and long delays. Is there a main office in the US that is best to contact. I am in Portland, Oregon (USA).

Thanks for the info!

 

[Dorian]

Got an RMA for the battery in question. I will be sending it tomorrow. Let's hope DJI tests the battery and sees that the problem is in the battery, not my maintenance of it (as they should).

 

[go fast]

Im looking into purchasing an Inspire 1 soon , I know this may not be a fair comparison but I've owned a phantom 2 for nearly 6 months now I always fully charge the batteries but i've had 50% to 60% left several times and started a flight with that and ran it down to the 20% warning then to 15% autoland without a problem. Guess the inspire1 still has a few bugs to be worked out , anyway thanks to all you guys im learning a lot about it before I ever get one , great forum.