New Battery Algorithm in v1.3.0.00 and sudden voltage drop syndrome

[RJ Evans]

Just carious if your recalibration was successful? As the recalibration of my 3 battery going down to 5% was unsuccessful. I thought I did the calibration current, but after recharging them to 100% I still was getting 4300mAh readings on my tb47 and 5600mAh readings on my tb48s.

I searched and found this forum post http://www.inspirepilots.com/threads/battery-re-calibration.4847/ the posts stated that just going to 5% will not recalibrate the battery's, but you will have to go all the way to 0%. I can also confirm from my personal experience that draining from 100% to 5% and recharging back to 100% did not work, but going to 0% did. Within the link I posted they explain in more detail why draining to 5% doesn't work and draining to 0% does.

Thanks for the info Merci45k. I'll do it the way you've described. Not sure if that will solve the sudden drop from under 61% to 7%. But, it's worth a shot.

 

[Leszek Kedziora]

Since the 1.3 FW was released I have not heard about the sudden drop of the voltage.

 

[Dave Stanton]

I have the software and have had no problems but I didn't have problems before the new software either. I never fly without 100% power but over the weekend I did do this: Flew at a big event on about 18 acres of land that is all open baseball and soccer fields. I had permission from the event coordinators. I would fly some but the next "station" (it was a Mud Run) was way too far to walk to, so I threw the I1 in my car, drove across the parking lot, (about 2 city blocks) and flew again. I did this several times. Of course, as I did this the batteries (craft and controller) went down in power but I had no problems. The I1 was never off for more than 2 minutes, not sure if that matters. Also, I checked all data before I flew each time to make sure everything was within parameters. It always was and it updated the home point each time I relaunched.

By the by, are any of you using these battery multi chargers I see? Any good?

 

[The Editor]

I have the software and have had no problems but I didn't have problems before the new software either. I never fly without 100% power but over the weekend I did do this: Flew at a big event on about 18 acres of land that is all open baseball and soccer fields. I had permission from the event coordinators. I would fly some but the next "station" (it was a Mud Run) was way too far to walk to, so I threw the I1 in my car, drove across the parking lot, (about 2 city blocks) and flew again. I did this several times. Of course, as I did this the batteries (craft and controller) went down in power but I had no problems. The I1 was never off for more than 2 minutes, not sure if that matters. Also, I checked all data before I flew each time to make sure everything was within parameters. It always was and it updated the home point each time I relaunched.

By the by, are any of you using these battery multi chargers I see? Any good?

Thanks for your post - what you describe would not have triggered the 'sudden drop syndrome' as it did not occur if you flew, powered down, did not remove the battery, then powered up (same battery) and flew again which I think is what you are describing.
It only manifests itself if you take a partially charged pack, insert it and then fly or swap batteries and insert a partially charged battery.

 

[Dave Stanton]

Thanks for your post - what you describe would not have triggered the 'sudden drop syndrome' as it did not occur if you flew, powered down, did not remove the battery, then powered up (same battery) and flew again which I think is what you are describing.
It only manifests itself if you take a partially charged pack, insert it and then fly or swap batteries and insert a partially charged battery.

Ahhh. Good to know. I will never do that, even if my boss if pressuring me to fly. Thanks for the info!

 

[gruvpix]

Just got a brand new inspire sent to me by DJI to replace my old busted unit, and I got this issue on three different batteries today (just updated to FW 1.3). I've never had it before so I'm going to try out the 'calibration' procedure...
My question: why is it I would have the issue now? I fly a lot on partial charges, always have, and it just started on the new unit

 

[Busch]

i started yesterday a flight with a 50% battery, i flew in one location moved in car for about 30 mins and reused the battery, no drop whatsoever, i did update and deep cycled them when the update was out.

its so annoying when people do what DJI state should be done, then we dont have anything to talk about

 

[Yardman]

I am curious as I haven't tried it myself (I ALWAYS start my flights with 100% charge state) but have any of you more adventurous souls out there tried to see if the new firmware and battery calibration now solves the sudden voltage drop report from 60 or 70% to circa 7% in a matter of seconds when starting off with a partially charged pack?

Answers on a postcard please..........

Sorry for the late response but was on vacation and did not update firmware until just two weeks ago and did experience a sudden voltage drop.
Updated firmware on battery and wanted to burn the battery down to below 5%. Started with the battery at 60%, flew it in immediate area, within 60 feet horizontally and at 100 feet in altitude. Battery went from 20% to 7% in a matter of seconds, started down to land immediately (expeditiously I might add) and the battery went to zero and rotors stopped when I was at approximately 2', was a semi-hard landing, nothing broken, lucky was in some tall uncut grass. First and last time I will ever begin flight with less than 100% on battery.

 

[Scotflieger]

Sorry for the late response but was on vacation and did not update firmware until just two weeks ago and did experience a sudden voltage drop.
Updated firmware on battery and wanted to burn the battery down to below 5%. Started with the battery at 60%, flew it in immediate area, within 60 feet horizontally and at 100 feet in altitude. Battery went from 20% to 7% in a matter of seconds, started down to land immediately (expeditiously I might add) and the battery went to zero and rotors stopped when I was at approximately 2', was a semi-hard landing, nothing broken, lucky was in some tall uncut grass. First and last time I will ever begin flight with less than 100% on battery.

Post updating the firm wave to,1.3.0.0 you need to fully charge the battery to 100% before you complete a continuous discharge to 5%. Then recharge to 100%. This will reset the battery profile in the firmware. By tried discharging from 60% I am not surprised you saw the battery fall off the cliff.

 

[Richard in ky]

About a week ago testing my Inspire 1 the display said my battery was 67% and I just wanted to take it straight up to about 400 ft. Luckily that is all I wanted it got up to about 400 ft and I heard the warning and it said 7% and landing I controlled the decent and landed ok but it scarred the heck out of me.
Then a few hours ago my pantom 3 did about the same thing the screen said 60 percent and flew about a 700 ft away at 300 ft high and I got a low battery landing warning and it started dropping but this time the display said I still have 57% battery. I had a scary time bringing it home while it wanted to continuously drop.
Do I need to just put the batteries on the charge the night before and make sure they are fully charged or just keep my fingers crossed when ever flying they things.

Edit: Both of they happened after the last update.

 

[Scotflieger]

About a week ago testing my Inspire 1 the display said my battery was 67% and I just wanted to take it straight up to about 400 ft. Luckily that is all I wanted it got up to about 400 ft and I heard the warning and it said 7% and landing I controlled the decent and landed ok but it scarred the heck out of me.
Then a few hours ago my pantom 3 did about the same thing the screen said 60 percent and flew about a 700 ft away at 300 ft high and I got a low battery landing warning and it started dropping but this time the display said I still have 57% battery. I had a scary time bringing it home while it wanted to continuously drop.
Do I need to just put the batteries on the charge the night before and make sure they are fully charged or just keep my fingers crossed when ever flying they things.

Edit: Both of they happened after the last update.

You are strongly recommended to ensure that all LiPo batteries are fully charged before the start of a day's flying. If you use them and leave them half charged overnight, and especially for a couple of days, they will tend to self discharge but may not indicate the drop until placed under load when you start flying. I have seen one such incident when I had a 'fully charged' battery that I had not used for 9 days. I took off with 97% which immediately dropped unnoticed to 65% and then hit 30% after 6 mins then dropped to 8%. I landed immediately. If you takeoff with a freshly charged battery and land after 5 mins then you should be able to launch again straight away with worries. This is basic LiPo characteristics that have been discussed extensively on these forums.

 

[Richard in ky]

You are strongly recommended to ensure that all LiPo batteries are fully charged before the start of a day's flying. If you use them and leave them half charged overnight, and especially for a couple of days, they will tend to self discharge but may not indicate the drop until placed under load when you start flying. I have seen one such incident when I had a 'fully charged' battery that I had not used for 9 days. I took off with 97% which immediately dropped unnoticed to 65% and then hit 30% after 6 mins then dropped to 8%. I landed immediately. If you takeoff with a freshly charged battery and land after 5 mins then you should be able to launch again straight away with worries. This is basic LiPo characteristics that have been discussed extensively on these forums.

Just to make things simple are you saying the best thing is just to always put your batteries on the charger the night before, no matter what the green lights indicate. That is what I think I will do now I have 5 batteries for the inspire 1 and five for the PH-3s and 3 chargers for each type of battery so it not a problem to do that. I just thought charging them all the time would be harmful.
What about the Radio controller I haven't heard much on charging and discharging it.

PS: Thanks for the Reply there is just so much out their with different opinions that sometimes it becomes information overload when trying to find the correct info.

 

[Scotflieger]

Just to make things simple are you saying the best thing is just to always put your batteries on the charger the night before, no matter what the green lights indicate. That is what I think I will do now I have 5 batteries for the inspire 1 and five for the PH-3s and 3 chargers for each type of battery so it not a problem to do that. I just thought charging them all the time would be harmful.
What about the Radio controller I haven't heard much on charging and discharging it.

PS: Thanks for the Reply there is just so much out their with different opinions that sometimes it becomes information overload when trying to find the correct info.

Hi Richard, topping up the batteries the night before is a good idea if you haven't used them for 3-4 days. If no lights come on, then switch the battery on before putting it on charge. The RCs don't have the same power draw as the aircraft batteries so as long as you have 2-4 LEDs lit when powered up then you should have enough for a day's flying.

 

[SultanGris]

the issue with the sudden drop is due to the self discharge feature. The only time ive had this problem is when using a battery that self discharged without fully charging it first. I quite often fly a battery down to 60-70 percent and use it again a few days later without charging it and have no issues if i do so before it starts to self discharge, i set my self discharge setting to 10 days to reduce the occurrence of this problem. If your time is set to less it may increase the chances of this happening to you.

I had to drain the sudden drop affected battery till it powered itself off and then fully charge to fix it, the self discharge screws up the readings and causes it to misreport and sudden massive drop in percent left. I use my inspire and leave it powered on to drain it and it takes about 30 minutes or so while sitting at zero percent before it shuts off, when doing so to a battery that hasnt self discharged it will shut off instantly at zero percent left. The self discharged battery still has power when they report zero but the smart part isnt so smart and disables it prematurely to prevent damage cause it thinks it has less available than it actually does.