Reviving dead batteries - a heads up

[Pilotltd]

Not used my Mavic Air in years and to no surprise both batteries I had were dead. Broke them apart and soldered wires on cell terminals and charged to 11.5V. Used DJI battery killer and a CP2112 board. First battery - no problem, worked fine and fully working. Second one CP2112 couldn't connect, after a lot of messing about I stuck it under a microscope and checked the connections. Found dry and cracked solder joints on several of the socket connections where they are soldered to the PCB! Resoldered all of them and it connected immediately and unblocked.

As a precaution I took the first battery apart again and resoldered all of those too - a couple of the positive connections were definitely flaky. So if your drone suddenly dies highly likely its dry unleaded solder joints.. Nanny states and "Health and Safety" rules have a lot to answer for...

I repair Guitar Amplifiers as a part time business and routinely resolder modern amps throughout with Leaded Solder as 90% fail through this and/or rubbish cheap capacitors failing.

Steve

 

[Cafguy]

Great info for sure! I would also caution people wanting to use DJI Battery Killer. Do your research and make sure you know what you are doing!!!!!!

 

[slup]

Very much agree with your threads heading... and as batteries are very different than amplifiers, you also should consider reading this post --> Disable forced landing

 

[Gagipeca]

Congrats! I have revived 4 baterries for Air1. Of course, after first charging, carefully test it, dont go far with drone, or over water.

 

[Pilotltd]

Very much agree with your threads heading... and as batteries are very different than amplifiers, you also should consider reading this post --> Disable forced landing

 

[Pilotltd]

I will power cycle them several times to check and never fly out of line of sight or anywhere where a falling drone would cause damage anyway. "New" batteries from DJI are unavailable at the moment and clones vary wildly in performance and quality and old batteries may well be better than some so called "new" ones

 

[@Rip]

Good on you... Caution is the operative word here.
Some of us have many, many batteries for our aircraft(s).
I know it is a pain sometimes, but regular battery maintenance is a required task.
Think about that flashlight or weather station in your home.. (or any other device that uses batteries)
As the batteries degrade and expend themselves, there is corrosion and worse.

Drone technology is especially vulnerable to battery issues.
Set up a maintenance schedule if you use um or not. Let your phone remind you. Whatever.

Make sure your contacts on the battery are clean and no debris exist. (Same for the drone..)
Confirm in the drone app settings that the battery is recognized and the charge count is correct.

I hope you know the drill.

 

[Duncan McCall]

Not used my Mavic Air in years and to no surprise both batteries I had were dead. Broke them apart and soldered wires on cell terminals and charged to 11.5V. Used DJI battery killer and a CP2112 board. First battery - no problem, worked fine and fully working. Second one CP2112 couldn't connect, after a lot of messing about I stuck it under a microscope and checked the connections. Found dry and cracked solder joints on several of the socket connections where they are soldered to the PCB! Resoldered all of them and it connected immediately and unblocked.

As a precaution I took the first battery apart again and resoldered all of those too - a couple of the positive connections were definitely flaky. So if your drone suddenly dies highly likely its dry unleaded solder joints.. Nanny states and "Health and Safety" rules have a lot to answer for...

I repair Guitar Amplifiers as a part time business and routinely resolder modern amps throughout with Leaded Solder as 90% fail through this and/or rubbish cheap capacitors failing.

Steve

No Way in Hell would I ever attempt this. Let us know when you get out of jail as a result of the batteries bursting into flames and landing on someone roof.

 

[Gagipeca]

No Way in Hell would I ever attempt this. Let us know when you get out of jail as a result of the batteries bursting into flames and landing on someone roof.

Of course, it requires some knowledge in electronics. But op had stated that he has some practical skills in repairing electronic devices. I wouldn't recomend reviving swollen or damaged baterries.
P.S. I am Electro-Telekomunication ingeneer.