battery die in flight

[killerdog]

Hi guys,

yesterday i had first bad experiance with Mavic Air, i was outside filming with my drone, and i had like 2:00 min time ( battery was on 19% ), i just start to go landing ( it was like 30 meters from me ), when i got low voltage alert, and drone just stard to go out of control and falling down
luck was that there was no people down, and forest that i manage to lend, and i find drone ( it looks ok, i will check it today for flight), but now i am scare to go flight over people, as i dont want that happen again, and i have shooting of football match with drone tomorrow.

that battery is dead, so i hope it was just problem in battery, but how can i prevent things like this ?

 

[RayOZ]

I think in most places, you aren't suppose to fly over people anyway.

 

[killerdog]

yes i know that, but this is arrange with organizer, and i got permit for it, arrange all with police also

I never had problem like this, so in one hand i am happy it happen now, where was no people under it, but it just fall from sky, and i am worry that it can happen again, when i am doing shooting over someone

I got DJI because they are best in drone, but now i don't know do i want to keep using it

 

[InvisibleName]

19%? Bit low!

 

[RayOZ]

How old is your battery? How well do you take care of them?
I usually land by 30%. Storing your battery fully charged or less than 20% is not good for it.
As for taking photos and videos at the football match, just don't fly directly above people.

 

[Groot]

They shouldn't display it as 20% if there are no 20% actual flight time then. Or at least 15%. If you display something as % this % should be out of something. If it's not flight time, then what? When 20% = 0 seconds flight time, then there is a problem with the battery.

 

[Air Beetle]

Wow another pilot error. First you forget to install your SD card in another post then you fly with a dead battery. Please stop doing dumb things and blaming DJI for your mistakes. Take some time to read the manual, set RTH, and set your home point when you take off. How can you blame DJI for the battery %? Some maneuvers require more power than others. If the wind comes up, the battery demand will go up! Do you drive your car like this?

Is your firmware up to date on EVERY battery you own?

 

[Groot]

First of all - I don't have any battery issues, but as in my topic for the SD card, you don't pay much of attention, and you hurry to put your arrogant fan-boy style comment.
Second - please tell me one action that requires 20% battery for 1 second?
Third - "Read the manual" is very convenient answer to everything, but could you please quote where exactly is mentioned that under 20% battery drone will fall like a rock?

 

[Air Beetle]

I am not a fan boy. My Air is one of my drones in my fleet. IF you read the manual, you will find that the standard warning is at 30% and it returns to home. You obviously disabled it so let's cut the word games.

Mavic Air low battery

Look at the discharge curve for lithium batteries. They fall off a cliff at around 20%. This is true for electric cars, cell phones, and drones. You are the one who doesn't pay attention and won't take time to learn. You are going to lose your drone if you don't slow down and read the manual.

I'm not going to spoon feed you any further.

 

[CanadaDrone]

Best practice is to never fly below 30%. If yours died at 19%, this would not have happened if following DJI's recommendation.

How do you treat your batteries? Do you ever store them dead? Those kinds of things damage lithium batteries permanently.

Have you separately updated firmware on every individual battery (you need to cycle them through the drone and re-run the process) Do you ever run them down really low in use?

 

[DesJardins]

Wow another pilot error. First you forget to install your SD card in another post then you fly with a dead battery. Please stop doing dumb things and blaming DJI for your mistakes. Take some time to read the manual, set RTH, and set your home point when you take off. How can you blame DJI for the battery %? Some maneuvers require more power than others. If the wind comes up, the battery demand will go up! Do you drive your car like this?

Is your firmware up to date on EVERY battery you own?

Is this how the talk to people!? I really can’t stand these types of high horse comments in here... help the guy with technical info and move on. Nobody cares about your personal feelings nor do you know exactly how he takes care of his drone.

And the “spoon feed” comment!
wow bud

 

[Air Beetle]

I posted valuable info and charts. I am tired of new users who screw up and then come here and blame the manufacturer.

 

[DesJardins]

I posted valuable info and charts. I am tired of new users who screw up and then come here and blame the manufacturer.

Read his initial post again and PLEASE show me where he said “DJI is to blame”

It seemed to me he was asking what happened because as a new user I’d question a drop at 19% as well.

Cut people some slack and remember when you didn’t know anything before stepping in. No manuals do not tell you everything you’ll learn in this hobby

 

[genesimmons]

very strange to fall from the sky, i have read many posts where the piolot was in complete control well past 19% and even into 1% and some have managed to land at-0% i personally havent gone that low but watched many videos where people have done that, never heard of one falling from the sky though, pretty scary thought.

 

[Air Beetle]

I was responding to Groot. He is putting out bad info regarding the battery.

 

[CanadaDrone]

very strange to fall from the sky, i have read many posts where the piolot was in complete control well past 19% and even into 1% and some have managed to land at-0% i personally havent gone that low but watched many videos where people have done that, never heard of one falling from the sky though, pretty scary thought.

It's actually not that strange depending on various factors - everything from how well the batteries are cared for to temperature to firmware, etc.

As for those YouTubers trying to get views by abusing their batteries, just because you can do something and are lucky enough to get away with it, doesn't mean you should

 

[RayOZ]

If you look at the graph post #9, below 20%, voltage is probably close to minimum operating voltage of the electronics. I am guessing that sudden increase in motor speed, like flying in sports mode, will cause a sudden increase in current draw, which then causes a sudden drop in voltage, and kill power to the electronics, so it drops out of the sky. A bit like trying to start a car with a bad battery. Voltage is there, but when you try to start the engine, the current draw causes the voltage to drop to much, and the car fails to start.
For those guys flying long distance, the flight home would be close to constant speed, stable current draw, so voltage is not fluctuating too much.

 

[Groot]

About the % chart above. Every battery can have different behaviour about %. This is basically vendor decision combined with the battery calibration (regarding the percentage itself), combined with the battery health.

Most of the vendors of devices are trying to represent some usage time left with the battery %. Of course is not possible this metric to be accurate, because they don't know what you will do with your device from some point in time. Many of the people here (maybe they are afraid to speak, because all the hate they will face) at some point of their life are operated drone under 30%. I am almost sure some of you are passed 20%. You know that usually, if everything is OK the drone will alert you, but will not fell like a rock. Yes - it will try to go home at some point but will wait until 10% before forcefully landing and even then it will do it nicely... not like a rock. The drone will continue working on the ground even on 2-3% battery life.

But all this is if everything is OK. If the battery is not stored properly, or is just too old, or the calibration of the battery is wrong (for most li-on batteries one full cycle is enough, and I think this is a DJI recommendation too) things like this can happen.

Of course is not good idea to go so low during flight, but this is not the topic at all.

Air Beetle, the way you respond is unacceptable at all, but I am not here to teach you how to communicate with other people.

About your graph - could you give me a simple no full of hate answer - all these % below are % of what exactly? The assumption of this graph is that the device, powered by the battery can operate on 2.25v. All batteries has their own graphs depending how they are programmed to report % and the device minimum voltage. So you can't just put some graph from somewhere and to trust it will be valid for mavic air.

 

[killerdog]

Wow another pilot error. First you forget to install your SD card in another post then you fly with a dead battery. Please stop doing dumb things and blaming DJI for your mistakes. Take some time to read the manual, set RTH, and set your home point when you take off. How can you blame DJI for the battery %? Some maneuvers require more power than others. If the wind comes up, the battery demand will go up! Do you drive your car like this?

Is your firmware up to date on EVERY battery you own?

where did i sad i have problem with SD card ?
and this is not my first dji product, with spark i never had problem like this, all baterry is up to date,as i test all before i come out of house

all of that was set, RTH, no wind, and drone was 10m from me
ok, socan you say,how did i kill this battery,it look like you know ?
or not, i think , so it look like only dumb person here is you ...

and i transport battery in bags for them, always on 60%, checking them before take off to see if all is ok, so thet cant be case, all of them have around 30-40 time use
as i sad, log is showing all good, 19% fall on 0% in sec,
Drone is ok, as i was lucky to land it,and it was high grass, so how come battery then is dead, if it's not problem in her ?

i didnt drive in sports mode, and action i was doing was landing, almost above my head, when it start to go crazi i had luck to move it to side a bit,so it will not hit rock
so i will post video log of flight

 

[killerdog]

so video :