"Battery Error" - "Over Current Discharge" Warnings in Flight!

larkin · Feb 17, 2017

^ that sux

I'd wager it had a lot to do with the cold temperatures. Mavic batteries are not rated for below freezing temps. While the relationship between voltage and temperature is complicated, generally the voltage raises as the ambient temperature falls. For those getting this battery discharge error, I'd turn your battery voltage display on and watch out for increases in voltage.

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Filmscum · Feb 18, 2017

I've flown my Mavic pretty much exclusively in temps below freezing, all the way to minus 20F. Not had any issues what so ever, well other than getting the 'cold battery warning'. When the OP first saw this issue and reported on RCGroups I did a test at full sticks and didn't get the error, I believe it was around 15F that afternoon.

WIMMPYIII · Feb 18, 2017

FFR6288 said:
I just saw a video on you tube where a guy lost his Mavic due to this error:

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What was the temp during this flight?
Only time i have had the error so far is when doing full stick up and full forward for over 1 min.
I would guess the temperature of my warning when it happened was 20-30F dry air, no icing. Warning went away after letting up in sticks.

mschwind200 · Feb 19, 2017

WIMMPYIII said:
I too would like more to background on this story.

Experience. I had the warning, didn't really give it the attention it should of received, and it dropped. A DJI employee told me that the drone was asking for more voltage from the battery and that if I ever see the warning again it will drop again. It took about 9 seconds for it to drop after the warning though

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WIMMPYIII · Feb 19, 2017

You would think they could add an update that would automatically reduce max input to the motors by a small percentage after the over current is detected. Like a sport mode cuttoff kinda.

cobra46 · Feb 19, 2017

I experience this issue as well. I now fly a bit easier now and only do full up or full forward in sport mode never both at the same time.

LulaNord · Feb 27, 2017

Hi...i am new here. In my case it simply draws more current than the battery can provide for an extended period of time. My solution is to never use both full up and forward at the same time while in Sport mode. If I let off a bit on either one I don't get the error, so that's what I do.

Drone Police · Feb 27, 2017

WIMMPYIII said:
You would think they could add an update that would automatically reduce max input to the motors by a small percentage after the over current is detected. Like a sport mode cuttoff kinda.

Yep like an electronically controlled rev limiter in cars and motorcycles.

I haven't done full ascend and forward in sport mode for a while. I can't remember if the warning was an audible one as well. Because I 99% fly los in sport mode and not look at fpv screen and may miss the warning of its only on the display.

john94si · Feb 27, 2017

See my video. Temperatures have zero to do as mine was above 70 degrees

Sleeper · May 19, 2017

I just had one and it scared the **** out of me as I was approaching water during that portion of the flight, sport mode,full throttle and slightly climbing, got the battery error discharging message, my screen view pixel ated and I was going down. Got it down to 15 feet other side of creek(200ft away) and let it hover. Everything look to be back to normal and made it back over the creek and home. The battery dropped from 91 percent to 53 percent. Kinda makes me gunshy about going any kind of distance now.

cobra46 · May 21, 2017

Sleeper said:
I just had one and it scared the **** out of me as I was approaching water during that portion of the flight, sport mode,full throttle and slightly climbing, got the battery error discharging message, my screen view pixel ated and I was going down. Got it down to 15 feet other side of creek(200ft away) and let it hover. Everything look to be back to normal and made it back over the creek and home. The battery dropped from 91 percent to 53 percent. Kinda makes me gunshy about going any kind of distance now.

I was gun shy after my first couple of instances of this warning. Now that I understand it and know not to command simultaneous full up and forward, it hasn't happened again. Now my confidence is back to where it was before I was blissfully unaware of this issue.

adiru · May 21, 2017

JUCD VPR said:
So I have had my Mavic Pro Fly More Combo for a week, I am an experienced Pilot of 8yrs flying MRs.

Upon really testing the Mavic over the weekend, on a Full throttle and full forward elevator stick, I get a "Battery Error" warning that pops up on my screen, followed by a "Over Current Discharge" warning. Batteries are all freshly charged, happens on every one, temp 51 degree F, so it is not cold outside and the batteries were inside my home.

I am trying to determine if it needs to go back to DJI, however I obviously don;t want to send it back if this is just some new FW glitch DJI can fix that way, or if it is my Mavic only and not a widespread issue, in that situation i'm fine with shipping it back to them.

It only happens on full throttle, full forward flight stick inputs. How many others have experienced this?

I get this all the time in sports when going full steam ahead and max climb at the same time for a few seconds or more.

I just ignore it and keep pushing through.

So far so good.

WesleyPipes · Jun 8, 2017

I've experienced the same problem yesterday. But in my case, I almost crashed my drone.

I was going fully forwards while fully ascending in sports mode and as I've almost reached max altitude the battery error message appeared on my screen...
Just one or two seconds later I lost the camera signal for about 1.5 seconds (that felt like 10). When I was receiving a camera signal on my phone again the drone was tumbling around and like falling from the sky. The video that I was recording also has stopped.
So I assume the over current caused the drone to shut off to protect either itself or the battery. If I wouldn't have been in this high altitude it would have just dropped somewhere like a rock.

DJI need's to limit the current or the throttle to prevent this from happening. This is a serious issue in my eyes that could have caused more than just the loss of the drone!

cobra46 · Jun 8, 2017

WesleyPipes said:
I've experienced the same problem yesterday. But in my case, I almost crashed my drone.

I was going fully forwards while fully ascending in sports mode and as I've almost reached max altitude the battery error message appeared on my screen...
Just one or two seconds later I lost the camera signal for about 1.5 seconds (that felt like 10). When I was receiving a camera signal on my phone again the drone was tumbling around and like falling from the sky. The video that I was recording also has stopped.
So I assume the over current caused the drone to shut off to protect either itself or the battery. If I wouldn't have been in this high altitude it would have just dropped somewhere like a rock.

DJI need's to limit the current or the throttle to prevent this from happening. This is a serious issue in my eyes that could have caused more than just the loss of the drone!

Did you have to CSC to restart it? Please tell us more about the recovery. Is the gimbal ok after the tumble?

WesleyPipes · Jun 9, 2017

cobra46 said:
Did you have to CSC to restart it? Please tell us more about the recovery. Is the gimbal ok after the tumble?

What do you mean with CSC to restart it? It restarted itself while falling from the sky - fortunately! Everything seems fine so far but I didn't fly her anymore since that day. I'll test her again tomorrow I guess.

cobra46 · Jun 9, 2017

CSC is the Combination Stick Command used to start your bird. I use the in and down version on both sticks.

strider · Jun 9, 2017

WesleyPipes said:
...I was going fully forwards while fully ascending in sports mode and as I've almost reached max altitude the battery error message appeared on my screen...
Just one or two seconds later I lost the camera signal for about 1.5 seconds (that felt like 10). When I was receiving a camera signal on my phone again the drone was tumbling around and like falling from the sky. The video that I was recording also has stopped...

Did you actually see the drone tumbling out of the sky with LOS? Because what you describe sounds exactly like a gimbal reset. There are multiple threads about it but the but the symptoms are the loss of video feed for several seconds. Then the video feed returns, video recording has been stopped and the video looks crazy, like your bird is tumbling out of the sky but in reality it's the gimbal calibrating itself.

Would be interesting to see the dat file and see if you actually lost elevation and motors stopped or if was just a gimbal reset.

FlyGuy8675309 · Aug 20, 2017

adiru said:
I get this all the time in sports when going full steam ahead and max climb at the same time for a few seconds or more.

I just ignore it and keep pushing through.

So far so good.

You're a braver pilot than I!

I've got this a few times. Yes sports mode. Yes both sticks full forward. I will always get a MAX MOTOR speed warning first.. if I let off a bit then I'm OK.. Other wise the battery error comes up and the Mavic just hovers where it's at for 5-10 seconds (no altitude loss) and then I can go again.

I tell you what: If I had a lump of coal in my butt the first time I saw that error, I would've had a nice diamond at the end of that flight. :-D

Mako79 · Aug 31, 2017

WesleyPipes said:
I've experienced the same problem yesterday. But in my case, I almost crashed my drone.

I was going fully forwards while fully ascending in sports mode and as I've almost reached max altitude the battery error message appeared on my screen...
Just one or two seconds later I lost the camera signal for about 1.5 seconds (that felt like 10). When I was receiving a camera signal on my phone again the drone was tumbling around and like falling from the sky. The video that I was recording also has stopped.
So I assume the over current caused the drone to shut off to protect either itself or the battery. If I wouldn't have been in this high altitude it would have just dropped somewhere like a rock.

DJI need's to limit the current or the throttle to prevent this from happening. This is a serious issue in my eyes that could have caused more than just the loss of the drone!

Like this @2.30

Neo Mavic · Sep 25, 2017

I just experienced this error this evening. I was flying quite low at full throttle in sports mode but did a sharp steep climb still at full throttle so as to clear some trees but then decided to continue up to MAX alt ceiling and then I noticed the overcurrent warning. No loss of visual or video feed. I immediately released both sticks and after almost soiling myself, I initiated RTH. Once it was was closer I cancelled RTH and took control bringing it closer whilst descending, the theory being that if it lost power and fell out of the sky then the lower the better. It seemed fine on the way home and hopefully all is well. My opinion after reading all this is that it just isn’t happy at its limits for long so don’t push it. I also agree that DJI need to limit performance if overcurrent occurs but in the meantime it’s up to us pilots to respect the mavic’s boundaries until DJI sort it out.