Broken Battery Question

[HeadShake]

I have no idea how, but a couple separator tabs on the battery broke. I flew the drone and the ap reports a normal state. I just need someone who is not guessing to comment. If the wire leads normally held apart is there any risk being close together or even if they touch each other. Or, are those tabs simply providing support for a good contact. The battery has 6 cycles so I hate to toss it.



I could likely plastic weld something but if the only job of the tab is to hold it in place for connectivity, then I am fine with it as is.

 

[old man mavic]

@HeadShake ,would you be fine if it fell from the sky due to the damage ,and what might happen if those contacts touched each other ,sorry but the decision you make is down to you personally ,sorry in advance if my post causes you any offence

 

[HeadShake]

No, it doesn’t cause me any offence at all. Do you know what happens if those lead to touch each other?

 

[Bob in Savannah]

No, it doesn’t cause me any offence at all. Do you know what happens if those lead to touch each other?

I think the point is; Mail the battery back in for repair.
Your DIY nonsense might very well cost you your drone. Thats the point, Im thinking..

 

[Chrislaf]

I would be retiring/recycling that battery immediately for all kinds of reasons, safety being the main one.

Chris

 

[HeadShake]

Well, of course I would retire the battery if it is unsafe. This is exactly why I asked for input from somebody who is not guessing. So far no respondent claims to know. Only suggesting what they would do. And I have no problem agreeing, but I generally don’t agree with people who spout off without knowing what they’re talking about. Maybe you are right, but you sure don’t sound like you know that you’re right.

 

[HeadShake]

I think the point is; Mail the battery back in for repair.
Your DIY nonsense might very well cost you your drone. Thats the point, Im thinking..

Since you called this DIY nonsense, do you have some training or a real understanding of what you’re saying?

 

[Bob in Savannah]

Since you called this DIY nonsense, do you have some training or a real understanding of what you’re saying?

When you say you are going to DIY on a battery and invalidate any sort of warranty from the manufacturer, that pretty much equals NONSENSE to me. If you're some kind of legit educated with a degree engineer, then whatever. Just say so. Im just saying that to 99.9% of the consumer base whatever you are purposing to do with that battery is NONSENSE.

 

[HeadShake]

When you say you are going to DIY on a battery and invalidate any sort of warranty from the manufacturer, that pretty much equals NONSENSE to me. If you're some kind of legit educated with a degree engineer, then whatever. Just say so. Im just saying that to 99.9% of the consumer base whatever you are purposing to do with that battery is NONSENSE.

OK, so the short answer is that you do not know what you were talking about. That is exactly why I asked for responses from people who do know what they’re talking about. Paint this however, you like, go ahead and speak for 99% of the people in the world. Oops, I mean 99.9%. That sounds just like more uneducated spouting off to me. And that is true nonsense. I have no ego about this at all. I asked for the opinion of someone who knows. I will trust their judgment.

 

[Bob in Savannah]

OK, so the short answer is that you do not know what you were talking about. That is exactly why I asked for responses from people who do know what they’re talking about. Paint this however, you like, go ahead and speak for 99% of the people in the world. Oops, I mean 99.9%. That sounds just like more uneducated spouting off to me. And that is true nonsense. I have no ego about this at all. I asked for the opinion of someone who knows. I will trust their judgment.

Doubling down on a DIY battery repair, huh? lol
You dont know a thing either or you wouldn't have posted. AND you're not formally educated either or you would have said so. So, whatever, hack away. #ducttape

 

[HeadShake]

Doubling down on a DIY battery repair, huh? lol
You dont know a thing either or you wouldn't have posted. AND you're not formally educated either or you would have said so. So, whatever, hack away. #ducttape

Dude, You are right, I did post the question. Doesn’t that in itself imply that I already knew I did not know the correct answer? Good grief, I started the post asking for someone educated about the topic only to reply. Know why? Because I was doing damage control on trolls with worthless input.

So far we have established that I do not know the answer and so I asked the question. I did not require your great insight to figure that out. You have also established that you are clueless about this and stuck your nose in where it had absolutely no business. Perhaps the part where the original post asked for input from people who know was beyond comprehension.

Again, I do not know if this battery is a brick or not. I am anxious for and respect educated information. My hope is someone self taught or educated formally teaches us something. They will provide a “why”.

 

[Cafguy]

You said above that you would" of course retire the battery if it were unsafe " Well please do not respond harshly but your battery is unsafe. Sorry, Can you painstakingly repair it in your workshop with super zap ca and hobby tools probably ,Will it last NO. Plus you risk your Drone falling out of the Sky. I am not exactly sure what Knowledge others here may lack that I may posses since you say you want an answer from someone who knows but I can tell you its not a good Idea. NOW if you are willing to find and buy a new plastic case for your battery then repairing it might make a little sense but only a little.

 

[JDubyaM]

Possible result?

 

[HeadShake]

You said above that you would" of course retire the battery if it were unsafe " Well please do not respond harshly but your battery is unsafe. Sorry, Can you painstakingly repair it in your workshop with super zap ca and hobby tools probably ,Will it last NO. Plus you risk your Drone falling out of the Sky. I am not exactly sure what Knowledge others here may lack that I may posses since you say you want an answer from someone who knows but I can tell you its not a good Idea. NOW if you are willing to find and buy a new plastic case for your battery then repairing it might make a little sense but only a little.

Thanks for taking the time. Really I am not looking for an argument but do have little tolerance for when people smack talk without any depth. I am anxious for you to tell me why it is unsafe. I asked the question because I myself question whether or not it is safe. Then it occurred to me that it may be totally fine.

 

[Chrislaf]

You asked for help and a number of people have offered suggestions. If you don't like their suggestions then why post? If you want a definitive answer to your question @OJsakila already suggested that you contact DJI and see whether they would repair it or not. At least you would know one way or the other whether it was worth it.

Chris

 

[Cafguy]

Thanks for taking the time. Really I am not looking for an argument but do have little tolerance for when people smack talk without any depth. I am anxious for you to tell me why it is unsafe. I asked the question because I myself question whether or not it is safe. Then it occurred to me that it may be totally fine.

No problem your battery is unsafe because the connections from the Battery to the drone have been compromised, and you Risk not only crashing your drone but worse yet crashing into someone or something because you have no control of it. If you are insistent on fixing it Battery shells are available for purchase and you can stick your good cells into it. BUT for all that work and the cost of a battery shell you might as well replace the battery. You are not gonna save that much fixing it.

 

[HeadShake]

You asked for help and a number of people have offered suggestions. If you don't like their suggestions then why post? If you want a definitive answer to your question @OJsakila already suggested that you contact DJI and see whether they would repair it or not. At least you would know one way or the other whether it was worth it.

Chris

I never asked for anyones opinion I asked for facts. If it is not obvious already, certainly not anyone’s opinion who doe not have any clue. It is my thread. I can ask what I like. I asked for someone who k ows to tell me if it is.

It is my suggestion that people who do not know about something to shut up, do you think anyone will shut up about things they are clueless about because I made the suggestion? I sure don’t think they will. I think that people cannot resist piping in even when they are totally ignorant . Well, regardless of the suggestions, even if they are 100% correct, I want to know what the reason is.

Stick around, with hope all of this nonsense has not dissuaded an expert from piping in. I am hoping to learn something myself. Aren’t you interested in understanding your equipment?

 

[HeadShake]

No problem your battery is unsafe because the connections from the Battery to the drone have been compromised, and you Risk not only crashing your drone but worse yet crashing into someone or something because you have no control of it. If you are insistent on fixing it Battery shells are available for purchase and you can stick your good cells into it. BUT for all that work and the cost of a battery shell you might as well replace the battery. You are not gonna save that much fixing it.

I honestly couldn’t care less if I repair it. I care about learning and understanding.

 

[Cafguy]

I see. and I commend you on wanting to understand and learn.
In your example of how to Fix the battery you pictured. There is only one way to fix it to insure a proper connection in the future. and that is to replace the broken connectors ( because you simply cannot reliably "fix" this) these connectors come with the shell so you must replace the shell NOW this is not a plug and play operation and some electronics skill will be required. A shell will run you around 25 or 30 bucks, So you are already in a bunch of time and 30 bucks. Sometimes its just easier and cheaper just to say " WELL I won't do that again" and Start anew.
If that is an Air 2s battery, its defiantly cheaper to just toss it.

 

[DoomMeister]

I come from a background in electronics so I can speak with some authority.

From your photos you can see that the spring tension on the contacts with the broken separators is less than those with the separators intact. This means you will have a more resistive contact during high current situations which will cause heat.

The construction of most batteries of this type means that you will not likely have a short if they do contact each other, but without a pinout of the battery terminals I can’t be sure. BTW what model of DJI aircraft is this battery for? I can’t even search for a pinout without knowing which battery it is.

I personally would not use a battery in this condition for flight, but it is probably perfectly safe for doing non flight purposes such as preflight and firmware updates.