Dead battery ...Mavic Air

eljimb0 · May 17, 2021

My Mavic Air has been in storage for almost 2 years. We were in the South Pacific for 2 years previously to that and it gave good reliable service. The controller battery seems to be fine, the head set battery took a long time to charge...it seems to be fine, but one of my two flight pack batteries seems to be dead. Why are replacement batteries so expensive? It seems to be out of line price wise with all the other models. Thanks in advance.

Macinfo · May 17, 2021

DJI Intelligent Flight batteries near as I can tell have never been cheap. Having them sit around for 2 years was probably what caused them to fail.. Not sure what options you would have had to keep them maintained short of having it with you, or selling it before you had left.

Kilrah · May 17, 2021

Yup, happens. Should use them at least once every 6 months or so.

everBit · May 18, 2021

eljimb0 said:
My Mavic Air has been in storage for almost 2 years.

Dji recommends to top up batteries every three month to compensate self-discharge.
Otherwise cells voltage could drop below "lock limit" which is 2.0V per cell and then chip goes to Permanent Failure state.
It could be cleared using special software if cells voltages were not dropped to full zero.
This way some battery still could be recovered if they not swollen and cycles counter not too much.

So before buying new battery which is aroung $140 on AliExpress now,
You could make some diagnostic steps to read battery monitor chip and get cells voltages readings. May be your batteries still could be recovered.

meezfine · Oct 14, 2021

everBit said:
Dji recommends to top up batteries every three month to compensate self-discharge.
Otherwise cells voltage could drop below "lock limit" which is 2.0V per cell and then chip goes to Permanent Failure state.
It could be cleared using special software if cells voltages were not dropped to full zero.
This way some battery still could be recovered if they not swollen and cycles counter not too much.

So before buying new battery which is aroung $140 on AliExpress now,
You could make some diagnostic steps to read battery monitor chip and get cells voltages readings. May be your batteries still could be recovered.

Do you have any detailed procedure on how todo this? Based on my research, you can manually reset the control board, after manually charging the cell above the lock limit voltage.

everBit · Oct 14, 2021

This is working well on Phantom 2 and Inspire 1 batteries. You did not mention which one you have, but if any of these it should work.

meezfine · Oct 14, 2021

I have MA1 batteries that are dead, and this appears to be an frequent occurance for MA1 users, most likely due to battery mismanagement. Do you have references to the manual procedures to restart the battery?

everBit · Oct 14, 2021

For Dji MA1 battery there are some recovery videos on Youtube, enter in Search "Mavic Air battery recovery" to find it.

meezfine · Oct 14, 2021

It doesnt really do any justice to say " there is a fix" without providing specific examples/ proof on how todo so.
"enter in Search "Mavic Air battery recovery" to find it" is NOT a reference to a known working fix for dead batteries.

everBit · Oct 14, 2021

If you could not find solution which is on the surface and well Googled then best option for you is to buy a new battery lol

meezfine · Oct 14, 2021

Brilliant idea

everBit said:
If you could not find solution which is on the surface and well Googled then best option for you is to buy a new battery lol

Brilliant idea!

meezfine · Oct 14, 2021

Anyone interested, this is what my search turned up on reviving a dead battery. I have not tried this, but am probably going to soon.

Contact Support

MAvic_South_Oz · Oct 14, 2021

everBit said:
For Dji MA1 battery there are some recovery videos on Youtube, enter in Search "Mavic Air battery recovery" to find it.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Mavic+Air+battery+recovery

Wasn't hard, quite a few to check through.

@meezfine no one here or anywhere can tell what 'unbricking' solution might work with your battery, or anyone elses.
You have to try any you find and see how it goes.

If you do recover it, be sure to go into battery management when in the drone at particular intervals, and check cell balance is ok.

meezfine · Oct 14, 2021

It appears that DJI did not set hard limits on battery usage levels in G4 to prevent users from bricking an otherwise usable battery. Looking forward to jump starting a few!