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Dreaded esc error and crash

Dmascot

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I was flying my Air 2 in my yard when I started getting the esc error and the drone crashed. Luckily it landed ten feet from the lake. I included a log file.
 
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I was flying my Air 2 in my yard when I started getting the esc error and the drone crashed...
The error you got was a "Aircraft max power load reached" & the cause to this, even though not spelled right out in the log... was a battery that didn't perform at all.

Don't have a clue how you have treated this battery in the past, how old it is or how many charge cycles you have on it ... but the BMS in the battery seriously misjudged the true battery condition from start. Looking at the cell voltage levels from the start together with the calculated & estimated percentage level all looks pretty healthy with 95% & an average cell voltage of 4,12V.

But once airborne the cell voltage rapidly sags & are down below 3,5V/cell just before the error arrives at 194,3sec into the flight (a healthy DJI battery indicate 0% when the cell voltage is 3,5V)... but despite this the BMS reports 76%!!! Just here the current draw is up on hefty 21,4A & still increasing as the cell voltage continue to decrease... all this during a flight just a tad longer than 3 minutes.

So... your battery couldn't cope with the increasing current draw & the sagging voltage anymore, the flight controller wanted more to the motors in order to keep the drone airborne ... but the battery failed to deliver, that triggered the error.

(Click on the chart below to make it larger, values in the legend is from the moment the error arrives at 194,3sec)
1678216895150.png
 
Thanks for the info. The battery came with the drone when I purchased it around 3 years ago. The batteries pretty much took care of themselves, always dropping the charge to 70 percent after a couple of weeks of not using. I always try to return home before the battery gets below 20%.
Anyways DJI repaired the drone and claim it is okay. I sent the same battery to DJI that crashed with the drone. Will DJI check the battery along with repairing the drone? They had access to the log files too. But they said it would be an additional $65 to send me the reason for the crash. I didn’t bother because everything is out of warranty. I guess it is time for some new batteries. Do you know the limit of usage on these batteries? Thanks for your help.
 
...The batteries pretty much took care of themselves, always dropping the charge to 70 percent after a couple of weeks of not using.
Yeah... and that's the backside of it, it prevent users from learning the best care for their batteries. Here below some thing's I've compiled regarding batteries...

Keeping the battery at 100% isn't good for it ... do what you can to minimize the time that they are at that level, the default auto discharge (if your batteries have that feature) down to 60-70% is way too long ... & if you check the level by pushing the button you reset the counter & the counter will restart. If a battery that is above storage % level haven't been used in a couple days, use the USB adapter from the Fly More Kit (if your model have that) to charge something else (your phone) in order to bring it down to storage % (see below ...)

Store the batteries between 30-60% ... a good thumb rule is to take them of the charger as soon as the third led start to blink, then they are just over 50%. But anything between 1 solid + 1 blinking up to 2 solid + 1 blinking is good enough.

Heat kills them ... don't store above room temperature & absolutely not in a car during summer, a couple hours in a burning hot car & the battery have sustained serious permanent damage.

Let them cool down to room temperature before recharging them.

Don't fly with a battery colder than 15C degrees, keep them warm in colder weather, have them in a pocket close to your body.

Don't drain them to low, make sure they don't go under 15% on a regular basis ... once in a while, then so be it. Set the ambition to not have them lower than 20% ... if you aim for that you usually don't end up below 15%.

Don't fly with a battery not recently fully charged, having a battery laying around partially charged for a longer period may make the cells in the battery unbalanced, using a unbalanced battery can make that lower cell fail soon after take off, & initiate a forced low battery auto landing you can’t stop.

If stored for a long time, cycle them at least once each third month ... then back to storage %.

Then remember ... batteries will not last forever

...they will either slowly degrade until the point where the useful flight times are so short that you stop using it

...or it will have a sudden cell failure which will trigger a sudden forced auto landing in the worst possible place

...or it will slowly start to swell to the point where they not fit into the drone anymore

...or the swelling goes off instantly or gets worse when the battery gets hot & push itself out of the drone at height.


The only visual sign is swelling ... which not always occur. Furthermore different drone models have different possibilities to handle a smaller momentary swelling when hot during flight.

So a battery can't be judged only by that it take charge to 100%, isn't swollen & manage to power your drone without mishaps ... too much is going on hidden from just a visual inspection or a test flight, you may have been on the verge to a disaster without knowing it.

You have mainly 2 methods to both prolong the useful service life of the battery & prevent sudden failures ... & judge when it's time to either limit the flight duty (in colder temps for instance) or completely take it off flight tasks.

1.Battery Care
...Never keep the battery cell voltage outside 3,7-3,8v for a longer period than 48h (that is a battery charged to approx 50%). If too high after a flight, discharge them, too low charge them up to storage level again.

...Store them in room temperature ... (too warm is more damaging than too cold)

...Never let them overheat ... (left in the sun or thrown in a hot car)

...Don't charge them hot, let them cool down to room temperature

...Don't use cold batteries, try to have them at room temperature before using them

...Respect the operational ambient temperature specified in the user manual

...Don't push the battery for amp draw (both sticks on max inputs at the same time in Sport mode for instance) when cold or hot ambient temps

...Don't fly them below 15% other in exceptional cases

...Always start a day of flying with the batteries freshly fully charged

2.Battery performance follow up over time
...Follow how the useful calculated max flight time change

...Compare the full charged max mAh compared to the designed mAh

...Monitor how the cell deviations degrades

For all points regarding the battery performance it's a question about trends over time ... just looking at a single flight will not give any insight over the actual health ... having a bit shorter flight time or some bigger cell deviations in one flight can be normal if using Sport mode or flying in colder ambient temps for instance. The paid Airdata subscriptions give the possibility to check these trends over all flight logs uploaded there ... it gives a good decision base to understand the battery health & if it's time to take it off duty.


...I sent the same battery to DJI that crashed with the drone. Will DJI check the battery along with repairing the drone?
Not at all surprising that they don't care about a 3 year old battery with an unknown care history which is way outside the warranty period.

Do you know the limit of usage on these batteries?
It all depends on how you've treated it... impossible to say.

...I guess it is time for some new batteries.
Yep...
 
I fly A lot ( at least 3 hrs daily) Battery maintenance will save you money in drones, as a lot of drone failures can be blamed on poor battery performance. I can squeeze the max cycles out of a battery Use the advice as Slup stated above and you shouldn't have a problem thats your doing anyway
 
Yeah... and that's the backside of it, it prevent users from learning the best care for their batteries. Here below some thing's I've compiled regarding batteries...

Keeping the battery at 100% isn't good for it ... do what you can to minimize the time that they are at that level, the default auto discharge (if your batteries have that feature) down to 60-70% is way too long ... & if you check the level by pushing the button you reset the counter & the counter will restart. If a battery that is above storage % level haven't been used in a couple days, use the USB adapter from the Fly More Kit (if your model have that) to charge something else (your phone) in order to bring it down to storage % (see below ...)

Store the batteries between 30-60% ... a good thumb rule is to take them of the charger as soon as the third led start to blink, then they are just over 50%. But anything between 1 solid + 1 blinking up to 2 solid + 1 blinking is good enough.

Heat kills them ... don't store above room temperature & absolutely not in a car during summer, a couple hours in a burning hot car & the battery have sustained serious permanent damage.

Let them cool down to room temperature before recharging them.

Don't fly with a battery colder than 15C degrees, keep them warm in colder weather, have them in a pocket close to your body.

Don't drain them to low, make sure they don't go under 15% on a regular basis ... once in a while, then so be it. Set the ambition to not have them lower than 20% ... if you aim for that you usually don't end up below 15%.

Don't fly with a battery not recently fully charged, having a battery laying around partially charged for a longer period may make the cells in the battery unbalanced, using a unbalanced battery can make that lower cell fail soon after take off, & initiate a forced low battery auto landing you can’t stop.

If stored for a long time, cycle them at least once each third month ... then back to storage %.

Then remember ... batteries will not last forever

...they will either slowly degrade until the point where the useful flight times are so short that you stop using it

...or it will have a sudden cell failure which will trigger a sudden forced auto landing in the worst possible place

...or it will slowly start to swell to the point where they not fit into the drone anymore

...or the swelling goes off instantly or gets worse when the battery gets hot & push itself out of the drone at height.


The only visual sign is swelling ... which not always occur. Furthermore different drone models have different possibilities to handle a smaller momentary swelling when hot during flight.

So a battery can't be judged only by that it take charge to 100%, isn't swollen & manage to power your drone without mishaps ... too much is going on hidden from just a visual inspection or a test flight, you may have been on the verge to a disaster without knowing it.

You have mainly 2 methods to both prolong the useful service life of the battery & prevent sudden failures ... & judge when it's time to either limit the flight duty (in colder temps for instance) or completely take it off flight tasks.

1.Battery Care
...Never keep the battery cell voltage outside 3,7-3,8v for a longer period than 48h (that is a battery charged to approx 50%). If too high after a flight, discharge them, too low charge them up to storage level again.

...Store them in room temperature ... (too warm is more damaging than too cold)

...Never let them overheat ... (left in the sun or thrown in a hot car)

...Don't charge them hot, let them cool down to room temperature

...Don't use cold batteries, try to have them at room temperature before using them

...Respect the operational ambient temperature specified in the user manual

...Don't push the battery for amp draw (both sticks on max inputs at the same time in Sport mode for instance) when cold or hot ambient temps

...Don't fly them below 15% other in exceptional cases

...Always start a day of flying with the batteries freshly fully charged

2.Battery performance follow up over time
...Follow how the useful calculated max flight time change

...Compare the full charged max mAh compared to the designed mAh

...Monitor how the cell deviations degrades

For all points regarding the battery performance it's a question about trends over time ... just looking at a single flight will not give any insight over the actual health ... having a bit shorter flight time or some bigger cell deviations in one flight can be normal if using Sport mode or flying in colder ambient temps for instance. The paid Airdata subscriptions give the possibility to check these trends over all flight logs uploaded there ... it gives a good decision base to understand the battery health & if it's time to take it off duty.



Not at all surprising that they don't care about a 3 year old battery with an unknown care history which is way outside the warranty period.


It all depends on how you've treated it... impossible to say.


Yep...

All good information! Unfortunately no matter how many times it’s posted people will ignore it and then wonder way their batteries fail. It isn’t rocket science.
 
All good information! Unfortunately no matter how many times it’s posted people will ignore it and then wonder way their batteries fail. It isn’t rocket science.
Yeah... and that's the backside of it, it prevent users from learning the best care for their batteries. Here below some thing's I've compiled regarding batteries...

Keeping the battery at 100% isn't good for it ... do what you can to minimize the time that they are at that level, the default auto discharge (if your batteries have that feature) down to 60-70% is way too long ... & if you check the level by pushing the button you reset the counter & the counter will restart. If a battery that is above storage % level haven't been used in a couple days, use the USB adapter from the Fly More Kit (if your model have that) to charge something else (your phone) in order to bring it down to storage % (see below ...)

Store the batteries between 30-60% ... a good thumb rule is to take them of the charger as soon as the third led start to blink, then they are just over 50%. But anything between 1 solid + 1 blinking up to 2 solid + 1 blinking is good enough.

Heat kills them ... don't store above room temperature & absolutely not in a car during summer, a couple hours in a burning hot car & the battery have sustained serious permanent damage.

Let them cool down to room temperature before recharging them.

Don't fly with a battery colder than 15C degrees, keep them warm in colder weather, have them in a pocket close to your body.

Don't drain them to low, make sure they don't go under 15% on a regular basis ... once in a while, then so be it. Set the ambition to not have them lower than 20% ... if you aim for that you usually don't end up below 15%.

Don't fly with a battery not recently fully charged, having a battery laying around partially charged for a longer period may make the cells in the battery unbalanced, using a unbalanced battery can make that lower cell fail soon after take off, & initiate a forced low battery auto landing you can’t stop.

If stored for a long time, cycle them at least once each third month ... then back to storage %.

Then remember ... batteries will not last forever

...they will either slowly degrade until the point where the useful flight times are so short that you stop using it

...or it will have a sudden cell failure which will trigger a sudden forced auto landing in the worst possible place

...or it will slowly start to swell to the point where they not fit into the drone anymore

...or the swelling goes off instantly or gets worse when the battery gets hot & push itself out of the drone at height.


The only visual sign is swelling ... which not always occur. Furthermore different drone models have different possibilities to handle a smaller momentary swelling when hot during flight.

So a battery can't be judged only by that it take charge to 100%, isn't swollen & manage to power your drone without mishaps ... too much is going on hidden from just a visual inspection or a test flight, you may have been on the verge to a disaster without knowing it.

You have mainly 2 methods to both prolong the useful service life of the battery & prevent sudden failures ... & judge when it's time to either limit the flight duty (in colder temps for instance) or completely take it off flight tasks.

1.Battery Care
...Never keep the battery cell voltage outside 3,7-3,8v for a longer period than 48h (that is a battery charged to approx 50%). If too high after a flight, discharge them, too low charge them up to storage level again.

...Store them in room temperature ... (too warm is more damaging than too cold)

...Never let them overheat ... (left in the sun or thrown in a hot car)

...Don't charge them hot, let them cool down to room temperature

...Don't use cold batteries, try to have them at room temperature before using them

...Respect the operational ambient temperature specified in the user manual

...Don't push the battery for amp draw (both sticks on max inputs at the same time in Sport mode for instance) when cold or hot ambient temps

...Don't fly them below 15% other in exceptional cases

...Always start a day of flying with the batteries freshly fully charged

2.Battery performance follow up over time
...Follow how the useful calculated max flight time change

...Compare the full charged max mAh compared to the designed mAh

...Monitor how the cell deviations degrades

For all points regarding the battery performance it's a question about trends over time ... just looking at a single flight will not give any insight over the actual health ... having a bit shorter flight time or some bigger cell deviations in one flight can be normal if using Sport mode or flying in colder ambient temps for instance. The paid Airdata subscriptions give the possibility to check these trends over all flight logs uploaded there ... it gives a good decision base to understand the battery health & if it's time to take it off duty.



Not at all surprising that they don't care about a 3 year old battery with an unknown care history which is way outside the warranty period.


It all depends on how you've treated it... impossible to say.


Yep...
Slup, Thank you gor the great rehash of battery maintenance! Regards
 
All good information! Unfortunately no matter how many times it’s posted people will ignore it and then wonder way their batteries fail. It isn’t rocket science.
Curious what most think the point is when you should scrap the battery. Obviously when there is any bulging etc. but with normal declining battery flight time, what would be point you toss it? When it hits 10 minutes of total flight time? (adjusting for temp, wind, etc. which will impact this, just ave normal flight time).
 
Curious what most think the point is when you should scrap the battery. Obviously when there is any bulging etc. but with normal declining battery flight time, what would be point you toss it? When it hits 10 minutes of total flight time? (adjusting for temp, wind, etc. which will impact this, just ave normal flight time).
Flight times aren't a critical indicator as such... if the usable time is short but that's good enough for some it's ok for them. Instead it's unpredictable battery behaviors that risk taking your drone down suddenly that are critical ... like higher & increasing cell voltage deviations, larger voltage sag under load or very hot batteries after use that indicate that the internal resistance is very high which in turn possibly can make the battery swell during flight, disconnecting it or make the voltage drop below 3V in either of the cells which trigger a sudden critical low voltage auto landing.

In real life, the thing usually is that not only one indicator goes bad, nearly always it's a bit of all together, a battery with very short flight times compared to a new, usually is prone to have large voltage drops during amp draw, & have regularly larger cell voltage deviations and is hotter than normal after use.
 
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