I'd pretty much forgotten about my old Mavic Air (a.k.a. Air 1), packed away in the garage since we moved 3 years ago. I think the last time I charged the batteries was 4+ years ago – I know, bad bad bad – but I ran across it while looking for something else, so decided to see if it still worked.
3 batteries were all completely dead... no lights. I carefully charged each one separately, outside away from anything flammable, and what do you know they all came back to life and fully charged! Two seemed to go through some sort of reconditioning early in the charge cycle, two lights sequentially blinking for a bit, then stop for 30 seconds or so, then start again. Eventually they charged normally to full. I suspect the BMS was doing some unusual balancing of the cells when this happened.
Flight was fine, with a few minor problems. Compass needed to be calibrated again and again, every start. Barometer seemed a bit wonky, as there were occasional uncommanded ascents and descents as much as 10ft. This was within 30ft of the ground with obstacles around, so the obstacle avoidance system may have been at play. Got a message once that the forward obstacle sensors needed calibrating briefly then went away.
Overall, Frankenstein still lives and breaths. I plan to do a full set of calibrations, and see how it works then. Very impressed with the batteries, after so much neglect, and the capacity seemed pretty close to what they were when flying this baby a lot.
Happy Camper!
3 batteries were all completely dead... no lights. I carefully charged each one separately, outside away from anything flammable, and what do you know they all came back to life and fully charged! Two seemed to go through some sort of reconditioning early in the charge cycle, two lights sequentially blinking for a bit, then stop for 30 seconds or so, then start again. Eventually they charged normally to full. I suspect the BMS was doing some unusual balancing of the cells when this happened.
Flight was fine, with a few minor problems. Compass needed to be calibrated again and again, every start. Barometer seemed a bit wonky, as there were occasional uncommanded ascents and descents as much as 10ft. This was within 30ft of the ground with obstacles around, so the obstacle avoidance system may have been at play. Got a message once that the forward obstacle sensors needed calibrating briefly then went away.
Overall, Frankenstein still lives and breaths. I plan to do a full set of calibrations, and see how it works then. Very impressed with the batteries, after so much neglect, and the capacity seemed pretty close to what they were when flying this baby a lot.
Happy Camper!
