Mavic air Battery

[Rwebdaddy]

Hey guys,
I dont know if this was posted before but has anyone had an issue with a Mavic Air battery not charging and no lights on the battery will light up no matter what you try? Is there a fix for this? Thanks.

 

[renogeno]

Had the same problem.............tried everything, luckily mine was still under warranty. DJI replaced, but if you're out of warranty, you hosed.

 

[John32]

If you try to charge the battery just after the flight or under warm conditions, there is possibility to face a charging refusing battery. This is because the battery control is trying to protect the battery from a high temperature failure. In this case you can see the third led lighting only. Read the battery's manual. I believe you are going to find the solution. Remember you have to deal with smart batteries.

 

[Jerry A]

Hey guys,
I dont know if this was posted before but has anyone had an issue with a Mavic Air battery not charging and no lights on the battery will light up no matter what you try? Is there a fix for this? Thanks.

I have four New Maviv Air batterys and not one of them will charge..It`s a pain in the *** to have to ship them back and wait forever for another.

 

[Detritalgeo]

I think the only way it wont show any lights is if the pack has self-discharged to near 0V, it is killed by the electronics if it gets below ~3.4V but the lights still show up (with an error).

 

[John32]

Saying not one battery is charging first think comes in mind is to check the charger status. If you own a multimeter check power cord function and output power of the charger.
If the charger is ok, having all of them not working is posibly a matter of batteries software update. Update it in assistant2.
Then check again and if the problem persists,
have in mind that a completely dead battery does not sending signal to the batttery's control board, so no responce is going to happen. But did you discharge them all so far? If you did it, i am affraid the only way to resurect them is to open them and connect a lipo charger straight on cells wiring. Do it only if they are out of guaranty time, and with major care. Before you do this, you must check the output power connecting a multimeter in connectors 2 or 3 or 4 for possitive and 7 or 8 or 9 for negative. If the current you see is under 2.8V to 0V is indeed a dead current battery and needs by pass charging. Also before open the battery try something else... some times it works...connect the charger and push the battery button for 30 seconds. Have also in mind that these smart batteries are not charging under hot conditions. Room temperature must be normal. Above 38 degrees they refuse charging. If the only led lighting is the third one, this is the case. If nothing works, and the batteries are under guaranty time send them to service.

 

[Jerry A]

Well !! what are you going to do about it? Send me a Box I can use to return them, and then send me Four That Will Charge. My Turtle Ride starts soon and I want to get some video.
I sent you a photo of how I have them hooked up, and they are hooked up correctly.My Group that uses Drones will look somewhere else If you do not do the right thing.

 

[Jerry A]

I think the only way it wont show any lights is if the pack has self-discharged to near 0V, it is killed by the electronics if it gets below ~3.4V but the lights still show up (with an error).

They have been on the charger now for a whole day.I`ll let you know what happens. I need the Batteries ASAP

 

[Detritalgeo]

They are toast. If they are in warranty make a claim otherwise they will have to be replaced.

Even if you managed to open the case and manually charge the raw cells.. The battery management system electronics will not let the battery turn on.. You would have to find a way to reset the control chip.

 

[Keithg1]

I have the same problem with 3 out of 4 batteries after having been unused for several months, and long out of warranty. No lights on the battery and when connected to the charger, the green led goes on for a few seconds, then goes red for about 10 and then the cycle repeats.
Surely there is a fix for this by now?
Any assistance would be welcome!

 

[Detritalgeo]

Yes it is frustrating but the little info-sheet that comes with the unit has good info.

I would not leave the batteries stored more than 3 months without charging them up a bit.

I wonder if your battery is stuck in some sort of Hibernation Mode..

 

[Keithg1]

I opened up one of my 3 dead batteries and measured the 3 cells, which presumably are supposed to read 4+ volts when fully charged:
Cell 1: 3.7 v
Cell 2: 1.9v
Cell 3: 0.01v
Across all 3 cells: 5.6v (Unsurprisingly!)

Because it will not switch-on when the On-button is held down, there is never any voltage measured at "connectors 2 or 3 or 4 for positive and 7 or 8 or 9 for negative."
Earlier in the thread, it was mentioned that if the voltage measured less than 2.8 or another stating 3.4v, it will not switch on, but mine has 5.6v?

So! If some savvy electronics expert can tell me how to reset the controller, I would appreciate it. Perhaps we can open up shop to rescue thousands of now-useless but very expensive DJI batteries!

2 x pics attached.

 

[John32]

Hi.
The voltage reference of 3.4v is per cell. Not the total one. The measurement shows that isn't posible for the battery's control board to operate. So please try to charge the cells by connecting a smart lipo charger (if you own one) straight to the cells wiring taking care of the polarity. This may save your battery. And from now on don't let it discharge so far. Maintening at least every 3 months (better every 1-2 months) by fully charging and discharging them to about 30 to 50 % is the best way to preserve their health. Also during charging now in order to resurect them, stay close to check their temperature and their tendancy to swelling. Good luck.

 

[Keithg1]

Thanks for your assistance John32.
I'm not familiar with a lipo charger. I guess from your suggestions that the DJI uses LiPo so, is the DJI charger then not a LiPo charger from which I could jumper across some charge to those errant batteries? I do understand that they need to be charged slowly and carefully but I fear that there might be an intelligent chip within the DJI charger itself that will prohibit this.
I'll try some measurements tomorrow and let you know..

 

[John32]

Well..the smart charger i mention, is the lipo charger used mostly by the rc modelers. It is not just a charging unit but an agent that absorbs all charging procedure and messures at any moment the battery. Also it has the ability to discharge or balance the lipo cells automatically. The biggest benefit is its safety operation, cause lipo battery is a small bomb in the house if not properly used. The problem in your case consists upon the low voltage condition and a possible hybernation of the batteries. This can be solved by just make a partial charge, connecting the terminals with any charger output giving between 11,8 to 13 dc volt, and about at least 500 mAb just for a few minutes to wake up the battery in a voltage condition that will be recognised by its own board. Then it should be capable for self charging normaly if it is still in ok health.

 

[Keithg1]

Thanks John, I’ll give it a try and let you know the results here.

 

[Detritalgeo]

The cell at 0V is most likely damaged internally, it is very odd for a normal healthy cell to be completely dead. Either way, if you are able to revive it, it will keep misbehaving and may not be worth trusting in your drone.

If you have an interest in the batteries, you could invest in a nice hobby charger such as the SKY-RC B6 (https://www.skyrc.com/Charger/b6v2), it is a nice unit. Li-ion must be charged in a CC-CV method, this means constant current-constant voltage. Most Li-ion cells muct not me charged above 4.2V but some high-voltage cells are designed to reach 4.35V.

You must be very careful with Li-ion / Li-Polymer cells to avoid fires, take a look around Second Life Storage for some general info. It is a community of hobbyists that dismantle old laptop Li-ion batteries, test the cells and recombine to form new battery packs.

The battery management electronics of the Mavic Air battery is controlled by the BQ9003 IC by Texas Instruments but there is not much info about it online.

 

[Keithg1]

Many thanks for the good information.

 

[Keithg1]

Thinking about it, remember that this only occurred after the batteries lay dormant for several months so it seems unlikely that any cell is damaged just that the charge controller needs waking up?

 

[Detritalgeo]

It is very odd that they did not self-discharge down to the same value across all 3 cells. The fact that 1 cell had no residual voltage after a few months is suspect.

The electronics in the battery disable charging once cells dip below a certain value (likely around 3.2V). You can charge these cells back up to 3.5V each and the lights should come back but charging will still be disabled as a safety feature (you would have to hack into the firmware of the chip to reset that safety feature). HV Li-ion cells should not go below ~3V otherwise they can be damaged.