Mavic Air critical voltage warning 2min into flight

[StoneyLowe]

Hey guys, I recently picked up a used Mavic Air on ebay for my first drone since it was less than half MSRP and looked like a good way to figure out if I dig the hobby. I've had it a month or so and for the most part it's been so far so good, except an issue I'm having with one of the 3 batteries.

I always charge my batteries to full before I fly (I have anxiety even when I'm not flying drones so I'm always extra cautious when I am) but one of them has slowly starting having an issue where within 2-5 minutes of starting a flight it gives a critical low voltage error and goes into emergency land procedure. I've tested it 4 times now to be sure and every time it'll be above 90% and suddenly drop to 0, give the warning and start landing, it's progressively lasted shorter periods of time. It never did it for probably the first 10 flights and then the other day it did so for the first time in the middle of a protest I was filming, luckily I was being careful and had just sent it directly above my head so it dropped right back down to me while I warned everybody. (still stupid, I know I know).

It's only 1 battery that does it and It has never just dropped out of the sky. When I remove it from the drone the battery still has most of a charge according to the indicators on it, and then it charges back up fine according to my charger, but then it does the exact same thing again. Anybody have any ideas? Do Lipos just randomly go bad like that? The drone is in excellent condition and the PO sounds knowledgeable so I'd imagine the batteries were cared for correctly. Sorry this was so long I just wanted to get all the info out. Let me know if any more is needed to help answer.

EDIT: I just spent 30 minutes formatting my memory and playing with settings with the "bad" battery in the drone and even though the app said 0% battery the entire time, the battery itself was displaying 4 lights and I had no problem adjusting and playing with things. Seems like maybe it's some problem with how the drone interacts with the battery. Thought that bit of info might help.

Thank you guys,
Jesse

 

[lannes]

I probably wouldn't fly with a battery that is not giving the right telemetry readings as this will cause all sorts of problems in DJI Go4 as you have already seen
As the battery is obviously failing it's safer to get another battery than another MA.

You can check the individual cell voltages in DJI Go in the battery menu, any significant deviation means the battery is not safe to fly with.
You can also see how many times it has been charged.

Sometimes drone batteries just go bad

 

[ven]

I would recycle , not worth the risk. You could always mark it up and use for just settings prior to flying. But even then, there is a risk with an update , with it dropping to 0. It does sound like when under load, the voltage is sagging significantly . Unlikely all 3 are bad. So it’s more than likely 1 cell that is weak or high IR.

 

[everBit]

Let me know if any more is needed to help answer

Flight logs with that battery would help to answer what is wrong with it.

 

[Dave Maine]

Junk the battery immediately.