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Mavic Air dropped out of the sky - what would you do?

ksdehoff

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So I had a mavic air. The battery being used was draining normally and I was videoing a ride up a narrow canyon road, with the drone out over the 500' cliff - very dramatic! and the drone hit 32% and then it gave me a "battery critically low error landing now" and the battery left read 0% - the drone was about 500 ft up and I couldn't get it to the roadway before it shut down and crashed - its still on the mountain. Seems like a crap design - the battery had 18 recharges on it, conditions were ideal as far as I could say and yet it failed catastrophically.

I cancelled my dji care after a year - do you think they'll give a darn?

For as many times as I used the drone (11 hrs total) - this feels like a crap product to me.
 

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So I had a mavic air. The battery being used was draining normally and I was videoing a ride up a narrow canyon road, with the drone out over the 500' cliff - very dramatic! and the drone hit 32% and then it gave me a "battery critically low error landing now" and the battery left read 0% - the drone was about 500 ft up and I couldn't get it to the roadway before it shut down and crashed - its still on the mountain. Seems like a crap design - the battery had 18 recharges on it, conditions were ideal as far as I could say and yet it failed catastrophically.

I cancelled my dji care after a year - do you think they'll give a darn?

For as many times as I used the drone (11 hrs total) - this feels like a crap product to me.

Sorry to hear about your loss but the Mavic Air has a strong reputation as being an excellent quality DJI Consumer drone. In your case it would seem highly likely that the battery (not the drone) was at fault. Unfortunately even near new batteries have been known to fail with factors such as battery care and storage being major contributors.

I'm not suggesting that you didn't properly look after your battery - the fault could have been the result of a manufacturing glitch.
 
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So I had a mavic air. The battery being used was draining normally and I was videoing a ride up a narrow canyon road, with the drone out over the 500' cliff - very dramatic! and the drone hit 32% and then it gave me a "battery critically low error landing now" and the battery left read 0% - the drone was about 500 ft up and I couldn't get it to the roadway before it shut down and crashed - its still on the mountain. Seems like a crap design - the battery had 18 recharges on it, conditions were ideal as far as I could say and yet it failed catastrophically.
Here's what your flight data looks like:
What's important is the cell voltages in your battery.
You can see that at 0:29.3 the voltage in Cell 1 has already dropped to 3.3 volts (critical low level).
Cell 1 is looking very weak early in the flight following the strain of launching.
Later in the flight the Cell 1 recovered a little but was still significantly lower than 2 & 3.
You didn't know that and kept flying.
After 8 minutes, Cell 1 was dropping below 3.3V and sinking fast
I cancelled my dji care after a year - do you think they'll give a darn?
Warranty cover lasts for one year.
After that, you are on your own.
 
so if my battery was in bad shape - why didn't I get told!? If its being monitored, shouldn't it show up somewhere!?
 
so if my battery was in bad shape - why didn't I get told!? If its being monitored, shouldn't it show up somewhere!?
I have my app configured to display the battery voltage as well as the % indicator.
Is that possible with the Mavic Air?
 
so if my battery was in bad shape - why didn't I get told!? If its being monitored, shouldn't it show up somewhere!?

My understanding is that battery health is something that you need to go into the relevant DJI Go 4 settings to check. The DJI GO 4 "in flight" interface will only show battery charge percentage. I believe the only warnings that will pop up automatically are related to low battery capacity.
 
Here's what your flight data looks like:
What's important is the cell voltages in your battery.
You can see that at 0:29.3 the voltage in Cell 1 has already dropped to 3.3 volts (critical low level).
Cell 1 is looking very weak early in the flight following the strain of launching.
Later in the flight the Cell 1 recovered a little but was still significantly lower than 2 & 3.
You didn't know that and kept flying.
After 8 minutes, Cell 1 was dropping below 3.3V and sinking fast

Warranty cover lasts for one year.
After that, you are on your own.
Meta4- you're a wizard, pure and simple. Impressive and thank you- hope I do not need your analytics in the future but nice to know if needed. Thanks!
 
Seems like a battery issue. With only 18 charges but you’ve owned it for over a year, it comes down to battery storage. How long it’s been in storage between flights, was it fully charged or depleted?
 
I followed all DJI recommendations for battery storage from the manual. The battery was fully charged immediately before use.
 
It seems like these reports are becoming more and more frequent on this forum. I had the EXACT same experience after only about 50 cycles and 8-ish months of use. Fortunately, I was able to recover my MA, but the battery is toast. After doing some more research, I found out that another of my batteries (included in the fly more combo) also had issues in one of the cells. I ascertained this from AirData--an excellent and free service...check it out and start monitoring your batteries!
Of course DJI didn't care, so I had to buy 2 new batteries.
Also through my research, I determined that there are 2 main manufacturers of the MA batteries.
1. Dongguan Amperex
2. Sunwoda

I'll bet a set of Master Airscrew props that the offending battery in the OP's incident was a Sunwoda. Please let us know!20191019_111511.jpg20191019_111511.jpg
 
I had the exact same thing happen to me in August. I was flying out over Georgia Strait returning to home while still about 60 yards off the beach, when I got that same "landing now" message! I still had about 23% battery life when that heart-stopping message appeared, but as it descended on about a 45 degree angle, I was able to get it to shore and it landed hard, (found upside down), but undamaged. The next day, another Sunwoda battery from the Fly More package purchased 8 1/2 months earlier was found dead in the case when I went to use it. Exhaustive attempts have been made to revive these batteries, but only resulted in two very expensive paper weights!

So yes, I would agree that the Mavic Air is a wonderful product, but the faulty Sunwoda batteries make it an untrustworthy aircraft. I purchased replacement batteries at our local Best Buy, and have flown about a dozen flights since then, but they have been nervous flights. I no longer trust this DJI product to fly over water, which really limits your options when you live on an island with dozens of large lakes. DJI needs to take some responsibility here,
 
So after reading this thread so far, I decided to check my Batteries. I have the 3 I got with my Fly More and one more I picked up when I purchased the Air. 3 of the 4 are Sunwoda. I don't know if I should call these clowns in Customer Service and play that game or if I just let it ride and pay attention more. the Drone is only 3 months old and normally I don't fly over water. I live in the Plains of Western Iowa. Lots of rolling hills and Farms and not a lot of lakes that I fly. I do have DJI Care Refresh. I'm open to suggestions, anyone want share? I know my history with these guys in service and not excited by it. I want even less to lose my 1000.00.
 
To add to the Sunwoda bashing, two out of my three MA batteries are made by them and they are both under performing compared to my third which is doing great. I do however take a few seconds to check the battery cells just after take off and a few times more in flight and I think this should be standard operating practice no matter what battery you are flying with. Since there seems to be no way to have GO4 display the cell voltage on the home screen along with the battery % (with the Mavic Air on android that is), I have mapped the Fn button to open up the battery menu.
 
I have two batteries one is made by Dongguan and seems solid so far. But I have another made by Huizhou Desay Battery Company and I have a few concerns about it following a few blips highlighted by the excellent Airdata. Does anyone have any experience of these Huizhou Desay batteries?
 
All of my M2 batteries are from Dongguan. However the 3 that have swelling, one not that noticeable, were manufactured 7/2018.
 
Well I'm out. All of my remaining gear is on Ebay if you want it, including the goggles. I simply can't rely on the batteries which makes any DJI drone an accident waiting to happen. Adios all - maybe I'll see some of you on a skydio forum
 
Have your batteries failed you?
Or are you just scared they might?
 
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