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Mavic Air Multiple Battery Failure

Litchy76

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Feb 9, 2019
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Took Mavic Air for recent short spin to film storm damage .. first flight with battery registering 60% resulted in critical battery failure after a couple of mins of flight time .. just rescued drone from landing on neighbours roof, replaced battery with one showing 55% and took off thinking I’d maybe installed a very low battery first time .. almost identical thing happened went from 3 bars on battery to registering critical failure in 2 mins this time landing up in neighbours tree which took a long time to get down. Since fully recharged both show no issues I.e. adequate voltage and only showing about 90 flights each. I have never had this happen and am an experienced MA user ? Not game to fly at the moment.
 
I'm just speculating.... but it's summer time, temp's are getting up there, depending where you are and that can be problematic for older batteries. 90 cycles it starting to get up there I am wondering if maybe they were subject to anything temp wise (hot or even cold actually) that may have contributed to your events? Just thinking about possibilities.

Another thought is some kind of software issue - have you updated anything recently?

Yeah, after that experience it would be hard to have much confidence in flying...
 
Cactusjack might have the right idea as far as the temps and such go. I had a few of my MA2, and I think 1 of my Mini2, batteries register 1 thing, say 60-70%, only to go critical low in less than 5 minutes. In in all the cases that I remember they had been in my bag for a few weeks and I went from 1 temp inside to a fairly different one outside. I'm thinking between the trickle discharge to protect them and the temperature change it gave me false readings on both level and estimated flighttime. I was gunshy too for the next few flights but realized that I could either park it out of fear or have fun while it lasted so I did a couple of short test flights on freshly charged batteries and got my sea legs back. Since then I've tried to make sure to top off my batteries right before my flights or not do anything at distance/ height right away until I've got a feel for what the battery is going to do.
 
Open a free AirData account and load your flights--no use guessing. I've had failures like this with my MA batteries after far fewer flights, and I learned that it was due to a bad cell...in ALL THREE batteries!!!

I'm no battery expert, BUT...I have seen others post here that unless you have a fully charged battery, the % indicator may not be correct.
 
I've read many battery failure threads and 'conventional wisdom' says never take off with a less than full battery... so I never do.

Edit: unless it's within the 'same flight'. In other words if you land, and don't turn the battery off, and take off again.
 
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I've flown my Air 1 with a battery that had caused a critically low battery landing. I think on about the third of forth flight it happened again. The Battery is not swollen and according to air data it had never shown a problem before the first critically low landing. I have since flown it numerous times in my back yard low and slow. It now fails every time. It's not bulged. I use Airdata to keep check on my batteries now trying to avoid the possibility of it happening over no mans land but I think one has to accept the fact that it could happen.
 
I've flown my Air 1 with a battery that had caused a critically low battery landing. I think on about the third of forth flight it happened again. The Battery is not swollen and according to air data it had never shown a problem before the first critically low landing. I have since flown it numerous times in my back yard low and slow. It now fails every time. It's not bulged. I use Airdata to keep check on my batteries now trying to avoid the possibility of it happening over no mans land but I think one has to accept the fact that it could happen.
I think this is one reason we aren't allowed to fly over people :)
 
I've read many battery failure threads and 'conventional wisdom' says never take off with a less than full battery... so I never do.

Edit: unless it's within the 'same flight'. In other words if you land, and don't turn the battery off, and take off again.
Yes won’t be doing if I can avoid .. only prob sometimes is when travelling you don’t always have access to power and don’t want to miss that magic moment
 
Open a free AirData account and load your flights--no use guessing. I've had failures like this with my MA batteries after far fewer flights, and I learned that it was due to a bad cell...in ALL THREE batteries!!!

I'm no battery expert, BUT...I have seen others post here that unless you have a fully charged battery, the % indicator may not be correct.
Thanks .. yes I did a test flight local and kept an eagle eye on battery cells and levels once or twice a cell moved into red zone for a few secs .. need to find what is acceptable voltage and at what point you determine to throw out battery .. with MA it is difficult to source new batteries cheers
 
Cactusjack might have the right idea as far as the temps and such go. I had a few of my MA2, and I think 1 of my Mini2, batteries register 1 thing, say 60-70%, only to go critical low in less than 5 minutes. In in all the cases that I remember they had been in my bag for a few weeks and I went from 1 temp inside to a fairly different one outside. I'm thinking between the trickle discharge to protect them and the temperature change it gave me false readings on both level and estimated flighttime. I was gunshy too for the next few flights but realized that I could either park it out of fear or have fun while it lasted so I did a couple of short test flights on freshly charged batteries and got my sea legs back. Since then I've tried to make sure to top off my batteries right before my flights or not do anything at distance/ height right away until I've got a feel for what the battery is going to do.
Good idea I’ll be doing similar now .. just need to establish at what point yiu Chuck the battery if no obvious signs
 
I'm just speculating.... but it's summer time, temp's are getting up there, depending where you are and that can be problematic for older batteries. 90 cycles it starting to get up there I am wondering if maybe they were subject to anything temp wise (hot or even cold actually) that may have contributed to your events? Just thinking about possibilities.

Another thought is some kind of software issue - have you updated anything recently?

Yeah, after that experience it would be hard to have much confidence in flying...
Thanks for reply is winter here but not cold at time of operating 15c did though notice in file a message that said at start of flight low temp 15c which is weird given I have operated at zero C..
 
Good idea I’ll be doing similar now .. just need to establish at what point yiu Chuck the battery if no obvious signs
I believe that, on average, if you take proper care of your cells that you should probably get about 200 charges before having to worry too much. Now that's not draining all the way, maintaining a storage charge, not charging or storing when they're hot and so on. Your mileage may vary and different models of drone have different types of cells or cell layout so it might pay to do a bit of searching on here to make sure of it.
 
Open a free AirData account and load your flights--no use guessing. I've had failures like this with my MA batteries after far fewer flights, and I learned that it was due to a bad cell...in ALL THREE batteries!!!

I'm no battery expert, BUT...I have seen others post here that unless you have a fully charged battery, the % indicator may not be correct.

What is AirData and how do I get it?
 
I've had several battery failures recently where the battery goes from 97% to critically low or even directly to 0%. Luckily the drone has fallen or landed nearby in an easy place. Sometimes these flights were in low temperatures 20-35 degrees F but it's also happened in more normal 45-55 degree temps as well.

Any suggestions?

I don't know how to check the number of cycles on the batteries but they are about 3 years old with moderate-mild usage. Thanks
 
I've had several battery failures recently where the battery goes from 97% to critically low or even directly to 0%. Luckily the drone has fallen or landed nearby in an easy place. Sometimes these flights were in low temperatures 20-35 degrees F but it's also happened in more normal 45-55 degree temps as well.

Any suggestions?

I don't know how to check the number of cycles on the batteries but they are about 3 years old with moderate-mild usage. Thanks
The number of cycles is shown on a screen in the Go4 App, although I cannot recall which screen it is off the top of my head. That said, if you are having failures like that, it's time for new batteries.
 
On the back, who is the manufacturer? There were 2, and one was crap, while the other seemed a lot better. I'll have to research which is which.

UPDATE: The "bad" battery is made by Sunwoda Electronic Co. The "good" battery is made by Dongguan Amperex Technology Limited.
 
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