Mavic Air sudden battery discharge

[AZNewbie]

I’m visiting in Montana, and flew my Mavic Air (not a “2”) briefly today. It went from 99% battery to critically low, falling out of the sky, within about two minutes, max. After a long search through wet, tall grass, I found it, inserted a second battery, and it did nearly the same thing, dropping from 98% to critically low within about two minutes. At least the second one allowed me to land it. My batteries were fully charged about a week ago, not used since then. I did not try the third battery. Thankfully, my older Mavic Pro worked like the champ it always has been, so I got the shots I wanted.

So, what did I do wrong? Or are the batteries just too old to hold a charge? BTW, I checked the levels of the cells the second flight and they appeared just fine. The drone and batteries are a bit over two years old. Any ideas?

 

[PhantomFandom]

I’m visiting in Montana, and flew my Mavic Air (not a “2”) briefly today. It went from 99% battery to critically low, falling out of the sky, within about two minutes, max. After a long search through wet, tall grass, I found it, inserted a second battery, and it did nearly the same thing, dropping from 98% to critically low within about two minutes. At least the second one allowed me to land it. My batteries were fully charged about a week ago, not used since then. I did not try the third battery. Thankfully, my older Mavic Pro worked like the champ it always has been, so I got the shots I wanted.

So, what did I do wrong? Or are the batteries just too old to hold a charge? BTW, I checked the levels of the cells the second flight and they appeared just fine. The drone and batteries are a bit over two years old. Any ideas?

If you last fully charged the batteries about a week ago, then they most likely had already started their auto-discharge cycle. At that point the 99% level means practically nothing, as the battery cannot give you an accurate reading with unbalanced discharging cells. You need to fully charge the batteries and use them before the auto-discharge cycle starts. My rule is that I always use my batteries within 2 days of charge...at most.

Older batteries with a lot of charge cycles could also be a contributing factor.

 

[AZNewbie]

Thanks. I thought that might be the problem, but was not aware they could not give accurate information while in the discharge cycle. And they are pretty old. I’ll try them again before throwing them away or just going ahead and ordering a Mavic Air 2.

 

[spamgnome]

This has happened to me a few times. In fact, all 3 of my original batteries that came with my Air are now toast. Did you happen to analyze the cells with AirData? I'd be very interested to see what the details have to say. In my case, I had a bad cell in all three of the batteries.

 

[AZNewbie]

This has happened to me a few times. In fact, all 3 of my original batteries that came with my Air are now toast. Did you happen to analyze the cells with AirData? I'd be very interested to see what the details have to say. In my case, I had a bad cell in all three of the batteries.

I didn’t analyze anything. However, I recharged the three batteries I have, and one is dead as dead can be. Suspicious about the others. May try them later today.

 

[spamgnome]

I didn’t analyze anything. However, I recharged the three batteries I have, and one is dead as dead can be. Suspicious about the others. May try them later today.

Before you fly again, I would STRONGLY urge you to take a look at your batteries' health via AirData. It's free and VERY illuminating.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

Before you fly again, I would STRONGLY urge you to take a look at your batteries' health via AirData. It's free and VERY illuminating.

I had a similar situation and I did not need to "analyze" anything. The voltage on the bad cell dropped like a stone.
It just happens over time - these were like 4-5 years old.

 

[spamgnome]

I had a similar situation and I did not need to "analyze" anything. The voltage on the bad cell dropped like a stone.
It just happens over time - these were like 4-5 years old.

Well, since it's free I still highly recommend it. I wish I'd had done it. It's very easy to tell if a battery has a bad cell which is basically an accident waiting to happen. My batteries were just under a year old. I replaced them. Do as you wish, but I think the Airdata is a great investment in time and insight as to what's going on with your drone.

 

[hiflyer201]

I had the same thing happen with a Mavic Air battery. Critical low battery at about 89 percent. and it landed. On airdata you can quickly go page by page through the entire life of a battery. This battery showed no signs of failing ..so naturally I flew it again. Four times in fact. and it looked perfect on Airdata. On the fifth flight it failed again. Another hike through the woods.
It's scary to realize what can happen and scarier still to look at all available data on the battery and see no sign that it could fail. I had three Air batteries two of them swelled and that one was flat as a board on the bottom.
If you tap on the battery icon during flight you can see how the cell's are performing.
It's my feeling that the Mavic Air 2 batteries are not under the load that the AIr 1 batteries are. I have no way of knowing but they sure don't seem to get as warm.
Don't even consider flying that battery again...like this dummy did.