Mini 3 Pro battery tabs cracked

[guzewski]

Today I was flying my Mini 3 Pro and the temperature was -4 Celcius. This is within the spec. When I brought the drone back and was putting it away I noticed one of the tabs on the battery was cracked and just flopping around. The other tab was managing to keep the battery in, thankfully, but it kind of freaked me out. Then I noticed another battery with the same problem. Has anyone else experienced this? I wonder if the refresh plan covers this sort of failure.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

This is becoming a concern, have a look at :-
Clips on battery pack broke off (Mini 3 Pro)
There's a lot of travel in the clips, more perhaps than DJI should have allowed.
It might be an idea to take note of how much the clips are depressed when you insert the battery and then try to limit yourself to depressing the clip just slightly more than that when removing the battery.


I would approach trying to get a replacement as a warranty claim......NOT .....care refresh.

 

[guzewski]

This is becoming a concern, have a look at :-
Clips on battery pack broke off (Mini 3 Pro)
There's a lot of travel in the clips, more perhaps than DJI should have allowed.
It might be an idea to take note of how much the clips are depressed when you insert the battery and then try to limit yourself to depressing the clip just slightly more than that when removing the battery.


I would approach trying to get a replacement as a warranty claim......NOT .....care refresh.

OK... I had a look at that thread you referred to. It seems I'm not the only one with that problem. I agree the clips travel more than they need to, and it would have been good for DJI to include a hard stop at the right position. I'm actually trying to fix this with some good epoxy glue and we'll see how that goes. In the meantime I'll try a warranty claim. The drone was bought on Nov. 2nd of 2022, so that it not a long time ago.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

DONT GLUE IT.
That will invalidate the warranty on the battery.
This is mentioned in a post in one of the threads or thread concerning the battery clip.

 

[Flashheart]

It may have been -4 at ground level but that temp can drop further at higher altitudes which could have caused the plastic to become brittle.

MIT School of Engineering | » Why do plastics get brittle when they get cold?

engineering.mit.edu

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

It may have been -4 at ground level but that temp can drop further at higher altitudes which could have caused the plastic to become brittle.

MIT School of Engineering | » Why do plastics get brittle when they get cold?

engineering.mit.edu

Unfortunately I think its a fatigue or too much "strain"/'stretch' problem rather than a temperature induced brittle failure.
Besides, might not the heat given off by the battery keep the battery plastic 'warm'?

 

[timinator]

It may have been -4 at ground level but that temp can drop further at higher altitudes which could have caused the plastic to become brittle.

MIT School of Engineering | » Why do plastics get brittle when they get cold?

engineering.mit.edu

No. Unless he is flying at high altitude, the temp is going to remain pretty much the same.

 

[gogorokokoko]

my advice on this for all M3P owners is to check if the battery is hard to remove from drone
if you need to push the tabs lower than the level of the casing of battery that the battery stays too tight inside
my solution to this is to grease a little the battery and the inside of the drone
no need for real grease, its enough your skin grease
if you rub the battery in your hands and stick 2 fingers inside the drone on the top and botton walls it will be fine
another advice, when you pull the battery out you have to hold the drone from top and bottom
do not put pressure on the side walls because they are elastic and it will be harder to remove the battery
the main idea is not to stress the tabs

 

[YVRGUY]

When I received my Mini 3 Pro Fly More I discovered one of the three batteries had the clip broken off from the get go.

DJI replaced it for me. Why or how it happened was a mystery to me, but, I’m very careful when I insert or remove these particular batteries. Where the crack is in your pic is the same location as was mine. I cycle four batteries and I have not had any problems…just as I said, be careful when inserting and removing…you only have to compress the tabs a very small amount to operate. BTW, they do hold with just the one clip operational, but you are gambling. To repair I would suggest a good resin mix…NOT super glue.

 

[EyesWideShut]

I too have had a M3Pro battery clip crack on both sides that I noticed back in late fall 2022. That was before any winter freezing temperatures so I figure the crack was due to the design that allowed excess travel. I tried a bit of CA glue and slipped a small piece of foam behind the clip to try to limit the travel but the clip has since broken off and the battery has been since retired except for doing table top updates.

 

[gogorokokoko]

another solution for the owners of the fly more charging hub for less stress on tabs
you can scratch with a blade the top wall of the hub hole where the tab clicks
you can do that until you will hear a lower click noise when you push the battery in hub

 

[Ken1403]

This charger on Amazon will eliminate stressing the battery and reduce the number of times the tabs are pressed therfore extending battery life.

Amazon.com

 

[DashSolo]

This charger on Amazon will eliminate stressing the battery and reduce the number of times the tabs are pressed therfore extending battery life.

Amazon.com

great steer, just ordered. Camera tape over the tabs may boost your confidence on battery security.

 

[guzewski]

Well... DJI did not replace the batteries even thought they agreed that they were under warranty. Instead they offered me a 20% discount on new batteries. I argued the point for a while but they remained firm. I went for the offer because what else could I do? However I will be VERY careful with these batteries from now on. I'll have to learn the exact minimum amount to press the tabs when removing the battery.

Sigh...

 

[timc995]

Well... DJI did not replace the batteries even thought they agreed that they were under warranty. Instead they offered me a 20% discount on new batteries. I argued the point for a while but they remained firm. I went for the offer because what else could I do? However I will be VERY careful with these batteries from now on. I'll have to learn the exact minimum amount to press the tabs when removing the battery.

Sigh...

Did they require you to send the damaged battery back? If so I would decline the offer. I'd imagine you could sell the damaged battery for more than 20% of the price of a new one (someone could salvage the cells, or just use it with a bodge hack like tape).

 

[guzewski]

Did they require you to send the damaged battery back? If so I would decline the offer. I'd imagine you could sell the damaged battery for more than 20% of the price of a new one (someone could salvage the cells, or just use it with a bodge hack like tape).

I had already sent back the damaged batteries as part of the so-called "warranty" process. So they're gone. News one are on the way. I just want to put this all in the past. and I'll be more careful with those snow-flake batteries.

 

[victorseverino]

Today I was flying my Mini 3 Pro and the temperature was -4 Celcius. This is within the spec. When I brought the drone back and was putting it away I noticed one of the tabs on the battery was cracked and just flopping around. The other tab was managing to keep the battery in, thankfully, but it kind of freaked me out. Then I noticed another battery with the same problem. Has anyone else experienced this? I wonder if the refresh plan covers this sort of failure.
View attachment 159233

Please check the BATCH of Fly More Kit thats place printed under the box, mine 2022/6

 

[Joe Horn]

Please check the BATCH of Fly More Kit thats place printed under the box, mine 2022/6

Good idea. FWIW, mine also says 2022/6, and neither of its batteries has broken, even after extensive use since purchase in 2022/7.

 

[guzewski]

Please check the BATCH of Fly More Kit thats place printed under the box, mine 2022/6

Mine says 2022/9. I wonder if that's significant.

 

[Droning on and on...]

They'll fix this by changing to a different (and probably more expensive) plastic formulation.