My drone exploded in mid air

[LewisJones]

Hello,
I was flying my DJI Mini 3 pro over the fields round the back of my house yesterday. I then got some warning on my screen about something to do with battery temperatures. My drone was about 350ft up and 500ft out (I could see it) when it just exploded. It was quick and it broke apart in mid air scattering debris over the field. I haven’t been able to find all the parts yet and haven’t found the battery. Only one of the prop arms and the gimble.

Anyone had any events like this. Know what happened?

 

[3rdof5]

That's a story I have NEVER heard EVER!!!!
They just don't explode. Any pics of the recovered parts??

 

[Sir Maxwell Greene]

Friday the 13th? wow.
Best find that batter find what is left of that battery, will be interesting to see. Also the flight logs for the tech guys to sift through.
Do tell more about the drone; new or second hand, do you recall how many cycles the battery had had before the kaboom? Maybe a refurb or not an original DJI battery?

 

[Cafguy]

I would like to see pictures of the remains of this "Exploding Drone " also a little more info about how you care and maintain your drone.- LIPOs will explode IF punctured , but you would notice smoke before the explosion. I have only ever seen a drone Explode when it hit the ground with such force that it damaged the battery. I have never in my life of flying R.C., seen a model just explode in midair. are you sure your drone isn't a shotgun victim.

 

[Felix le Chat]

Hello,
I was flying my DJI Mini 3 pro over the fields round the back of my house yesterday. I then got some warning on my screen about something to do with battery temperatures. My drone was about 350ft up and 500ft out (I could see it) when it just exploded. It was quick and it broke apart in mid air scattering debris over the field. I haven’t been able to find all the parts yet and haven’t found the battery. Only one of the prop arms and the gimble.

Anyone had any events like this. Know what happened

I would like to see pictures of the remains of this "Exploding Drone " also a little more info about how you care and maintain your drone.- LIPOs will explode IF punctured , but you would notice smoke before the explosion. I have only ever seen a drone Explode when it hit the ground with such force that it damaged the battery. I have never in my life of flying R.C., seen a model just explode in midair. are you sure your drone isn't a shotgun victim.

First thing that crossed my mind. Scotland.... 12 bore....
Lipo's are freaky chemistry, but they are considerably more stable than Li-ion batteries. Li-ions have been known to physically explode with little or no mishandling and I've seen video of this happening. Mini 3 batts are Li-ions (DJI specs sheet states this as does the user manual). This is one incident I would genuinely be interested in reading through the log.

 

[LewisJones]

Friday the 13th? wow.
Best find that batter find what is left of that battery, will be interesting to see. Also the flight logs for the tech guys to sift through.
Do tell more about the drone; new or second hand, do you recall how many cycles the battery had had before the kaboom? Maybe a refurb or not an original DJI battery?

It’s new from DJI I got it around 3 months ago and have done about 30 flights with it. I’ve got 3 batteries

 

[LewisJones]

I would like to see pictures of the remains of this "Exploding Drone " also a little more info about how you care and maintain your drone.- LIPOs will explode IF punctured , but you would notice smoke before the explosion. I have only ever seen a drone Explode when it hit the ground with such force that it damaged the battery. I have never in my life of flying R.C., seen a model just explode in midair. are you sure your drone isn't a shotgun victim.

I heard a crack at the time like a gunshot but I think it was just the drone explosion. I don’t know the neighbours across the field well enough to know if they have guns

 

[LewisJones]

I would like to see pictures of the remains of this "Exploding Drone " also a little more info about how you care and maintain your drone.- LIPOs will explode IF punctured , but you would notice smoke before the explosion. I have only ever seen a drone Explode when it hit the ground with such force that it damaged the battery. I have never in my life of flying R.C., seen a model just explode in midair. are you sure your drone isn't a shotgun victim.

I’ll upload some later. I still need to find the rest of the drone first as the leg and gimbal probably won’t help

 

[3rdof5]

First thing that crossed my mind. Scotland.... 12 bore....
Lipo's are freaky chemistry, but they are considerably more stable than Li-ion batteries. Li-ions have been known to physically explode with little or no mishandling and I've seen video of this happening. Mini 3 batts are Li-ions (DJI specs sheet states this as does the user manual). This is one incident I would genuinely be interested in reading through the log.

Actually if you read the specs on the mini 3 batteries themselves they are labeled "lithium Ion Polymer"

 

[slup]

...I then got some warning on my screen about something to do with battery temperatures. ...when it just exploded.

Know what happened?

Yeah... the Lithium battery severely overheated & had a catastrophic swelling until the gas pressure inside cracked the battery & the drone at the same time... this is what happens with batteries when overheating.

You describe little about the conditions... what was the ambient temps, sunny, had the battery been laying around in direct sunlight before use or had the drone (with battery inserted) been in the same conditions???

 

[LewisJones]

Yeah... the Lithium battery severely overheated & had a catastrophic swelling until the gas pressure inside cracked the battery & the drone at the same time... this is what happens with batteries when overheating.

You describe little about the conditions... what was the ambient temps, sunny, had the battery been laying around in direct sunlight before use or had the drone (with battery inserted) been in the same conditions???

It was fairly warm around 24 degrees Celsius at 1pm ish. The battery was in my house which is cool and not warm. I’ve looked into how to store these batteries and am always careful which is making me scratch my head to what I did wrong here

 

[old man mavic]

@LewisJones were you in sports mode at the time ? if so thats put quite a current draw on the battery ,especially if you were videoing ,and had the obstacle avoidance active as well
another issue with the mini 3 pro, is it gets quite hot anyway during flight ,and in sunny conditions just hovering it can overheat
DJI have packed so much into such a small package, and therefor no internal fan, to save weight ,it only has the limited airflow as it is moving to help dissipate heat build up
none of this excuses the fact that the battery somehow went into a thermal runaway ,hope you can get a replacement ,sorry for your drone loss

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

First thing that crossed my mind. Scotland.... 12 bore....
Lipo's are freaky chemistry, but they are considerably more stable than Li-ion batteries. Li-ions have been known to physically explode with little or no mishandling and I've seen video of this happening. Mini 3 batts are Li-ions (DJI specs sheet states this as does the user manual). This is one incident I would genuinely be interested in reading through the log.

Would a shot gun reach 350ft if the 350ft was AGL?

I then got some warning on my screen about something to do with battery temperatures. My drone was about 350ft up and 500ft out (I could see it) when it just exploded.

Perhaps post the flight log?
It might be interesting if nothing else and they do record battery temperature

 

[MS Coast]

@LewisJones were you in sports mode at the time ? if so thats put quite a current draw on the battery ,especially if you were videoing ,and had the obstacle avoidance active as well
another issue with the mini 3 pro, is it gets quite hot anyway during flight ,and in sunny conditions just hovering it can overheat
DJI have packed so much into such a small package, and therefor no internal fan, to save weight ,it only has the limited airflow as it is moving to help dissipate heat build up
none of this excuses the fact that the battery somehow went into a thermal runaway ,hope you can get a replacement ,sorry for your drone loss

Are there documented cases of Mini 3 Pros overheating during flight?

 

[msinger]

Would a shot gun reach 350ft if the 350ft was AGL?

Perhaps. Some 12 gauges can reach 200 yards.

 

[3rdof5]

Mini 3's are well known to overheat when flown hard, and particularly with the larger heavier plus battery, and in all cases reported so far they have, in the worst cases, shut down mid flight and fell out of the sky but thats very rare. I have never seen a report of any model exploding mid flight. If indeed this aircraft exploded mid flight then it's a first.
Unfortunately without any physical evidence and no flight log its all speculation and with all due respect, very hard to believe.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Perhaps. Some 12 gauges can reach 200 yards.

What sort of ammo would that be with? A quick skim suggests we are limited to "at least 5 projectiles each with a maximum size of 0.36"" per cartridge, source wikipedia.

 

[msinger]

What sort of ammo would that be with?

Slugs

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Slugs

added an edit to the relevant post.

 

[LewisJones]

Mini 3's are well known to overheat when flown hard, and particularly with the larger heavier plus battery, and in all cases reported so far they have, in the worst cases, shut down mid flight and fell out of the sky but thats very rare. I have never seen a report of any model exploding mid flight. If indeed this aircraft exploded mid flight then it's a first.
Unfortunately without any physical evidence and no flight log its all speculation and with all due respect, very hard to believe.

I’m working to get the logs but I think it’s corrupted. I need more than just the arm and gimbal for photos