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Scary...20 second into flight 89% to 0% battery...

Hiwayman

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Read lots on here about battery failure and the reasons ..but this was scary.... Mavic 2 pro, battery about 3years old....took off at 91%...after 20seconds it dropped from 89% to 0%... immediately forced landing which it completed and was still directly overhead so no catastrophe...
Never experienced that before, I fly lots over water.
I have flown that battery since without issue to test it.
Cold may have been a factor... it'd been in drone bag in boot of car all afternoon at around 4 Celsius.
Battery has around 100 charge cycles on it and cells are evenly balanced .
 
Without seeing your flight log from this flight I would bet on that the battery you used have an increased internal resistance ... over all cells or more on certain cells.

So when the battery being extra cold + that it happened right after a high amp drawing ascend ... one or several cells sustained a severe voltage drop & fell below 3V ... which means that a low battery auto landing will be triggered.

That it fell from 89% to 0% is a clear indication of that the BMS in the battery realized that those initial 91% was wrong (as the voltage dropped) ... and lost track of how much fuel you actually had in the tank.

This will happen again if you put that battery under heavy amp draw again ... going so low in voltage that a forced low battery auto landing is triggered have also further degraded that battery & increased the internal resistance even more. If I were you ... I would take that battery out of active flight duty before a auto landing happens over a not so suitable landing spot.


Here below you have info about LiPO & LiIon batteries ...

  • Keeping the battery at 100% isn't good for it ... do what you can to minimize the time that they are at that level, the default auto discharge (if your batteries have that feature) down to 60-65% is way too long ... & if you check the level by pushing the button you reset the counter & the counter will restart. If a battery that is above storage % level haven't been used in a couple days, use the USB adapter from the Fly More Kit (if your model have that) to charge something else (your phone) in order to bring it down to storage % (see below ...)
  • Heat kills them ... don't store above room temperature & absolutely not in a car during summer, a couple hours in a burning hot car & the battery have sustained serious damage.
  • Let them cool down to room temperature before recharging them.
  • Don't fly with a battery colder than 15C degrees, keep them warm in colder weather, have them in a pocket close to your body.
  • Store the batteries between 30-60% ... a good thumb rule is to take them of the charger as soon as the third led start to blink, then they are just over 50%. But anything between 1 solid + 1 blinking up to 2 solid + 1 blinking is good enough.
  • Don't drain them to low, make sure they don't go under 15% ... once in a while, so be it. Set the ambition to not have them lower than 20% ... if you aim for that you usually don't end up below 15%.
  • Don't fly with a battery not recently fully charged, having a battery laying around partially charged for a longer period may make the cells in the battery unbalanced, using a unbalanced battery can make that lower cell fail soon after take off, & initiate a forced low battery auto landing you can’t stop.
  • If stored for a long time, cycle them at least once each third month ... then back to storage %.


First of all ... batteries will not last forever

...they will either slowly degrade until the point where the useful flight times are so short that you stop using it


...or it will have a sudden cell failure which will trigger a sudden forced auto landing in the worst possible place


...or it will slowly start to swell to the point where they not fit into the drone anymore


...or the swelling goes off instantly or gets worse when the battery gets hot & push itself out of the drone at height.

The only visual sign is swelling ... which not always occur. Furthermore different drone models have different possibilities to handle a smaller momentary swelling when hot during flight.

So a battery can't be judged only by that it take charge to 100%, isn't swollen & manage to power your drone without mishaps ... too much is going on hidden from just a visual inspection or a test flight, you may have been on the verge to a disaster without knowing it.

You have mainly 2 methods to both prolong the useful service life of the battery & prevent sudden failures ... & judge when it's time to either limit the flight duty (in colder temps for instance) or completely take it off flight tasks.

1.Battery Care
...Never keep the battery cell voltage outside 3,7-3,8v for a longer period than 48h (that is a battery charged to approx 50%). If too high after a flight, discharge them, too low charge them up to storage level again.

...Store them in room temperature ... (too warm is more damaging than too cold)

...Never let them overheat ... (left in the sun or thrown in a hot car)

...Don't charge them hot, let them cool down to room temperature

...Don't use cold batteries, try to have them at room temperature before using them

...Respect the operational ambient temperature specified in the user manual

...Don't push the battery for amp draw (both sticks on max inputs at the same time in Sport mode) when cold or hot ambient temps

...Don't fly them below 15% other in exceptional cases

...Always start a day of flying with the batteries freshly fully charged

2.Battery performance follow up over time
...Follow how the useful calculated max flight time change

...Compare the full charged max mAh compared to the designed mAh

...Monitor how the cell deviations degrades

For all points regarding the battery performance it's a question about trends over time ... just looking at a single flight will not give any insight over the actual health ... having a bit shorter flight time or some bigger cell deviations in one flight can be normal if using Sport mode or flying in colder ambient temps for instance. The paid Airdata subscriptions give the possibility to check these trends over all flight logs uploaded there ... it gives a good decision base to understand the battery health & if it's time to take it off duty.
 
Wondering how many follow DJI's recommended battery charge and discharge tips?

8. Don’t Forget Maintenance​

The steps below are critical to making sure your batteries are ready to go and are properly calibrated. Specifically, charging and discharging the battery ensures an accurate digital readout of battery percentage which is a vital metric when operating your drone. If this process is ignored the battery percentage margin of error will be amplified by continued operations.

Complete the following every 3 months or 50 cycles (whichever comes first)

  1. Charge and discharge batteries per instructions below.
  2. Make sure the cell voltage difference is less than 0.1V after the battery is fully charged and left stationary for 6 hours.
  3. Make sure the battery is not swollen, leaky, or damaged. See more “Common issues to watch out for” below.
  4. Clean battery terminals with a clean dry cloth and make sure they are clean.
  5. Make sure battery firmware is updated to the latest version.
Charge and Discharge Instructions:

  1. Charge the battery to 100% and leave the battery stationary for more than 24 hours.
  2. Install the battery into the aircraft. Fly the aircraft and when the remaining power level is less than 20%, land the aircraft and remove the battery.
  3. Leave the battery stationary for more than six hours.
  4. Check cell voltage.
  5. Charge the battery to 100% power level.
  6. Repeat the above steps 1-4.
 
Without seeing your flight log from this flight I would bet on that the battery you used have an increased internal resistance ... over all cells or more on certain cells.

So when the battery being extra cold + that it happened right after a high amp drawing ascend ... one or several cells sustained a severe voltage drop & fell below 3V ... which means that a low battery auto landing will be triggered.

That it fell from 89% to 0% is a clear indication of that the BMS in the battery realized that those initial 91% was wrong (as the voltage dropped) ... and lost track of how much fuel you actually had in the tank.

This will happen again if you put that battery under heavy amp draw again ... going so low in voltage that a forced low battery auto landing is triggered have also further degraded that battery & increased the internal resistance even more. If I were you ... I would take that battery out of active flight duty before a auto landing happens over a not so suitable landing spot.


Here below you have info about LiPO & LiIon batteries ...

  • Keeping the battery at 100% isn't good for it ... do what you can to minimize the time that they are at that level, the default auto discharge (if your batteries have that feature) down to 60-65% is way too long ... & if you check the level by pushing the button you reset the counter & the counter will restart. If a battery that is above storage % level haven't been used in a couple days, use the USB adapter from the Fly More Kit (if your model have that) to charge something else (your phone) in order to bring it down to storage % (see below ...)
  • Heat kills them ... don't store above room temperature & absolutely not in a car during summer, a couple hours in a burning hot car & the battery have sustained serious damage.
  • Let them cool down to room temperature before recharging them.
  • Don't fly with a battery colder than 15C degrees, keep them warm in colder weather, have them in a pocket close to your body.
  • Store the batteries between 30-60% ... a good thumb rule is to take them of the charger as soon as the third led start to blink, then they are just over 50%. But anything between 1 solid + 1 blinking up to 2 solid + 1 blinking is good enough.
  • Don't drain them to low, make sure they don't go under 15% ... once in a while, so be it. Set the ambition to not have them lower than 20% ... if you aim for that you usually don't end up below 15%.
  • Don't fly with a battery not recently fully charged, having a battery laying around partially charged for a longer period may make the cells in the battery unbalanced, using a unbalanced battery can make that lower cell fail soon after take off, & initiate a forced low battery auto landing you can’t stop.
  • If stored for a long time, cycle them at least once each third month ... then back to storage %.


First of all ... batteries will not last forever

...they will either slowly degrade until the point where the useful flight times are so short that you stop using it


...or it will have a sudden cell failure which will trigger a sudden forced auto landing in the worst possible place


...or it will slowly start to swell to the point where they not fit into the drone anymore


...or the swelling goes off instantly or gets worse when the battery gets hot & push itself out of the drone at height.

The only visual sign is swelling ... which not always occur. Furthermore different drone models have different possibilities to handle a smaller momentary swelling when hot during flight.

So a battery can't be judged only by that it take charge to 100%, isn't swollen & manage to power your drone without mishaps ... too much is going on hidden from just a visual inspection or a test flight, you may have been on the verge to a disaster without knowing it.

You have mainly 2 methods to both prolong the useful service life of the battery & prevent sudden failures ... & judge when it's time to either limit the flight duty (in colder temps for instance) or completely take it off flight tasks.

1.Battery Care
...Never keep the battery cell voltage outside 3,7-3,8v for a longer period than 48h (that is a battery charged to approx 50%). If too high after a flight, discharge them, too low charge them up to storage level again.

...Store them in room temperature ... (too warm is more damaging than too cold)

...Never let them overheat ... (left in the sun or thrown in a hot car)

...Don't charge them hot, let them cool down to room temperature

...Don't use cold batteries, try to have them at room temperature before using them

...Respect the operational ambient temperature specified in the user manual

...Don't push the battery for amp draw (both sticks on max inputs at the same time in Sport mode) when cold or hot ambient temps

...Don't fly them below 15% other in exceptional cases

...Always start a day of flying with the batteries freshly fully charged

2.Battery performance follow up over time
...Follow how the useful calculated max flight time change

...Compare the full charged max mAh compared to the designed mAh

...Monitor how the cell deviations degrades

For all points regarding the battery performance it's a question about trends over time ... just looking at a single flight will not give any insight over the actual health ... having a bit shorter flight time or some bigger cell deviations in one flight can be normal if using Sport mode or flying in colder ambient temps for instance. The paid Airdata subscriptions give the possibility to check these trends over all flight logs uploaded there ... it gives a good decision base to understand the battery health & if it's time to take it off duty.
Thank you for your comprehensive reply... appreciated.
I do try to maintain good battery practices, but it's always useful to be reminded ...👍
 
Wondering how many follow DJI's recommended battery charge and discharge tips?

8. Don’t Forget Maintenance​

The steps below are critical to making sure your batteries are ready to go and are properly calibrated. Specifically, charging and discharging the battery ensures an accurate digital readout of battery percentage which is a vital metric when operating your drone. If this process is ignored the battery percentage margin of error will be amplified by continued operations.

Complete the following every 3 months or 50 cycles (whichever comes first)

  1. Charge and discharge batteries per instructions below.
  2. Make sure the cell voltage difference is less than 0.1V after the battery is fully charged and left stationary for 6 hours.
  3. Make sure the battery is not swollen, leaky, or damaged. See more “Common issues to watch out for” below.
  4. Clean battery terminals with a clean dry cloth and make sure they are clean.
  5. Make sure battery firmware is updated to the latest version.
Charge and Discharge Instructions:

  1. Charge the battery to 100% and leave the battery stationary for more than 24 hours.
  2. Install the battery into the aircraft. Fly the aircraft and when the remaining power level is less than 20%, land the aircraft and remove the battery.
  3. Leave the battery stationary for more than six hours.
  4. Check cell voltage.
  5. Charge the battery to 100% power level.
  6. Repeat the above steps 1-4.
Thank you...a useful reminder...to me, and hopefully others too 👍
 
Interestingly, DJI has just told me that you can't calibrate these batteries manually ☹️
There is no recommendation to discharge and charge in the latest battery safety instructions ...
 
Interestingly, DJI has just told me that you can't calibrate these batteries manually ☹️
There is no recommendation to discharge and charge in the latest battery safety instructions ...
The recommendation above was taken from the enterprise section so this might not apply to consumer drones. noidea.gif
 
...DJI has just told me that you can't calibrate these batteries manually ☹️
There is no recommendation to discharge and charge in the latest battery safety instructions ...
This with regularly do a full charge then a full to 0% discharge that was recommended in the past (and also on the Airdata.com site) is a procedure of the past nowadays ...

It was all due to the lower quality of the BMS chip in the batteries then. The BMS came out of sync with the actual charge in the battery & started to not show a correct percent estimation ... this was restored by the above procedure. This is not necessary with the modern BMS chips we have now. The only thing you achieve by following that old re-calibration process is that you put extra strain on the battery going to 0% & that you throw away one charge cycle.
 
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Cold may have been a factor... it'd been in drone bag in boot of car all afternoon at around 4 Celsius.
Battery has around 100 charge cycles on it and cells are evenly balanced .
You should keep battery room temperature warm before the flight.
Combine some aging/wear related weakening and only partial charge to cold battery and you have recipe for fast shut downs when pushed for current.

Half discharged some years old battery in cellphone can have barely enough strength to answer incoming call, if phone is exposed to freezing temperatures.
While shutting down is inconvenience with phone, if that happens with your drone there better be soft snow pile under its location.

So would suggest adding battery temperature check into take off check list.


...Don't charge them hot, let them cool down to room temperature


...Don't use cold batteries, try to have them at room temperature before using them
Also battery temperature shouln't be much below room temperature when charging.

And in case of drone would never take off the ground, if battery's temperature has fallen near freezing.
New perfect condition and fully charged battery might take it with normal but shortened performance, but beyond that only thing which can be expected is problems.
(and even new battery would suffer some extra wear)
 
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Read lots on here about battery failure and the reasons ..but this was scary.... Mavic 2 pro, battery about 3years old....took off at 91%...after 20seconds it dropped from 89% to 0%...
You haven't posted the data from this flight and I'm not sure why no-one has suggested it.
It might help to explain the cause of the incident.

Go to: DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
... where you'll find instructions.
That will give a report you can post a link for the report here.
Or just post the .txt file.
 
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You haven't posted the data from this flight and I'm not sure why no-one has suggested it.
It might help to explain the cause of the incident.

Go to: DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
... where you'll find instructions.
That will give a report you can post a link for the report here.
Or just post the .txt file.
Thank you....I will look into how to do that...give me a little time 👍😁
 
Hope that's the right one 😅
Any comments appreciated
That one is corrupted due to some reason, can't be read either by PhantomHelp, Airdata or decoded by TXTlogToCSVtool ... did you try to open it on your computer & saved it by mistake?

If you did something with the file before sharing it ... pull it from your mobile device again & without doing anything with it ... share it here again.
 
That one is corrupted due to some reason, can't be read either by PhantomHelp, Airdata or decoded by TXTlogToCSVtool ... did you try to open it on your computer & saved it by mistake?

If you did something with the file before sharing it ... pull it from your mobile device again & without doing anything with it ... share it here again.
Yes, did look like gobbledygook to me on the laptop...☹️
 
Yes, did look like gobbledygook to me on the laptop...☹️
Yeah ... these .TXT files can't just be opened by a simple text editor ...

Without seeing your flight log from this flight I would bet on that the battery you used have an increased internal resistance ... over all cells or more on certain cells.

So when the battery being extra cold + that it happened right after a high amp drawing ascend ... one or several cells sustained a severe voltage drop & fell below 3V ... which means that a low battery auto landing will be triggered.

That it fell from 89% to 0% is a clear indication of that the BMS in the battery realized that those initial 91% was wrong (as the voltage dropped) ... and lost track of how much fuel you actually had in the tank.

This will happen again if you put that battery under heavy amp draw again ... going so low in voltage that a forced low battery auto landing is triggered have also further degraded that battery & increased the internal resistance even more. If I were you ... I would take that battery out of active flight duty before a auto landing happens over a not so suitable landing spot.
I just copied my earlier statement from post #2 above ... as this is what happened.

Here what the TXT message stream in the log said ...

1642876115791.png
And here the whole flight in a chart ... with all important telemetry data & your stick inputs together with the battery data.

Your battery failed in all cells & fell down to 2,78V in cell 1, 2,92V in cell 2, 2,8V in cell 3 & 2,61V in cell 4 ...

Pink & green background color=motor start & take off
White background color=ordinary GPS mode
Blue background color=Critical low battery force landing
Red graph=height above the recorded HP
Green dashed graph=throttle inputs
Blue dashed graph=rudder input
Purple graph=battery percentage
Yellow,black,light blue & bright purple=battery cell voltage

(Click on the chart to make it larger, the values in the legend under the chart is from where the chart marker is placed at 23,2sec into the flight)
1642876351187.png
 
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Yeah ... these .TXT files can't just be opened by a simple text editor ...


I just copied my earlier statement from post #2 above ... as this is what happened.

Here what the TXT message stream in the log said ...

View attachment 142414
And here the whole flight in a chart ... with all important telemetry data & your stick inputs together with the battery data.

Your battery failed in all cells & fell down to 2,78V in cell 1, 2,92V in cell 2, 2,8V in cell 3 & 2,61V in cell 4 ...

Pink & green background color=motor start & take off
White background color=ordinary GPS mode
Blue background color=Critical low battery force landing
Red graph=height above the recorded HP
Green dashed graph=throttle inputs
Blue dashed graph=rudder input
Purple graph=battery percentage
Yellow,black,light blue & bright purple=battery cell voltage

(Click on the chart to make it larger, the values in the legend under the chart is from where the chart marker is placed at 23,2sec into the flight)
View attachment 142416
Thats very helpful, thank you for your help.
The question is ....why ? 😮😐
 
Thats very helpful, thank you for your help.
The question is ....why ? 😮😐
Read post #2 again regarding LiPo & LiIon batteries ... somewhere there you have the reason.

This is a key word ... batteries will not last forever
 
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