After my Mavic 2 Pro fell from the sky at 122 feet because the battery had evidently come loose, I went looking for others who experienced the same thing. It's shocking the number of people who have had the same experience. In some cases, the battery has buckled; in others, the tabs have become loose. But the common thread seems to be a fatal design flaw that DJI has so far shown no inclination to fix: The springs intended to provide pressure on the tabs to hold the battery against the body of the drone get "mushy" over time. This can can cause the tabs to slip out of their slots, disconnecting the battery and turning your drone into a 2-pound brick.
The folks at drone-retriever.com appear to have put their finger on the problem here. From that post: "The metal used for the spring section of the retention design is NOT made of spring steel but rather is made of plain steel. If the battery retention clips are deflected beyond their design point they will not provide adequate tension against the plastic locking mechanism on the drone body which could easily cause the battery to disengage."
In hindsight, I'm certain that's what happened in my case. Before my flight, the tab on the right side of the battery did not provide the usual, satisfying "click" indicating it had properly snapped into place. I took it out, examined the battery, determined it was not buckled, and checked to make sure there was no foreign matter in the battery compartment. I put it back in, and this time both tabs clicked, but the sound was softer than usual and -- this should have been a huge red flag -- the back of the battery was sitting just proud of the body of the aircraft, by about a millimeter. But all systems appeared otherwise normal, so I took off. About a minute and a half into my flight over an empty parking lot, the drone just dropped from the sky.
Thanks to my DJI Care Refresh+, I was able to replace the drone and battery. But the bigger concern is, what is DJI going to do to fix this very obvious safety hazard? Already, you can see lots of people resorting to velcro straps and zip ties as a belt-and-suspenders fix. I see at least one company is also selling this after-market battery holder, but I haven't seen any reviews of it yet. These are ridiculous solutions to ensure your $1,500 flying camera can perform its first job, which is to stay in the air.
This does not appear to be a problem on new batteries at all. The replacement battery I got snaps into place much more sharply, and it takes more pressure to depress the tabs. But the tabs on my two remaining batteries, which are about a year old, have the same soft feel. It's simply unreasonable to a.) expect Mavic owners to replace their costly and perfectly good batteries once a year, and b.) know with certainty when the tabs on their batteries have become too deflected to safely fly.
The folks at drone-retriever.com appear to have put their finger on the problem here. From that post: "The metal used for the spring section of the retention design is NOT made of spring steel but rather is made of plain steel. If the battery retention clips are deflected beyond their design point they will not provide adequate tension against the plastic locking mechanism on the drone body which could easily cause the battery to disengage."
In hindsight, I'm certain that's what happened in my case. Before my flight, the tab on the right side of the battery did not provide the usual, satisfying "click" indicating it had properly snapped into place. I took it out, examined the battery, determined it was not buckled, and checked to make sure there was no foreign matter in the battery compartment. I put it back in, and this time both tabs clicked, but the sound was softer than usual and -- this should have been a huge red flag -- the back of the battery was sitting just proud of the body of the aircraft, by about a millimeter. But all systems appeared otherwise normal, so I took off. About a minute and a half into my flight over an empty parking lot, the drone just dropped from the sky.
Thanks to my DJI Care Refresh+, I was able to replace the drone and battery. But the bigger concern is, what is DJI going to do to fix this very obvious safety hazard? Already, you can see lots of people resorting to velcro straps and zip ties as a belt-and-suspenders fix. I see at least one company is also selling this after-market battery holder, but I haven't seen any reviews of it yet. These are ridiculous solutions to ensure your $1,500 flying camera can perform its first job, which is to stay in the air.
This does not appear to be a problem on new batteries at all. The replacement battery I got snaps into place much more sharply, and it takes more pressure to depress the tabs. But the tabs on my two remaining batteries, which are about a year old, have the same soft feel. It's simply unreasonable to a.) expect Mavic owners to replace their costly and perfectly good batteries once a year, and b.) know with certainty when the tabs on their batteries have become too deflected to safely fly.
