Swelling batteries

[GadgetGuy]

Doubt it. I fly 4-5x/week in AZ desert. Due to temps 107-120 in the heat of the day. I shoot a sundown hyperlapse every time I fly. Drone is hovering for 22-25 min in 100-102degrees F at about 175’. No battery issues, and I’m hard on them usually landing with < 3-4 min battery left.
I have not experienced any swelling in my batteries, all of which are at least 8 months old.

Good data point. Seems most of the problem batteries have a Production Date date of 2018.08 or earlier. If everyone could check their battery Production Dates, as displayed under the Details subsection of the Battery info in GO 4, we might be able to get to the bottom of this. Care and usage may be completely irrelevant to this particular issue.

 

[Mega Man]

Ive mentioned elsewhere (and in the thread i started about the same topic) i think ambient temperature is a factor.
I live in the tropics where the air is about 31c all year round. A few others had this too. And we're seeing lots of swelling reports in the northern hemisphere summer months lately.
My theory is the temperature range specified as safe for operating these batteries is incorrect. They seem to be swelling at ambients that are above average but well below what is claimed as safe to use (and far lower than the mavic pro, air or other dji batteries did).

The temps dji recommends are ok to use, does not make them smart to use, nor a good idea.

That said to others no stationary vs flying at speed, the battery plastic is not a good heat sink, let alone anything to lower heat enough fo make it a variable

 

[globetrotterdrone]

Will check out my 4 batteries tonight and report back ...
So far no problems with swelling after 3 months of usage and an annoying hot summer in continental Europe.

For 1,5 months I've also been charging them with the RC Geek model rather than the DJI battery hub.

 

[gnirtS]

The temps dji recommends are ok to use, does not make them smart to use, nor a good idea.

That said to others no stationary vs flying at speed, the battery plastic is not a good heat sink, let alone anything to lower heat enough fo make it a variable

The difference is the M2 batteries are degrading significantly faster than the mavic1 or any other dji drone for the same environmental conditions.
That is shown by the much larger number of people having problems much earlier on.
If it is temperature related then if they cant handle ambient temperatures of 30c or so then it means the drones are unusable in large parts of the word.

 

[globetrotterdrone]

Well it could be or are just more people flying than in Mavic 1 times so that problems just multiply by the increased number?
I guess only DJI could really tell having all the data necessary to validate this.

Maybe we can pinpoint some conspiciuous batches nonetheless ... but the variables of how they were used, stored, charged are quite diffuse.

 

[Mega Man]

The difference is the M2 batteries are degrading significantly faster than the mavic1 or any other dji drone for the same environmental conditions.
That is shown by the much larger number of people having problems much earlier on.
If it is temperature related then if they cant handle ambient temperatures of 30c or so then it means the drones are unusable in large parts of the word.

Much larger as defined by internet warriors, and not real, actual numbers. You can not state that as a fact, as you have ZERO clue how many batteries have been sold, how many have failed, nor how many have not, which is far more important of a ratio for comparison. You are going off of people who complain on the internet which as everyone knows, is the most factually easy to get any needed statistics..... sorry most (higher then 90 %) lipo failures are ebkac. ( Google if you don't know)

 

[GadgetGuy]

The difference is the M2 batteries are degrading significantly faster than the mavic1 or any other dji drone for the same environmental conditions.
That is shown by the much larger number of people having problems much earlier on.
If it is temperature related then if they cant handle ambient temperatures of 30c or so then it means the drones are unusable in large parts of the word.

Can you confirm that all your battery Production Dates are 2018.08 or earlier?

 

[gnirtS]

Can you confirm that all your battery Production Dates are 2018.08 or earlier?

I cant directly because i threw 2 of the 3 away (Im not leaving 2 swollen LiPo batteries in an empty house for 5 months!). The 3rd i still have in my possession but its currently 8,500 miles away and im not going to be reunited with it for another month or so.
My swelling photos are sadly edge on so cant read the data.

*HOWEVER* i suspect they are from that time. I ordered the drone on release date which was mid august and received it some 2 weeks later. So that puts a *latest* date of august on the manufacture, realistically i suspect its before then.

If this thread is still alive in a month or so when i get back home i'll look for the date.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I cant directly because i threw 2 of the 3 away (Im not leaving 2 swollen LiPo batteries in an empty house for 5 months!). The 3rd i still have in my possession but its currently 8,500 miles away and im not going to be reunited with it for another month or so.
My swelling photos are sadly edge on so cant read the data.

*HOWEVER* i suspect they are from that time. I ordered the drone on release date which was mid august and received it some 2 weeks later. So that puts a *latest* date of august on the manufacture, realistically i suspect its before then.

If this thread is still alive in a month or so when i get back home i'll look for the date.

The 2018.08 Production Date and prior appears to be the condition precedent to the battery swelling. It would seem that all current batteries manufactured after that date are not having any issues, and all the speculation about other factors of climate and humidity and battery abuse appear to be red herrings. All my seven M2 battery Production Dates are 2018.10 or later and are problem free.

I "abuse" all my M2 batteries, by taking them down to below 10% on every flight, on some flights down to even 0%. None of my seven M2 batteries has swollen over the last 9 months. Most have 50+ flights on them, and the only degradation I now notice is the 100% upon bootup quickly changes to 99% and then 98% just before launch, compared to a brand new battery that will stay at 100% until launch, during the warm up and Home Point setting.

If anyone has a documented M2 battery swelling and a Production Date after 2018.08, please speak up!

 

[gnirtS]

Out of my 3 new batteries one was made in 09-2018, the others were 03-2019.

All have now done the same number of cycles of the original 3 and none are yet swelling...

 

[globetrotterdrone]

Checked my batteries:

• Battery 1: manufactured 2018-10, 10 cycles
• Battery 2: manufactured 2019-02, 12 cycles
• Battery 3: manufactured 2012-12, 11 cycles
• Battery 4: manufactured 2018-09, 10 cycles

So I have none prior to September 2018, guess I cannot get you any more validation.

 

[Greenflash]

All three of my batteries were manufactured in August or July of 2018 and the three show signs of swelling

 

[GadgetGuy]

Out of my 3 new batteries one was made in 09-2018, the others were 03-2019.

All have now done the same number of cycles of the original 3 and none are yet swelling...

That's a pretty good data point for lack of environmental factors being the cause. 2018.08 and earlier seem to be the Production Date problems. That's good news for all M2 batteries with production dates after 2018.08 . At least DJI fixed the problem after that. Sucks for those with the earlier dates, though!

 

[GadgetGuy]

Checked my batteries:

• Battery 1: manufactured 2018-10, 10 cycles
• Battery 2: manufactured 2019-02, 12 cycles
• Battery 3: manufactured 2012-12, 11 cycles
• Battery 4: manufactured 2018-09, 10 cycles

So I have none prior to September 2018, guess I cannot get you any more validation.

As long as no battery swelling among those newer batteries, your data is very helpful!

 

[GadgetGuy]

All three of my batteries were manufactured in August or July of 2018 and the three show signs of swelling

Another data point confirming the hypothesis that the swollen batteries all appear to be from Production Dates of 2018.08 and earlier.

 

[gnirtS]

I just remembered i can get the data off AirData historic archive.

So my 3 swollen batteries.
Battery 1 was made 7th July 2018
Battery 2 was made 1st August 2018
Battery 3 was made 1st August 2018

Which does add more weight to the theory.

Edit:- a quick trawl of the DJI forum shows 2 more people, both with 3 swollen cells. No exact dates off them (ive messaged them) but both bought their drones when they first came out so the date must be August or earlier.

 

[gnirtS]

Much larger as defined by internet warriors, and not real, actual numbers. You can not state that as a fact, as you have ZERO clue how many batteries have been sold, how many have failed, nor how many have not, which is far more important of a ratio for comparison. You are going off of people who complain on the internet which as everyone knows, is the most factually easy to get any needed statistics..... sorry most (higher then 90 %) lipo failures are ebkac. ( Google if you don't know)

A simple look around will reveal people do have issues and batteries are swelling. Its happening and despite your xxxxx attempt at superiority people are getting them with batteries used and operated well within the stated guidelines for use and storage. Just because it isn't happening to you doesn't mean it isn't happening to others.
Larger is easier to see relatively speaking. Searching works. You can type things into a box and count. I can explain it to you if needed - you can even use your fingers to help with the big numbers.
You're welcome to arrogantly pretend whatever you want and mouth off about it obviously but that doesn't actually mean you're right or your opinion is valid. The attitude of "oh it hasn't happened to me so clearly everyone else is an idiot and doing it wrong" is arrogant and misguided to the extreme.

 

[Thomas B]

That’s quite enough folks. Let’s stay on topic and stop the personal derogatory comments.

This is a useful thread. Don’t want to have cleanit up and shut it down.

 

[gnirtS]

That’s quite enough folks. Let’s stay on topic and stop the personal derogatory comments.

This is a useful thread. Don’t want to have cleanit up and shut it down.

Maybe start another thread with a multi poll for date options? (and make sure people can vote multiple times)

 

[Thomas B]

Maybe start another thread with a multi poll for date options? (and make sure people can vote multiple times)

Be my guest.., good idea