Unable to charge Mavic Pro battery

berdterds · Jan 26, 2023

Hey all,
So I'm selling my Dad's Mavic Pro.. He has never used it. I'm trying to charge the three batteries he has for it and non show signs of life.. I press the button and a single green light blinks and then goes away. There is a car charger and an ac power adapter as well as a hub. I've tried using the hub and it goes green and then the light on it just turns solid red.
I've read the battery 'could be' in hibernation mode and i've left it on the hub for several hours but same result, hub is solid red.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

Kilrah · Jan 26, 2023

If it was never used or maintained the batteries are now many years old and have likely died from self-discharge.

MAvic_South_Oz · Jan 26, 2023

Do you have a mains charger too ?
If so, have you tried that ?

Sometimes what seem to be dead batteries can start charging if you leave them on charge overnight, even try for a couple of days, people have reported here that sometimes theirs have started charging 24hrs later or whatever.
My recollection, is such posts say you do this with a single battery connected directly to the cable end, not using the 3 battery hub.

The problem with the M1P 12v car charger (and possibly other drones of the era) is that resting 12v battery (around 12.7v) doesn't have the voltage needed to run that charger properly.
It should charge if the vehicle engine is running, and the alternator pushes the outlet voltage to over 14v or so.
You can connect a single battery with the car charger, or connect the hub for sequential charging of up to 3 batteries.

But, as Kilrahs post above just now, the battery may have discharged gradually to virtually a totally dead state, this may take a few years + to do . . . if so it is now possible that it won't to take a charge any longer.

If you try chargng as above and it still doesn't work on any of them, you might be able to find a single battery for the M1P still, DJI might have some available, or resellers . . . DJI did make them obsolete a few years ago, and they gradually went out of stock in most places, but recently there's been varying info about them coming online again.
Try and find one to sell the drone if so, besides the OEM battery, try searching for PowerExtra, who make / made a reasonable aftermarket battery for the M1P, but they too have been in short supply at times in recent years.

You might even be able to sell the drone as is with whatever was in the original packaging, a flymore kit ???
It won't be worth a lot like that though, in fact with a battery it might only be saleable for a few hundred $.

msinger · Jan 26, 2023

berdterds said:
I'm selling my Dad's Mavic Pro.. He has never used it.

Any idea when it was purchased?

berdterds · Jan 26, 2023

MAvic_South_Oz said:
Do you have a mains charger too ?
If so, have you tried that ?

Sometimes what seem to be dead batteries can start charging if you leave them on charge overnight, even try for a couple of days, people have reported here that sometimes theirs have started charging 24hrs later or whatever.
My recollection, is such posts say you do this with a single battery connected directly to the cable end, not using the 3 battery hub.

The problem with the M1P 12v car charger (and possibly other drones of the era) is that resting 12v battery (around 12.7v) doesn't have the voltage needed to run that charger properly.
It should charge if the vehicle engine is running, and the alternator pushes the outlet voltage to over 14v or so.
You can connect a single battery with the car charger, or connect the hub for sequential charging of up to 3 batteries.

But, as Kilrahs post above just now, the battery may have discharged gradually to virtually a totally dead state, this may take a few years + to do . . . if so it is now possible that it won't to take a charge any longer.

If you try chargng as above and it still doesn't work on any of them, you might be able to find a single battery for the M1P still, DJI might have some available, or resellers . . . DJI did make them obsolete a few years ago, and they gradually went out of stock in most places, but recently there's been varying info about them coming online again.
Try and find one to sell the drone if so, besides the OEM battery, try searching for PowerExtra, who make / made a reasonable aftermarket battery for the M1P, but they too have been in short supply at times in recent years.

You might even be able to sell the drone as is with whatever was in the original packaging, a flymore kit ???
It won't be worth a lot like that though, in fact with a battery it might only be saleable for a few hundred $.

Thanks for the reply, I read online to not attach the battery directly to the ac adapter but could have read wrong.. is it okay to do this? Also, what is a mains charger?

berdterds · Jan 26, 2023

msinger said:
Any idea when it was purchased?

not sure i will have to check

umanbean · Jan 26, 2023

berdterds said:
Thanks for the reply, I read online to not attach the battery directly to the ac adapter but could have read wrong.. is it okay to do this? Also, what is a mains charger?

A mains charger is one that plugs into a 120v AC outlet... if you've tried to charge with the hub so far, that's likely what the hub is plugged into. Unplug the hub from the AC adapter and plug the battery directly into that end... nothing wrong with that. Leave each one on there for at least 24 hours, one battery at the time. If any one, or hopefully all, of them transitions to one or more light(s) blinking green, it's charging. When fully charged all the lights will go off, but pressing the power button once will show four green lights for a second.

MAvic_South_Oz · Jan 26, 2023

berdterds said:
Thanks for the reply, I read online to not attach the battery directly to the ac adapter but could have read wrong.. is it okay to do this? Also, what is a mains charger?

Yes you can charge with or without the hub, the connection on the chargers has the same plug to go onto the hub, or onto the battery directly.
Definitely try charging for a period of up to (say) 48hrs on each battery directly to the mains charger outlet.
If that doesn't work, the battery is likely dead.

This is the mains charger, showing the end (far left) you can connect to the hub and directly to the battery.

The one pictured above is the mains charger, connects to the wall plug power at home / office etc, 110v (edit 120v) for you, 240v here.

Below is the car charger, which will work when a vehicle is running / idling, but not reliable (or work at all) when a car battery is 'rested' when the vehicle has been turned off for a while . . .

There are ways to ensure the 12v chargers work reliably, involves a simple voltage 'step up' converter.

Good luck with trying the charging, or failing that, finding a battery to sell the drone / kit.

berdterds · Jan 26, 2023

umanbean said:
A mains charger is one that plugs into a 120v AC outlet... if you've tried to charge with the hub so far, that's likely what the hub is plugged into. Unplug the hub from the AC adapter and plug the battery directly into that end... nothing wrong with that. Leave each one on there for at least 24 hours, one battery at the time. If any one, or hopefully all, of them transitions to one or more light(s) blinking green, it's charging. When fully charged all the lights will go off, but pressing the power button once will show four green lights for a second.

Perfect, I do have the mains charger.. I will try this thank you

berdterds · Jan 26, 2023

MAvic_South_Oz said:
Yes you can charge with or without the hub, the connection on the chargers has the same plug to go onto the hub, or onto the battery directly.
Definitely try charging for a period of up to (say) 48hrs on each battery directly to the mains charger outlet.
If that doesn't work, the battery is likely dead.

This is the mains charger, showing the end (far left) you can connect to the hub and directly to the battery.

View attachment 159940

The one pictured above is the mains charger, connects to the wall plug power at home / office etc, 110v (edit 120v) for you, 240v here.

Below is the car charger, which will work when a vehicle is running / idling, but not reliable (or work at all) when a car battery is 'rested' when the vehicle has been turned off for a while . . .

View attachment 159941

There are ways to ensure the 12v chargers work reliably, involves a simple voltage 'step up' converter.

Good luck with trying the charging, or failing that, finding a battery to sell the drone / kit.

Thank you very much for clarification, I do have this charger. I will give it a shot for 48 hours.. thank you!