Very scary & very lucky

[mavic98360]

I have probably 150 hours on my Mavic since last June in four countries. Had a few minor incidents, but really only lost 2-3 props as I was learning. I have four batteries that I cycle through on a charging hub. Today, I took two batteries with us on a family walk. It was cold, probably 28 Fahrenheit. I flew the first battery down to 28% or so, landed, and changed the battery. Took off on the second battery. I was doing activetrack video walking uphill, so very fortunately, happened to be only about 10' off the ground when suddenly the Mavic dropped dead to the asphalt with the battery at about 80%. I was stunned. I expected that if I was to lose the Mavic, it would be at altitude with a blown ESC or something.

Here, I was incredibly lucky. Most of my flying is well above 100'. I just happened to be on what I now believe is a battery gone bad, at 10' off the ground. It was far more likely that I would have been flying this battery far out of reach, high over the forest near where I live. I got away with no damage, and mavic just a few feet away.

But this is very scary. Has any one had a battery go from seemingly fine to completely fail? Right now, the battery makes like it is going to power the mavic up, but the mavic never gets lights on or powers up. The battery also does not charge, though if you push the button, three power lights come on indicating 75% or so charge. No flashing warning lights on the battery.

I think I better test my other three batteries in a closed room on tripod mode.

 

[MavicCF]

I wonder what you would find if you opened it up. Someone posted a while ago about a bad solder joint on one of the wires and I'm curious if something similar might have been done in your battery and a wire eventually worked itself free. Glad it wasn't any worse for you! -CF

 

[mavic98360]

Thanks. You may be right about a bad joint. The mavic seems to be fine. I'm in tripod mode right now outside making sure no other batteries might be bad, but the scary part about this was there was no warning.

 

[mavic98360]

Makes me wonder if I should be regularly giving a firm whack to the battery on all sides and then testing it to make sure nothing disconnects.

 

[MavicCF]

Makes me wonder if I should be regularly giving a firm whack to the battery on all sides and then testing it to make sure nothing disconnects.

Yeah I don't know, it does make me a little more nervous flying but I try not to think about it. Is it under warranty still?

 

[mavic98360]

Don't know. I can check.

 

[Former Member]

Old thread, but batteries are only warrantied for 6 months. If you bought them in July 17 and they started failing Feb 18, they were out of warranty.

 

[Cuervo]

Did you notice a 'Cold Battery Warning' when you flew the second battery?
28 degrees Fahrenheit is pretty cold, if the spare battery was outside long enough it would drop well below the warning temperature.
I used to keep the spare batteries in the truck, overnight temps got down into the mid forties and it triggered the alarm.
I have no direct experience with a cold battery failure, and I have briefly flown the bird even after a 'cold warning', just hazarding a guess.

 

[dewster]

Check your batteries in the DJI GO4 app. You can see the charge state of each individual cell. I had a bad cell on one of my batteries which prevented the craft from flying. You should’ve received a battery warning if that was the case. I had a hexacopter crash after repeatedly flying on a battery with a bad/damaged cell. It did the same thing: drop out of the sky.

That’s my main worry: a sudden death experience causing the Mavic to drop. It’s small but it weighs enough to cause damage.

 

[MrsTreat]

I had a battery issue a bit like yours. It was my first flight after a couple really cold winter months. I was up over a small lake after just taking off with a full battery and suddenly I started getting low battery warnings and it was almost immediately at 25% battery remaining. I managed to stay calm and got my MP safely back with warnings blaring. I never was able to conclude what the real issue was. I put contact cleaner on the battery and MP batt connector and haven’t had an issue like it since.

 

[GavieboyDji]

I wonder what you would find if you opened it up. Someone posted a while ago about a bad solder joint on one of the wires and I'm curious if something similar might have been done in your battery and a wire eventually worked itself free. Glad it wasn't any worse for you! -CF

I seen that post i bet his battery has come lose at the joint.

 

[GavieboyDji]

Thanks. You may be right about a bad joint. The mavic seems to be fine. I'm in tripod mode right now outside making sure no other batteries might be bad, but the scary part about this was there was no warning.

You wouldnt get a warning its instantly powerless as soon as that joint comes lose. i would think dji would of fixed something as bad as this though, but maybe your battery has gotten through.

 

[Former Member]

I seen that post i bet his battery has come lose at the joint.

Do you think it would happen to 4 different batteries?

 

[Former Member]

Oops this is the old thread.... scuse me.

 

[Thwyllo]

Old thread, but batteries are only warrantied for 6 months. If you bought them in July 17 and they started failing Feb 18, they were out of warranty.

Lot of countries where that isn't the case fortunately. In much of Europe it's 12 or 24 months default on a lot of electronics, often even longer as the law says an item must be fit for purpose for a reasonable period of time given the nature and expected use of that item, so TVs and white goods often have a longer warranty as far as the law goes, regardless of what the seller says. If a battery is good for, say, 200 cycles but fails in seven months after only 100 it's fair and reasonable to ask for it to be replaced. Clearly if it's been more heavily used then that's a different kettle of fish.