Another Faulty Battery

[cokeaddict]

Took my bird for a quick fly in the local park today.
Battery fully charged this morning. Did all the usual things we do before leaving the ground. I was flying around at 1.5 meters when suddenly red lights flashing and lost all control of the bird using the control.
I ran out 2 meters infront of me and grabbed its leg and shut it down.
The battery went from fully charged 6 minutes ago to 1 green flashing light.
I took the battery out and it was HOT and swollen. I have already lost 1 Phantom 2 and now I almost lost a new one.
I must stress that this battery is 3 months old and only used on 4 flights.
Is someone from DJI listening to us out there? This has to be sorted.

 

[Ezookiel]

I've posted in another thread about one of my batteries that has had just 15 cycles, is less than 2.5 months old, and has been one of three cycling through the machine, so not been abused, given plenty of cool down time, always been landed with 20% or more left in it, and yet it already has the assistant software telling me to discard it, and showing it at substantially below capacity. Basically 50% below capacity
I'm slowly replacing all my batteries now with Limefuel ones, and in the meantime, I'm thinking I'll stop flying over water etc with the quad until the Limefuel ones get here.
I'm seeing far too many complaints, and have a good friend that had his mysteriously shut itself down and plummet into the ocean through what was most likely a battery giving up mid flight.

It amazes me that with the number of complaint threads I've started to find, both here and elsewhere, that DJI don't do something to nip this in the bud fast, because they're sure not the only fish in the sea now for enthusiast level quadcopters. If they don't show they're acting on the problem soon, they'll end up being overtaken by their competitors.

 

[gary1968]

That is not good...... Us there an alternative manufacturer making smart batteries for the phantom 2 vision plus?

 

[Ezookiel]

Yep, Limefuel.
That's where I've ordered two 6000mAh batteries from, but there appears to be a delivery delay on them till March.
The 5400mAh ones don't seem to have that delay. And they're cheaper, and they still have slightly longer flight times than the stock 5200mAh original batteries.
There was a discussion somewhere that documented problems with these batteries for a while if you allowed the firmware in the battery to be upgraded but it also seemed to have been resolved by the end of the thread. I'll see if I can find it.


5400mAh http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QR1 ... WRLSRHLYCR

6000mAh http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OM7 ... PWQIS6IBQX

And I think this is the thread where if you read from start to finish, they went from fine, to having a problem, and back to being mostly fine.
I'm taking the risk and ordering a couple anyway.
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=27929

 

[gary1968]

Thanks for that ezookiel..... 2 things though, the links you posted both go to the 5400mah battery..... And, I can't find a uk supplier, will amazon,com ship to uk do you think?

 

[Ezookiel]

I noticed that the other day. They had 10 in stock on the 6000 and then the number available went down a couple of times, then it vanished totally and became the same as the 5400 link. I think once they were out of stock the link just diverts to the 5400.
I find Amazon have ludicrously expensive postage costs. So I bought mine directly from Limefuel themselves. http://www.limefuel.com/pages/product-air
The 6000 is listed as "Pre Order" for March. I grabbed two of them, as I've still got 2 good DJI batteries for the moment, so can wait for the 6000's, and I'll grab a 5400 to replace my dead DJI battery so I can go back to having 3 until the 6000's arrive. Which will probably be about the time that the remaining 2 DJI ones will die if what I've seen of the life expectancy of a DJI battery is anything to go by.

 

[gary1968]

Thanks again Ezoikiel.... I will check that link out.

Gaz

 

[ianwood]

That battery can catch fire. Be careful and dispose of it responsibly and carefully.

Submit your bad batteries here: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=26733

The plan is to build up a long enough list of defective batteries to get DJI to do something about them.

 

[Ezookiel]

There goes my 2nd usable DJI Battery - that's now 2 out of 3 that are dead [emoji30][emoji31][emoji35][emoji49] and both with less than 25 flights on them.


Getting seriously p'ed off. These Limefuel better arrive soon, because if the one remaining DJI one dies, I'll be grounded till they get here.
Here in Australia the warranty laws state that something should be fit for purpose - I'm damned sure that less than 25 charges is NOT fit for purpose!

 

[Hughie]

There goes my 2nd usable DJI Battery - that's now 2 out of 3 that are dead [emoji30][emoji31][emoji35][emoji49] and both with less than 25 flights on them.


Getting seriously p'ed off. These Limefuel better arrive soon, because if the one remaining DJI one dies, I'll be grounded till they get here.
Here in Australia the warranty laws state that something should be fit for purpose - I'm damned sure that less than 25 charges is NOT fit for purpose!

Did you buy from within your country, if so your laws will apply won't they ?

This would be interesting to test in the UK (not that I am planning on doing it) because goods need to Match the description, Be of satisfactory quality, Be fit for purpose for at least 12 months, and in the cases of some products for up to six years. I dont see how the DJI 3 month warranty would work in the UK if the reseller was in the UK.

 

[Ezookiel]

Nor here. Australia covers far more than the standard 12 months, which is why electronics stores trying to sell and "extended warranty" on products like TV's, don't want people knowing that under Australian law, you may well be covered by a significantly larger warranty period without buying an extended one. It's very similar to yours, regarding "fit for purpose" etc.
I'm just not sure on how batteries go with warranty. Being a "consumable" even when it's rechargeable, might make things difficult to challenge. I'll be chasing it up.

Strangely enough though, even my other "dodgy" battery, will sometimes read strangely when first plugged in, even claiming like this one was, to be some really low percentage, but take it out and put it back in (like I did with this one after this photo was taken) and suddenly it's giving a more normal figure. In this instance this one went straight from the 7% in the photo to then saying 60%. I then ran it down to 14% and charged it back up, and now it's showing all fine on both the On Screen Display, and even in the DJI Assistant it now says current capacity 5340mAh with design capacity of 5200mAh.

At this very moment it would seem to be fine, but I'm never going to trust it. Which makes it so frustrating. I have 3 batteries that are now all saying they're fine, but having to fly just 15 minutes at a time with the only one battery, because the other 2 have given so many moments of error and concern, that I don't trust them any more.