Another P3P down! Battery Error

Just for the heck of it I think I am going to apply Velcro to the sides of my battery for now on.
 
Excellent reminder. Thanks.

Is it just me, or does it seem to you guys as well that we are seeing more and more anecdotal evidence that there is an issue with seating of the battery? By "issue" I mean either user error or a design flaw that allows for the user error.

There have been a few threads on this topic already. I recall that someone posted a picture of Velcro he was using after a close call to be sure his battery didn't slide out. My first thought was that Velco was silly. Just be sure it clicks when you slide the battery in place and you should be fine. Maybe not?

Maybe there needs to be some sort of secondary locking mechanism. What do you guys think?

I think there are lots of users reporting it, which might suggest that it's easy for people to incorrectly seat the battery. Not so much a flaw, you can't out-design carelessness (no offence to the people who have had this happen to them - it's easy to forget when you're eager to get flying. I forgot to calibrate the compass first time I flew!) . But, I think most people are careful. I myself check the battery, double check, then triple check it, but then again I'm super paranoid. I almost always drive off then stop and check my boot has all my kit because I'm worried that I forgot something at the site I was flying at, which is probably verging on OCD but hey at least I never lose my stuff :)
 
I was sitting my office, bird on, props off, just going through the Pilot app familiarizing myself again with the menus..... and with the battery near full I got the low power warning. I double checked the app, look at and picked up the P3, battery was fully seated...wtf. (A week prior to this I made sure to power up the already updated P3 with latest firmware on the SD incase the bat needed it.) To clear the error I had to power down and back up.

Sounds like something else is going on here and not just pilots forgetting to seat the battery properly. How else do you explain this error with a confirmed properly seated battery. I think some of us don't want to acknowledge the truth!
 
I can't see velcro being much use since it only needs move out about 1mm.
With my P2 one of the three batteries was inclined to not click fully home if you didn't put it in carefully.
The first time I realised it was important there was a sudden low battery warning a minute after starting at 100%
 
If possible, I'd put that battery back into the P3 and start everything up. Then go in the battery option and check the 4 cells. I can't see how this is pilot error and sounds like a cell error. Does the lipo feel swollen? Most drone batteries don't come in such a slick package. One of the basic indicators of the health of a battery is swelling. So do the gray bits feel puffy and do they flex?
 
No problem. Thank you for bringing it up.

I decided to test if the P3 would turn on if the battery is not fully seated. Yes, it did turn on, but take a look at battery percentage in the DJI Pilot app, it is 0%. You can see it on the file called IMG_3993.jpg. You can also see that the battery is not seated properly.

Now take a look at IMG_3994.jpg. The battery is fully seated and you can now see the battery life in the DJI Pilot app is 88%.

I will also mention that the battery clicks and locks in securely very easily.
I'm shocked with this result - P3 don't measure voltage on motherboard, but only believes what the battery says. I of course check it every time, but in future the "data connection" maybe loose... DJI should use tighter connector, but now we can do is to cleanup the contacts sometimes...
 
I had the exact same thing happened. Got the error while the bird was far away, still was able to get it back without issue. Looked at the battery, and it wasn't clicked into place completely.

This appears to be the common response.
Same here "critical battery error" in red. My battery wasn't all the way in! Luckily it was wasn't that far up and I brought it down asap. There was clearly a gap between the battery and the p3p when I inspected.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well, that appears to be the common issue.
Excellent reminder. Thanks.

Is it just me, or does it seem to you guys as well that we are seeing more and more anecdotal evidence that there is an issue with seating of the battery? By "issue" I mean either user error or a design flaw that allows for the user error.

There have been a few threads on this topic already. I recall that someone posted a picture of Velcro he was using after a close call to be sure his battery didn't slide out again. My first thought was that Velco was silly. Just be sure it clicks when you slide the battery in place and you should be fine. Maybe not?

Maybe there needs to be some sort of secondary locking mechanism. What do you guys think?

Seating does appear to be the common reason why this error was observed. If there was no chance for repair, I would perform some drop test of the P3 with the battery unseated and seated. But that would just damage the device more at this point.

I sent an email to DJI in LA and will be waiting for a response from them. Hopefully we can all learn from this experience.

Side story:
I bought a new car a couple of year ago and 6 months after buying it, the car battery died. Which was very unusual as far as I know. I called the dealership and they said they could tow to dealer, but if battery was fine, then I would have to pay for the tow charges.

I had the battery charged at Autozone and they said battery was okay. I was glad that I didn't take to dealer because it would been costly. Anyways, a couple of months later it happens again. I called the dealer and they said it was my fault. That I probably left some lights on or something. I got it charged again and took the blame for it. A couple of months later it happens again.... Long story short, after the dealership telling me that it was my fault and that nothing was wrong with the battery, they released a recall for the car due to an issue with the software causing batteries to drain quicker than usual and not allowing them to start.

So honestly, I expect DJI to blame me for this. We will see once everything is said and done.
 
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Post a link to your flight data so we can analyze it.......
 
Thanks for posting, thanks for your overall attitude about it and please let us know what DJI says. I've not had this kind of critical battery error. BUT about a week ago I did post about how I was sitting my office, bird on, props off, just going through the Pilot app familiarizing myself again with the menus..... and with the battery near full I got the low power warning. I double checked the app, look at and picked up the P3, battery was fully seated...wtf. (A week prior to this I made sure to power up the already updated P3 with latest firmware on the SD incase the bat needed it.) To clear the error I had to power down and back up. It's not happened (12 full flights later) since. So it's obviously not the same as your catastrophe but in the same scary "what hell just happened to the battery" ball park. I'm kinda just "waiting for it" also.

Hope you're flying sooner than later.

Exactly the same happen for me, and I had to restart it to get the warning of. You deskribe in all details the same and I am glad that it was not in the air.
 
VMP,
Firstly, thank you for posting and I am truly sorry for your loss.
If anything, this incident reminds us to be more diligent in our pre-flight checks.

Even though the sudden failure of the battery is possible, but based on the facts that are presented, it is MORE PROBABLE that the battery came loose in mid flight.

I did some testing after reading your posts and have the following observations.
- liked you have demonstrated and also some of the other posts, IT IS possible to have the battery not completely put in and the phantom still powers up. It is a fine line, but when you are flying, it become a completely random event that can happen by chance.

- I can duplicate the critical battery error by not inserting the battery properly and wiggling the battery pack when it is on the ground without the propellers.

- If you insert the battery slowly, there is actually 2 clicks especially if you insert it with a slight angle. So if you hear the first click and stop, you are in trouble.

- Once it is LOCKED in with both to and bottom, it is almost impossible to shake it out without damaging the housing and the battery clips.

The evidence you presented is totally consistent with the theory of a partial inserted battery, that is
- your battery is lying outside of the craft at the crash site.
- you are able to power up the the craft again afterwards. Usually, if there is an intermittent connection WITHIN the battery, a drop like that will LIKELY make the connection worse and you will lose power completely.
- PULLING THE STICK ALL THE WAY BACK AT 26 MPH IS DEFINITELY NOT THE THING TO DO.
This sudden change in direction will make the battery come out even more and the backward flying will tilt the battery downwards causing it to come loose.
I BELIEVE THAT IS WHAT HAPPENED.

Is this a DJI design fault - PARTIALLY.
Will I or anyone do exactly the same thing under these circumstances as you did. VERY LIKELY before reading your posts.

WHAT WE LEARN FROM THIS INCIDENT IS THAT IF THIS IS TO HAPPEN TO ME IN MID AIR, PUT IT DOWN AS SLOWLY AS YOU CAN AND IF SAFE TO DO SO, RIGHT THERE ON THE SPOT.

So thank you for sharing again and hope that you do not give up on the phantom 3.
 
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I use Phantoms since 2.5 years, since the P1s and i had a preorder Phantom2 as well. The early Phantom2s had huge battery problems and many crashed because of a bad code from DJI. There copy protection was sometimes to harsh and the Phantoms went down like stones. I just doubt it that you can insert the smart battery wrong. The Phantom2 wouldnt even start its motors when you see 0.0V in the iOSD screen. I had this problem many times with my P2, after cleaning the data pins before every flight i never had this problem again.

The only thing i realized is that the P3 smart battery is way easier to remove compared to the P2. Even with the correct technic it is sometimes a bit hard to remove the P2 battery, without the correct technic it is nearly impossible sometimes. The P3 is totally different here, i think it is because the plastic shell of the P3 is more flexible.
 
VMP,
Firstly, thank you for posting and I am truly sorry for your loss.
If anything, this incident reminds us to be more diligent in our pre-flight checks.

Even though the sudden failure of the battery is possible, but based on the facts that are presented, it is MORE PROBABLE that the battery came loose in mid flight.

I did some testing after reading your posts and have the following observations.
- liked you have demonstrated and also some of the other posts, IT IS possible to have the battery not completely put in and the phantom still powers up. It is a fine line, but when you are flying, it become a completely random event that can happen by chance.

- I can duplicate the critical battery error by not inserting the battery properly and wiggling the battery pack when it is on the ground without the propellers.

- If you insert the battery slowly, there is actually 2 clicks especially if you insert it with a slight angle. So if you hear the first click and stop, you are in trouble.

- Once it is LOCKED in with both to and bottom, it is almost impossible to shake it out without damaging the housing and the battery clips.

The evidence you presented is totally consistent with the theory of a partial inserted battery, that is
- your battery is lying outside of the craft at the crash site.
- you are able to power up the the craft again afterwards. Usually, if there is an intermittent connection WITHIN the battery, a drop like that will LIKELY make the connection worse and you will lose power completely.
- PULLING THE STICK ALL THE WAY BACK AT 26 MPH IS DEFINITELY NOT THE THING TO DO.
This sudden change in direction will make the battery come out even more and the backward flying will tilt the battery downwards causing it to come loose.
I BELIEVE THAT IS WHAT HAPPENED.

Is this a DJI design fault - PARTIALLY.
Will I or anyone do exactly the same thing under these circumstances as you did. VERY LIKELY before reading your posts.

WHAT WE LEARN FROM THIS INCIDENT IS THAT IF THIS IS TO HAPPEN TO ME IN MID AIR, PUT IT DOWN AS SLOWLY AS YOU CAN AND IF SAFE TO DO SO, RIGHT THERE ON THE SPOT.

So thank you for sharing again and hope that you do not give up on the phantom 3.

Thank you very much for running those tests. I am sure that this information will be valuable to others also.

I agree with you that pulling back full throttle was not the smartest thing to do... It was the first thing that came to mind and didn't put too much thought behind it because I was afraid that it was going to drop right out of the sky. I know better now.

What bothers me a bit is the fact that I can put the battery in, hear it click, turn on the P3 with all of the checks being okay and still run into a problem like this. IMO, the P3 should have a sensor that knows when the battery is completely secure and that sensor provides some type of status to the DJI Pilot app so that it is not able to take off without the battery status being okay.

I have no plans on giving up on the P3, because if it was a design or hardware flaw, I would expect the manufacturer to handle this appropriately. And if it was my fault, then it is on me. I just find it difficult to swallow that after being so careful with this device, it still happened. I am not sure what I could have done differently.
 
One of my battery is 1 click type and the other one is 2 click type. The first one I got whith the PH3P is the 2 click type.

I got 6 batteries coming on Tuesday. I will test them out to see if they are the one click vs two click. I wonder if they noticed that the two click can cause problems and they re-designed that part of the battery to prevent accidents from happening.
 
Hmm. If the battery only popped out a wee bit, only the data pins would disconnect? Surely the main power pins would be in contact? The OP reckons that the props stopped totally.

Now unless the battery was hanging half out of the compartment, would that happen!

I don't know.

Yeah, they did stop in mid air. It was really weird when I saw it happen. I literally stood there with a blank stare in my face while it plunged down to the ground.

The battery was next to where the P3 landed. It did not come out of the P3 while it was free falling.
 
That "Cat Teacher" needs to learn to spell "you're" :D

Oh hughie, you can't help yourself! :D

image.jpg
 
One of my battery is 1 click type and the other one is 2 click type. The first one I got whith the PH3P is the 2 click type.


4 Batteries Checked 2 One Click and 2 are 2 Click
Looking over closely I cannot see the difference?
Has anyone with better eye's seen what makes the two click different?

And yes it was the new batteries I received that were 2 clickers.
 
So my P3P just fell out of the sky. I have one broken propeller, camera came right off, and so did the battery.
Picture of damage:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/c1nef6l6eyva6mp/IMG_3991.jpg?dl=0

As usual, I turned on the P3 and wait for it to get GPS connectivity before I take off. The P3 finished warming up and the status was green.

I started off by accending to ~390 feet and started going forward full throttle. When it was approximately 800 ft away from me, I got a "Critical Battery Error" or something along those lines. I can't remember because I know some other people have had a similar issue and immedialtely thought "Oh ****!!!, I need to bring it back ASAP". So I stopped moving forward and started to come back in reverse at about 26 MPH. When The P3 was 464FT away from me, it stopped and started to free fall. I was able to see that the propellers literally stopped moving as it came down full speed. I ran to the crash site and saw it on the grass just sitting there sideways. The battery was sitting on the ground powered on. The camera was a few feet away from where the P3 crashed.

Interestingly enough, as all of this was happening, I was not upset or sad. After seeing this same thing happen to others, I just figured it would happen to me sooner or later.

Some info about the P3 status:
Battery was at 94% when I got the Critical Battery Error.
The time window that show you how much flight time was left said 14 minutes.
I was flying in P-GPS the whole time.
At no point in time did I do the CSC thing. I just went forward on the right stick, saw the error, then went back on the right stick until it stopped and went down.
I did not have the memory card in the camera because I was just taking it around the neighborhood and did not plan on taking any pictures or video. I do however have the flight data and have uploaded to the cloud.

Some will probably say that maybe the battery was not in all the way. Well, that would be hard to believe in my case because I had to fight to get the battery out of the P3 each time that I needed to remove it so that I can charge it.

EDIT:
A little more info that I forgot:
I was running the latest firmware on the P3P, controller and battery. I have been on the latest since it came out.
I was one of the first people to receive the P3P, so it is not brand new and not my first time flying it.
I have a total of 4hr of flight time, 43 total flights, 177, 503FT flown, since I got it.
Every time that I put the battery in, it is all the way in.


Could you by chance change The Title of the Thread to Possible Battery Crash or similar? That way more Pilots will read, as it seems to have come down to battery and One Click vs 2 Click.
 

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