Anyone tried this Alternate Battery?
- Thread starter jdenkevitz
- Start date
ianwood
Taco Wrangler
jdenkevitz said:
Well, the price went down on it again. But, who knows if that battery is going to make your Phantom "bang good" when it craps out mid flight. Not worth $60. But it is good news as it will put some pricing pressure on DJI.
I would like to hear from anyone who has tried these batteries out for curiosity's sake. It really shouldn't be that difficult to duplicate the OEM battery and "SMART" system. Am I going to try it? Well no, but I still would like to hear from other more adventurous members! I don't think I'll be buying more until I run the life out of the 4 I have already.
I am the neighbor mentioned in this post. I own this exact battery and have had some issues possibly caused by it.
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11965&p=114091#p114091
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11965&p=114091#p114091
Thanks for the post, that's the kind of feedback we need. Too bad if failed and caused you grief!
I am posting this on behalf of wscherp above.... he is the owner of the quad but we frequently fly together.....
So I decided to document this a little more here in this thread because the quad is a Phantom 2 N.V.
So far we've had 2 complete power loss issues while flying with this "knockoff" battery. Both were in good flying conditions and under very tame flight conditions. I'm pretty sure both were while filming, I know for sure the second one was and I'm going to see if he (the owner) will let me edit them together and share them here.
The long and short is that for no known reason power completely shuts off, no visual low battery warning from the copter as far as LED pattern flashes or anything. I have seen it go into the first low power routine on one flight where I was flying it with the DJI battery.... No problems encountered on that flight.
The last power loss that happened, there was closer to 50% battery life left according to the assistant software and the LED's on the third party battery.
Inspecting the battery's stat's in the assistant software today did reveal something odd.... I shows battery life expectancy still at 100% and that it's discharge cycles are at zero. This battery has been used a number of times and should show some degradation.
The DJI battery reflects it's use properly. 97% life and 12 discharge cycles. The "knockoff" should reflect slightly less but similar stats.
Also while connected to the computer today, the suspicious battery caused the "Non DJI Battery" window to pop up and disappear quickly 2 times. It didn't stay, but we were able to read it before it went away. This happened with about 33% charge left on the battery.
Regarding the posts we've read about the DJI firmware blocking third party batteries with certain Phantom 2 behavior or indicator light patterns etc ... We have not seen this at all. The lights and routines of the quad behave exactly the same as with the DJI battery. Both on firmware version 2 and after we updated to version 3 recently.
We haven't removed the top of the body to check for loose connections but today with the third party battery installed I did tap and thump on it and the quad while connected to the computer to see if any shorts or power spikes or anything unusual was noticeable on the battery gauges and there was nothing out of the ordinary.
He and I suspect that maybe the mfg of this battery has found a way to fake the quad into seeing it as a real battery and in doing so some of the protections of a genuine battery are bypassed and or disabled. We're just guessing of course but have planned to do some testing to see if we can glean any more information. Both for our peace of mind and to benefit the community. We certainly don't intend to fly over anything populated and or risky with the third party battery and are even a little suspicious of the quad itself seeing as how all instances we;ve found here of sudden power loss had the original DJI battery installed. That part just makes it more confusing.
So I decided to document this a little more here in this thread because the quad is a Phantom 2 N.V.
So far we've had 2 complete power loss issues while flying with this "knockoff" battery. Both were in good flying conditions and under very tame flight conditions. I'm pretty sure both were while filming, I know for sure the second one was and I'm going to see if he (the owner) will let me edit them together and share them here.
The long and short is that for no known reason power completely shuts off, no visual low battery warning from the copter as far as LED pattern flashes or anything. I have seen it go into the first low power routine on one flight where I was flying it with the DJI battery.... No problems encountered on that flight.
The last power loss that happened, there was closer to 50% battery life left according to the assistant software and the LED's on the third party battery.
Inspecting the battery's stat's in the assistant software today did reveal something odd.... I shows battery life expectancy still at 100% and that it's discharge cycles are at zero. This battery has been used a number of times and should show some degradation.
The DJI battery reflects it's use properly. 97% life and 12 discharge cycles. The "knockoff" should reflect slightly less but similar stats.
Also while connected to the computer today, the suspicious battery caused the "Non DJI Battery" window to pop up and disappear quickly 2 times. It didn't stay, but we were able to read it before it went away. This happened with about 33% charge left on the battery.
Regarding the posts we've read about the DJI firmware blocking third party batteries with certain Phantom 2 behavior or indicator light patterns etc ... We have not seen this at all. The lights and routines of the quad behave exactly the same as with the DJI battery. Both on firmware version 2 and after we updated to version 3 recently.
We haven't removed the top of the body to check for loose connections but today with the third party battery installed I did tap and thump on it and the quad while connected to the computer to see if any shorts or power spikes or anything unusual was noticeable on the battery gauges and there was nothing out of the ordinary.
He and I suspect that maybe the mfg of this battery has found a way to fake the quad into seeing it as a real battery and in doing so some of the protections of a genuine battery are bypassed and or disabled. We're just guessing of course but have planned to do some testing to see if we can glean any more information. Both for our peace of mind and to benefit the community. We certainly don't intend to fly over anything populated and or risky with the third party battery and are even a little suspicious of the quad itself seeing as how all instances we;ve found here of sudden power loss had the original DJI battery installed. That part just makes it more confusing.
tizzl10 said:
It puzzles us why we wouldn't. Observe at 4:31 the factory equipment failing like a champ.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJvHRJwVkOk
That plus all the threads here about faulty firmware, compass's, the OEM battery having connection issues etc. "Trust" is kind of out the window.
Is it worth $20 more so you wouldn't even of needed to waste your time with this thread or spending time trying to figure out some strange problem that puts your $1000+ investment in jeopardy? In my opinion, yes, yes it is.
$20 ? Where do you buy your batteries?LuvMyTJ said:
I just bought 2 DJI batteries at $159 each.
I like to fly my Phantom more than I like charging the batteries. If I could have purchased 3 batteries for the $300 I'd be much happier. I'd also have $18 left over to spend on beer and a burger.
One thought if assumed the bang battery is adequate, but electronic section is not equal to DJI (I would think its a proprietary-patent protected thing), when DJI batt finally gives out, I may try swapping out the electronic board from DJI to Bang cells. I have had the DJI battery apart to dry out once and appears a fairly straigth forward job. Until then I will keep tabs on the reputation of the Bang battery performance. Its no good to put sub-par electronics on a good battery as well as putting the right electronics on a sub-par battery. Either way, I wish my Phantom had a rubber band wound propeller as backup so I can quit losing the darn thing. capt
I have ordered one of these for my P2V, I will let you know how it works out. Going to hover right above ground and see how long they last (they advertise 2 minutes longer flight time) and if there are any problems after multiple re-charge cycles.
Not arrived yet. But I must say all these negative reports are making me nervous, I might return it right away.jdenkevitz said:
how many actual people have had negative experiences? From another thread it looks like one person's neighbor had some issues.
As far as I know they made a recall for the first batch of these batteries due to a failure they discovered that led to these problems. It´s supposedely to be working now... maybe it´s worth a try.. who knows..
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2151582
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2151582
Aside form the loss of your Phantom consider the safety factor of having that untested battery in your home or shop. The manufacturing is questionable as seen by the recall. Lipo batteries can cause large fires. I store and charge all my RC batteries in steel ammunition cans as they are air tight & waterproof. Don't take chances with your family or property and store/charge your batteries safely.
Don't charge unattended...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3qGfocIOgM
Don't cheap-out on your gear...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEkewCjiDs0
Don't charge unattended...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3qGfocIOgM
Don't cheap-out on your gear...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEkewCjiDs0
Well the battery arrived & I've tested it now, and it doesn't even work! Quadcopter will fire up, but I do get invalid red lights once I turn on the transmitter and it refuses to start the motors. Inside the app it says 'Battery Invalid, invalid EMC' or something like that.
The battery wasn't a snug fit either & requires far too much force to remove from compartment, very annoying & hard on my fingers.
I've tried to study the battery to see if it says anything about batch number, but there's nothing to identify it.
At least in my case, this was a complete waste of time, I'm going to return it now for full refund.
The battery wasn't a snug fit either & requires far too much force to remove from compartment, very annoying & hard on my fingers.
I've tried to study the battery to see if it says anything about batch number, but there's nothing to identify it.
At least in my case, this was a complete waste of time, I'm going to return it now for full refund.
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