Battery Error with OEM battery

Keep your battery screen on when you fly the pack. sometimes a failing pack doesn't show fault until under load. The cell info should give you a good idea as to its health.
 
Keep your battery screen on when you fly the pack. sometimes a failing pack doesn't show fault until under load. The cell info should give you a good idea as to its health.

Thanks for the tip. However, when the battery error appears, it doesn't display anything for the cells. Even the battery percentage doesn't update when the battery error is showing in the status bar. For example, it's showed 62% when the battery error appeared, and by the time the battery error disappeared for a bit (minutes later), the battery percentage was below 30%. During that time, the percentage was locked at 62%. And like I said, there is no battery cell information, and it says "invalid battery" the entire time.

At any rate, I got my return shipping label today from DJI and I have sent the battery to them. I'm hoping for a fairly quick turnaround. I made an album with the screenshots and a short video showing the error for those that are interested. The battery error appears at about the 3:45 mark. So for the first few minutes, there is no error, but once it appears, it only goes away for very short intervals, at which point everything is green and looks good. I really think it's just some kind of communication error and not an actual problem with the cells. When the error goes away, everything looks good. When I check the cell status on the battery LEDs when the battery is out of the drone, all the lights show up. And it charges to 100% just fine. I'm hoping DJI doesn't tell me there is nothing wrong with the battery. I would be skeptical myself if I didn't have another battery that isn't having the problem at all.

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=Qy1nTWlub0hwRURScEg1SG1LclpFOHhzX2I0SVRR
 
I purchased a DJI refurbished Phantom 3 Standard and activated it on 1/17/17. A few days ago, I got a battery error in the status bar during flight, and when I clicked on it, it said "invalid battery". This is with the OEM battery that was included with my P3S. I contacted DJI online support, and they asked me if it was charging okay, which it is. The LED's also do not indicate a problem, so I was hopeful that it was just a random glitch. DJI told me to fly it again and take a screenshot if it happened again.

Today, I flew with the battery again after charging it to 100%. Shortly after takeoff, I got the same "battery error" message in the status bar and it again said "invalid battery". I decided to land, power off, remove and reinsert the battery, and try again. Same thing happened, but I kept flying because the Phantom seemed to be operating properly otherwise. The message would disappear and everything would turn green again, only to have it reappear again less than 30 seconds later. After a while, I got multiple battery error messages on the screen and I knew that was my cue to land.

I was just wondering if anyone has had this same problem and what could be causing it? Again, the LED's on the battery do not indicate a cell problem, and the battery is charging normally. I have initiated a warranty replacement and currently await the shipping label. But in the meantime, I wanted to educate myself a little better on the battery problem.

Here are the screenshots I took. The last one looks like it just spit out every battery error message possible, no?

View attachment 75962 View attachment 75963 View attachment 75964
Im currently having this problem only difference is my motors wont start says motor overload.. did you ever figure out the resolve. Any input would be gratefully appreciated
 
I am having strange battery errors coming up on odd flights for last few flights .... basically says battery zero ... or just locks on a % figure ... this iw with DJI and 3rd party batterys - makes no difference.

Android Nexus 7.

Happens mostly with Litchi .. and only occasional on Go 3.1.4 ...

Nigel
 
Discharge battery all the way and let the electronics reset inside the battery then charge it back up again? That is if you are still having issues with it..
 
Discharge battery all the way and let the electronics reset inside the battery then charge it back up again? That is if you are still having issues with it..

And what will that do ? apart from drain a battery to very low level ? Not the best to do to even your worst enemy's LiPo !!

Nigel
 
And what will that do ? apart from drain a battery to very low level ? Not the best to do to even your worst enemy's LiPo !!

Nigel

DJI smart battery is smart enough to not let you drain the cells dry so even when drained fully they aren't fully dead. Draining Phantom 3 batteries to below 8% will allow the smart tech in the battery to re align with the battery's chemistry.
 
DJI smart battery is smart enough to not let you drain the cells dry so even when drained fully they aren't fully dead. Draining Phantom 3 batteries to below 8% will allow the smart tech in the battery to re align with the battery's chemistry.
Not so sure about that. It did let me keep my P3 on sub 0% and below 3v. I immediately charged it at that point.
Electronics won't reset, they'll still have power to them. Only if they hibernate after 1 month of non-use does it cut power to the electronics requiring the charger to power back on.
 
Not so sure about that. It did let me keep my P3 on sub 0% and below 3v. I immediately charged it at that point.
Electronics won't reset, they'll still have power to them. Only if they hibernate after 1 month of non-use does it cut power to the electronics requiring the charger to power back on.
The goal wasn't to discharge completely dead but to discharge them enough to reset electronics that control how the battery charges. Sorry about the confusion.
 
Be careful with this deep discharge - the dji system only accounts for total voltage in its ops ... so it is easy for one or more cells to drop below the minimum charge level and suffer damage. There is a common belief which has been shown to be false - that deep discharging a) balances the cells and b) resets the board.

The battery has two main power contacts that come direct of the cells via the board. The only function the board does here is stop current flow at total voltage set points ... 17.4 (full charge), 15.4 (storage), and 12v (deep discharge).

Nigel
 
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Not completely true.
You can monitor the voltage of the individual cells in the battery menu.
As for shutting off at 12v, didn't happen for me on my P3A. It kept going down.
 
My point is that we cannot monitor / control the battery fully like any other lipo.
Going below 12v is definitely not a good idea ....3v per cell is regarded as the minimum safe discharge value as long as you charge back up to storage soon after.
You can go to 2.8v per cell but I would not advise this as a regular action. In fact I advise against it.

Let's consider the app monitoring cells .... let's say the battery cells start to unbalance during discharge .... how are you going to correct it ? The charge board on the battery certainly won't.

Nigel
 
You typically do not monitor let alone control discharge rate/ voltage on sealed multiple cell battery packs when using it in vehicle. Where balancing comes into play is during charge and phantom packs have that built in AND reports cell voltages on discharge. I suspect that is communicated through a serial link on the extra contacts.
In either platform, if you have a bad cell you may get equal voltage on charge but will likely start having differentials on discharge. There can be single instance situations where a cell gets out-of whack where discharging pack to normal low level then back to full will get things balanced again. Environmental conditions outside of cell issues may have caused the imbalance in that case but if a cell is genuinely bad, the pack will operate poorly no matter what.
Laptop batteries aren't much different than how Phantom batteries work. Laptop batteries also have electronics in the pack.
 
First vehicle packs are not same - and a vehicle has far more possibility to have full battery control hardware / software.

The DJI battery despite some people claims - does not correct balance issues as claimed.
The cell values are detected via the mini balance lead inside the pack. The lead only goes to the board and unless you break open the case - you never see it. All action of the board in discharge and its extremely poor balance function is dine by resistive discharge.
Discharge to deep level never balances any battery of any format, balancing is done at full charge level for very good reason. Trouble is DJI have decided that charge when it reaches 17.4v terminates before full balancing can be completed.
Myself and others I know - have all reported the same failure to balance.

Take note that I cannot find any actual statement by DJI that real balancing is performed. DJI just basically say it is 'intelligent' without specifying exactly what. On direct emails to DJI tech - the replies are nothing short of ridiculous where replies by different techs' give different answers ! No wonder so many people believe what in fact is not true.

Nigel
 
Last edited:
travisimo,

Did you ever get this resolved with the 'Invalid battery" issue. I am now getting the dreaded red 'battery error" warning on my DJI app during flight within seconds. I have replaced EVERYTHING, including main board, all four motors, compass, new gimbal, gimbal tape, and still my OEM battery showing battery error within seconds of flight. I do IMU calibrations, compass calibrations, gimbal calibrations, re-sink my controller, rolling back and downgrading firmware to 1.8 and 1.7, but still "battery error" and all my lights turn RED within seconds of flight. Please let me know if you got this resolved. Im thinking its a firmware upgrade bug, ver. 1.9

Phantom 3 standard, firmware 1.9

Mike

[email protected]
 
Did you leave the firm ware file to cams SD card or not? If not then the battery firm ware will not be updated and the battery is still invalid.
 

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