Invalid Battery on Phantom Vision..Advice needed.

[kingcat200]

Hi guys. After having 3 random emergency landings with my PV I emailed Dronefly and DJI. I received 2 different emails from them. I will post below. Any advice? Thanks.

From Dronefly

Hello John,
Sorry about your phantoms battery problems. This is a problem that DJI is aware about and is actively working to fix the problem. I will keep you updated with any and all most recent information I have regarding this issue.

Thanks,
Trent S.
Dronefly.com

From DJI

Dear,
Your this problem was very dangerous. You can't fly your coper. You must contact your dealer Dronefly to fix it. And let him help you to replace or fix this battery.
Thanks

[email protected]

I know I am beginning to sound monotonous but just as a reminder T Wang is the manufactures representative and the above is quoted from a very early post on this subject. At the same time he was giving this advice to some he was advising me to clean the small sensor contacts.
If you think I am becoming a pain on this forum, I am also being just as vocal to the manufacture on this subject, albeit with no response. May I politely suggest that any one who has had this problem contacts the manufacture directly to bring pressure to bear with numbers.
[email protected] Or http://www.dji.com/tech-support/report-problem/
Regards to All

 

[kingcat200]

One of the many communications I have sent to DJI


Hi

I recently purchased a Phantom Vision 2.

On my first flight I had the model perceive the battery was an invalid battery whilst in flight at 500ft after 6 mins of flight and the phantom was lost during the subsequent forced landing.

I was very lucky to recover the phantom vision. This fault was replicated intermittently many times on the bench afterwards. the Battery always had sufficient charge often more than70 %.

Whatever the cause of this problem may I suggest for safety you write code that once this alarm is activated IF AIRBORNE allow battery power to remain connected so that a fully controlled landing can be made IF NOT AIRBOURNE as is the case now don't allow motors to power up thus non proprietary batteries could not be used.


This is a real let down with the product as every thing else is brilliant. I have returned the product for a refund .

This is now a well documented failure on the Internet and I would like to own a vision however will not purchase one until this dangerous bug is fixed.


It would be appreciate if you could let me know if you implement the above fix or reach another solution so that I can purchase another Vision and fly with confidence as I do with the standard Phantom.

It would also be nice to have IOC mode and prop guards for the Phantom Vision.

Keep up the good work and I look forward to owning a Vision once you fixed the invalid battery bug.

Kind regards

 

[Studiowise]

One of the many communications I have sent to DJI


Hi

I recently purchased a Phantom Vision 2.

On my first flight I had the model perceive the battery was an invalid battery whilst in flight at 500ft after 6 mins of flight and the phantom was lost during the subsequent forced landing.

I was very lucky to recover the phantom vision. This fault was replicated intermittently many times on the bench afterwards. the Battery always had sufficient charge often more than70 %.

Whatever the cause of this problem may I suggest for safety you write code that once this alarm is activated IF AIRBORNE allow battery power to remain connected so that a fully controlled landing can be made IF NOT AIRBOURNE as is the case now don't allow motors to power up thus non proprietary batteries could not be used.


This is a real let down with the product as every thing else is brilliant. I have returned the product for a refund .

This is now a well documented failure on the Internet and I would like to own a vision however will not purchase one until this dangerous bug is fixed.


It would be appreciate if you could let me know if you implement the above fix or reach another solution so that I can purchase another Vision and fly with confidence as I do with the standard Phantom.

It would also be nice to have IOC mode and prop guards for the Phantom Vision.

Keep up the good work and I look forward to owning a Vision once you fixed the invalid battery bug.

Kind regards

well IMO you couldn't have been more civil or concise! Please post the response should you get one.

 

[kingcat200]

One of the many communications I have sent to DJI




well IMO you couldn't have been more civil or concise! Please post the response should you get one.

Thank you

I Sure will if ever I receive one

 

[Crimbo]

Hi all

I have had a response from my suppliers and they have passed on a procedure that dji are recommending to do,
see below, has anyone else done this procedure and with what success. I'm guessing not as there is no forum history suggesting this has been tried

For this alarm, here is the solutions:
1. Find the two small circle points on the battery, then clean them.
2. Find the two small pin on the connector with in the Vision’s craft after the battery is removed, then clean the pins.
3. After clean them, please kindly connect the Vision to the assistant software and check if alarm disappeared;
4. If no alarm, please start the trial flight in low height.
5. In case alarm remains on the assistant software or the Vision still has abnormal performance during the flight, like battery volume drop to 0% or height of the Vision’s craft dropped without operation on Throttle. Then please contact the dealer to replace a brand new one for you.
Thanks.

Best regards,
Tony Wang

 

[kingcat200]

Yes I have tried this and it is NOT I SAY AGAIN NOT a solution
So to some people Mr Wang is saying do not Fly whilst to others he is saying clean the contacts
I fear that it is probably a continuity problem between the battery and main controller that a simple line of code could fix.
So how do you know the contacts ore sufficiently clean for a trouble free high altitude long distance flight.

BRING PRESSURE TO BEAR ON MR WANG DO NOT FLY YOUR VISION IF YOU HAVE THIS PROBLEM

 

[TisiRaptor]

For those that have this problem - has it been there since day one, or have you had trouble-free flight (battery-wise) and then it started days into your PV ownership?

I ask because I don't have this issue, but I would hate for it to suddenly appear whilst the PV is 700 feet up in the air!

 

[Shedracer]

For those that have this problem - has it been there since day one, or have you had trouble-free flight (battery-wise) and then it started days into your PV ownership?

I ask because I don't have this issue, but I would hate for it to suddenly appear whilst the PV is 700 feet up in the air!

I initially had a few quick short flights in the back garden, in between the foul weather we have had, without the invalid battery warning, I thought I was one of the lucky ones. It was only when I went down to the field and had more extremely flying and taking it up higher, that I encountered the problem.

I was in touch with my dealer this morning, they also gave me the same advice as others have, direct from DJI, to clean the contacts and connect to assistant to check for error, then test fly. I'm not convinced this is a permanent solution, as it's always going to be in your mind, is it going to happen again! :shock:

To be honest, DJI should drop the idea of them only supplying the battery, get rid of the battery test, to see if it's a genuine DJI battery, as it's this system that seems to be causing the problem. The most important thing any P2V owner wants, is reliability and confidence in their craft.

 

[TisiRaptor]

Sorry to hear you've got the problem Shedracer. I have been lucky so far. Weather hasn't been too bad and I've been able to get out several times. Each time I have had successful flights with no issues, other than the camera issue I have started a topic about.

The battery issue is a real concern though, I took my PV up to just over 700 feet on the third flight, before I knew anything about this battery problem, that could have been disastrous!

So now I'll have to think twice about flying high if this problem could strike at any time. I suppose that's one of the downsides of being an early adopter (read - guinea pig) of new technology - we have to uncover all the issues that should have been sorted before it was released and just hope that we don't break/lose an expensive bit of kit because of no fault of our own (and if we do, that DJI will do the decent thing and accept liability and therefore replace the craft)! Reminds me a bit of the way Microsoft releases software - to be tested by the masses!

 

[kingcat200]

[

To be honest, DJI should drop the idea of them only supplying the battery, get rid of the battery test, to see if it's a genuine DJI battery, as it's this system that seems to be causing the problem. The most important thing any P2V owner wants, is reliability and confidence in their craft.[/quote]

I completely agree however as i have mentioned previously a firmware fix could be implemented immediately ie do not test for this fault once AIRBOURNE

 

[Crimbo]

I have just sent this to my suppliers in response to the advise sent by dji

Thank you for the quick response,

I have read the dji response and quite frankly it almost seems irresponsible of them.
This is a brand new machine and should not require cleaning and with what ?
Also what happens if the contacts get ' dirty' again, we drop out of the sky wherever we are positioned !
I assume you keep your ear to the ground and are aware of the comments on the dji phantom forum, there are some very valid points raised and before I have the confidence to re-launch I would need to know that dji through yourselves would replace the Vision if damaged, let alone the responsibility for possible 3rd party damage.
If you fly a Vision and the error occurs you will understand the concern I'm sure.
Possibly the message dji sent you was their initial response from the first issues reported and have back tracked from that statement. It really does appear to be more of a software issue with dji protecting their future spare battery sales, they need to remove the inflight testing aspect of the software immediately , we can at least begin to enjoy what appears to be a great machine.
Others on the forum are still waiting responses to their emails from dji, they only appear to want to deal with their distributors.

Please advise

 

[kingcat200]

Well done Crimbo they will have to listen eventually

 

[HollyFlier]

I got my Vision last Tuesday. Have had several flights with no battery issues. I am very pleased with it so far, but this battery issue has me very concerned. The one thing I did notice is that when removing the battery, it is a very tight fit in the housing. I actually installed the battery, thinking it was fully seated. Just to make sure, I pulled on the battery and it was not fully latched in place. That got me thinking, could the invalid battery warning be caused by battery that is not fully seated? Because it is such a tight fit, the battery would be fine initially, but during flight could back out, causing a loss of contact on the 'smart' sensor, but not the main connector. Have not had time to test this theory, but it sounds feasible. Any thoughts?

 

[Crimbo]

I think you may well have a good point, as although the sensor is causing the error to occur, it has to be triggered by something.
as previously discussed the seemingly easy solution is to remove the sensor scanning during flight, with a possible battery cradle to support fully. the first time the fault occured on mine was after a 300ft climb, second time was with far less movement involved.
We eagerly await !

 

[Pull_Up]

I'm wondering about that, too. I've had no issues either and my battery, too, is a tight fit. It actually needs a good strong grip to get it out, and a firm press to click it home when inserting. I don't know if it's meant to be this tight but maybe that's doing a good job of keeping those contacts firmly pressed together in flight?

 

[kingcat200]

Hi having suspected this was the case I was fastidious about installing the battery, but would still get random faults on the bench, with no motors running and hence no vibration.Maybe it may be a heat problem on the battery logic board.
Nethertheless I am with Crimbo on this whatever the Hardware problems don't allow the software to remove power in flight with this problem as the craft can still be powered by the substantial main connectors.
This would enable a safe controlled landing to be performed .
Any Hardware issues could be sorted in the fullness of time.
I am glad that their are people out there enjoying this great product without this problem, however to new customers my advice is keep it close and low for the first few flights until integrity of your Quad Battery combination can be ensured.

 

[rwalt]

So when this occurs, it defaults to the 2nd low voltage alarm and goes into the emergency landing operation. GOOD!

What is good about an emergency landing when you are a long way away at altitude with 70 % Battery power left this BAD VERY BAD this can occur at any time without warning DO NOT FLY ONCE YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED THIS FAULT

Good because it does not fall out of the sky, making a dangerous situation potentially catastrophic. No, I will not fly this bird far away from me until they resolve the issue, it is very dangerous.

 

[Driffill]

I want to buy a vision, just so I can use an aftermarket battery with it!

It may require a resistor etc to be soldered onto the sense terminals, or even an I2c chip with the correct ID programmed onto it . . . Either way, there is a way to do it!

Anybody with a phantom vision, and some programming knowledge should be able to capture the data that the battery sends to the naza. Once we can replicate that, the Chinese can start pumping out vision batteries

 

[PhantomFan]

Wow...I just finished reading all seven pages of this thread and watched a couple of the videos demonstrating the problem - and I don't even own one. ****!!! Such a bad problem on such a cool machine... :evil:

PF

 

[itsmecarl123]

Just wanted to add to this post. I've had the DJI Phantom 2 Vision for 3 days. I JUST experienced this issue while filming at around 250ish feet above a high school football stadium. There was a band performing… Fortunately I was far enough away to get the craft down safely without hurting any kids. This could have ended badly and I imagine similar incidents if filming by a beach front, park, etc.

I'm super paranoid to fly this thing again in fear of it just dropping out of the sky.

After I got the quad down.. I did remove the battery and gave it a good "Nintendo cartridge" blow to remove any dirt that may be interfering with the pins. I didn't experience the issue again and I'm not able to recreate the issue. However, it's very disconcerting to know that the issue could pop up anytime. Can you imagine this happening over water? Bye bye $1200.

I'm mostly posting so that I can be notified of any developments. I'd much rather have a recall than risk flying this thing and risk hurting someone.

Best