P3S Acft battery menu, advcd settings, details,status, "Self-Discharge in storage" msg help

[bwheelz05]

Hello all, first post here. I am several months into my P3S and have played it careful thus far (will continue to do so)

In my second week of recovering from surgery, I am at the point now where I can begin to get out and about. So that means prepping to go fly the Phantom. I have charged both batteries but one is displaying the following message in the status section in the battery/advanced menu: "Self-Discharge in storage" in red letters.

So I flew the phantom in the back until I got the battery to 25% and recharged to 100%. Still have the same problem. I flew it for a second time and then charged to 100%, same message in the status section (Battery menu, advanced tab...) I would hate to loose my investment over a bad battery and rather not take a chance.

The battery hasnt been in its 'storage' state; needing me to 'wake it up' since I bought it. It only has 8 cycles. 100% life on it (5 Second press)

Might just buy a new one. Thoughts? Anybody seen this before?

Appreciate it

~Bryan 'Wheelz'

 

[solentlife]

Very strange ...

What sort of performance do you get from it ? It is worrying though as you have no idea what DJI Go etc. will do with it ...
Does the battery menu show the cell voltages ?

How old is it actually ? Did you buy it over counter or mail order ? If over counter - take it back to shop and talk to them .. if mail order try contacting them.

At least you have a good battery to use while waiting answers.

Nigel

 

[bwheelz05]

Hi Nigel,
The battery was manufactured July 2016. I bought it used with 2 cycles. (Seller claimed he sold p3s and purvhased p4) Worked fine with nothing noted until the other day.

I did not notice anything abnormal in the app during flight but wasnt looking to hard at volts either... i looked at healthydrones and it showed nothing odd on the battery. The last flight was only 13.5 min and the 'efficiency' of the particular battery was at 20 min. ... I did not notice any adverse performance.

Im takingg it out this AM so I will see if anything has changed. Might try a full(ish) discharge and recharge to full afterwards.

 

[solentlife]

Contrary to some people here ... I would be testing the battery in safe area and see what I get with it ...

Its a case of finding out what it does ...

I know from others that Litchi will fly with batterys and show no faults, where Go shows various 'items' ... and they don't have any problems ... in fact from many - I hear they only find out when someone plugs their battery into a machine with Go as the App !!

Nigel

 

[bwheelz05]

Wow how about that, the differences between the two apps displaying messages or not. Very interesting. I do not use litchi so I wouldnt know.

When I have such issues like this I fly in a baseball diamond at a large park with no one around which is not in use during the winter. I am good friends with the city worker who keeps the grounds up and I contacted him yesterday, he will meet me at the diamond and open it up for me this morning. Very nice.

Its a secure flying area with no people and I keep the acft within feet of me. Nothing more than that until I can get this sorted out. No response from dji either. ... they should know right?

But I did end up ordering a brand new dji batt for 110$ from a US dealer.

 

[solentlife]

Way to go ....

I have arrangement with local Airport - they are hardly used now that schedule services stopped. Today I was flying my Lancaster 4 engine bomber and my big Zlin Z50 aerobatics machines there.





Interesting - the Manager of the Airport says there will be a Model Show there in September including Drones ...

I'll be surprised to see how they get around the 'No Fly Zone' if people come with DJI gear .....

I'm trying to get in touch with the Organisers to get into the show !!

Nigel

 

[bwheelz05]

That would be swell, your rc acft look great! All my carl golbergs are still in storage, it been about 3 years since I flew my rc planes. I was going to start again in 2016 but work got in the way. Beautiful planes you have. Hopefully you can get into the fly event with no hassle.

UPDATE: First flight is complete with suspect battery. No messages at this time. Only the green connection ok msg. Warming up in the truck now. Will prepare for a second 'safety flight' then if all goea well, we will go for a third mid-range flight.

 

[solentlife]

Sounds like the 'battery board' needed a 'kick up the ****' to wake it all up ...

Good news.

Goldberg ... I had the Super Chipmunk with HB 70 in it ... back in the late 1980's ... sold it to a pal ...

Now I have over 50 various models all ready to go ... electric, Glow and Gasoline. Heli's, Multi-rotors, boats, EDFs', 3D, biplanes, scale ... just about most types !! oh and including water planes !

Nigel

 

[bwheelz05]

UPDATE #2: Second flight is complete and ..... the message is back. 13 min flight. Volts are good and no adverse behavior... hmmm

I will try to do a discharge/recharge again. No other signs of distress and the battery 'efficiency' on healthy drones says is SHOULD give me 22 min. Depending. Seems like a gamble though...

Well, so thats a bummer.

Anywhoo, yes I remeber the chipmunk, I had one my grandfather gave me and then I bought another to build. Then I built the eagle, eagle, 2, lil satan and the p-40 models.
Never flew electric though, never flew helis either until the phantom.

Going to finish off the other batteries then head home to charge up.

Appreciate the help/insight.

 

[solentlife]

OK ... questions :

1. What is temperature you are flying in ?

2. When you say 13mins - is that your flight time ? What was estimated time left and voltage state at end of flight ?

3. Did you go to battery menu in Go to see cell voltages at end of flight ? can you remember what they were ? If you can - I can tell you % of battery remaining ...

You can watch the power line under the title bar and have it display Volts as well ...
Second if flying in the cold - no way will you get the full minutes ... I get about 17 - 19mins max in temps of zero down to -5C ... and 15mins + lower temps than that. In fact because of experience with different electric models - I don't like pushing too far down especially in cold weather.

Please don't do discharges down to deep levels ... they do nothing for a LiPo and in fact contrary to some ideas - can damage a battery if not controlled properly - which DJI batterys - you cannot control properly.

Discharge down to about 20% or so - OK ... but the 8 - 10% DJI talk about - is even deleted from their latest battery Guidelines ... for VERY good reason.

Nigel

 

[bwheelz05]

Yes sorry should have been more clear: Its 32 F here now. My flight time was 13 min. All cell voltages hovered around 3.62. Never got below 3.4. (End of flight) But I was looking seldomly, 3,4 times.

Estimated time left was 6 min.

I was following the 20 day discharge via dji, but I make it a habit to land at 30% with a 3 day discharge via the app. Ill follownyour advice and not perfomr the 20 day discharge past 20%

I will be heading home here now, just finiahed up a good flight with the remaining batteries. I will charge the 'weird' battery and tope it off for a flight this afternoon. I might toss it (properly) if I have the message again this afternoon.

 

[120CCPM]

Just an idea, but try to change the self-discharge (storage) setting to a different value (like 10 days), use it a couple times, then change it back to 3 days. Also, is that battery on the latest firmware?

 

[bwheelz05]

Thats an idea. Will do. Ill change it before I head out this afternoon, fly it around then recharge; will see what it shows then.

Yes, latest firmware to my knoweledge. I updated the firmware to latest when I rxed it two months ago.

Ive been looking at the battery information on healthy drones but nothing of concern on that specific battery is popping out. Cell 1 is starting to deviate at .01 but all my batteries are about the same. Its efficiency is 18 min but that is to be expected in the cold weather this morning. Should be around 50 this afternoon when I head back out.

Now I have one battery that is showing red all thru cell 1 and deviates from.07v thru .10v. It is def a bad battery but I designate it only to bench testing duties. I dont think its a grand idea to be flying what that one.

I will report back with the 'weird' battery this afternoon.

 

[solentlife]

Yes sorry should have been more clear: Its 32 F here now. My flight time was 13 min. All cell voltages hovered around 3.62. Never got below 3.4. (End of flight) But I was looking seldomly, 3,4 times.

Estimated time left was 6 min.

3.62V under load is still with juice to go ... 3.62V after flight and rested is below respectable storage level of 3.75V
I would say you had another 3 maybe 4 mins left if the 3.62V was while flying. This gives total around 16mins ... personally I don't think that's too bad ... a little short but still not bad in zero conditions. It all depends on how you fly as well. Hovering actually beats hell out of batterys funny enough ... you'd think that only with a winged aircraft .. but the rotors in fact also work in motioned flight.

I was following the 20 day discharge via dji, but I make it a habit to land at 30% with a 3 day discharge via the app. Ill follownyour advice and not perfomr the 20 day discharge past 20%

Who ever wrote that 20 day crap was looking at sales !! All you do is use up cycles, potentially damage the batterys .... LiPo's do not recover from ANY damage whatsoever. And balance certainly has been shown to not occur at deep discharge as some claim.

I will be heading home here now, just finiahed up a good flight with the remaining batteries. I will charge the 'weird' battery and tope it off for a flight this afternoon. I might toss it (properly) if I have the message again this afternoon.

I would mark the battery as a short flight or setting up battery. When at home installing FW or doing diagnostics - why use a good battery ? Keep a rubbish one for that .... save the good for flights.

I have loads of LiPo's I use for testing motors, radios etc. Just because they don't fly anymore - doesn't mean they are finished.

Nigel

 

[bwheelz05]

Good information. I wont bother with the dji 20 day info anymore. I always land at or before 30% and rarely let the batteries get past 20%.

Although in an attempt to investigate what was happening with my battery, I did go to 20% with a top off. It is on the charger right now. Will give it one last 'go' this afternoon and will the suggestion of changing its disharge days. .. who knows.

New battery should be arriving on Sat the 4th.

 

[bwheelz05]

UPDATE#3: No joy, still have the message on the battery after this noon flight. Oh well--- like you suggested Nigel, I will delegate to 'bench duty' ::SIGH::

Again, the help/advice is always appreciated.

 

[Texas Gonzo]

I'm having the exact same issue, with 2 of my 3 P3S batts... the first to show this message was the original battery which came with the drone. Then I noticed it on one of my two aftermarkets (amazon sourced btw, the second one gives the "all ok" message as it should).

All 3 batteries were purchased in October of 2017, the OEM has 26 charge cycles, the aftermarkets both have around 15 cycles. I set my low battery warning to 30%, critical at 23%, and the self discharge for 10 days.

Typically I land at >20%, so no "deep discharges" should be causing this. I've tried charging to 100% several times now, which *should* kill that error, but it's still present. Cell voltages are spot on with each other as well.

While trying to figure this out yesterday, I got another error that said something about the performance being limited due to the battery. (I couldn't see or hear any difference from normal flight). I immediately checked the battery under GO while hovering, the voltage was still up around 3.9v, but it displayed that voltage value in orange numbers (also new to me).

This is the only thread I could find related to this, and no fixes posted so far... surely we're not the only ones to have this issue. At $100+ for an oem lipo, I would expect to see way more than 25 charge cycles before one starts to go belly up.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated y'all! When in trouble, ask the best, right? Happy droning everyone....