Phantom 2 Batteries Only Last 50 Cycles

[ianwood]

It seems that once you get in the range of 50 power cycles, the "intelligent" battery begins to fail. The primary symptom being shortened flight times and sudden drop in battery percentage on the newer firmware. There's also slight puffing.

I have purchased 7 batteries over the past year labeled 1 through 7. A few months ago, batteries 1 and 2 started to go bad right at 50 cycles. Now battery 3 with 55 cycles has exactly the same problem. And it's not for the lack of taking proper care of them!

So this battery that is advertised to last 200 cycles only makes it 50. Is anyone getting DJI to replace theirs? This is getting costly. I want the other 150 cycles on each battery that I paid for!

Who's ready to let DJI know they owe us the full 200 cycles? I think it's time for a new campaign!

P.S. If you have a bad battery, register it here:
http://www.phantompilots.com/threads/the-dji-bad-battery-registry.26733/

 

[robsquad]

i had 2 bad and both well below 50 cycles, mines in bits at the mo but will post up when i can read battery info on the one but the other got binned
both had allways been looked after and stored at 50%

 

[antares]

It seems that once you get in the range of 50 power cycles, the "intelligent" battery begins to fail. The primary symptom being shortened flight times and sudden drop in battery percentage on the newer firmware. There's also slight puffing.

I have purchased 7 batteries over the past year labeled 1 through 7. A few months ago, batteries 1 and 2 started to go bad right at 50 cycles. Now battery 3 with 55 cycles has exactly the same problem. And it's not for the lack of taking proper care of them!

So this battery that is advertised to last 200 cycles only makes it 50. Is anyone getting DJI to replace theirs? This is getting costly. I want the other 150 cycles on each battery that I paid for!

Who's ready to let DJI know they owe us the full 200 cycles? I think it's time for a new campaign!

P.S. If you have a bad battery, register it here:
http://www.phantompilots.com/threads/the-dji-bad-battery-registry.26733/

Hi ianwood, would be interested to know how you are taking care of the batteries... Me i have 5 batteries and killed the first one by own stupidity storing it always fully charged. Then i learned that it's better to keep them 50% charged and since then i never keep a battery fully charged. Even i discharge when i do not use it the same day. The 4 other batteries survived so far 80 to 100 cycles...

 

[N017RW]

I never expect any r/c LiPo to last more than 50-60 cycles before the flight time drops below usefulness.

And this is with batteries properly discharged (80% only) and balanced and charged with the proper CC/CV profile.
No telling how DJI does it with the smart system but judging just by monitoring the batt. voltage while charging it doesn't seem they use the proper profile.

 

[ianwood]

I suggest everyone who bought from sites like Amazon and B&H that allow for customer reviews, please write a review of the battery citing concerns with the limited number of cycles.

 

[shartlza]

Ian,

I say we start up a new campaign. You and I were some of the first to bring this whole issues up, with both my "Battery Issues" topic with 300+ replies and your "Bad Battery Registry" with 90+, as well as many others posting about battery issues. I just sent a battery back to DJI that had 50 discharges on it that was giving me a bad cell warning, so pretty much the lights on the P2 would just flash red. At about 45 i noticed the flight time started to decrease and the voltage would drop fast after it hit 50%. There batteries have a HUGE issue!!! I will see if DJI gives me a new battery, but i know i am outside of there 3 month warranty. I am going to buy a Limefuel battery and see how that work because at least they have a 1yr warranty.

 

[UrAwFuL]

I'm already puffing at <15 cycles..

 

[N017RW]

The 'smart' functionality, we all pay dearly for, is to protect the LiPo from misuse such as over charge and discharge, short circuits, and now extended storage above 50% charge so how else are they being damaged?

These are either low quality LiPos or are not being charged properly, or both.

Or... the 200-300 cycle expectency is a myth, legend, etc.

Where can I find language in the DJI Docs., literature, advert, etc. that states or implies the number of useful cycles to be expected?

I could only find the following:

"...Purchase a new battery after your current battery has been discharged over 300 times."

Found here- http://wiki.dji.com/en/index.php/Phantom_2_Vision+_Preparing_the_Battery

 

[Mako79]

I've had 4 out of the 5 batteries go back.
1 was defect from new.
3 puffy and less than 30 cycles.

2 was replaced under warranty and the other 2 I am waiting for a reply from my dealer.
one of the batteries replaced was a PH2-5200 (version 2) battery. I have 8 cycles on it and will monitor it and see any performance issues.

I have gone against my own words and now switched to aftermarket venom 5500 batteries. They offering 12mths vs DJI's 3mths.

Anyways, I will try and get the serial numbers.

 

[beeline]

This DJI battery business is what will ultimately drive me away from the company. Poor customer service I can handle but not something as crucial as the battery (a battery that's WAY overpriced to boot). Within a year surely we will have a viable alternative that won't hold us hostage to the batteries?

That being said, I have had a good experience with my one Limefuel battery.