Phantom 2 goes into low battery mode to early. problem

[JPriami]

I have had my phantom 2 a few months now. Since February or March 2014. Ive flown it about 25-30 times since. Im now having a problem with it going into low voltage mode or whatever you want to call it. The back lights will start flashing red like the battery is critical and start to descend. The battery readout on my iosd mini readout to my fpv screen will show 50% or just under that. Plus the lights on the battery pack still have two bars lit up. So I can see its not at the critical level. in the assistant the critical or warning level is set to like 35% or something. So what the heck is going on? I dont want to fly if this thing is gonna trip out and start descending on 50% charge.

 

[Workshopscience]

you should go into the phantom assistant and change when your phantom goes into low voltage mode. Please check my youtube channel out: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGWi9t ... QYtc7r9Enw

 

[JPriami]

Change it to what? Its not set at 50%. I was just reading there is a long thread here about battery problems like this

 

[HarryT]

Sounds like a battery problem. Check what Phantom Assistant says your battery capacity is. Do you only have one battery?

 

[Zinnware]

What is your voltage reading at the time the low battery mode activates? I had two batteries go bad within a 24 hour period back on July 2. Both were purchased in February 2014 too. I since had them replaced by DJI for free and just received the replacements this week. See my previous post below that includes the video with iOSD info. Even more info can be found on this thread: "Re: BATTERY ISSUES (Early Autoland)??? POST HERE": viewtopic.php?f=19&t=17324&start=140


ZINNWARE's experience recorded on video back in July 2:

Autoland at 92%
I guess I am the latest victim to a bad battery. Mine will go into autoland just as it reaches 92% or about 1 to 2 minutes of hovering. I have a video that shows the battery level indicator go from full charge to zero from the DJI osd mini.
http://youtu.be/K8YaDtoFVi4

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8YaDtoFVi4[/youtube]

 

[HarryT]

you should go into the phantom assistant and change when your phantom goes into low voltage mode. Please check my youtube channel out: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGWi9t ... QYtc7r9Enw

You can't change the alert levels in the current Phantom firmware. I've looked at your YouTube channel and can see absolutely nothing relevant to the OP's question. Can you be more specific about which video is going to help him?

 

[4wd]

Change it to what? Its not set at 50%. I was just reading there is a long thread here about battery problems like this

Yes and yours is the classic symptoms by the sound of it, you might be able to get it replaced free, or just buy another.
At least they have dropped the price a little. The newer ones have bigger data pins which may or may not help.

You might try running it down below 8% and charging fully again.

 

[JPriami]

I ran it down to 7-8% yesterday. I thought that might help after reading a little. But later that day I flew it chasing RC boats over water. At 49% bam the thing starts flashing red and descending. So that didnt help. Who do I contact about replacing it? I bought it from b&hphoto online.

 

[ussvertigo]

Had exact problem, at 5 min would start red flashes and soon start trying to land. Still had 3 bars on battery, and would show full charge only after approx 30 min. I finally pulled battery apart and measured cell voltage and at least one cell was flat dead. Now under Phantom 2 Mods I am asking help to come up with a drawing for converting the smart battery cap to accept cheaper batteries. Hate to see it go to waste. It reads:

"Saw where someone offered to take your smart battery cap and modify to accept two 2800mah or 2700, batteries with plugs so use of multiple batteries could be used with the same smart cap. Batteries are carried outside body of Phantom, which is not ideal, but I want to get use out of the short lived P2 battery (55 cycles) now with a dead cell. Have 1 new smart battery, but this would provide some economical flying and a chance to tinker, can't leave anything alone. Have basic electronic skills and have removed all cells from smart cap circuit board. Based on how many battery failures users have encountered on this forum including me, it could be useful information to get something out of all those useless smart batteries. Thanks for any input, capg"

 

[JPriami]

Here is the info on mine

 

[JPriami]

I emailed dji Sunday evening. It's Monday evening. No reply.

 

[JPriami]

Here is the reply I get. Wtf?

Lisa.Zhu (DJI)
Aug 26 13:58

Dear Justin Priami,

Thank you for contacting DJI Technical Support.

Look from the screenshot, the battery has been used for 35 times, percentage of life is 89%. When the battery is working in 50% of power, the drone take off and fly in the sky, the power would descend to 30-35% as power is used on the propulsion. At this time, the low battery warning would be triggered.
This is affected by the lifespan. So my suggestion is fully charged the battery before fly to support a longer time fly.

Thank you for choosing to fly with DJI.

Best Regards

 

[4wd]

To be fair, I think that's partly a translation issue, she wants you to discharge it then fully recharge so as to hopefully maximise the charge it takes again.
On the other hand I suspect they are over-run with these just now and are staling.
There seems to have been a lot of similar reports the last few weeks.

 

[Buckaye]

I have been following these threads with great interest since I just got my Phantom on Saturday. I am wondering if anyone has noticed a pattern as to when the Phantoms were purchased and if that correlates to the battery issue. (wondering if there's a particular bad batch or if this spans multiple batches of batteries/phantoms). The reason I wonder this is because a lot of people are saying "I've had my Phantom for a couple of months" I doubt we can figure that out very scientifically. The other thing I haven't noticed is... is this a problem across multiple firmwares?

 

[JPriami]

I know im pretty pissed off about it. Is there anyone in the USA that works with DJI to handle this? I hate dealing with people that don't understand English.

 

[Buckaye]

I know im pretty pissed off about it. Is there anyone in the USA that works with DJI to handle this? I hate dealing with people that don't understand English.

I think just your local distributor where you purchased the item (from what I have seen on these boards).... sucks for me though... because I ordered through amazon so--- short of just sending a replacement, I won't get any technical help if I run into this issue.

 

[FedeVision]

My P2 is having this kind of issue too, did some tests with the gimbal off the P, and batteries (2, round pin) behaved normally, would anyone do this kind of test to check if you get the same result? please share your result and your P (gimbal and camera included) weight for comparisson.

My guess is that if a P is carrying a heavy load (1300 grs or near that), the motors and battery gets warmer/hotter in a faster way, and batteries have a temp sensor that triggers the autoland to prevent battery damage.