Hi Folks,

I just wanted to share a strange experience I had yesterday in case there is a problem with the battery software.


I was preparing to go out on a shoot and, knowing that I hadn't used the batteries for a week or so, I thought I'd better check them. Here's what I did in order:

1) Pressed the button of each of my 3 batteries once, and two of them showed fully charged, and the third showed about half full.  This is what I expected.
2) Following the advice on this forum and other sources, I plugged all three batteries into the chargers.  The one batterie that was about half full started charging back up to full again, and the other two did not light up.  Again, this is what I expected.
3) Then, once charged, I wanted to check something with the camera and the app, so I put in a random battery, and it so happens that it was one of the batteries that was showing fully charged.  
4) When I turned on the I1 and it finished it's startup business, but still in travel mode, the battery showed about half full.
5) I then plugged all the batteries one after the other in the I1 and turned it on.  
6) Both the batteries that were previoulsy showing as full, were now showing as about half full when you press the battery button.
7) I plugged all 3 batteries back into their chargers and the two that were originally full proceded to charge from about half full to fully charged.

In summary, 2 of my 3 batteries showed that they were fully charged when interrogated using the button on top.  Also, they would not charge.  Then, once installed in the I1 and the I1 powered up, the batteries appeared to update, and suddenly the lights reflected the real charge state and allowed charging to start.

It is probably worth fitting the batteries in the I1 and powering it up before charging them if you haven't used them for a time.  I am guessing that they started to discharge automatically, but the charge level is not updated until they are plugged into the aircraft...  What is important - for me, at least - is that I couoldn't charge them to full during my preps without first powering them up in the aircraft.  I didn't actually know this and so if I had gone out for the shoot, I wouldn't have 3 fully charged batteries like I thought.

Anyway, 3x successful flights followed without issue as usual.

I'm on firmware 1.3.0.0

What do you guys think?

Cheers

Roastie

If a battery will not charge initially, when indicating fully charged, as in your situation you can turn the battery on while on the charger and if it will take a charge then it will start charging. Not sure though if it will update the lights to indicate that it wasn't fully charged as initially indicated.

remltr Posted at 2015-8-31 18:34
If a battery will not charge initially, when indicating fully charged, as in your situation you can  ...

Ah this I didn't know either - and is far quicker than installing them in the aircraft and firing everything up.  
So, this means that when charging, and they don't charge because they appear to be full, turn the battery on with the button and see if charging starts.  If not, they really are full...

Roastie