Hi:
We had some issues with TB50 batteries. Three sets where one of the batteries showed 0% even though the battery menu showed all the cells with healthy voltage
Of course we did not used that set. And once the issue appeared mid air, the RTH launched at 66% as the bird thought it was flying with one battery only.
The batteries were 100% at take off and showed 0% a couple of minutes after take off. Temperature was OK and no other error was shown before the issue.

After asking DJI about the issue, the answer was: if it´s beyond warranty period, just buy new ones...
After that, DJI published that a small number of TB50/TB55 were showing incorrect voltage levels. And the cure was the new .0300 FW:
We updated the Inspire 2 and every battery. Went flying:
the sets that showed 0% in one battery, now show N/A IN BOTH BATTERIES. Same situation: took off with 100% of charge and a couple of minutes later, it was N/A. Scary. We were doing a high shot over some people and the warning was CRITCAL LOW BATTERY WARNING: landig gear down and start going down. I was able to bring it home, but it was not a funny situation.
Tried the other batteries and suddenly the issue appeared in five more sets. N/A in one or two of the batteries.
What the hell is going on??? Nobody with this situation here? Found at least a user in a group of Facebook that had the same issue


https://www.facebook.com/photo.p ... ype=3&theater&ifg=1

Nobody having this same issue?

Airking Pilot Posted at 12-1 22:23
Nobody having this same issue?

I have 4 sets of batteries and have never seen this issue. Does it appear in the same battery position every time? I'm wondering if in your case it is Inspire 2 it's self.

Regards,
Tom

Airking Pilot Posted at 12-1 22:23
Nobody having this same issue?

I have 4 sets of batteries and have never seen this issue. Does it appear in the same battery position every time? I'm wondering if in your case it is Inspire 2 it's self.

Regards,
Tom

dldp-sp Posted at 12-2 03:08
I have 4 sets of batteries and have never seen this issue. Does it appear in the same battery position every time? I'm wondering if in your case it is Inspire 2 it's self.

Regards,

Of course it´s not the Inspire
It is something regarding battery software/drone FW combination. As I said, it shows 0% with .0100 and N/A with .0300. Same battery. Different FW
And batteries that had no issues suddenly fail after upgrading to .0300

And I´m not the only one saying that had multiple set failing


https://www.facebook.com/photo.p ... p;theater&ifg=1

Shawn Lamm‎DJI Inspire 2 / Drone Owners Network
Seguir · 26 de noviembre ·

Heads up.... BATTERY SAFETY ISSUE

Firmware update did not fix battery issues for inspire 2 I had multiple sets fail today.

DJI Support thoughts?


Ale Reynoso And suddenly ten batteries fail? just after upgrading to .300
Nothing make sense.
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Ale Reynoso
Ale Reynoso All of them just older than six months. May 2018 with just over of 20 cycles
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Ken Booth
Ken Booth You said they were bad on .100?
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Shawn Lamm
Shawn Lamm Ale Reynoso exact same problem
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Shawn Lamm
Shawn Lamm I have the same exact problem EXACT same problem. Been going round and round with DJI. All semi new Batts!!
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Shawn Lamm
Shawn Lamm I'm so freaking frustrated.
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Shawn Lamm
Shawn Lamm Ken Booth there is a real issue that's faulting all these batteries

Airking Pilot Posted at 12-2 07:33
Of course it´s not the Inspire
It is something regarding battery software/drone FW combination. As I said, it shows 0% with .0100 and N/A with .0300. Same battery. Different FW
And batteries that had no issues suddenly fail after upgrading to .0300

Could someone from DJI please explain?
.0300 should fix the problem with the batteries, not kill the remaining batteries
If this is a strange / rare behavior PLEASE SEND US THE FIX OR REPLACE THE BATTERIES
It´s not fair to say "they are older than six months, buy new ones". We suddenly lost 13 batteries. In the middle of a job. So if we cannot trust more than six months in DJI equipment, it´s a risky bussines.

Now this is going to be a l o n g  shot probably, but....

Check on the app for the drones name after linking up, but before spinning up motors. Try that each time for awhile (maybe you already do?)

On both of my inspire 1s , every now and again all will look proper, but the name is blank. If I foolishly didn’t check and take off then I’ll get all sorts of crazy readings, dropped links, battery screwed reading, etc.

Been on my preflight list for quite awhile now to ALWAYS check that proper name is there.

Again, long shot, but while you’re trouble shooting...

Good luck !!

Ah nice, more issues with firmware .300
Seems that is the worst firmware since... .200 ?

Could it get any worse? Is firmware .400 just going to make I2 catch fire or fall out of the sky? Only time will tell...

We tried what DJI says: let the batteries rest for 72 hs to fix them with the .0300 update. They work fine for the first run. When we recharge them and try to use them in the field, they drop to 0% as they did previously. The fact is that with .0100, we had two sets, one battery in each set that showed "0%". Now, right after upgrading to .0300, we suddenly have six sets, 13 batteries that are unusable. What the hell is going on???

When they drop to 0%, the Inspire does not RTH but tries to descend in the same place it is as it detects "critical low battery". Really dangerous as seconds before the remainig battery was close to 90%.

Airking Pilot Posted at 12-3 20:59
When they drop to 0%, the Inspire does not RTH but tries to descend in the same place it is as it detects "critical low battery". Really dangerous as seconds before the remainig battery was close to 90%.

Sorry for your battery problems, but it would be helpful to use battery voltage rather than %, the indicated % is only an indication, the voltage is the critical measure of charge.

Interesting, following

Cougar1 Posted at 12-4 05:37
Sorry for your battery problems, but it would be helpful to use battery voltage rather than %, the indicated % is only an indication, the voltage is the critical measure of charge.

Well Cougar1, tell that to the Inspire. It´s the drone who reads "low batt" at 70% of the remaining battery and RTH or just land in place reading "Critical low battery" when both batteries shows 0%. The app still shows healthy voltage, but the drone doesn´t want that. Obviously there is an error somewhere and is driving us crazy. We had four sets failing the same afternoon just after upgrading to .0300. The news is that today a battery purchased in August failed the same way: showed 0% when displaying the same voltage as the other showing 90%...

I will try to give all the details to dji support to find out what´s going on. It´s not normal behavior

From what I'm seeing, it's only the newer TB-50 batteries that experience this. Mine are going on two years old and I've had no issue with all 30 of them. I tagged some more yesterday and noticed they had a different indentation where the battery lights were. Five of the six rented batteries that were the new version were all bad. Four the other four without the newer battery light all worked fine. DJI must have changed something in the newer batteries that is causing this.

My understanding is that firmware .300 isn’t supposed to correct battery faulty readings in any way - it only protects the aircraft from midair battery shutdown by recognizing faulty battery states when protection kicks - then motors won’t start or it will go into RTH or make critical emergency auto landing... Nevertheless, none of these protections correct battery faulty state.

If battery has any kind of problem with its cells or with “smart capacity monitoring” electronics  - that problem will remain the same with .300 firmware and battery is no longer fit for use. Firmware .300 will only protect you against sudden crash by avoiding faulty batteries.

DrMrdalj Posted at 12-4 22:46
My understanding is that firmware .300 isn’t supposed to correct battery faulty readings in any way - it only protects the aircraft from midair battery shutdown by recognizing faulty battery states when protection kicks - then motors won’t start or it will go into RTH or make critical emergency auto landing... Nevertheless, none of these protections correct battery faulty state.

If battery has any kind of problem with its cells or with “smart capacity monitoring” electronics  - that problem will remain the same with .300 firmware and battery is no longer fit for use. Firmware .300 will only protect you against sudden crash by avoiding faulty batteries.

May be. DJI is saying this would fix them. We had problems with two or three pairs where one of the batteries suddenly showed "0%".
When we updated to .0300, suddenly six pairs showed "N/A" in one or two of the batteries (most pairs in both batteries). And yesterday another pair, purchased in August 2018, failed (0% in one battery). All of them failed midflight, minutes after take off. If .0300 is overprotecting the drone, then DJI is still selling faulty batteries, as this FW voided now 14 of them. 12 of them were flying just fine with .0100.

TheMightyThor Posted at 12-4 19:59
From what I'm seeing, it's only the newer TB-50 batteries that experience this. Mine are going on two years old and I've had no issue with all 30 of them. I tagged some more yesterday and noticed they had a different indentation where the battery lights were. Five of the six rented batteries that were the new version were all bad. Four the other four without the newer battery light all worked fine. DJI must have changed something in the newer batteries that is causing this.

What do you mean with different indentation light? Can you identify an older series?

The best thing would be to put those batteries in a different drone and see if the behavior repeats or corrects itself.  My first thought is that its something in the Inspire that's malfunctioning.  Voltage sensing, CPU, firmware or a combination of the three.  All those batteries gone bad, hard to believe and definitely a lot of money on the scrap heap.

Anokadrone Posted at 12-5 12:19
The best thing would be to put those batteries in a different drone and see if the behavior repeats or corrects itself.  My first thought is that its something in the Inspire that's malfunctioning.  Voltage sensing, CPU, firmware or a combination of the three.  All those batteries gone bad, hard to believe and definitely a lot of money on the scrap heap.

We sent those batteries to another drone we have running 01.010.0100. The same thing. 0%
As everything points to the batteries, and we lost ten batteries in one week, we just want DJI to support customers who have spent thousands of dollars in their equipment and replace the batteries. It´s fair. Most of them are out of the six months warranty period, but everything points to faulty batteries. Even one pair that was purchased in August failed the same way: 0%.

Airking Pilot Posted at 12-5 18:35
We sent those batteries to another drone we have running 01.010.0100. The same thing. 0%
As everything points to the batteries, and we lost ten batteries in one week, we just want DJI to support customers who have spent thousands of dollars in their equipment and replace the batteries. It´s fair. Most of them are out of the six months warranty period, but everything points to faulty batteries. Even one pair that was purchased in August failed the same way: 0%.

But everything points not to the cells, as they seem to be just fine reading the voltages. And every time we had "0%" or "N/A", even in both batteries, we could bring the drone save home even though it was sometimes a couple of hundred meters away. There is some kind of communication error. When reading "N/A", the drone still have power to RTH, and when reads "0%", all the cells voltages reads like an almost full battery.

Yes, that makes sense, a communications error.  Strange how DJI is pretty quiet about this.  Sure does point to the new batteries.  I wonder how widespread that problem is.

Could be communications error, but doesn't explain why the LED on the batteries drops from four to one light so quick.  I'd think that would be separate from the communication part with the drone.  Something must be in error with the batteries or their firmware someplace.

I'm personally not a fan of the intelligent batteries and wish they'd use just a battery (Like the old S1000.) and some smart charger to track and maintain them them.  RC people have been doing it that way for decades and still are using batteries about as old.  Six months for a DJI battery is pretty poor, imho, and why it's best not to buy a bunch at once and instead spread their purchase out so you don't have them all fail at once and be out of the short warranty.

fansa84fe8a4 Posted at 12-6 06:22
Could be communications error, but doesn't explain why the LED on the batteries drops from four to one light so quick.  I'd think that would be separate from the communication part with the drone.  Something must be in error with the batteries or their firmware someplace.

I'm personally not a fan of the intelligent batteries and wish they'd use just a battery (Like the old S1000.) and some smart charger to track and maintain them them.  RC people have been doing it that way for decades and still are using batteries about as old.  Six months for a DJI battery is pretty poor, imho, and why it's best not to buy a bunch at once and instead spread their purchase out so you don't have them all fail at once and be out of the short warranty.

Yes. That´s right. The "0%" battery keeps one led blinking only. Internal error. The cells power and control pins give full voltage to the drone (that´s why the app can read the voltages and they are all OK and the drone can fly), but the battery itself thinks it´s empty.

fansa84fe8a4 Posted at 12-6 06:22
Could be communications error, but doesn't explain why the LED on the batteries drops from four to one light so quick.  I'd think that would be separate from the communication part with the drone.  Something must be in error with the batteries or their firmware someplace.

I'm personally not a fan of the intelligent batteries and wish they'd use just a battery (Like the old S1000.) and some smart charger to track and maintain them them.  RC people have been doing it that way for decades and still are using batteries about as old.  Six months for a DJI battery is pretty poor, imho, and why it's best not to buy a bunch at once and instead spread their purchase out so you don't have them all fail at once and be out of the short warranty.

Yes. That´s right. The "0%" battery keeps one led blinking only. Internal error. The cells power and control pins give full voltage to the drone (that´s why the app can read the voltages and they are all OK and the drone can fly), but the battery itself thinks it´s empty.

fansa84fe8a4 Posted at 12-6 06:22
Could be communications error, but doesn't explain why the LED on the batteries drops from four to one light so quick.  I'd think that would be separate from the communication part with the drone.  Something must be in error with the batteries or their firmware someplace.

I'm personally not a fan of the intelligent batteries and wish they'd use just a battery (Like the old S1000.) and some smart charger to track and maintain them them.  RC people have been doing it that way for decades and still are using batteries about as old.  Six months for a DJI battery is pretty poor, imho, and why it's best not to buy a bunch at once and instead spread their purchase out so you don't have them all fail at once and be out of the short warranty.

I think the intelligent battery system is a good thing. Intelligent RTH, etc. But here there is some kind of error here. We think it as a virus: all the batteries we have, at least the newer ones, we are still using older ones with no issues, seems to get "infected" and give this error. Anyway, by the time this is sorted out, we want DJI to replace all of them. We lost almost USD 2000 in one week. Most if there are only "a small number" of faulty TB50. This wouldn´t hurt DJI.

It definitely sounds like an issue with software instead of hardware. Without access to raw data from the intelligent battery system you're a bit limited.

As much money as it will cost you to not operate, I would never fly over people with batteries malfunctioning like that (even if it's legal in your country).

Looks like another unfortunate case of DJI doing nothing to directly help a customer.

Software updates should cause the warranty period to reset to zero.  After all you put a new part in a car and that part has a six-month warranty, why should software be different.

Airking Pilot Posted at 12-5 18:35
We sent those batteries to another drone we have running 01.010.0100. The same thing. 0%
As everything points to the batteries, and we lost ten batteries in one week, we just want DJI to support customers who have spent thousands of dollars in their equipment and replace the batteries. It´s fair. Most of them are out of the six months warranty period, but everything points to faulty batteries. Even one pair that was purchased in August failed the same way: 0%.

Is there any functional difference between "o%" and "N/A"? I don't see any crucial functional difference regarding battery health, while N/A seems more truthful. Actuality there is problem  with the battery which doesn't provide  reliable capacity info - so capacity is not 0% as actually it is unknown capacity. So, new firmware just makes thing a bit more clear.
Nevertheless, that doesn't solve your problem. with the battery.

DrMrdalj Posted at 12-6 13:10
Is there any functional difference between "o%" and "N/A"? I don't see any crucial functional difference regarding battery health, while N/A seems more truthful. Actuality there is problem  with the battery which doesn't provide  reliable capacity info - so capacity is not 0% as actually it is unknown capacity. So, new firmware just makes thing a bit more clear.
Nevertheless, that doesn't solve your problem. with the battery.

With "0%" you still can read each cell volatge and see that the drone is drainig power from the battery. At least to analyse the situation afterwards. With "N/A" you can´t tell anything. Anyway, not either of the situations make the drone safetly flyable. We land as soon as we detected this problem. The afternoon we updated to .0300 was like: "sh.t! another pair failed! and this time shows N/A! And another! And another! And another!..."

Have you tried viewing a DAT file in CSVview (or similar).  There's a load of battery data available there - it may point to the problem or the area to investigate.  You could compare good with u/s units and so on.
Just a thought - I hope you get it sorted soon anyway.

GeoffG Posted at 12-7 00:26
Have you tried viewing a DAT file in CSVview (or similar).  There's a load of battery data available there - it may point to the problem or the area to investigate.  You could compare good with u/s units and so on.
Just a thought - I hope you get it sorted soon anyway.
[view_image]

That seems as very good idea. It may be that DAT contains more info on N/A batteries despite the info is missing In Go app.
Could you be kind to share your workflow for exporting DAT to CSV? It may be very useful to many people, including myself.

Yes, of course, pleased to do that.

Use DJI Assistant to save the DAT file(s) to PC or Mac.  
Download CsvView programme and execute it.  Make sure it is CsvVew, not CSVviewer, as this does not seen to open DAT files.
Import the DAT file you need by clicking in the top box and navigate to your file; examine the data.
Open a Sigplayer (use the empty one, for example).  This will give you a blank graph.  From the menu choose Pick Signals
There is a huge amount of data available, some of which is beyond my understanding!

What a nightmare to lose so many batteries in such a short time, how many users are suffering this issue?

GeoffG Posted at 12-7 15:33
Yes, of course, pleased to do that.

Use DJI Assistant to save the DAT file(s) to PC or Mac.  

Thank you for this helpful tool.

Hello,
I had the same exact issue!
With this firmware updates all of a suden my batteries are all doing the "communication error" showing the N/A after a few minutes in flight

So what's the next step for you @Airking Pilot?
How many batteries have been killed? You going to go out and buy new ones and cross your fingers that they dont break too?
Is the Inspire 2 even worth the headache anymore or should people just abandon it at this point and take the Phantom (or even Yuneec at this point).

It has been 6 months of WORSENING firmware update, since V100 things got worse and worse and worse.
I remember LAST YEAR that I had issues shooting RAW (purple frames)
This was fixed in v100 I believe, it is of course back now in v300 from what I read.

no end in sight, no response from DJI. They know that this is a failing project at this point.

TheMightyThor Posted at 12-4 19:59
From what I'm seeing, it's only the newer TB-50 batteries that experience this. Mine are going on two years old and I've had no issue with all 30 of them. I tagged some more yesterday and noticed they had a different indentation where the battery lights were. Five of the six rented batteries that were the new version were all bad. Four the other four without the newer battery light all worked fine. DJI must have changed something in the newer batteries that is causing this.

I'm curious about how you can tell the difference between an older battery and a newer battery design?

Do you have photos that show what is maybe a Generation 1 battery that works, verses a Generation 2 battery that fails sooner?