fans5f84e502 Posted at 2018-3-24 04:06
Hey everyone, thank you for your help. I found it this morning! It was on the south side of the fence a couple feet away from the fence among some tall and very thorny bushes. It was much easier and safer to look in the daytime, compared to wading in the dark last night with a weak flashlight. It didn’t go far (if any distance at all) after the last video or GPS signal, which had it pointing south away from the fence, so it must have just hit the bushes at 5-7 feet and fallen softly. Now I have it folded and in a box of rice since it stayed out overnight. It was outside for 12 hours between 25 and 45 degrees F. I will update customer service. Let me know what else I should do, thanks!

Glad you found it.
Unless it rained when it was above freezing, chances are nil of any damp weather damage.

Thank you!

fans5f84e502 Posted at 2018-3-24 05:07
Are there more battery failures out there due to the firmware update?

Mine was on old firmware, when problem occurs.
Link

Found on MavicPilots
Actually she didn’t fly all that badly, for a ways out before video  started failing-probably because the feet weren’t down. But the scariest  thing was once I hit about 30% I started back. All of a sudden she read  0% battery and immediately started auto landing over a tree and I  couldn’t stop it! Somehow, either by drifting in the wind, or maybe  lower object sensing she landed a ways out in my front yard. Checked the  battery readings and all three levels were halfway and green. Turned  off the bird and back on and battery showed 30% again!


Powercycling drone gets battery reading back to 30%. Pointing to a problem with drone itself or firmware running on drone.  Maybe an intermittent connection between battery and drone, that was effected by landing.

If anybody else experinces same sudden drop to 0%, it would be worth checking battery levels upon landing.  Perhaps jiggling battery pack to see if that brings power back up from 0%.  Then try power cyling drone, and recheck power level.  Lastly reseating the battery, and rechecking power levels.

One thing looks very strange for me - the fully charged battery dropped to 44% in about 5 minutes, then to 0%. So 5 minutes to drop to 44% – isn't this too fast? This way even 15 minutes of fly is not achievable.
And second thing – there is certainly a problem with Mavic Air batteries, which resembles a lot the situation with some smartphones batteries, we encountered in recent past.

Hiya,

Just a comparison with this data and some random picked MA. Obvious a battery or software related batt problem.
Cheers JJB

JJBspark Posted at 2018-4-1 02:52
Hiya,

Just a comparison with this data and some random picked MA. Obvious a battery or software related batt problem.

Good job that is quite comprehensive.

Batteries in auto discharge at time of flights? None of the flights I saw had 100% at takeoff. Previous posts have noted this as potential issue. Hence the need to top off batteries prior to flying. Just a thought.

Well when I turn the aircraft on, it takes me a minute or so to check and update software and to  calibrate everything, ensure GPS connectivity, etc. So by the time I press “takeoff” the battery usually drops to like 95-98%. I’m not gonna turn on the drone and then calibrate it, turn it back off and replace with another battery, just to have it takeoff at 100%. That still shouldn’t force my drone to auto land at 44% and have me freak out. Next time I’ll double and triple check to make sure all of the firmware is updated and just fly within a safe distance so that if it auto lands it only does it in the woods or my yard.

for me a case of faulty battery, there were warnings about voltage cell difference (phantomhelp log) over 0,1V. way before that 44%. and I suppose a software bug, which sends batt to 0% level and force autoland :/
if a drone is crashed by this - I would expect DJI to cover for both drone and batt exchange.

and ussualy it's normal to start with 98%. You start with 100% battery, but before takeoff a lot of pilots wait for a good satelite number, check if there is no interference in IMU/compass (sensor tab), check batt cells, set up manual iso, shutter or anything You need. soo when whole pre-flight checks are done geting in air with 2-4% already used is normal.

I know that this discussion is about  the MA and I fly a MP now, but Batteries are batteries.  My first drone was not a DJI, but ran Li-po batteries with the automatic self discharge.  Mine had set for a while and started to discharge and I hadn't noticed.  I went out flying one afternoon and found that my batteries were showing 80%.  Eh.. not too bad..  Rather they be fully charged but 80% isn't that bad.  Took off and started flying.  I made it about 600 Feet out and my controller started low battery alarm.  (30%)  I turned it around and started for home, heading for the ground.  A crash from low altitude is easier to survive than one from 100'.  I got down to about 10 feet heading home when  I got the Auto "Return to home" feature kick in.  Return to home Altitude set for 120 feet.  Overrode, dove for the ground and before I got back it crashed and did a forward flip onto the ground.  Luckily, no damage.  (Other than my pride).  Lesson learned.  Never fly with batteries less than 100%.  I go flying now, and run my batteries down.  I get home and leave the batteries alone and low.  When I get a chance to go flying, I charge up the night before and hit the air with 100% on all three.  
I think that when they start to auto discharge, they are lower than they show.  The voltage may be up, but the amperage is too low.  On my old drone, when I got home I charged them all the way up and never had another problem with them.  
My total flight that day was about 1200' round trip and my battery went from 80%-0% in about 3 minutes.  

Was the battery going down constantly to 30%, or did it suddenly jump? Mine suddenly jumped to 0% but I was monitoring the battery as it was going down gradually before that. I suspect that my battery was not going to last the full 21 minutes on those flight because I was using Sport Mode a little bit, too.