With battery at 72% filming in the middle of the sea controlling the drone from the boat I was on, I got a message saying "Power Limit Reached, Auto Land in 8 seconds"
By holding the throttle stick all the way up I managed to make the drone not to loose altittude.  Fortunately I have to admit that I had control of the drone from the time the message appeared on my screen until the landing.  Can anyone explain to me what the "Power Limit Reached" means??? I searched the entire forum and wasn't able to obtain any information.

You should send in your data logs to DJI for analysis and feedback.  Contact the help line to find out where to send the data file or consult your dealer.

Did you charge your battery before you flew the  drone.? Or was it at 90% 80% and then you decided to fly to drone if you did that that is pilot error you're supposed to charge the battery to full capacity in other words if you haven't used the battery in a few days you still need to charge it prior to inserting it into the drone and flying with it those are instructions from dji

The battery was charded to 100% the same morning

I assume you were on the boat and moving.  Perhaps the Inspire was at the limit for it to return to the take off point, and didn't know you planned a final landing at the new location?

Yikes! and I'm guessing the I1 doesn't float...

Hi Daba...,
Do you have that flight record in user center of the app ?
I think i know what the problem was, but to be sure i need to see that flight record.

dabadouba00@yah Posted at 2015-6-23 06:34
The battery was charded to 100% the same morning

Sorry for your loss!

Couple of questions about the 100% battery -

Was this flight the only one this day or did you fly a bit, land and take off again?

This is very important as it pertains to another thread discussing the conditions in which these sudden drops in battery level occur.   

Most evidence points to a battery that either wasn't fully charged (even 95% is not enough) or a flight that had multiple take-offs during a single battery cycle.   

Other factors include things like the battery being used for a firmware update and not topped up afterwards.

Would really help us lock this down if you could get hyper specific on the details.

pidetectives@ya Posted at 2015-6-23 05:26
Did you charge your battery before you flew the  drone.? Or was it at 90% 80% and then you decided t ...

"smart" battery.....
I assume  it should be more smart than that.

Does it seem like these battery issues started after the latest battery update or has it been ongoing?  I've only had my Inspire a short time with just 25 flights but have flown RC helis and planes for years.  Taking off with a battery at 95%, while not ideal, shouldn't result in it dropping to critical in just a few minutes.  Let's say I take the Inspire out with 100% and fly for a few minutes and land at 85% to check something.  Does this mean I should swap batteries with one at 100% and not use the 85% one until I can top it off?  I've posted elsewhere that if I land at 30%, my batteries are at 0% - 3.76V per cell - the next morning if I don't charge them when I get home.  Assuming this rate of sitting discharge, shouldn't a battery at 100% drop to 70% overnight? (This does not happen, mine stays charged).

GravityStorm Posted at 2015-6-23 09:57
Does it seem like these battery issues started after the latest battery update or has it been ongoin ...

" Does this mean I should swap batteries with one at 100% and not use the 85% one until I can top it off?"

The answer at this moment is ABSOLUTELY YES!   There is something going on and it hasn't quite been nailed down.   

Many say that taking a second flight on a battery is okay as long as it's immediate, but I wouldn't take the chance.

For the moment my policy is ONE BATTERY = ONE FLIGHT until this is resolved once and for all.  Not worth risking all on "should work fine."

f1@frankschaffe Posted at 2015-6-23 06:44
I assume you were on the boat and moving.  Perhaps the Inspire was at the limit for it to return to  ...

This is probably not the "problem" in this case as it shouldn´t "auto land" when this happens.
(It should initiate RTH.)

How ever as it is mentioned I would like the option to disable this feature within the pilot app ...
As long as the pilot is in control there should be no reason for the auto pilot to take over!

Well done of saving your I1. I have never heard of the warning you quote.  Did you try switching to ATTI to stop the auto land?

Was it a TB47 or TB48?

3 days after this incident when I returned home I tried to get the flight logs but unfortunately the Inspire had kept the logs only for the last 48 hours so there was no way for me to retrieve the log of this specific flight.  I don't know if it also keeps logs on a cloud or something but when I connected the bird to my PC I could only see the logs of my last 48 hours of flights.

Can anyone verify what the voltage on the batteries looks like when the I1 drops battery percentage so rapidly? Like does the actual voltage drop off (in all or any single cell) or does the I1 just randomly decide that the percentage is now "low". Anyone have any first hand experience with this?

Technically speaking LiPo cells don't have a measurable "level" in terms of percentage. All you can do is look at the voltage of the cells in the LiPo pack and guess from there. Classically 3.0v is "completely dead" and 4.2v is "completely full" and from a usage perspective a 3.7v cell is "empty as far as use is concerned"; ie a 3S pack at 11.1v (3.7v x 3 cells) is effectively empty and can't be flown whereas a 3S pack at 12.6v (4.2v x 3 cells) is full and you're good to go.

Prior to the Inspire 1 I've always turned off voltage protection on all my copters and just relied on voltage telemetry to determine battery life. I've always had maximum flight times this way and have never lost or crashed an aircraft (touch wood) to power loss issues. This also helps you account for batteries naturally losing their ability to hold charge as they age; the voltage will always tell you if you have usable power left.

My guess is that DJI is tracking the mah consumed from each pack with a current sensor and is recording this in the battery firmware. They're then using that number to determine fullness / emptiness of the pack as a whole.  There are a number of reasons why this isn't a great way to measure battery life (if it's the only thing you're doing), though...

Midi Posted at 2015-6-23 21:42
Was it a TB47 or TB48?

Are you joking

A while ago, I watched a Youtube video of a similar case with Inspire 1 ....

That case was a bit different.....  the battery drop from 73% to 8% in a second, and then forced landing.

Here is the youtube video:  

dabadouba00@yah Posted at 2015-6-23 21:44
3 days after this incident when I returned home I tried to get the flight logs but unfortunately the ...

The flight data is only uploaded to the cloud if you select User Center in Pilot App and click on the cloud symbol (top right).

Guys, I would like to make something clear.  My battery had 72% when the "Power Limit Reached, Auto Landing in 8 seconds" message appeared.  There was no capacity battery drop of any kind!  It went normally to 72% after flying for about 6-7 minutes.  I checked the battery after landing and it still had 72%.

This is exactly why we need DJI to state expressly what bug fixes have been introduced to any new update so that we have some faith in these known issues being addressed.  How else do we know when something has been fixed or not.

Was you failsafe set to 'land' or 'return home'?