I flied my Mavic 2 pro today, but face a problem I have not experienced before:

  

  

I charged my 2 batteries last night, one was produced at Sept 2018, and one March 2020. The weather was sunny, cold and windy (temperature was -1 celsius, feels like -7 celsius, wind was 17 kilometer/h). I saw a nice view not too far from roadside, so I started my drone and smart controller showed battery level was 96%. I flied to a site and took a few photos, with height about 2m. After that I turned to another site, and it was only about 320m away from homepoint. The battery immediately became zero, and the drone landed in the cornland. I used flight-log (not find-my-drone) and picked up my drone.

  

  

To confirm the old battery issue, I switched to the new battery and flied higher (80m) but only 100m distance, all seem normal.

  

  

My experiences are:

  

  

1.    Do not fly in very cold weather, especially cold weather plus windy

  

2.    If you really want to fly, try to use new battery. Old battery cannot tolerance cold weather at all.

  

3.    Hove for a few minutes to warm and activate the battery.

  

4.    Fly in visual distance and fly not too high.  

Warming the battery by hovering is not a good idea, it starts with a cold battery and can only go down from there. It is much better to keep the battery in a warm place up until you fly.

Keep your batteries warm before flying. Put them inside your jacket, so you can keep them warm with your body heat. Don't leave them in a cold bag.
Like Geebax already said, hovering drains the batteries even more.

Hi,

You must have had a bad battery to start with.
Found this on one of the DJI web sites:

Winter Operation and Maintenance Guidelines for Drones.

After powering on your drone, warm it up for about 1 minute before take-off, so as to ensure the normal performance of various sensors. If the payload lens fogs up, power on the aircraft to preheat it and dissipate any water vapour on the lens. Immediately after taking off, hover for about 1 minute after taking off to fully preheat the battery.
ALWAYS WHATCH THE BATTERY LEVEL.
Avoid flying the aircraft when it has low battery, and reserve more battery power for the RTH process than you would under normal temperature conditions.

Of course it would be good to keep the batteries warm first before installing them on the drone. Also see djiuser_PEp4mLwh74c7 experiences.

Hello there. Thank you for reaching out and for posting these information here at DJI Forum. Since winter is coming I will post a link where in you can check some tips on Flying a Drone in Winter: 5 Things You Must Know ( https://store.dji.com/guides/winter-drone-flying-tips/ ). Thank you and fly safe always.

DJI Stephen Posted at 1-24 22:06
Hello there. Thank you for reaching out and for posting these information here at DJI Forum. Since winter is coming I will post a link where in you can check some tips on Flying a Drone in Winter: 5 Things You Must Know ( https://store.dji.com/guides/winter-drone-flying-tips/ ). Thank you and fly safe always.

Many thanks for this Stephen. Everything helps.

I had a cell totally collapse a while back flying when the battery was at 4c - trying to establish if it was the battery or the temperature.
Go4 flashes up a warning if the battery is below 15c.

What i do now is warm the battery in my pocket first.  It helps a little.  But then fit the battery, turn the drone on, start the props but not take off for a while.  Then once off the ground hover at 2m or so for a minute until the temp is up to spec.

I use a laser temp gun to check battery temp before putting into drone and as long as the batt is above 21°c its good to go and then I  check temp in app. Today it was -8°c outside but had a good 19 min flight, batt was 23° to start with,  nice snowy pics.

RK7dronzy Posted at 1-25 07:04
I use a laser temp gun to check battery temp before putting into drone and as long as the batt is above 21°c its good to go and then I  check temp in app. Today it was -8°c outside but had a good 19 min flight, batt was 23° to start with,  nice snowy pics.

Great idea. Could you tell me the products link so I can try?

Thanks

gnirtS Posted at 1-25 04:51
I had a cell totally collapse a while back flying when the battery was at 4c - trying to establish if it was the battery or the temperature.
Go4 flashes up a warning if the battery is below 15c.

Warming the battery before fly is not a good idea. Actually I charged fully before fly and kept my battery/drone in a very warm car.  

Battery level dropped from 90% to zero after 5min of fly, this makes me nervous. We cannot predict what will happen next seconds.

djiuser_PEp4mLwh74c7 Posted at 1-25 08:00
Great idea. Could you tell me the products link so I can try?

Thanks

The gun ive got is a FLOUREON infrared themometer laser and i got it off ebay a couple of years ago about £10 and have just had a look and there are plenty to choose from. Mine Works well and runs on a 9 volt batt, it seems to be resonably accurate.

djiuser_PEp4mLwh74c7 Posted at 1-25 08:08
Warming the battery before fly is not a good idea. Actually I charged fully before fly and kept my battery/drone in a very warm car.  

Battery level dropped from 90% to zero after 5min of fly, this makes me nervous. We cannot predict what will happen next seconds.

That was not a long time 5 min. What was the outside temp and how old was that battery? RK7dronzy above got 19 min at -8 deg.

I find that if the battery itself is warm most of the loss in flight time is noticeable.  For me 45°F is cold but it does seem to an effect on the battery life.  Just keep it in your pocket or let it warm up in the car before flying.

JohnLietzke Posted at 1-25 10:13
I find that if the battery itself is warm most of the loss in flight time is noticeable.  For me 45°F is cold but it does seem to an effect on the battery life.  Just keep it in your pocket or let it warm up in the car before flying.

The temp is about 28F, but feels like 20F.  In this situation, old battery is difficult to get total activation.

kyalami Posted at 1-25 09:28
That was not a long time 5 min. What was the outside temp and how old was that battery? RK7dronzy above got 19 min at -8 deg.

Haha, you didn't pay attention to the original post:  the fast drain battery was produced at Sept 2018,  no swollen. The weather was sunny, cold and windy (temperature was -1 celsius, feels like -7 celsius, wind was 17 kilometer/h).

RK7dronzy Posted at 1-25 08:18
The gun ive got is a FLOUREON infrared themometer laser and i got it off ebay a couple of years ago about £10 and have just had a look and there are plenty to choose from. Mine Works well and runs on a 9 volt batt, it seems to be resonably accurate.

Thanks, I will get one and try.

I literally fully charged my (2 week old) battery last night and went to fly today and it won't turn on at all. WTF DJI. For the amount of money we spend on your products you can at least make reliable product.

kyalami Posted at 1-25 01:23
Many thanks for this Stephen. Everything helps.

Hi there kyalami. You are very much welcome and if you have any other inquiries or concerns with DJI. Please feel free to post it here at DJI Forum. We are all here to help and support you. Thank you. .

djiuser_PEp4mLwh74c7 Posted at 1-25 08:08
Warming the battery before fly is not a good idea. Actually I charged fully before fly and kept my battery/drone in a very warm car.  

Battery level dropped from 90% to zero after 5min of fly, this makes me nervous. We cannot predict what will happen next seconds.

Its a very good idea.
Its also vital to monitor the battery temperature in Go4 and not go high or fly away until its climbed to a useful temperature.  It doesnt take long to hit 15c and climb under any ambient.

Its possible you have a cell failure unconnected with cold.