Monday 2-2-2015 I was hovering with my new DJI Inspire1 about 3 feed of the ground, at 20% it completely lost power, dropped like a brick and crashed on the camera, so now the gimbal plate is broken.

I returned it to my local dealer and they send it in to DJI SUpport Germany for inspection.

Because I didn't hear anything from Support Europe since, I contacted them yesterday. They told me the RMA is pending/ waiting for payment (!)

It looks like DJI has acknowledged the problem by the following message: http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=7593&extra=page%3D1&lang=en , but this is too little to late for me. This battery failure problem is already widely discussed on rcgroups.com

I have owned a DJI S800 EVO + Wookong, Octo +A2 and Phantom 2 for over a year and never had any problems,  i sold my s800 and Phantom to buy the new inspire 1. I spend around 4000 Euro (dual controller and 3 extra battery’s + 2 samsung tablets (because of iOS was not available), thats really a lot money for me and my family.

I kindly request DJI to come up with a solution.

So what was the temp outside when this happen to you? If you don't mind me asking,

MIke

Did you cycle the Battery a few times without the Props on to exercise the Battery? I do that with all of my Batteries and my Phantom 2's will fly down to 7% and the the Phantom will just land. I bring it home at 20 to 25% and keep it running a few feet off the ground and when it is around 3% it lands and the I let it idle until it shuts itself off.

svencool Posted at 2015-2-13 05:16
So what was the temp outside when this happen to you? If you don't mind me asking,

MIke

It was 4C

rodger Posted at 2015-2-13 05:27
Did you cycle the Battery a few times without the Props on to exercise the Battery? I do that with a ...

I was hovering at 3 feet.

Rodger....is that a recommended way to cycle the batteries.  Do you do that every time or just once in a while.  I will do whatever to make my batteries last the longest.

Yet another issue?  Now with batteries? Seems like you need a full time flight mechanic to fly these things!

ElliotTeskey Posted at 2015-2-13 08:17
Rodger....is that a recommended way to cycle the batteries.  Do you do that every time or just once  ...

It is from experience over the years. Rechargeable Batteries develop a memory so if you run them down they become hungry to do a full recharge. Just like you and I when we don't eat for a while.

But these batts are lipo's right?  I thought they don't have a memory!

You mean to tell me no one cycled their battery's knowing where they are manufactured, but a few of us...
Always preflight hover test and drain battery's before actual serious flight this isn't a cheap hobby where one should take such short cuts.
Take the time for piece of mind, funny while testing I found a defective battery and it has already been replaced.
1 out of 6 batterys of mine was bad case in point.

Lipo batteries require some special care.

Good concise article on bat care:
www.maxamps.com/lipo-care.php

Short answer. Don't fully discharge batteries.  Allown battery to cool before charging after flights, don't charge at extreme temperatures.

Colonel Angus Posted at 2015-2-13 09:09
You mean to tell me no one cycled their battery's knowing where they are manufactured, but a few of  ...

I couldn't agree more with this post more. Just like any component  on the craft, they can fail.  So I always recommend a few test hovers with any new battery. Only take that pack down to 40-50%.It's good to break them in easy as well.

pbofavl Posted at 2015-2-13 10:01
Lipo batteries require some special care.

Good concise article on bat care:

I don't do a full discharge, you are correct in that don't do a full discharge. I just bring  them dow very low, not totally dead. The DJI Batteries know when enough is enough and shut down. By running them down the capacity increases. And yes, let the come to room temp before you do a recharge. It works for me and I get great flight time.

I agree that batteries will die quicker on colder temperatures but knowing that they are smart batteries they should constantly be giving you the % of the battery and not just go from 30% to 0 and crash on you! that's pretty dangerous! I  thought the battery constantly checks each each cell, if I where to notice that the battery is getting drained that quick then I would have the opportunity to land it safe, but knowing that the battery might just die on you without a warning makes me worry about flying on low temperatures.  I hope they come up with a more reasonable  Answere as to why that happened!

Manufacturer defect on some units are bound to show up typically this battery for this copter should be able to handle the riggers of flight..
Remember where its built the QC at times may miss things and presto you have a steaming chunk of 3k $$ at your feet and really no one to blame but your self for not testing each batt to like what Blade said 40-50%

Same as tires are a cars weakest link I believe the battery to be the same here. I have had many a buddy die road racing all because of a tire blow out at 150-200 mph on a car capable of 250 mph.
Old Phantom vision plus habits die hard we all knew to test ,and hover test each battery and let the craft sit for at least 1-2 mins before flight to confirm all data...

Helps to maintain and educate on storage of these things no doubt.

I think what happens on some batteries is that the first few charges determines how the battery ends up. Mine did the same thing it went from 20% to 7% within seconds. The battery after 3 recharges has a max capacity of 3950 mah. it should have 4500. Looks like mind lost 200 then an add 300 which about caused a crash. After 4 charges it levels out and ends up with never a full charge again at the top level of 4500. Now it thinks 3950 is max and no way to change this

stuart.youthwat Posted at 2015-2-13 13:09
I think what happens on some batteries is that the first few charges determines how the battery ends ...

Exactly what probably happened...To the Op ...Im sorry you had an issue and now maybe this may clear things up a bit how it may have gone down.

Is there any low battery warning in the app?
You should put that battery in again, check its history info in the app to see if there are any abnormal massage.
And could you pls send a mail to autumn.a@dji.com? we need your flight log for analysis! Thank you.

DJI-Autumn Posted at 2015-2-13 14:09
Is there any low battery warning in the app?
You should put that battery in again, check its history ...

No, I didn't get a warning whatsoever. (Becides it should auto land, go into failsafe or return home) it just compleletely dropt dead.

As i mantioned my inspire is at DJI 'support' EU, they told me the don't have flightlog software and I have to wait for Chinese new Year.

But they did already come to the conclusion its not warrentie . They test by charging battery and fly till 0% whithout error. Thats how they test?!

I have send you an email.

Very impotent information from you guys, thanks for that!

Can somebody please explain so everyone could follow:
1. what should we do when getting a new battery?
2. what is the procedure for testing the battery? is it needs to be done before each flight?
3. what is the best way to cycle the battery? and how frequently it should be done?
4. any other thing to be aware of (storage, etc.)?

Thanks!

ok
but why you are fly with only 20% of battery???
you would try what happen?
when you have 30% battery you have allarm and when you arrive at 20% Inspire goes atuomatically to home point.
especially in first fly ( about one month of use ) I prefer to have more precaution , and not risk using Inspire near it's limit
if you began do landing at 30% (when alarm sounds in the tablet) maybe you could avoid these damages

lucaoms Posted at 2015-2-13 20:27
ok
but why you are fly with only 20% of battery???
you would try what happen?

I was hovering 3 feet above the ground.

Heijningen Posted at 2015-2-13 20:43
I was hovering 3 feet above the ground.

yes , I understand , but  can be enough
if you broke camera , it's mean that you stay with 20% batt and NO land position , at 3 feet from ground
I think that you make some wrong
By

I have today flown all my batteries in hover until 10 percent is reached, better to be safe than sorry.

^^ This is winning smart move David!!

Colonel Angus Posted at 2015-2-13 09:09
You mean to tell me no one cycled their battery's knowing where they are manufactured, but a few of  ...

Hey Colonel Angus I just got in 2 new TB48's and thought I would do as suggested. I charged them fully and then put in A/C and spooled them up and let them drain down to what I hoped to 10% but they never got past 35% is that because of the levels I had set? I'm currently doing the second battery and took my levels down to 11% and see if it will drain down to that level. Was just curious if I was doing something wrong!!!!

Mike

After 2 weeks of waiting DJI Support says: Nothing wrorg with the craft, no warranty

See: http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... ra=page%3D1&lang=en  

Sorry to hear of the damage, but very grateful that you have taken the time to notify folks of this behaviour. It might be useful for understanding if you can provide more background please?

1) How many flights have you previously used this battery for?

2) How many days had passed since you last charged this battery?

3) Was the battery at 100% charge at the start of the flight, or had it previously been used and shut down with a lower charge remaining?

4) What was the ambient temperature?

5) If answer to question 4 was 5C or less, were you using the insulating pads?

You sort-of suggest that this was a little flown new battery and by the link you've added, that it was cold.

LiPos are very strange creatures and there seems to be a multitude of different advice on how to best use them / store them / and charge and discharge the units.

Perhaps there is a need to fly with the smaller TB47 battery, but where the craft has an internal replaceable cell of the difference in capacity with the two, with some kind of emergency automatic switching if the main cell suddenly fails with no warning? i.e. for the design of the craft or modifications to, to provide an electric storage emergency fuel reserve.

An alternative perhaps is for DJI to monitor the battery usage, its history, operating temperature and if it believes that there is insufficient history and/or that the temperature is too low, then it should only allow you to fly to 50 % before the App recommends that you land the craft. You'd be fed-up at getting such short flight times occasionally, but at least your craft would be intact.

One small advantage of RC Helicopters is if the battery runs out (I'm talking about a decent model which has a clutch mechanism and is variable pitch, rather than fixed), is that a competant trained pilot can perform an auto rotate, with a chance of bringing down the craft intact with no engine power available. Quadcopters don't yet have this kind of capability yet, so we are left with parachute options (and that wouldn't have worked 3' off the ground), or maybe, a down-facing airbag?

Well ok, the latter is probably off the beaten-track, probably because you might have a bouncing beach ball effect which causes even more damage!

Comments welcome and thanks again for your post and reminding us all of the fragility of this technology.

The Fly Guy Posted at 2015-2-13 15:58
Very impotent information from you guys, thanks for that!

Can somebody please explain so everyone c ...

The Fly Guy,    Did anyone ever answer your question??   I also need to know these question for my new battery.

The Fly Guy,    Did anyone ever answer your question??   I also need to know these question for my new battery.

Unfortunately no one answer my question yet.

I read a lot and for what i understand a new battery should be charge to full before any use, and then to cycle it you should connect it to the Inspire and let it run (without props...!) until the battery gets bellow 10%.

I'm not sure if that's the right thing to do, and if yes i'm not sure to how much low i should run the battery down.
If you have any useful information please share it here.

TheFlyGuy Posted at 2015-2-18 16:41
Unfortunately no one answer my question yet.

I read a lot and for what i understand a new battery  ...

I'll try to answer this with exactly what I would do.  

Fully charge new battery. Take it outside and hover with the inspire at 2 -3 feet over grass or a soft surface without the gimbal or camera attached until it hits 40-30 percent. Do not do any flying, just a low sustained hover. When done you should review the battery log to check for errors and to verify all cells have equal power. This fully works out the battery and safely lets me check it out for manufacturing defects..  It wouldn't hurt to do this entire process twice if you are flying in a cold environment.

Why I wouldn't do what you are proposing-  Running the inspire without the props on it will take FOREVER to run down the battery.  You also aren't testing it and breaking it in a "real world environment" as their is significantly less torque drawn from the props.

Hope this helps.  

solution.design Posted at 2015-2-18 07:32
Sorry to hear of the damage, but very grateful that you have taken the time to notify folks of this  ...

How many flights have you previously used this battery for?

About 3

2) How many days had passed since you last charged this battery?

none, it was charged before the flight

3) Was the battery at 100% charge at the start of the flight, or had it previously been used and shut down with a lower charge remaining?

Yes it was at the start.

4) What was the ambient temperature?

Around 4C

5) If answer to question 4 was 5C or less, were you using the insulating pads?

They where not yet available or announced.

No warentty: http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... age%3D1&lang=en

I'll try to answer this with exactly what I would do.

Thank's Chris Con

Some one here said something about hit the battery to 10% and someone even say until it shuts itself off - what do you think about that?

I see what your saying about just more or less doing a quality test of the batteries which is good.  Now if we can find out what the point to pull them down to, is the question left to answer yet.  Thanks guys.

Repair cost 1600 dollar...

solution.design Posted at 2015-2-18 07:32
Sorry to hear of the damage, but very grateful that you have taken the time to notify folks of this  ...

Hi all, I did my first flight this afternoon and the  Inspire flew as sweet as it can.  Did not touch auto just went with manual for take off and landing, very smooth...  My only concern was this evening charged the battery pack (at 23% charge left) and noticed the charger was extremely hot.  It took about an hour for full charge.  Is it normal for the charger pack to get so HOT?  I use a charger and regulator for another UAV 6S and don't have this problem.  Just checking, want to make sure all is good!  Thanks for replying.
PS  To note, the alarm did go off at 30-35% and immediately brought it home.  Glad I did after reading posts on my maiden voyage.

Hi all, I did my first flight this afternoon and the  Inspire flew as sweet as it can.  Did not touch auto just went with manual for take off and landing, very smooth...  My only concern was this evening charged the battery pack (at 23% charge left) and noticed the charger was extremely hot.  It took about an hour for full charge.  Is it normal for the charger pack to get so HOT?  I use a charger and regulator for another UAV 6S and don't have this problem.  Just checking, want to make sure all is good!

Had this several times now, no matter what temperature. Flying at 120 meters altitude battery levels suddenly dropped from 48% to 4% causing the aircraft to land on its own at a high speed. First time I thought it was an incident but after that it happened several times. I sent the Inspire1 to DJI and they returned it with repair notes saying a connector was replaced and everything passed the tests. Batteries, loaders etc. Me happy.
When I got the inspire out of the box I loaded the batteries. I flew about ten minutes, no problem. Then I shut off the aircraft and moved it around and flew a few hours later with the same battery that still had bout 60% (i had not taken it out of the inspire).When it was on 45% battery level: boom, same problem, battery level to 4% and inspire landed again. this time it was low so no damage. Again it is sent to DJI so hopefully they will take care of it now. It's a 4K machine and I expect it to fly in a reliable way....

oosterbroek74@g Posted at 2015-11-13 15:15
Had this several times now, no matter what temperature. Flying at 120 meters altitude battery levels ...

Ok thats new - this thing were only reported to happen when rechangeing a used battery for a 2nd flight. Now it happens also when battery left in plane.


However I think it only happens to defective batteries anyway. I have one battery doing this and this battery also gets many major voltage deviations. You should have send the battery for exchange not the plane and put some healthydrones.com reports with it to make sure they realize the battery is definitely not ok.