So I just took off. Drone may be 15 ft above me. I got a battery warning. It had 50% power, then it showed 14% battery. It said please reconnect battery. I then immediately started to descend to land, and the drone went nuts and died and crashed. This was horrible. I am retunring this to where I bought it and I hope that DJi will work with the store as this is definitely not acceptable. I have tested and used 3 phantom 4's and 2 phantom 4 pros and own the 4 pro now and zero issues with those.

What happens now?

Were the batteries charged before flight?

sounds like one of the Batts was not fully inserted or you would never have had the "reconnect" message.  

Batteries had 50%. Flight time was like 8-9 minutes. It just shut straight off.

Did you take off with batteries at 50%?

Sorry to hear about the crash, since you've returned it to the dealer, may we have your case number so that we can help you follow up it?

Mark Guille Posted at 2017-3-13 23:34
Did you take off with batteries at 50%?

Yes. It had 9 minutes of flight time it showed, It was only about 25 feet away from me. It just straight went dead in the air.

DJI Natalia Posted at 2017-3-13 23:54
Sorry to hear about the crash, since you've returned it to the dealer, may we have your case number so that we can help you follow up it?

What case number? I am going to return it to the store tomorrow or call them first.

to clarify, you had 2 batteries inserted, both of them were at 50%..?  First of all I would never do that I generally land at 3.7 volts per cell so when it rests its at storage voltage..  Why would you take off knowing you have 9 minutes of flight time.  As soon as the props spool up and your off the ground I am sure those 50% figures dropped to 40% right away.. no?  Under load vs on the ground the values will be decresed significantly..

Two things happened here I think , the batteries were low when you took  off .  Never take off with batteries that are not FULLY CHARGED,  the second problem sounds like one ( or both )  of the batteries was not inserted all the way  ( thus the warning ) .   
Sorry for the crash though , that is terrible .
But remember to NEVER -EVER- EVER- take off with batteries that are not  fresh fully charged.  This is for future reference , Not trying to rub it in cause I am very sorry for what  happened.  
Were both batteris at 50% ?  or was one at 50 % and the other considerably less ?  

And you only had it for ONE DAY......

good Luck

Where did you  buy it from .? ....they may not just  take it back .  

donnie

Ouch.  NEVER... NEVER... NEVER take off without 100% charge on BOTH batteries... You learned why the hard way.     I even make sure my tablet is 100% charged.  I fly very often in temps way below zero, and batteries HATE cold...    As mentioned before, a battery that shows 50% charge with NO load, will drop a lot faster once a load is applied then a battery showing 100% with no load.

CoreyB Posted at 2017-3-14 00:19
What case number? I am going to return it to the store tomorrow or call them first.

You can try going through your dealer, but most dealers do not tend to take back physically damaged stock like that. You will most likely need to go through the North American Support Center in order to have this addressed should the dealer be unable to assist.

I believe Natalia was under the impression that you had already returned the unit to your dealer, and in turn received a case number to keep track of the claim. That information is something you should expect to receive when going through either your dealer or NA Support.

I agree with the consensus that it's not recommended to ever take off with anything other than fully charged or near fully charged.

It would still be good to know whether both batteries were at 50% or if there was a variance in percentage that averaged to 50% in the Go4 app?

The APP said 50% on bot batteries. I have taken off with the phantom 4 pro no issues at 50%. The phantom 4 pro will not warn until it gets to 20%, I have had it in the air down to 5% and then landed fine. These batteries had plenty of time. They had 9 minutes fly time and I was only 25 feet away from myself at most. The batteries were inserted all the way. I checked that. The batteries or something else malfunctioned.

Donnie Stugots Posted at 2017-3-14 04:36
Two things happened here I think , the batteries we low when you took  off .  Never take off with batteries that are not FULLY CHARGED,  the second problem sounds like one ( or both )  of the batteries was not inserted all the way  ( thus the warning ) .   
Sorry for the crash though , that is terrible .
But remeber to NEVER -EVER- EVER- take off with batteries that are not  fresh fully charged.  This is for future reference , Not trying to rub it in cause I am very sorry for what  happened.  

I agree with Donnie .It has to show 100% or I will not take off .Had to many problems in the early days and learnt that is the safe way to fly .Hope they help u on your return .

CoreyB Posted at 2017-3-14 15:11
The APP said 50% on bot batteries. I have taken off with the phantom 4 pro no issues at 50%. The phantom 4 pro will not warn until it gets to 20%, I have had it in the air down to 5% and then landed fine. These batteries had plenty of time. They had 9 minutes fly time and I was only 25 feet away from myself at most. The batteries were inserted all the way. I checked that. The batteries or something else malfunctioned.

Okay, assuming the worst case scenario and jumping to the conclusion ...   as I was reading this post..... The Inspire 2 is not a Phantom and it is much heaver aircraft.


Of course this is very sad to hear, and amazed that a brand new Inspire 2 was crashed while using batteries with a partial charge.  50% 9 minutes... really? and you expect the store to take this back without question?

Did you even charge the batteries after getting the new Inspire 2 out of the box? Just because the show 50% charge and were stored from China (for who knows how long) you can not trust them. Did you read the manual?

Sorry if I am out of line here, feel free to correct me about my assumption,  and tell us you charged the batteries all the way up to 100% and read the manual before trying to fly the Inspire 2...


(sorry Donnie, I could not believe this)

Rich

RichJ53 Posted at 2017-3-14 20:53
Okay, assuming the worst case scenario and jumping to the conclusion ...   as I was reading this post..... The Inspire 2 is not a Phantom and it is much heaver aircraft.

No worries Rich , I think we are all on the same page here just trying to figure out what happened and how it can be avoided in the future .

donnie

Donnie Stugots Posted at 2017-3-15 04:27
No worries Rich , I think we are all on the same page here just trying to figure out what happened and how it can be avoided in the future .

donnie

Donnie
I try not to be negative and respect others dignity.... I almost deleted my post..... As you know we are waiting to buy the I2 for whatever reasons and to see a post like this makes me crazy. If I purchase a new item that has a rechargeable battery inside, the first thing that the instructions tell you to do is charge the battery. Regardless if it is a phone, toy, model plane, or 6,000 drone.... just common sense.

CoreyB Posted at 2017-3-14 00:18
Yes. It had 9 minutes of flight time it showed, It was only about 25 feet away from me. It just straight went dead in the air.

This is why I never take off unless battery is at 100% I've done a few test with partially charged batteries and these smart batteries are very unpredictable. I took off with 75% after about 30 seconds I received 10% low battery warning and it started to land. Could have been very ugly.

I always make sure my batteries are fully charged before and after every flight. Yesterday, I took my I1 out to find out what would happen if I were to ignore this simple rule. I took a partially depleted battery that I had flown a few days earlier that read 50% and was now in self-discharge mode, put the battery in and took off. After approximately 30 seconds, I heard  "landing gear lowering" had a critical battery level warning and the bird started to descend. I was watching the battery levels closely and one of the cells dropped to below 3.1v, at this point, had gone heavy on the sticks, the battery would have cut out! This is exactly what I was expecting. This is NOT a fault with DJI, this is how Li-po's work. If you ask anyone with any a history of flying RC's  they will all tell you the same, NEVER take off with anything less than a FULLY charged battery.

Link to Battery Test Flight

Luckily nobody was hurt I guess.
Hopefully, you can get your bird back flying again with minimal hassle/cost to yourself but in the meantime, you would do well to have a good read up on the manual.

Best of luck pal

Mark G.

CoreyB Posted at 2017-3-14 15:11
The APP said 50% on bot batteries. I have taken off with the phantom 4 pro no issues at 50%. The phantom 4 pro will not warn until it gets to 20%, I have had it in the air down to 5% and then landed fine. These batteries had plenty of time. They had 9 minutes fly time and I was only 25 feet away from myself at most. The batteries were inserted all the way. I checked that. The batteries or something else malfunctioned.

Further evaluation from a technician will be needed in order to determine exactly what happened. You can try going through your dealer, as previously mentioned, but them taking a unit back for anything other than assisting with a repair service would be unlikely. Please keep us posted as to which route you ultimately went with.

My P4P just dropped outta the sky at 50% battery.   I always fly with full battery and have the full log.  This is a serious issue

AAAAAANNNNND..........to give me a little warm fuzzy feeling in case there may be some trickery going on with the charger/battery indications, I alway make sure to feel the charger power supply brick to make sure its nice and warm and even hot depending on my last flight time.

Wonder if these "Intelligent Batteries" should pop up a warning in GO saying "Battery level is too low for safe takeoff and flight?"

Aside, I wish these batteries had no intelligence (i.e. A plain Li-Po.) and leave it all to some fancy external charger like the RC cars and electric planes use.  Batteries would be cheaper, maybe last longer, less fails sitting on the store shelf too long, and the charger could have all the testing and cycling smarts within it as some of the better chargers do now.

fansa84fe8a4 Posted at 2017-4-3 06:10
Wonder if these "Intelligent Batteries" should pop up a warning in GO saying "Battery level is too low for safe takeoff and flight?"

Aside, I wish these batteries had no intelligence (i.e. A plain Li-Po.) and leave it all to some fancy external charger like the RC cars and electric planes use.  Batteries would be cheaper, maybe last longer, less fails sitting on the store shelf too long, and the charger could have all the testing and cycling smarts within it as some of the better chargers do now.

I agree. Its time to get back to the basics. This intelligent battery stuff is not required with a good charger. Gone too far with this safety stuff for something every pilot should be able to understand and maintain on their own.
Won't happen though because DJI makes a lot of money off this proprietary stuff.

fans17e0bb91 Posted at 2017-4-2 21:47
My P4P just dropped outta the sky at 50% battery.   I always fly with full battery and have the full log.  This is a serious issue

Did the battery drain to 50% gradually as normally or was it a sharp drop? If you have not done so already, please get in contact with Support to have the unit sent in for further evaluation and repair.

For future reference, please ensure that you keep your posts within the proper product section. This thread is specifically for Inspire users.

Generally: Take off with 100% as far as possible. If one is doing multiple flights on the same pack, one shortly after the other, you can take off with less but 50% is pushing it.
NEVER take of if its partial charge over a day or more since your last flight. This is where Jamies question is relevant. In my experience, when you do the latter, battery charge can fall very suddenly, indicating that the ' charge remaining' is lower than originally indicated.

Agree with Donnie that one of the batts was likely not fully inserted or you would not get the 'reconnect battery' error message.

A separate but related point is that there has been (if you use the latest firmware) adjustment such that the remaining battery / batteries, will drain down to cell reversal voltage to save a craft. This will kill the battery for good but could keep the craft intact. Would be interesting to see your flight log.

The problem with Lithium Polymer batteries is that they can be unpredictable.
Look at this picture:


It is a 787 Dreamliner's batteries catching fire. The 787 is a new aircraft by Boeing which makes use of a lot of Lithium Polymer batteries to power all its electrical systems.
These have caught fire multiple times and you can imagine that they are built  to the highest standard possible, right?
In fact, to "fix" the problem (after the FAA asked them to revise the design), they merely added a metal container around the batteries (which are in the wings btw) with an exhaust at the back so that a future fire can just burn out and not affect the aircraft.

The reason they have done this is because no matter how well you design a Lithium Polymer battery, it will never be 100% reliable, because the underlying technology behind it simply does not allow that.

So to relate this to you Inspire 2 dropping out of the sky, the reason DJI added 2 independent batteries is to be able to allow one battery to fail without the Inspire 2 dropping out of the sky. A very good change.
Your I2 crashed regardless of this and the reason behind that is important. I assume that you did not insert one of the batteries properly, so the I2 was essentially flying with 1 battery (but with the weight of both). I have never tried but I believe the latest firmware version does not allow a takeoff with only 1 battery, so maybe you did not install the latest firmware?
Also,  if the battery was 50% charged before flying (bad idea) and this is the first day you had the drone, this can only mean that upon receiving your drone, you immediately took it outside to fly (without having charged the batteries) as they come charged 50%....
I would imagine if you do this you would also not go through any firmware update/IMU calibrations either, so I am not sure exactly who is at fault here, the operator or the aircraft? Flight logs would be useful

We had a battery fail as well.  100% charge.  Fell out of the sky, thought it was the drone.  Bought a new drone, used the same battery - it also fell out of the sky after take off.  NO indication of a failure, nothing in the logs, and it remains charged at 100% - no drain.

DJI Advises Customers To Fly With Caution When Using TB50 And TB55 Batteries In Drones:

https://www.dji.com/newsroom/new ... -dZuKuVzmtDXaEk_uZg