I was flying my Mavic Air on a mildly windy day. I was going to land my drone as soon as it started to warn me about low battery (bad practice I know), but INSTEAD it suddenly jumped to critical battery, and it jumped straight from 20% to 0%. as soon as it landed it turned off. This could've turned out a lot worse if my MA wasn't right at home point, and it pains me to think about what could've happened Anyone know what might've happened? faulty battery percentage reading?

UPDATE: this situation is now turned for the worse. My MA battery will no longer turn on at all. is there any way to fix this, or do I just have to buy a new battery?

aGuyOfGuys Posted at 1-21 14:36
UPDATE: this situation is now turned for the worse. My MA battery will no longer turn on at all. is there any way to fix this, or do I just have to buy a new battery?

can you not update the software on the batteries

aGuyOfGuys Posted at 1-21 14:36
UPDATE: this situation is now turned for the worse. My MA battery will no longer turn on at all. is there any way to fix this, or do I just have to buy a new battery?

Hi, we're very sorry to hear about the unpleasant experience that you had with your Mavic Air. Have you tried to charge your battery for about 2-4 hours? Also, may I know if you have a separate battery that can you try? So we can check if the problem is with the battery or with the aircraft. If the issue persists, please let us know for further help. Thanks.

The battery might have died

Flysafely
Alex

that battery probably locked itself off.  one of your cells probably failed (seems to be an extremely common theme lately!)  and it dropped well below safe voltage and disabled itself..
i had a battery i purchased on amazon that did this, luckily the seller accepted the return with the notes i gave.  basically i was flying home earlier than RTH because newer battery and bit windy not too bad, and it jumped from 30% to 0% with 1000 feet ..also to note it dropped from mid 40%'s to 30% within a short time frame but i missed that.  or so left pulled up battery meter and cell 3 was red and barely a line in it. like 3.05V.. and i didnt wanna land it because no safe locations and people around probably take it if they saw it.  so i kept pushing it and aiming areas where if it dropped out of the sky it wouldn't hit the road or buildings...  .i somehow made it all the way home and last 10 feet of landing it just dropped..the battery locked up.  contacted the seller who told me to let it cool off plug it in over night and report back next day.. same thing, so he accepted return.

TL;DR is that 1 cell dying kills entire pack..and there is a lower voltage cut out for this before kills your pack.

HereForTheBeer Posted at 1-21 17:23
that battery probably locked itself off.  one of your cells probably failed (seems to be an extremely common theme lately!)  and it dropped well below safe voltage and disabled itself..
i had a battery i purchased on amazon that did this, luckily the seller accepted the return with the notes i gave.  basically i was flying home earlier than RTH because newer battery and bit windy not too bad, and it jumped from 30% to 0% with 1000 feet ..also to note it dropped from mid 40%'s to 30% within a short time frame but i missed that.  or so left pulled up battery meter and cell 3 was red and barely a line in it. like 3.05V.. and i didnt wanna land it because no safe locations and people around probably take it if they saw it.  so i kept pushing it and aiming areas where if it dropped out of the sky it wouldn't hit the road or buildings...  .i somehow made it all the way home and last 10 feet of landing it just dropped..the battery locked up.  contacted the seller who told me to let it cool off plug it in over night and report back next day.. same thing, so he accepted return.

you’re probably right, I do remember seeing a critical voltage warning or something on the screen just before landing. I didn’t ever register for warranty so I’m probably just gonna have to buy a new one

HereForTheBeer Posted at 1-21 17:23
that battery probably locked itself off.  one of your cells probably failed (seems to be an extremely common theme lately!)  and it dropped well below safe voltage and disabled itself..
i had a battery i purchased on amazon that did this, luckily the seller accepted the return with the notes i gave.  basically i was flying home earlier than RTH because newer battery and bit windy not too bad, and it jumped from 30% to 0% with 1000 feet ..also to note it dropped from mid 40%'s to 30% within a short time frame but i missed that.  or so left pulled up battery meter and cell 3 was red and barely a line in it. like 3.05V.. and i didnt wanna land it because no safe locations and people around probably take it if they saw it.  so i kept pushing it and aiming areas where if it dropped out of the sky it wouldn't hit the road or buildings...  .i somehow made it all the way home and last 10 feet of landing it just dropped..the battery locked up.  contacted the seller who told me to let it cool off plug it in over night and report back next day.. same thing, so he accepted return.

here, a screenshot from the flight log

aGuyOfGuys Posted at 1-22 05:28
here, a screenshot from the flight log

haha sike my dji spark still works

HereForTheBeer Posted at 1-21 17:23
that battery probably locked itself off.  one of your cells probably failed (seems to be an extremely common theme lately!)  and it dropped well below safe voltage and disabled itself..
i had a battery i purchased on amazon that did this, luckily the seller accepted the return with the notes i gave.  basically i was flying home earlier than RTH because newer battery and bit windy not too bad, and it jumped from 30% to 0% with 1000 feet ..also to note it dropped from mid 40%'s to 30% within a short time frame but i missed that.  or so left pulled up battery meter and cell 3 was red and barely a line in it. like 3.05V.. and i didnt wanna land it because no safe locations and people around probably take it if they saw it.  so i kept pushing it and aiming areas where if it dropped out of the sky it wouldn't hit the road or buildings...  .i somehow made it all the way home and last 10 feet of landing it just dropped..the battery locked up.  contacted the seller who told me to let it cool off plug it in over night and report back next day.. same thing, so he accepted return.

You're like the third post I have heard of having issues with cell 3 dropping out.  Hmmm.

Strong wind warning is the key to answering your question ! itll do a auto land at 12% and if its at 20% n gets a strong gust of wind it has to work much harder to stay on course . 20% + strong wind = 12% auto land

Strong wind warning is the key to answering your question ! itll do a auto land at 12% and if its at 20% n gets a strong gust of wind it has to work much harder to stay on course . 20% + strong wind = 12% auto land

Some people already provided their answers but if I might ask, what percentage did you start at and how cold/warm was it that day? I feel these might provide better insights into the battery failure.

I had about the same issue.
My battery dropped from 54% to 0!
Reported it to DJI but still no answer.

AlphaFlightNW Posted at 1-25 00:03
Some people already provided their answers but if I might ask, what percentage did you start at and how cold/warm was it that day? I feel these might provide better insights into the battery failure.

It was a normal sunny day, and the battery was at 20%

aGuyOfGuys Posted at 1-25 13:00
It was a normal sunny day, and the battery was at 20%

Oof... Thats pretty low to be starting at. The lowest I have took off with my aircraft was 60%, but even then those occasions are rare. The issue I can probably see by taking off at such low percentages is the fact that the readings can be incorrect, so for example, I had my car in cold weather read that it was at 14 volts when turned off, but it wouldnt start due to the gauge not reading true. This can relate to drones as a drone at rest, i.e. not flying does not use the same amount of energy as when it is in the air. As people have mentioned above, what most likely happened is a cell failure due to overdraw or flat out losing enough energy to essentially brick the battery. More than likely due to software in the battery preventing the cells from getting too discharged, thus creating a failsafe that prevents other cells from getting damaged or causing other issues when charging and or flying.

TL;DR Your battery probably bricked due to low energy in one or more cells, causing a trip in the software/hardware of the battery preventing it from being charged. I have never had this happen to me personally but it makes sense from an electrical standpoint, given the nature of these batteries.