Hey folks,
Bear with me here if this topic has been covered before.  Seriously, I did review a good number of the battery issue posts for the Phantom 3 Standard but, GEEEZZZZ!!!  There are two pages of them.

Anyway, I just picked this Phantom 3 Standard up from someone off Facebook Marketplace who apparently got it as a kid and flew it a few times, then put it in his closet and there it sat...he says for 6 years but I doubt that long.  The single battery he sent with it doesn't seem to want to take a charge...at all, when hooked to a charger.  

1.  When I press the button to turn the battery on  (1 short followed by a 2-second press) the red light on the button comes on along with one green light on followed by all 4 green lights sequentially when do the 2nd (longer) press, then one green light flashes a couple times, then they all go out.

2.  When I press and hold the button 1 time, the red button lights up and on green light flashes 5 times, then all 4 green lights light up and the red button flashes 5 times, then everything goes out.

3  I attempted to turn the battery on and plug the battery charger in while that one light was flashing and initially it appeared to go into a charging cycle where all 4 lights sequentially were flashing...but then everything went out.
I read something about these batteries going into "hibernation" mode if stored for a long time.  

I also heard that they are destroyed if stored discharged but it apparently isn't "dead" as the lights light up.


Any suggestions on how I may be able to salvage this battery,...or is it toast?

I have 3 other batteries from my son's Phantom 3 Standard and they all charge up fine on the charger, so the charger works fine.

The whole reason I bought this drone is to replace my son's Phantom 3 Standard, that I took with me on an RV trip and on the first flight, I was "air taxiing" back to the RV and while flying under a tree canopy, thought that if I hit "Return to Home" it would fly at that 10' air taxi altitude to the takeoff point by the RV and land.  LESSON 1.  That doesn't happen.  It immediately climbed like a homesick angel to attempt to attain set RTH altitude.  Unfortunately, the tree canopy was much lower than that programmed altitude and it crashed, breaking the camera loose from the gimbal (pitch motor separated in two pieces).  I attempted too pop the motor back together and it worked...with video...initially...but the camera initialized at about a 30° angle.  So in attempting to reattach the camera, I apparently sliced the ribbon cable in two.

My intent is to replace the son's drone with this newly acquired one and maybe get the broken gimble motor and ribbon cable replaced on his and keep it to play around with myself.  I actually got my drone license and registration number to keep everything legal!

Jim Harvey
Jacksonville, FL
jimharvey1@comcast.net
(904) 307-7762
(if no answer, leave a message & I'll call back)

Welcome Jimharvey1 Hope it helps :

This is what the battery is doing.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k70kubzwtdzdzpp/20211201_133318.mp4?dl=0

Your first example shows the battery is extremely low - so low it won't stay on even after you turn it on.  Ideally this would never happen and indicates the battery may be unrecoverable.

Your second example shows the battery potentially has 90-100% life which is to say it hasn't had a lot of use.  But this is basically useless info.  It doesn't mean the battery is still good.

Your third example contradicts the first example because for the first few secs it seems to indicate an almost fully charged battery as it is charging.  But how can that be?  Then it stops charging.  

It would have been helpful to check the charge by quickly pressing the power button once.  But it's not in your video.

In my opinion, it's time to retire the battery.  You could try turning the battery on immediately after you plug in the power adapter as it is charging which forces a charge in most cases, but in your case it probably won't work because it seems likely the battery is beyond saving.  Yeah, you can try "waking it up", assuming it's in hibernation mode but it almost never works.  

Next time, keep your battery at around 50% power when not in use.  If it drops down below 37%, charge it for about ten mins to get it back to just above 50%.  Keep it out somewhere in plain sight so you don't forget about it.  Check it often by quicky pressing the power button once and letting go of it and watching the lamps.  

Good luck

Mark The Droner Posted at 12-2 05:40
Your first example shows the battery is extremely low - so low it won't stay on even after you turn it on.  Ideally this would never happen and indicates the battery may be unrecoverable.

Your second example shows the battery potentially has 90-100% life which is to say it hasn't had a lot of use.  But this is basically useless info.  It doesn't mean the battery is still good.

A push and release of the battery button shows 1 green light which flashes 3x with the red button light staying on steady and red. After 3 flashes, all lights go out.

I understand the maintenance of these batteries and the necessity of keeping them up.  This battery came with a Phantom 3 Standard drone that I purchased off Facebook Marketplace to replace my son's that I borrowed and crashed, damaging the gimble motor and ribbon cable (which I intend to have repaired and keep), from a guy that said he got it as a young kid and after getting bored with it, he put it in a closet where it sat for 6 years before he decided to sell it.  Pretty sure that battery didn't see a charger during the time it was stored.

Sounds like it's trying to tell you it has between 0% and 12 % power.  As I said above, you could try turning the battery on immediately after you plug in the power adapter as it is charging which forces a charge in most cases, but in your case it probably won't work because it seems likely the battery is beyond saving.  Yeah, you can try "waking it up", assuming it's in hibernation mode but trying that almost never works.  

Good luck