Unfortunately, these batteries are not as intelligent as I wish they were.
Briefly, after 140 uneventful flights with my P3P, I crashed it into the ocean Thanksgiving morning. My mistake was that I took off with a battery that had not been charged that day (had sat for 5-8 days) but still had 4 LEDs and a 92% charge according to the app. I have since learned that, while the DJI tutorials say that it is OK to take off as long as you have a readout of 50% battery charge or higher, this is not safe.


There is an interesting discussion happening here right now: http://forum.dji.com/thread-33908-1-1.html. It turns out, when a battery sits and slowly loses its charge, the "smart" part of the battery does not always know it. It does not track actual charge well in such a setting. It tells the app you have much more charge than you actually do, and the actual voltage may not be discernible until you create a heavy draw on the battery (e.g., ascending).


I'm finding dozens with similar stories online!


Unfortunately, a week after submitting logs and details to DJI US Support, today I heard back from them about my "Return to Home Failure" case (their description, not mine, and it is a decidedly wrong description) and I got the form letter offering me 30% off a replacement. I am hoping to negotiate this further with them. And I look forward to getting one of these amazing machines in the air again.


But in the meantime, take heed. Do NOT trust the Intelligent Battery readout unless you have charged to 100% the day of flight.

ghinson, thanks for posting this.  I will make sure 100% charge on day of flight.  Good luck with your negotiations!

Just got a reply from DJI myself.
Battery reported 52%, fles for less than one minute then got a warning followed by Landing and No Signal.Filled in the DJI Analysis form and did as best I could.
They offered me 15% discount on a new drone because I guessed -2c and thats 2c below recommended operating temperature.
Guess I should have guessed a couple c's higher.
Beeing a hard core DJI fan ever since the P1 this hits me like a freight train.
I have only paid the first bill so I cant afford another loan for a long time so no joy for me this christmas :/

Maybe some time next summer.

[RCG]Balthazar Posted at 2015-12-8 16:47
Just got a reply from DJI myself.
Battery reported 52%, fles for less than one minute then got a war ...

That's crazy. If the app is saying 52% battery, it should not fall out of the sky! Even if it is due to the temperature, the app should give an accurate readout on the charge! You should push back. Stay on them. Keep calling back.

Hi ,
It's also recommended to fly the aircraft with battery full charged in the ""Intelligent Flight Battery Safety Guidelines .

[RCG]Balthazar Posted at 2015-12-9 05:47
Just got a reply from DJI myself.
Battery reported 52%, fles for less than one minute then got a war ...

Sorry about that . If you have any questions about that , please contact the repair center that you sent your drone to .

Had you been competing he deep discharge every 20 flights as state in the manual?  This is supposed to prevent exactly what you describe.  It allows the 'smart' electronics to profile the battery life as it ages.

DJI-Patrick Posted at 2015-12-9 02:27
Hi ,
It's also recommended to fly the aircraft with battery full charged in the ""Intelligent Flight ...

I had all 4 LEDs lit and an app that read 92%. You think that counts?

leon.hughes Posted at 2015-12-9 03:26
Had you been competing he deep discharge every 20 flights as state in the manual?  This is supposed  ...

The battery that failed me had 35 flights on it, and I had performed a deep discharge once in its life.

DJI-Patrick Posted at 2015-12-9 02:27
Hi ,
It's also recommended to fly the aircraft with battery full charged in the ""Intelligent Flight ...

And here's a screenshot from DJI tutorial:

Software is only so smart. It cannot account for changes in temperature or the environment too well unfortunately. For example, a warm battery in your car at about 15-20C before flight, reading 52%, is probably correct, however, once it gets outside in -2C weather and you fly for awhile, the battery can drop suddenly. Batteries HATE the cold. Every battery hates the cold. Perfect example, a car battery. Have you let your car sit in the summer for a week and then start it and it's fine, but in the winter over the same time it is dead or barely turns over the motor?

This is the same thing. You cannot blame software, or the manufacturer for this. It comes down to a learning experience really. It's the chance you take flying in sub 0 temps.

Another example is I have a weather station outside on my balcony. Well, the weather sensor is there. It takes two Akaline AA batteries. I can go from Late spring to early fall on a set of batteries, no problem. After that i have to replace the batteries every 2-3 weeks (until it warms up again) as they die quickly. Last year my batteries froze (-30C) and actually popped the cover of the weather sensor.

DJI-Patrick Posted at 2015-12-9 09:17
Sorry about that . If you have any questions about that , please contact the repair center that yo ...

Have you ever tried to find white stuff in snow?
Spent quite a while both on foot and with a friends P3 looking for it but could not find it.
So either it didnt land but flew away or it is buried in snow.
Cant send what I cant find!
Snow is gone now so I'll do another search this weekend (Too dark after work)

This is in fact the third time I hear about the same flaw.
A friend of mine almost lost his P3 over water at 60% but didnt loose contact and managed to recover it and keep flying.

scottdrmyers Posted at 2015-12-9 20:57
Software is only so smart. It cannot account for changes in temperature or the environment too well  ...

Well, I have had all the Phantoms from day one an addition to a huge range of othe drones, planes, cars and helicopters.
The P3 have only got 58 flights divided on two batteries (24 fligts per battery) but The P1 and P2's litterally got hundreds of flights all year each.
I do live in Norway which is north of Europe and I cant remember a single battery failiure due to temperature before.

Just look at this P1 winter flight from the mad early days for example:

scottdrmyers Posted at 2015-12-9 14:57
Software is only so smart. It cannot account for changes in temperature or the environment too well  ...

But at the same time doesn't the battery heat up from use??

Batteries are chemical devices that obey certain electrical rules, but their internal workings are very hard to examine and control. The term 'Intelligent Battery' is perhaps wrong, because there is nothing intelligent about the battery itself, it refers to the whole package.

Each battery has a processor in it to monitor the charge condition and report to the control system. This method has been around for quite some time, as I recall Sony were one of the first to use it in their Info Lithium batteries.

There is little that a system can monitor about a battery, particularly as the cell voltage does not tell you much at all, except when it is under load. So the internal processor in the battery pack can measure the load and then the cell voltage to make an estimate of the remaining capacity of the cells in the battery.

The processor can also monitor how much charge current is tipped into the battery over a certain time, and that information is used to estimate the amount of charge that has been applied to the battery.

All this works pretty well at normal temperatures, but low temperatures can screw it up big time. For example, you might charge the battery indoors at 'normal' temperatures, then take it outside into near zero conditions. The processor has estimated the amount of charge in the battery when it was charged indoors and as far as it is concerned, that amount of charge should still be available. But it is not, because all batteries, regardless of type, hate the cold and will not deliver the expected charge.

In normal temperature operation, the information obtained by the battery is only valid for a certain time as well, and if the battery is charged and then left for a time before being used, the battery condition information stored in the battery's processor is not necessarily accurate, and it is not the fault of the manufacturer.

They make an honest attempt to track the charge condition, but it is not a precise science. So some simple rules can be applied here, and if you follow them, you should be OK most of the time, but ignore them and you may crash.

1. Charge your batteries only just before you intend to fly.
2. Store the batteries in normal temperatures, do not let them get too cold or too hot.
3. Never leave the ground on a battery that is less than fully charged, and charged recently.
4. If you fly in very cold temperatures, then halve your battery percentage estimates.

Geebax Posted at 2015-12-9 22:31
Batteries are chemical devices that obey certain electrical rules, but their internal workings are v ...

i'm sorry to say that nothing of what you wrote here apply for my unpleasent experience with my P3.pro..
My problem is that the Company DJI Innovations desided that my P3.pro should take a landing over salty water due to a inregularity in my battery.
You just take it for granted that the battery is cold and therefor it shows 60% left and that its realy almost emty and therfore it should take a emergency landing..
After i got my p3.pro over a safe spot at dry land, it had droped from 58m to 22m altitude. i then pushed RTH button and it start climbing to 30m and came home.
When my P3.pro came home i did som quick testing and disided to do my flight.
i did almost 8 extra minute flight, and landed my p3.pro with 20% battery....
PS.... and now they have issued a "Cold Battery" warning in my DJI GO app..
- My battery was never cold in any way...
- I used the first 40% of my battery less then a hour earlyer at a small flight in a near by valley.
- My P3.pro and the battery was in my car at normal temperatur between flights.

Fine, but that suggests you are not interested in anything I wrote, your choice. I was not replying to you, I was offering information about batteries in general.

Statements like "My problem is that the Company DJI Innovations desided that my P3.pro should take a landing over salty water due to a inregularity in my battery." say a lot. Firstly, DJI did not decide to do anything, the aircraft made a decision based on the available information from the battery. As I already explained, that information is not infallible. As for deciding to land in salty water, the aircraft has no idea what it is over, if it thinks it should land to save the aircraft, then it will. It has no idea and cannot tell it is over water.

The battery has a temperature probe in it, if that probe reads a low temperature, it may trigger a 'cold battery' alert. You can argue that the battery was not cold, but frankly, that's your choice again.

ghinson Posted at 2015-12-9 21:24
And here's a screenshot from DJI tutorial:

Hi ,Ghinson
Could you please tell me where did you get that picture ? Would you please post a link here ?

[RCG]Balthazar Posted at 2015-12-10 04:10
Have you ever tried to find white stuff in snow?
Spent quite a while both on foot and with a friend ...

Hi , Balthazar
It's really hard to find it and I totally understand that ! Maybe you should take that as a reference when flying in winter :http://forum.dji.com/thread-35249-1-1.html
Please contact Germany support center and upload the flight record for data analysis .

Lord Pyrre Posted at 2015-12-10 07:27
i'm sorry to say that nothing of what you wrote here apply for my unpleasent experience with my P3 ...

Hi , Lord
A "Cold Battery" warning in App ? That's so weird . Could you please show me a screenshot of that ? Or the flight log  about that incident ?

The fact that Pyrre managed to recover, return to home, fly a bit more and have 20% left suggests that that maybe the FC is a lill quick in its landing decision. Maybe a calculating average voltage over a few seconds could fix or at least greatly reduce this issue?

ghinson Posted at 2015-12-9 07:23
The battery that failed me had 35 flights on it, and I had performed a deep discharge once in its  ...

How do you perform a deep discharge? Can't be in flight.

Also, if possible let us switch from Landing to Return Home on Critically Low battery. Those of us that live close to water and tall mountains wold rather kill a battery than loose the whole drone.

DJI-Patrick Posted at 2015-12-10 05:36
Hi ,Ghinson
Could you please tell me where did you get that picture ? Would you please post a link ...

I took screenshots from a previous version of the app tutorial, because I wasn't able to read them closely at the time. This tutorial is no longer in the app.

Lipo batteries are very efficient weight to power storage. But they are also hard to manage.

They need to be gently broken in and stored properly. Usually this is done with an intelligent charger, and you have to program the charger manually.

DJI has simplified the use of Lipos, and this is great, but everyone needs to understand that power in a lipo is not like fuel in an automobile tank.

This is why DJI states always start with a fully charged battery. The voltage readings don't really reflect the state of the battery exactly, and there are times when voltage will drop very quickly, and this can trigger auto landing etc or even shut the MR down.

On my S800 I always fly dual Lipo Packs for redundancy. Lipos often fail, it is because of the somewhat frail design of the internal design. I have had many Lipos fail early in life from internal failures and from getting bumped hard or flying to long and over discharging.

One must remember the Phantoms are toys not professional MRs with redundancy. And they should be flown at all times with an expectancy of failure of one sort or another. Like loss of GPS, IMU failure transmitter/receiver failure or Lipo malfunction, ESC PMU or other circuit or motor failiure. Just like all RC model airplanes, just more complex so more points of failiure.

So fly safe and have fun. But remember these are just toys not commercial aircraft.

DJI-Patrick Posted at 2015-12-10 12:03
Hi , Lord
A "Cold Battery" warning in App ? That's so weird . Could you please show me a screensho ...

Pic of Announcement "Tips for flying in winter"

Westside Osprey Posted at 2015-12-10 15:50
Lipo batteries are very efficient weight to power storage. But they are also hard to manage.

They  ...

I think you underestimate the quality of DJI LiPo's.
I still use P1 batteries to power monitors at work when doing pipe inspections!
I think it's a matter of filtering sensor noise.

I am sorry I do not agree.  Just because the battery was not 100% does not mean that was the only possible cause.  If you took off at 90% it should have been fine.

Do people that launch at 100% and then land it (at 90%) for some reason switch out the battery for 1 at 100%?  Of course not.  Do people that launch at 100% and allow it to hover near them while they adjust the setting on the DJI Go panic because the battery is now 95%?  Of course not.

Look for other causes because I do not think the 90% battery is the real cause.

Geebax Posted at 2015-12-10 00:37
Fine, but that suggests you are not interested in anything I wrote, your choice. I was not replying  ...

I am neither a novice in lipo batteries or UAVs.
I have several UAV's, both DJI (P1, P2, P3) I also 3DR X8 + and "homemade" UAV's ..
I know when a battery has degraded performance due to cold or not ....
Just because you like to write a general description of the battery and cold, so it becomes no more correct that that was what caused my accident.
I am also sorry that I gave you the impression that someone actually wrote and programmed my P3 to land at such mistakes .. I understand now that it must be born with the instructions ...
If you take a look at my Youtube channel, so you will quickly find out that we have a lot of water here, and I have to trust that the drone does not land unnecessarily at sea because of a minor problem ... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxx2y1B9dpXPDHXniaP-PXw

and as I said then, I completed 8 Eksta minutes after I got control of my p3.
The actual fligt when i got my problemh:

DJI-Patrick Posted at 2015-12-10 11:50
Hi , Balthazar
It's really hard to find it and I totally understand that ! Maybe you should take t ...

That is a great topic! (You will never see me outside flying drones in -45c though)
But Pleeeease understand that I am not a Noob when it comes to winther and I am a little experienced with batteries!
These are the ones I have in my Drone room and my fixed Wing room.
Only 1 out of 3 models have been with me almost every single day
and that is the Phantom 1, then the Phantom 2 and for the last couple months
the Phantom 3 was my preferred Toy/Tool.
None of the others comes even close for daily pleasure and only gets TLC
when traveling to RC meetings and such.
But they do hopefully tell you that I am a little experienced when it comes to this stuff!
Maybe they even make you want to keep me as a customer?
I really can not afford another $2000+ loan especially as it is NOT MY FAULT!
The flight log is uploaded, the ZenDesk form filled in but I guessed the temperature 2c too low.
I do not excpect you to give a 2c leeway to a big fan, big supporter of various Phantom communities
(Check fb groups and mu blog if you do not believe me', you can even ask your own dealer rcbutikken.no how many phantoms I've bought for myself and my friends, how many phantoms I've upgraded and who gave them their first Phantom FPV experience)But I really really hope there is a way for me to prove that the flight took place
above the recommended 0c range!
Well enough whining, sorry if I offended anyone with this and I hope you can find a way to help!
What is the email address to german dji btw?
This might be my only chance to keep flying my favourite birds!

ghinson Posted at 2015-12-10 22:43
I took screenshots from a previous version of the app tutorial, because I wasn't able to read them ...

Please give me your RMA number . I'll report your issue to american support center .

[RCG]Balthazar Posted at 2015-12-11 02:00
That is a great topic! (You will never see me outside flying drones in -45c though)
But Pleeeease u ...

Hi ,
Please contact our support center as it's shown on that page : http://www.dji.com/support?www=v1

DJI-Patrick Posted at 2015-12-11 05:02
Please give me your RMA number . I'll report your issue to american support center .

Thanks! I've been trying to get an RMA since Thanksgiving.

[RCG]Balthazar Posted at 2015-12-9 15:27
Well, I have had all the Phantoms from day one an addition to a huge range of othe drones, planes, ...

WHOA!  Hats off for that crazy a$# long distance flight!  My jaw dropped when you flew right through those power lines!  How many miles (oops, kilometers) did you fly along that road before you finally landed?  

gil Posted at 2015-12-11 19:45
WHOA!  Hats off for that crazy a$# long distance flight!  My jaw dropped when you flew right throu ...

According to Google Map it was 3.1 kilometer.The blue line was recorded by my phone.
Bone cold winter, -10c ish I think, Phantom 1 in ATTI mode.
If we hadnt met those cars and my driver have been able
to follow the drone I guess it could hanve been 4kilometers.
The Power Lines messed with something because
it started flashing reds when passing trough.

Lord Pyrre Posted at 2015-12-11 00:52
Pic of Announcement "Tips for flying in winter"

Hi , Lord
Sorry but this is an announcement of "Tips for flying in winter" . There's nothing about the "Cold battery" warning .

ghinson Posted at 2015-12-11 20:16
Thanks! I've been trying to get an RMA since Thanksgiving.

Since you've contacted with US support center , have you requested a flight record analysis ?  Did you emailed them and got a ticket number ?

DJI-Patrick Posted at 2015-12-12 04:32
Since you've contacted with US support center , have you requested a flight record analysis ?  Did ...

Yes. Sent them everything they requested. Got a ticket number. After about 10 days, response was "sorry this happened, we'd like to offer you 30% off." My reply was "I'd like to talk to someone." 3-4 days later, the reply was "We'd like to look more closely at this, can you upload the flight to the cloud." "Yes. I did so 2 weeks ago. But I will do so again." And now I'm waiting again. Fingers crossed for an RMA.

Is there amy way to confim te upload?Didnt notice any message like uploadsuccessful..
Is the yellow star such a confirmation?

The yellow star means you labelled it as "Favorite."

Was unable to get confirmation about the same. But I THINK the cloud icon to the right means they uploaded. It's just a matter of whether or not someone on the other side knows how to access them. In my support messages, I was asked to upload to the cloud and then give credentials. I assumed that meant the login username, so I gave them the email address I use to login and the name of the Phantom. I didn't give (nor did they ask for) my password. Not sure if they need that too.