Anyone have a battery crap out?

[MitchNC]

I have 3 batteries and one of them will no longer charge.
I put in a ticket with Autel but just wondering about the reliability of the batteries.

 

[HiloHawaiian]

There’s lots of comments on many drone forums about this topic. They can and do fail. Search this forum regarding battery tips, and follow them religiously. I’ve had 3 XSP batteries suddenly go flat in the air. Once it was Autel’s fault, I lost the drone, they replaced it. The other two could have been my fault, not taking enough care in cycling them properly. Also, only fly with fully-charged batteries, even if you must top them off if you couldn’t fly the day you planned to fly. Stuff happens, batteries sit for a few days. They start to discharge themselves for their long-term health. Luckily the other two times it was close to me, easy to retrieve. I now keep a log of each battery, and I haven’t had a problem since....

 

[WayneH]

I have 3 batteries and one of them will no longer charge.
I put in a ticket with Autel but just wondering about the reliability of the batteries.

Are you KIDDING? <grin> Anybody who has been using Lithium-based batteries has suffered a battery failure, or just hasn't used it much. In the early days, it was uncommon to go the the pond/flying field/race track, etc. without hearing someone cussing their battery pack. Not common nowadays, but it STILL happens. Buy the best, prepare for the worst!

 

[Rofl it's Waffle]

Having used LiPo batteries on other RC devices, I have encountered every now and then a battery that will have develop a bad cell. It's not a bad pre-flight check to make sure all 3 of these cells are in similar voltages (4.2V per fully charged cell is normal, and can vary ±0.3V without much concern. It's when you find one cell is like 3.7V and the other are 4.2V, I would question flying like that.

I'm not sure how these battery chargers behave. I know on other balance charging devices, it'll actually single out lower voltage cells and charge them individually until it's back within spec. I would assume Autel supplies this charger as standard.

 

[labrat1957]

Is it OK to partially charge a battery? For example, they've sat for a while, you check them, and one or two have just one LED (or less) flashing. Is it OK to toss it on the charger for 15-20 minutes until two or three LED's are lit? I usually charge whatever batteries I'm going to use just before, or a day before I fly. A few times I haven't been able to fly even on that day and I really don't like to have fully charged batteries sitting around. But, in the case of the really low charged ones, is a partial charge OK to do?

 

[Jagerbomb52]

For the last year this is exactly what I have been doing, just topping them off to about 40%. So far I see no ill affects. I think dropping them down to the 7% voltage once in every 3 -4 months and charging back up can not hurt as it is recommended from Autel.

 

[MitchNC]

I heard back from Alejandro. He had me reset the battery by holding the power button for 15 seconds.
I didn't know about this.

After that, the battery charged fully. Good to know!

I ruined several packs a couple years ago because thought I was doing a good thing by topping them off all winter, instead of storage charge.

Ruined them. My little racing drone gets about 30 seconds of flight time.
Maybe I'll shoot them with my .22 to see the fire.

 

[MitchNC]

Now that the biblical rain has stopped I expect to be using the Evo every day.

But if there's a documented regimen for keeping the batteries healthy I'd like to know. It would be easy enough to set up a calendar event.

 

[lastdon87]

Now that the biblical rain has stopped I expect to be using the Evo every day.

But if there's a documented regimen for keeping the batteries healthy I'd like to know. It would be easy enough to set up a calendar event.

I was also wondering how many cycles on average ya'll are getting before the battery craps out? I seen a YouTube video were a guy was saying his were pretty bad around the 50 cycle mark and I though that seemed pretty low.

 

[HiloHawaiian]

Aside from one XSP being lost to sudden battery failure (Autel replaced), I’ve only had one battery become unreliable. It’s an older white one from 2015, has 78 cycles. I religiously deep cycled it every 15-20 charges, but it won’t hold a charge anymore. I got it on eBay for $50, NiB in 2016, probably sat around awhile—you get what you pay for...