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Battery life (Warning)

Glazier

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Hey Guys, just a heads up . I was flying yesterday, as I normally do. The battery was reading 30% ,so I was bringing her home for a landing. Just as I was touching down the battery went from 25% to 1% in a matter of 5 seconds. Had I not started to land when I did, the bird would have fallen out of the sky. Lucky , Anyway the battery is 1 of 4 that I have. I marked them all A, B, C, & D. They all have 22 charges on them. For now on I will be landing at 30%. Whereas I was landing at 25%. Heads up :rolleyes:
 
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Thanks for that Glazier,
Batteries do that mate. Unpredictable at times. I lost my Phantom 2 thanks to a battery fault while hovering. I was lucky though, I got a full refund after showing gopro evidence of the failure. Until that point they claimed it was caused by pilot error. But batteries will fail on ALL brands of birds. I watched my mates Phantom 2 explode into flames while warming up on the ground. Also had a second P2 battery swell up big time without notice. never caught fire though, it just went up like a puffer fish.
 
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Wow! Thanks Glacier for the info. I hardly look at % but more at how much time is left on the flight battery. When it hits 5 mins. and I get that audible warning I am coming home right away. But usually I am back in the area with like 8-10 minutes left on the flight just for good measure.
 
That's exactly what I would do Michael. With my premium ,when it use to hit 5 min.. I had 25% battery left and I would land. I'm not trusting that No more. I'll be landing at 30% or more for now on. :confused:
 
That happened to me once as well. 25% to 1 % in a matter of a few seconds. When I called Autel about it the person said it could have been that I started my flight with less than 100% battery, which was true. Started the day's flight with 75% or so. Still, that shouldn't happen. I always land immediately when it hits 25%. Taking no chances.
 
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That happened to me once as well. 25% to 1 % in a matter of a few seconds. When I called Autel about it the person said it could have been that I started my flight with less than 100% battery, which was true. Started the day's flight with 75% or so. Still, that shouldn't happen. I always land immediately when it hits 25%. Taking no chances.
Definitely Kevin , I'm now landing at 30%. Not taking the chance
 
Ok, now you guys got me thinking. If i haven't flown my bird in a month, and lets say the battery is showing 3 bars with about 85% on the control......do i charge it to full before flight on situations like these? or i should just fly it till 30%, then charge it back up?
I'd never understand how these poly batteries should be handled.
 
Ok, now you guys got me thinking. If i haven't flown my bird in a month, and lets say the battery is showing 3 bars with about 85% on the control......do i charge it to full before flight on situations like these? or i should just fly it till 30%, then charge it back up?
I'd never understand how these poly batteries should be handled.

I would fly it rather than cycle the battery through a charge. Has anyone however reached and exceeded the 200 estimated cycle count of these batteries to say that they continue to charge and discharge appropriately?

I would just set your low battery warning at 25%-30% for safety purposes. But when you are dealing with onboard CPU's that monitor these outputs you will inevitably have the every so often catastrophic failure. Its Murphys Law!
 
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I had the same problem as the OP just yesterday. One thing different on this flight is that I was using the latest Android app version for the first time. At launch, I noticed 23 minutes battery remaining, which was never more than 18 or 19 on the previous app. I had been flying for about 17 minutes with 6 minutes remaining on the meter (26%) when all of a sudden it dropped to 1 minute remaining, Critical Battery Warning flashed and initiated immediate landing sequence. Fortunately I was already returning for landing and it landed safely about 50 ft. away in a relatively flat area.

I contacted Autel CS and they initially thought it was a bad battery, but later backed off a little and requested my flight log for further analysis. I don't know if my problem was related to the new app, but thought I'd post my experience to see if any others with the problem were using the latest Android version.
 
I had the same problem as the OP just yesterday. One thing different on this flight is that I was using the latest Android app version for the first time. At launch, I noticed 23 minutes battery remaining, which was never more than 18 or 19 on the previous app. I had been flying for about 17 minutes with 6 minutes remaining on the meter (26%) when all of a sudden it dropped to 1 minute remaining, Critical Battery Warning flashed and initiated immediate landing sequence. Fortunately I was already returning for landing and it landed safely about 50 ft. away in a relatively flat area.

I contacted Autel CS and they initially thought it was a bad battery, but later backed off a little and requested my flight log for further analysis. I don't know if my problem was related to the new app, but thought I'd post my experience to see if any others with the problem were using the latest Android version.
I don't know man. Getting a little scary. Maybe we need to start landing at 40%.:(
 
Dude, battery's have been failing since drones started. It is nothing new, but with time comes improvements as us that have flown for years already see. Today's batteries are 100% better than 4 years ago, but it still happens less frequently. From experience i will say this, I feel much safer today flying the xsp than i did flying my phantoms. Bottom line for me is this... If a battery is going to fail there really is nothing I can do to prevent it while the pumpkin is up in the air so why stress it. enjoy the time we have :)
 
Just had a thought: are these battery dropouts all occurring with the Android app or have they also happened with the iOS as well? Could the tablet app be causing erratic "sticky" readings?
 

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