Battery Problem

Russty · Dec 13, 2016

I know ive already seen a thread on this here before but i cant seem to find it.

My brand new battery that came with 0% charge now will not charge past 25%. Ive tried draining it down once again to start from scratch but it still will not charge past 25%.

Any fix for this or should i just go ahead and contact Autel?

RJ_Make · Dec 13, 2016

You need to call Autel.

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DanKearney · Dec 17, 2016

That happened with the battery that came with my X-Star. Autel wanted me to drain the battery down to 7% and then recharge it. They were specific about not draining it down past 6%.

I don't know if that would've worked. I declined to do it and just returned the whole X-Star kit to BestBuy and exchanged it for a new one.

In my opinion, everything in a $700 kit should work correctly right out-of-the-box. If not, I return it.

Good Luck,

Dan K.

ELTON STONE · Dec 18, 2016

Russty said:
I know ive already seen a thread on this here before but i cant seem to find it.

My brand new battery that came with 0% charge now will not charge past 25%. Ive tried draining it down once again to start from scratch but it still will not charge past 25%.

Any fix for this or should i just go ahead and contact Autel?

I bought a the Autel X-Star premium 2 week ago and could not getting more than 50 percent on 3 attempts but each attempt I was conducting a charge right after flying. The next day, I ran the battery/drone as long as I could, ( it was well under the 7 percent) bought it inside from the cold and let the battery itself cool down for 30 mins. Then I did a charge on it. It worked! I think the problem was it (the Battery) had to be cold in order to charge. But this worked! Since then I have charged it 2 more times getting 4 lights and100 percent charge. Enjoying my X-Star premium even more. And I will teaching Drone Technology here on the Outer Banks Of NC.

DanKearney · Dec 18, 2016

Yes, the battery instructions state to wait until the battery cools down to room temperature before charging.

There's also a blurb about doing a full charge and deplete cycle (CHarge to 100% and deplete to 7%) every 3 months, or every 20th charge cycle.

Cheers,

Dan K.

Russty · Dec 19, 2016

I had the battery at room temp. The first time i tried to charge it, it was straight out of the box and only at 25%. I talked to autel and they made me send them a photo of the cell status. The battery was charged to 97% but the indicator lights were only showing 25%.

I ended up just charging, plugging it into the X star, checking the status, then taking it back out and trying to charge it and now it seems to be fine. All the lights work and it charges to 100%. Now my concern is that the batterys gonna just poop out in the sky or something.

Lewispeak · Jan 25, 2017

Russty said:
I had the battery at room temp. The first time i tried to charge it, it was straight out of the box and only at 25%. I talked to autel and they made me send them a photo of the cell status. The battery was charged to 97% but the indicator lights were only showing 25%.

I ended up just charging, plugging it into the X star, checking the status, then taking it back out and trying to charge it and now it seems to be fine. All the lights work and it charges to 100%. Now my concern is that the batterys gonna just poop out in the sky or something.

What does happen when the batteries fail while flying? Drone fall from the sky?

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demaj · Jan 26, 2017

Lewispeak said:
What does happen when the batteries fail while flying? Drone fall from the sky?

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When the battery level goes down to 10% emergency landing is triggered, but in case of fatal failure, the drone will fall like as stone. There is not spare battery.
Rgds

Lewispeak · Jan 26, 2017

Kinda what I thought. Good time to have a tracking device

Deputydon · Jan 27, 2017

Lewispeak said:
What does happen when the batteries fail while flying? Drone fall from the sky?

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I had this happen last week. The battery suddenly dropped from 38% to 8% it began to land but didn't make it to the ground before the battery failed completely. Luckily the XSP survived without damage.

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Deputydon · Jan 27, 2017

Lewispeak said:
What does happen when the batteries fail while flying? Drone fall from the sky?

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I had this happen last week. The battery suddenly dropped from 38% to 8% it began to land but didn't make it to the ground before the battery failed completely. Luckily the XSP survived without damage.

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HiloHawaiian · Nov 19, 2017

Can you “reset” these batteries, and will it help?? This can be a drone-loss issue.
I had this happen yesterday flying through a grove of trees. Battery went to Home warning at 15%, which I cancelled b/c it was close to me, and flying under a tree canopy. A sudden altitude gain to go home would have been a disaster. Taking control, and easing it the 100 feet back to me, it instantly dropped to 3% “landing now” mode, and went straight down into some bushes.
Extremely fortunate for me, b/c the flight before was 1.5 miles away into a lava canyon waterfall a goat couldn’t climb into!

Jagerbomb52 · Nov 19, 2017

It happens a lot, not only to Autel smart batteries but also DJI smart batteries. The worse thing they tried to do with these not so smart batteries was monitor the capacity of them. One weak cell throws the whole system off when there is actually plenty of battery life left. The new firmware was suppose to address this problem but the problem is still there.

You were lucky to get the RTH canceled so fast. Lots of people have crashed when it started to go up to the programed RTH height.

HiloHawaiian · Nov 19, 2017

TY, I started a new post hoping to get more insight. My current solution? I bought a $549 refurbished XSP, and I change SD cards after every flight. The XSP in-flight is now considered expendable, which is of course — crazy...

ovrszd · Nov 19, 2017

HiloHawaiian said:
TY, I started a new post hoping to get more insight. My current solution? I bought a $549 refurbished XSP, and I change SD cards after every flight. The XSP in-flight is now considered expendable, which is of course — crazy...

Why would changing the SD card have an impact?

HiloHawaiian · Nov 21, 2017

ovrszd said:
Why would changing the SD card have an impact?

LOL, sry, I should have explained... I’m making videos of real estate, raw land, and the beauty of the Big Island of Hawaii. Footage captured over remote areas is valuable, I’d rather not risk it again. Changing SD cards has an impact because if I loose the XSP via landing in a place no human can get to, I’ll have the footage from the last flight! I have 6 SD cards, I swap them after every flight...

HiloHawaiian · Nov 21, 2017

DanKearney said:
Yes, the battery instructions state to wait until the battery cools down to room temperature before charging.

There's also a blurb about doing a full charge and deplete cycle (CHarge to 100% and deplete to 7%) every 3 months, or every 20th charge cycle.

Cheers,

Dan K.

Is there any other way to deplete them down that low other than flying around the backyard?

Jagerbomb52 · Nov 21, 2017

If you have a aftermarket charger that has a discharge setting which most do you can use that. You will need this connector to hook up to your battery. Turn the battery on and use the charger to discharge. I just did one this morning as the weather is very winding for the next few days so I just hooked it up to my aftermarket charger and about a hour later it was where I wanted it for storage.

Venom DJI Phantom 2/3 Drone Battery to Charger Adapter Plug

HiloHawaiian · Nov 21, 2017

Ty! Sorry in advance for all the questions about batteries, but they’ve suddenly become a KEY issue for me...

Which aftermarket charger do you recommend? The plug looks pretty different, but you use it to both charge and discharge? What level do you recommend for short-term and long-term storage?

Jagerbomb52 · Nov 21, 2017

There are a lot of good ones but this one is nice as it is AC\DC so you don't need a power suppy to run it.
I use the supplied charger as I found it works just as fast as my aftermarket one. Our batteries are 4900 mAh batteries so that relates to charging them at 4.9 amps with a aftermarket charger and I think the supplied charger does the same.

X2 AC Plus Charger by Hi-Tec LiPo, LiHV, Li-Ion, LiFe, NiCd, NiMH 44232 | eBay

I like to take my batteries down to 3.80V per cell which is 15.20 volts for long term storage.
Anywhere between 3.80 & 3.90 volts per cell is fine.