Hello, new guy here just bought a x star premium. Can not get the batteries to charge. My research tells me this is a common issue.

Steven Nelson · Feb 15, 2020

Hello, new guy here just bought a x star premium. Can not get the batteries to charge. My research tells me this is a common issue. Other than purchasing new batteries (3)
What can I do? I’ve tried to reset the batteries, I’ve tried to charge them for 12 hrs. I’ve tried to contact Autel customer service, nothing
Is there an easy fix? Or do I need to purchase new batteries

Ansia · Feb 15, 2020

Hello and welcome to the forums. Like you said, if all else fails, then it's time to buy a new battery.

ORANGE CRUSH · Feb 15, 2020

It sounds like you have done all you can do, if you purchase new batteries, they will be covered under warranty for 1 year. The trick to keeping them from failing is to keep them properly maintained while in a storage state, I have several batteries that are over 3 years old. There are several forum postings on this matter.

HiloHawaiian · Feb 15, 2020

All my batteries are over 3 years old, and aside from a couple that were replaced under warranty, they’re all OK, with slowly declining capacity — normal. I wasn’t as diligent in maintaining them as others (I am now), so I’m surprised how well they’re doing....

xspwhite · Feb 16, 2020

Steven Nelson said:
Hello, new guy here just bought a x star premium. Can not get the batteries to charge. My research tells me this is a common issue. Other than purchasing new batteries (3)
What can I do? I’ve tried to reset the batteries, I’ve tried to charge them for 12 hrs. I’ve tried to contact Autel customer service, nothing
Is there an easy fix? Or do I need to purchase new batteries

I've always been able to get mine to work by holding down the power button and toggling it while plugged in to the charger.

ORANGE CRUSH · Feb 17, 2020

What do you mean by "toggling it" ? Have you had luck getting them to come out of a dead state?

Ansia · Feb 17, 2020

I wonder if it's possible to jump start a battery with low voltage, like you do in cars.

Jagerbomb52 · Feb 17, 2020

Only if you can get the mains powered up. Unfortunately the X-Star batteries need the power button to turn it on.

Jagerbomb52 · Feb 17, 2020

The X-star batteries and the older DJI Phantom batteries are made pretty much the same way. If you know what you are doing and I do not recommend you attempting this unless you do, this is how to jump start them. Not for someone with shaky hands. These things can catch on fire big time if you make a mistake. ?

xspwhite · Feb 17, 2020

ORANGE CRUSH said:
What do you mean by "toggling it" ? Have you had luck getting them to come out of a dead state?

YES.. just last month I pulled out three of them that hadn't been charged in six-months. They were completely drained and dead. Two of them came to life fairly quickly, but the third one gave me a scare.

I plugged it into the charger and tried different toggling techniques with the power button; long hold-downs, double presses, rapid presses and got nothing. Then I left it on the charger and ever so often I came back and tried again. At some point, the lights would flicker for a second. After about an hour of back and forth fiddling the battery suddenly kicked on and started charging.

I was relieved.

ORANGE CRUSH · Feb 17, 2020

Thanks xsp white, as for an issue I had yesterday, I pulled my XSP batteries out & check the lights, if they are down to 1 solid light then 1 charge it for 10 min. to bring it back to a storage state. I do this every Saturday on several batteries. This time on 2 of my batteries, after charging for 10 min. the batteries showed all 4 lights solid, as it showing fully charged, I have never seen this before. Any ideas from anyone as to what happened? Thanks

xspwhite · Feb 17, 2020

ORANGE CRUSH said:
Thanks xsp white, as for an issue I had yesterday, I pulled my XSP batteries out & check the lights, if they are down to 1 solid light then 1 charge it for 10 min. to bring it back to a storage state. I do this every Saturday on several batteries. This time on 2 of my batteries, after charging for 10 min. the batteries showed all 4 lights solid, as it showing fully charged, I have never seen this before. Any ideas from anyone as to what happened? Thanks

I guess it was a little over a month ago when I charged mine. I just pulled them out and checked them a couple of days ago and they are showing half a charge.

I'm hoping to fly within the next month or so.

r_mark · Dec 11, 2020

Hi folks. I just successfully "jump started" (4) of my X-Star Premium batteries. I had no idea they would discharge to the point where they couldn't be charged. I'd left mine sit for about a year while I flew only my EVO. Here are my findings:
You don't have to split the case. You only have to pop the top off (carefully pry bit by bit as you go around, repeating as needed- go slowly). When you get the top off, there are 2 indentations in the plastic near the LEDs. Use an exacto knife to cut & expose the big solder joint below the white insulating paper (Tyvek??) The one closer to the center is POSITIVE. (proper polarity is always critical) I used a really hot soldering iron to only tack on a lead to the now exposed + and - solder "blobs". I happen to have a LiPO Q6 LiPo smart charger, so I set it on 4.15V/cell, 3S (3 cells = 12.45V), and 0.5A (500mA). When it was done charging, the Autel charger would work. That said, one was so low to start with (0.65V) that even the Q6 said "nope". I took a 6V, 100mA wall charger and connected it while using my voltmeter to watch the level. When it got to 6.5V, the Q6 would charge it up to 12, where the Autel would take over.
Okay- you don't have a LiPo battery charger? I would be extremely careful about using an uncontrolled 12V car battery straight in. These batteries will explode. I'd suggest finding someone with a variable DC power supply that can be gradually brought up. Alternately, a really weak 12VDC, 500mA wall power supply should go slow enough to not *explode*. You'd still need a voltmeter to monitor the charge on the battery pack.
Good luck. Hope you learned the same lesson I did- fly 'em all every few months : -)

BTW- I did open one of my X-Star Premium batteries as described in the YouTube video above. It did not have the "reset" the video shows.