Another P3P down! Battery Error

[Hughie]

Oh hughie, you can't help yourself!

View attachment 21929

I know. I know. I can't stop it

 

[Oso]

I had no idea there were two types of batteries out there.

So our thoughts earlier about a potential design flaw may have been true, but DJI changed the design already. I suppose this is why there was such a huge backlog of battery orders.

All three of my batteries are 2 clickers, including the supplied battery.

I wonder if DJI will allow people with 1 clickers to trade them in for 2 clickers. It seems like the right thing to do.

 

[vmp]

I had no idea there were two types of batteries out there.

So our thoughts earlier about a potential design flaw may have been true, but DJI changed the design already. I suppose this is why there was such a huge backlog of battery orders.

All three of my batteries are 2 clickers, including the supplied battery.

I wonder if DJI will allow people with 1 clickers to trade them in for 2 clickers. It seems like the right thing to do.

When did you get your P3? I ordered mine not even 30 minutes after it became available on the DJI website. Pretty sure I was one of the first people to receive it.

 

[vmp]

Could you by chance change The Title of the Thread to Possible Battery Crash or similar? That way more Pilots will read, as it seems to have come down to battery and One Click vs 2 Click.

How do I change the title? I just checked and I did not see how to do it.

 

[envisionabove]

Right side you should see Thread tools then Edit....

 

[FredSheldon]

Just for the heck of it I think I am going to apply Velcro to the sides of my battery for now on.

It works for me

 

[snowghost]

I have a replacement battery ordered from a reseller on Amazon. I haven't charged or used it yet. For the helluvit I put the original in and pushed. There is a noticeable loud click.

The replacment does not do that. Only if I slide it in all but a quarter inch or so and then push it pretty powerfully. Almost like those bozos in the movies that slam pistol clips in an auto pistol. Bad for the gun.

But I don't think a hard push should hurt the Phantom. Although wondering if I should return the battery.

 

[Oso]

When did you get your P3? I ordered mine not even 30 minutes after it became available on the DJI website. Pretty sure I was one of the first people to receive it.

My order was later than yours. I ordered mine on May 5th through Adorama. It shipped on May 7th. Of course, the extra batteries didn't ship until a few weeks later.

 

[candubob]

6171144xxxxxx 361g
6171151 365g
6171152 365g

These are the first 7 digit of the battery serial # of the 3 batteries that I received in order of arrivals.
The first one is the original shipped with bird and second one is the one shipped as package and the third is the first of 3 ordered separately received.

As you can see, the weights are different, and DJI has sold a heck of a lot of batteries and birds since my first battery May 1, 2015.

Something as changed from 1st to 3rd in weight. The only visual difference is that the bottom tab on the new ones has a very slightly reduced hook angle and you can see a shoulder reveal if look at it from the side. The new ones with this bottom shoulder is the 2 clicker. I am not convinced that the 2 clicker is better than the original 1 clicker since the angle and depth of the hook is not as good.

 

[Jeff48920]

Do you recall whether your rearward LEDs were flashing red?

 

[ianwood]

Don't slide it into place slowly. Give it a solid thwack from half way in. It will seat fully with the tabs in place and won't move at all.

 

[vmp]

Do you recall whether your rearward LEDs were flashing red?

No. It was 800ft away.

 

[Mako79]

Place a label on your battery to identify the one supplied with the phantom 3 and the ones bought seperately. The ones purchased separately have a 1mm gap and click differently when inserted. Looks like DJI has rushed and possibly gotten another manufacturer to help with demands and hence the tolerance difference.

 

[vmp]

Place a label on your battery to identify the one supplied with the phantom 3 and the ones bought seperately. The ones purchased separately have a 1mm gap and click differently when inserted. Looks like DJI has rushed and possibly gotten another manufacturer to help with demands and hence the tolerance difference.

Thanks for the advice.

I received an RMA number today and will be shipping it back to them in the next couple of days.

Also, I wanted to add that even if the battery is in all the way, dropping the P3 >= 2 feet from the ground will cause the battery to be ejected. I am just adding that bit of info because I have seen some people post on other threads that the battery will not come out when the P3 is dropped.

 

[Sammynels]

I have gotten a "Battery a Error-Land" warning once and landed immediately. I then looked and the battery was seated tight, I always make sure it clicks. I then shut the bird down, reseated the battery again and immediately got the message "System Upgrading - You cannot take off" or so,etching along those lines, next it was ready to fly and had no issues. My observation is my battery didn't fully update when I had it on my bench doing the firmware upgrade. Why the bird didn't catch it during the firmware upgrade or 1 startup after I do not know. I honestly think it has something to do with a battery not upgrading fully or property. Take it for what it's worth.

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

Don't slide it into place slowly. Give it a solid thwack from half way in. It will seat fully with the tabs in place and won't move at all.

As Ian Says,
I say give her a good smack on the ***, call her Sally and you should be good to go (what's the bets I get a warning over this one?)

 

[Falcon2015]

So my P3P just fell out of the sky. I have one broken propeller, camera came right off, and so did the battery.
Picture of damage:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/c1nef6l6eyva6mp/IMG_3991.jpg?dl=0

As usual, I turned on the P3 and wait for it to get GPS connectivity before I take off. The P3 finished warming up and the status was green.

I started off by accending to ~390 feet and started going forward full throttle. When it was approximately 800 ft away from me, I got a "Critical Battery Error" or something along those lines. I can't remember because I know some other people have had a similar issue and immedialtely thought "Oh ****!!!, I need to bring it back ASAP". So I stopped moving forward and started to come back in reverse at about 26 MPH. When The P3 was 464FT away from me, it stopped and started to free fall. I was able to see that the propellers literally stopped moving as it came down full speed. I ran to the crash site and saw it on the grass just sitting there sideways. The battery was sitting on the ground powered on. The camera was a few feet away from where the P3 crashed.

Interestingly enough, as all of this was happening, I was not upset or sad. After seeing this same thing happen to others, I just figured it would happen to me sooner or later.

Some info about the P3 status:
Battery was at 94% when I got the Critical Battery Error.
The time window that show you how much flight time was left said 14 minutes.
I was flying in P-GPS the whole time.
At no point in time did I do the CSC thing. I just went forward on the right stick, saw the error, then went back on the right stick until it stopped and went down.
I did not have the memory card in the camera because I was just taking it around the neighborhood and did not plan on taking any pictures or video. I do however have the flight data and have uploaded to the cloud.

Some will probably say that maybe the battery was not in all the way. Well, that would be hard to believe in my case because I had to fight to get the battery out of the P3 each time that I needed to remove it so that I can charge it.

EDIT:
A little more info that I forgot:
I was running the latest firmware on the P3P, controller and battery. I have been on the latest since it came out.
I was one of the first people to receive the P3P, so it is not brand new and not my first time flying it.
I have a total of 4hr of flight time, 43 total flights, 177, 503FT flown, since I got it.
Every time that I put the battery in, it is all the way in.

Look like the same caused my P-2 to go down this week. The only difference was mine was hovering at 60' for 58 seconds when it got an error " Not enough battery power to return home". Seconds after loss of connection with P-2, loss of FPV video, and then straight down like a rock.

I think DJI needs to implement an onboard "Black Box" with all telemetry data in order to figure-out what signals are being sent to onboard computer and from where the command originates from, cause, etc.

Just my thoughts

 

[BenDronePilot]

So my P3P just fell out of the sky. I have one broken propeller, camera came right off, and so did the battery.
Picture of damage:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/c1nef6l6eyva6mp/IMG_3991.jpg?dl=0

As usual, I turned on the P3 and wait for it to get GPS connectivity before I take off. The P3 finished warming up and the status was green.

I started off by accending to ~390 feet and started going forward full throttle. When it was approximately 800 ft away from me, I got a "Critical Battery Error" or something along those lines. I can't remember because I know some other people have had a similar issue and immedialtely thought "Oh ****!!!, I need to bring it back ASAP". So I stopped moving forward and started to come back in reverse at about 26 MPH. When The P3 was 464FT away from me, it stopped and started to free fall. I was able to see that the propellers literally stopped moving as it came down full speed. I ran to the crash site and saw it on the grass just sitting there sideways. The battery was sitting on the ground powered on. The camera was a few feet away from where the P3 crashed.

Interestingly enough, as all of this was happening, I was not upset or sad. After seeing this same thing happen to others, I just figured it would happen to me sooner or later.

Some info about the P3 status:
Battery was at 94% when I got the Critical Battery Error.
The time window that show you how much flight time was left said 14 minutes.
I was flying in P-GPS the whole time.
At no point in time did I do the CSC thing. I just went forward on the right stick, saw the error, then went back on the right stick until it stopped and went down.
I did not have the memory card in the camera because I was just taking it around the neighborhood and did not plan on taking any pictures or video. I do however have the flight data and have uploaded to the cloud.

Some will probably say that maybe the battery was not in all the way. Well, that would be hard to believe in my case because I had to fight to get the battery out of the P3 each time that I needed to remove it so that I can charge it.

EDIT:
A little more info that I forgot:
I was running the latest firmware on the P3P, controller and battery. I have been on the latest since it came out.
I was one of the first people to receive the P3P, so it is not brand new and not my first time flying it.
I have a total of 4hr of flight time, 43 total flights, 177, 503FT flown, since I got it.
Every time that I put the battery in, it is all the way in.

Something very similar happened to !y original Phantom 2 Vision. Starting with a full charged battery then it suddenly going from 97% to critical then back then all out failing motors shutting off and a crash land on the grass. DJI claims they tested the batteries and found nothing wrong which was BS but they still proceeded to replace my damaged Phantom and all my batteries with new ones. So thumbs up in that regard but I did need to call them on the phone to make sure they replaced my batteries citing safety concerns.

 

[BenDronePilot]

Reading these post...man there is a lot of green horns flying phantoms these days. No disrespect, but seems like people are just getting it, flying it, with out any research or reading of the manual(more then once) sorry had to get it out there.
Okay let it rip...

You would be right that all to many people buy this things and do t take the time to read the full manual and exercise cautionamd learning to fly in a safe environment. The cause of this persons crash however is the cause of a product malfunction. Although an argument could be made he should have immediately initiated a land when he saw this error appear rather than trying to fly it all the way back. You live you learn.

 

[bobmyers]

Excellent reminder. Thanks.

Is it just me, or does it seem to you guys as well that we are seeing more and more anecdotal evidence that there is an issue with seating of the battery? By "issue" I mean either user error or a design flaw that allows for the user error.

There have been a few threads on this topic already. I recall that someone posted a picture of Velcro he was using after a close call to be sure his battery didn't slide out again. My first thought was that Velco was silly. Just be sure it clicks when you slide the battery in place and you should be fine. Maybe not?

Maybe there needs to be some sort of secondary locking mechanism. What do you guys think?

I just tested one of my newer batteries-- it is possible to get one click, and there reamains a 1to 2 mm gap. push a little harder, then the second click occurs. With the original battery, slides in easily and locks in place with no gap. The silicon grease job is coming up! Hopefully, the locks hold well, because it they don't, it is a long way to the ground.