Basically new battery cracked....

[brantel]

One of my 3 new Phantom 4 IFB's has developed a crack.

This battery has 9 charges on it and was first activated on 6/1/2018. It's manufacture date is Mar 31, 2018.

This battery has never been abused, overheated, mis-charged, crashed, dropped, etc.

I have not seen many images of cracks in this location for these batteries.

I have already sent in a support request.

 

[CANEKiTA]

Yup, got 2 that look the same. I’m still not able to locate the spot on the battery bay that bytes down on the sides enough to make that hole/crack. Wish they sold the top cover alone, Fixed it with plastaid.

 

[RunningWithScissors]

That's a bit extreme for a battery that new. I'd definitely contact the seller or DJI for a replacement. Good luck.

 

[With The Birds]

I wouldn’t worry about it. Shouldn’t effect the performance. The replacement will only be the same cheap plastic poorly engineered.

 

[Brockrock]

One of my 3 new Phantom 4 IFB's has developed a crack.

This battery has 9 charges on it and was first activated on 6/1/2018. It's manufacture date is Mar 31, 2018.

This battery has never been abused, overheated, mis-charged, crashed, dropped, etc.

I have not seen many images of cracks in this location for these batteries.

I have already sent in a support request.

View attachment 101194

When you insert your battery, do you push and snap it in, or do you press both of the locking tab buttons in and then gently insert it?

Prior to getting my P4 a couple of years ago, I had watched a lot of YouTube videos beforehand, and I noticed that most folks just pressed - and some even slammed - the battery in. When I finally got my P4, after looking everything over up close, I decided that the best battery placement method was to press the locking tab buttons in and then gently slide the battery into the bay until fully inserted, followed by releasing the locking tab buttons. This prevents wear over time on the locking clips and inner flanges - which are both plastic - and if either wears down, the likelihood of an inflight battery release becomes higher.

 

[brantel]

When you insert your battery, do you push and snap it in, or do you press both of the locking tab buttons in and then gently insert it?

Prior to getting my P4 a couple of years ago, I had watched a lot of YouTube videos beforehand, and I noticed that most folks just pressed - and some even slammed - the battery in. When I finally got my P4, after looking everything over up close, I decided that the best battery placement method was to press the locking tab buttons in and then gently slide the battery into the bay until fully inserted, followed by releasing the locking tab buttons. This prevents wear over time on the locking clips and inner flanges - which are both plastic - and if either wears down, the likelihood of an inflight battery release becomes higher.

Squeeze and push.

I can see how this might affect the cracks that show up on the front due to where the springs for the tabs are located (which someone claims was changed in a design revision) but not sure how that would cause a crack like this one that appears to originate from the stress riser created by the dimple left over from the injection molding die/process.

 

[Brockrock]

Squeeze and push.

I can see how this might affect the cracks that show up on the front due to where the springs for the tabs are located (which someone claims was changed in a design revision) but not sure how that would cause a crack like this one that appears to originate from the stress riser created by the dimple left over from the injection molding die/process.

Yeah, I can see that little dimple, and that's no doubt where the initial weakness was that resulted in that crack. I just wondered if it could have been ultimately caused by the lower, rounded edge of the battery cap hitting the outer edge of the battery bay upon a non 'squeeze and push' method, resulting in a stress crack. Either way, you are smart to pursue having this rectified by DJI, since anything out of the ordinary regarding the battery could wind up being a rather flight critical situation...

 

[Gburnstein]

2 of 3 of my p4p batteries Same problem..same place... used smallest micro dremel to put round hole at end of crack to try and prevent further cracking... used quick set jb weld and gentle clamping...epoxy would prob work... just a little with a toothpick and some gentle sanding to level surface. the hole relieves stress ...mentioned in multiple other threads...use a quick drilling technique..if you go slow... the crack likely will continue past the hole

 

[Paul2660]

I have 5 P4 Pro batteries, and after reading this checked them all and all have the same small dimple, where it seems over time the crack seems to start. What is strange as others point out, when you look inside the battery cage, I can not see any spot with a hard point that can cause this, but it has to be part of the frame.

I took off the outer clip which is really all that is holding the battery in place. I had very slight stress cracks showing on several of the batteries. There is a strengthening frame right here and I guess this causes the plastic not to be able to give any. The thickness is around 1/32" of an inch, slightly more.

For me a solution is to dremel out a small depression starting at the center of the dimple. This hopefully will allow the battery to stay in place but not hit as hard against the frame and stop any excess stress before a crack starts.

A couple of notes. Only 2 screws hold this entire assembly in place, don't drop them. When you take off the cover and look at the inside you can see the spring assembly for the top and bottom clip. It's very easy to dislodge either the top or bottom clip when there is nothing for them to press against. So again be careful as the springs can pop out.

2 mount screws are put on with blue loctite or similar product.

As many are seeing cracks here over time, DJI should consider a re-design for sure as all the crack images I have seen all start from the tiny dimple and work towards the edge.

Paul C

 

[Mitd]

I was signing in to talk about a crack on the face on one of my batteries. But after reading about it I noticed that all of my batteries have the same stress cracks on those dimples both sides, every one of them. Back to what I was originally going to talk about, anybody seen this before?