New P4P battery sensor prevents takeoff with dislodged battery

[msinger]

The Phantom 4 Pro V2 contains a new sensor in the bottom of the battery compartment to prevent the Phantom from taking off if the battery is not inserted properly. Here's a side-by-side comparison between the P4P (on the left) and the P4P V2 (on the right):

Here's a closer look at the new battery sensor:

Here's an example showing the Phantom powered up with a partially dislodged battery (inserted just far enough to allow the battery to make contact):

DJI GO will display the following message when the battery sensor is not fully depressed:

 

[RunningWithScissors]

Refreshing to see that DJI acknowledges there's a problem and has done something to try and address that issue.

 

[ryantrax]

Nice! Thanks for sharing @msinger

 

[gingerbloke]

Curious to see what happens if the aircraft is already airborne and this gets triggered?

 

[Ripper7620]

Thank you, this is refreshing, I'll take all the idiot proofing I can get.

 

[Photojeg]

The Phantom 4 Pro V2 contains a new sensor in the bottom of the battery compartment to prevent the Phantom from taking off if the battery is not inserted properly. Here's a side-by-side comparison between the P4P (on the left) and the P4P V2 (on the right):

View attachment 98855


Here's a closer look at the new battery sensor:

View attachment 98856


Here's an example showing the Phantom powered up with a partially dislodged battery (inserted just far enough to allow the battery to make contact):

View attachment 98857


DJI GO will display the following message when the battery sensor is not fully depressed:

View attachment 98858

Last week I flew up with a battery partially inserted. Right away I got a battery error warning and before I could land the battery disconnected and my P4P fell like a stone 70 feet onto a gravel parking lot. My new P4P v2.0 arrived today and I am so pleased that DJI has fixed this problem. Here is a photo of the aftermath of the crash.

 

[$gambino$]

Edit: started a thread of my own... didn't want to Jack your thread.

 

[Dronefriend]

This is a great step forward, but more importantly: Can the battery pop out in-air without pressing clamps even though inserted fully?

Edit: They should add a 500 mAh internal battery that provides power in case of a power-failure. Would easily pay $100 extra for that feature. Technical difficulties about how to charge that and get it to work - just solve it DJI.

 

[$gambino$]

This is a great step forward, but more importantly: Can the battery pop out in-air without pressing clamps even though inserted fully?

Edit: They should add a 500 mAh internal battery that provides power in case of a power-failure. Would easily pay $100 extra for that feature. Technical difficulties about how to charge that and get it to work - just solve it DJI.

That is actually a really good idea we use this with RC heli's .... gives us enough power to auto rotate and still use servos and flybarless unit in order to land, if lipos failed.... this is a little different meaning we would need full power to the motors in order to turn the props but it would be pretty cool

 

[Kissthesky]

See my thread
Why did this hsppen??
127' just this last week...battery came out! Still waiting on DJI to make a decision

 

[PhantomWetSuits]

See my thread
Why did this hsppen??
127' just this last week...battery came out! Still waiting on DJI to make a decision

This has been an on going problem and happens to hundreds of flyers
We made this video for the Phantom Rain Wet Suits but its severs as a good example of how this works.

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[Kissthesky]

This has been an on going problem and happens to hundreds of flyers
We made this video for the Phantom Rain Wet Suits but its severs as a good example of how this works.

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Accept third party cookies

I watched that...totally makes sense!

 

[PhantomWetSuits]

Do you know if the clip does anything to lock the battery in tighter ? Its certainly a great idea considering the number of drones that drop out of the sky posted on this forum alone.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Curious to see what happens if the aircraft is already airborne and this gets triggered?

P3P owner here. I have had a battery failure error while in the air twice (I forget the actual error message) that turned out to be that the battery wasn't fully snapped in. In both cases, I landed okay, but it could have gone bad -- it is a much nicer idea to have it not take off in the first place.

So kudos on DJI for this one.

 

[Kissthesky]

P3P owner here. I have had a battery failure error while in the air twice (I forget the actual error message) that turned out to be that the battery wasn't fully snapped in. In both cases, I landed okay, but it could have gone bad -- it is a much nicer idea to have it not take off in the first place.

So kudos on DJI for this one.

Kudos? I wouldn't give them that satisfaction! They are still trying to deny that it is a manufacturer defect! They will not replace drones that fall out of the sky from this issue yet they clearly admitted fault by putting the new sensor on the version 2!!

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Kudos? I wouldn't give them that satisfaction! They are still trying to deny that it is a manufacturer defect! They will not replace drones that fall out of the sky from this issue yet they clearly admitted fault by putting the new sensor on the version 2!!

Technically, a manufacturing defect is something that does not work as designed. If a user presses the battery in far enough to where it clicks, it is working by design. If a user does not press it in all of the way, that is not a manufacturing defect.

The new lever is a new design in the product, one that is a safety feature added to tell the user that they did not press the battery in all the way. DJI is apparently responding to a high enough level of reports that users are not pushing inserting the batteries properly.

Chris

 

[Kissthesky]

Technically, a manufacturing defect is something that does not work as designed. If a user presses the battery in far enough to where it clicks, it is working by design. If a user does not press it in all of the way, that is not a manufacturing defect.

The new lever is a new design in the product, one that is a safety feature added to tell the user that they did not press the battery in all the way. DJI is apparently responding to a high enough level of reports that users are not pushing inserting the batteries properly.

Chris

Agreed... Can we at least call it a design flaw? Hundreds and hundreds of cases of this exact same thing I think constitutes that

 

[msinger]

Can we at least call it a design flaw?

I don't think so since the design hasn't been changed. The battery still snaps into the battery compartment like it did before. The difference is that the process is now a little bit more idiot-proof.

 

[Kissthesky]

I don't think so since the design hasn't been changed. The battery still snaps into the battery compartment like it did before. The difference is that the process is now a little bit more idiot-proof.

I'll still say they should warranty the drones when this happens. It's an obvious problem that needs to be addressed on one end or the other. I'm sitting here looking at a crashed drone and I'm at least $1500 in the hole a month and 1/2 after purchasing my first one. (The first one was a fly away 2 weeks after first flight due to a bad GPS module...STILL haven't gotten it back from them)

 

[msinger]

I'll still say they should warranty the drones when this happens.

They should warranty drones when the pilot does not insert the battery correctly? That would be a rather generous thing for DJI to do. I guess the next step would be to warranty crashes where pilots accidentally fly into trees?