Battery

[Nick]

Hi all. You probably know this already but a word of warning with battery charging. I needed a quick boost for my Anafi battery before going out for a walk so absentmindedly connected it to my phone charger. It seemed ok but when I went to use it later it wouldn’t boot up, just sat with the fan running and wouldn’t turn off. It did this twice more. when I got home, I fully discharged the battery and then recharged it slowly and it’s fine now.
I think the problem was that I used my Samsung SuperCharger which the battery clearly didn’t like, too much power. So I would avoid using these if you have this kind of phone!

 

[Joe_Scot]

Please could you describe exact spec of your "Samsung SuperCharger"? I have been using Samsung phone chargers (5V / 2A) - and sometimes an Anker battery pack when out and about - to charge all my Anafi batteries for the past 2 years, with no problem at all.

 

[Nick]

Please could you describe exact spec of your "Samsung SuperCharger"? I have been using Samsung phone chargers (5V / 2A) - and sometimes an Anker battery pack when out and about - to charge all my Anafi batteries for the past 2 years, with no problem at all.

Hi Joe.

The charger is called a ‘Super Fast Charging’ which came with my new S20. We have also found that it messes with the battery on my Nokia. It has a higher output than my last Samsung charger at 5-9V and 2.7 to 3.0A. Thats up to 45W charging power.
(the Anafi manual says you can use an AC adapter at 5V and 3.0A.)
It hasn’t damaged the battery as far as I can tell, just messed with the power management module.

 

[Liger 1956]

What did FF6 say that the state of charge of the Anafi batery was after you had charged it with the "SamsungSuperCharger"? Did the Samsung charger fully charge the Anafi's battery?

I, and others, have charged the battery with a Power Delivery "PD" charger which will output much higher voltages with no ill effects. The only problem that I can see is if the Samsung charger does not fully conform to the PD specifictaions and does not communicate with the Anafi Battery Management System.

 

[Nick]

What did FF6 say that the state of charge of the Anafi batery was after you had charged it with the "SamsungSuperCharger"? Did the Samsung charger fully charge the Anafi's battery?

I, and others, have charged the battery with a Power Delivery "PD" charger which will output much higher voltages with no ill effects. The only problem that I can see is if the Samsung charger does not fully conform to the PD specifictaions and does not communicate with the Anafi Battery Management System.

I couldn’t get it to boot up so the Anafi never made contact with the FF software. I did only get 3 lights out of 4 which would indicate a partial charge.

 

[geekdaddy]

I've used a OnePlus "warp charger" which can charge up to 45watts -- but stopped using it. I had assumed that it only delivers 45 watts when connected to a OnePlus phone. But my Anafi batteries get warm when using it (they typically stay relatively cool when charging with 2A chargers) and one of them behaved erratically for awhile.

After disconnecting from the charger, it continuously flashed green LEDs reflecting the state of charge and would run itself down over a few days. I tried resetting it several times and it still behaved this way. After one of the resets it still flashed green LEDs but was responsive to charging - but all other attempts (other than this one) resulted in not charging when plugged-in. After allowing it run way down (which I understand if bad for battery health) it, I tried recharging with a conventional 2A charger and it began charging again. Logged a few flights and recharges since that time and it seems ok now.

Based on this, I've stopped using my Warp charger... 2A chargers take longer but I've got several of them and several batteries so I just plan ahead and top-off the night before (or day-of) a planned flight.

 

[Nick]

So I’ve had further intermittent issues with this battery and the spare. The symptom us that when starting, the fan initiates but the props don’t do their little test and the blue light doesn’t flash. It also won’t turn off.
the only other variable is the recent update to 1.7.6

 

[BRC]

So I’ve had further intermittent issues with this battery and the spare. The symptom us that when starting, the fan initiates but the props don’t do their little test and the blue light doesn’t flash. It also won’t turn off.
the only other variable is the recent update to 1.7.6

sounds like you're making poor contact with the battery pins located on drone - maybe try some contact cleaner
I had same intermittent issues started last July with different batteries- problem went away on it's own
I'm assuming dirty contact

 

[Nick]

Unfortunately this fault has reappeared on my first sorties since the last time it played up. When pressing the battery to turn on, the drone only partially started and didn’t test rotors or camera. The common theme on both times is that I had just installed new software. I tried both batteries.
My Anafi was perfect before these last two software releases and now it’s really playing up.
I tried 2 hard resets at the time, but nothing could bring it to life.
When home, I did hard resets with the batteries fitted and hard resets of the batteries on their own. The drone then seems to boot up and start normally. Until the next time it lets me down....
I think that cold is also possibly playing a part....perhaps I should keep the batteries inside my coat instead of my backpack, but this seems impractical.

 

[Liger 1956]

How cold was it when the battery did not work? Could it be that Parrot have introduced a feature to stop the Anafi taking off if the battery is too cold?