Drone stopped working with 11% battery and crashed

[pedrotsms]

Hey everyone, new member here.
Sorry if someone already posted the same problem in another topic but I couldn't find it.
After using my Anafi for almost 6 months traveling around the world without any major problem today it stopped working out of nowhere with 11% battery and crashed from about 6 meters high. Luckily for me, the drone doesn't seem to have any major problem from the outside. Only the battery got some scratches. When it fell I removed the battery i<and t look like it had expanded from the normal size.
Today I tested the drone again and everything seems fine with it. However, when the battery got to 4% it shut down and the drone crashed again instead of doing the automatic landing when the battery gets low.
I would like to know if someone had a similar problem like this in the past and what you guys think it's broken. I am inclined to think it's the battery since the drone is flying and everything seems ok.

PS: I've taken 8 airplanes in the past 6 months so this might have reduced the battery duration perhaps.

Would really like to hear from the experts.
Best regards,
Pedro

 

[Kilrah]

Battery indications aren't exact. It's always recommended to land with 20-30% remaining indication (in general, nothing specific about the anafi) for proper safety.

A bulged battery needs replacing though. Frequent deep discharges increase the risk of that happening, which is one more reason for the above.

 

[pedrotsms]

Battery indications are never exact. It's always recommended to land with 20-30% remaining indication (in general, nothing specific about the anafi).

I know that, but it should engage auto landing if the battery runs super low. Not completely shut down and crash...

 

[Dirk_ANAFI]

I know that, but it should engage auto landing if the battery runs super low. Not completely shut down and crash...

If a bad battery ("expanded from the normal size") is used, the voltage possibly drops so fast, that a RTH is no more possible due to the low voltage.

 

[pedrotsms]

If a bad battery ("expanded from the normal size") is used, the voltage possibly drops so fast, that a RTH is no more possible due to the low voltage.

I guess that's the case with my battery. Sad to see that the battery only lasted for 6 months with around 60 recharge cycles.
I already contacted parrot directly to see if they can help me but I might as well try here. Anyone knows where I can buy a new battery in the Phillippines since I am traveling for a long time and won't be home for at least 6 more months?

 

[Reconnaissance Squadron]

Crashing at 11% is not exactly a problem out of nowhere. Landing with less than 15% battery level is not something you should be doing if you can avoid it. Sometimes it happens of course, especially if you like to fly high up and far away, but once it gets below 15% more trouble shouldn't be considered as coming "out of nowhere". The display shows battery level in yellow when you are in what should be regarded as your emergency power reserve.

It seems to me that a lot of your 60 battery discharges were probably really deep discharges, and regularly having the drone in commercial aircraft would expose it to low atmospheric pressure which is another stress for it. You mention a battery power level of 4% IN A TEST! You took it to 4% to test it! That is destructive testing.

I suggest you don't buy another battery, you buy two or more, and you treat them nicely, reserving the last 15% of battery power solely for emergencies, not for "Oh just a couple more minutes playing ... please!"



The tape around these batteries is not because they are bulging, it is to cover up the giant advertising banner which is also part of the drone's WiFi code and may alert enemies on the ground to one of your vulnerabilities. Having different colours helps ensure that I don't keep using the same battery over and over. As I often use all the batteries in a session it works quite well and it is a lot less sad and anal compared to numbering them.

 

[Landbo]

Hey everyone, new member here.
Sorry if someone already posted the same problem in another topic but I couldn't find it.
After using my Anafi for almost 6 months traveling around the world without any major problem today it stopped working out of nowhere with 11% battery and crashed from about 6 meters high. Luckily for me, the drone doesn't seem to have any major problem from the outside. Only the battery got some scratches. When it fell I removed the battery i<and t look like it had expanded from the normal size.
Today I tested the drone again and everything seems fine with it. However, when the battery got to 4% it shut down and the drone crashed again instead of doing the automatic landing when the battery gets low.
I would like to know if someone had a similar problem like this in the past and what you guys think it's broken. I am inclined to think it's the battery since the drone is flying and everything seems ok.

PS: I've taken 8 airplanes in the past 6 months so this might have reduced the battery duration perhaps.

Would really like to hear from the experts.
Best regards,
Pedro

I have tried the same as you did when testing the automatic RTH function from a height of 36 meters. I got an replacement Anafi and battery by Parrot on the warranty.

It seemed to happen when one of the cells in the battery has a starting defect. Instead of landing Anafi safely and sacrificing the battery, Parrot has chosen to try to save the bad battery and let Anafi crash !!! It fits perfectly with your battery has begun to bulged/swell. Of course it is not healthy for your Anafi and use that battery more.

I don't know a place on Phillippines you can buy a new battery, A guess is that you have to go to Manila and find a business that deals with RC equipment.

Good luck, Leif.

 

[pmh1nic]

I guess I'm conservative in my old age and start the RTH when I'm at 30%. Does any have anything specific regarding cycles of depressurization? This is the first I'm hearing about and wonder if there is any additional information or precautions on the issue.

 

[Liger 1956]

Has anybody checked what the correlation is between the % battery shown on the FF6 app and the actual battery voltage measured at the pins on the battery. On the LiPo's that I use on my R/C planes I know that the battery will recover voltage when it is taken off load so I would expect the Anafi battery % to be less when landing compared to the % reported when the drone has shut down the motors. It is not something that I have noticed but I have not been looking for it. I must remember to test my theory next time I fly.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

I had talked to RemE on RCgroup about the batteries. I know he has one of those aftermarket chargers so I wanted to know if it indeed charged the batteries to full charge. With my old 250W 10A Reaktor charger it would say the battery was fully charged and would not charge it any further. Solid 4 LEDs and the App would say 100% but checking the mains that was not true as it was still low on voltage.

"I have a question. With your after market charger have you ever charged the battery to full and then put it one the USB-C charger? The reason I am asking is this. I have used my little RC charger to charge the Anafi's battery. It takes about 25 minutes until the charger peeps for full charge. If you press the power button all 4 bars light up as if it is fully charged. I then take the battery and put it on the USB wall charger and it starts to charge from 3 solid and one flashing LED. I checked the voltage before putting it on the wall charger and it read 8.41V.
After letting it go for another 20-25 minutes I rechecked the voltage. It went from 8.42 volts to 8.65 volts. So my conclusion is this. My older RC charger does not charge the newer high capacity Lipos so it was not fully charged. I am guessing the Anafi battery is one of those new high capacity lipos and needs a charger that can bring it to fully charge state. I wonder if your after market charger does this or does it just do the same as my RC charger?
So I am wondering if it is charging or is it balancing the cells at this point?"

His answer was this

"OK, Just checked the charger, when done the three packs went from hibernation to 8.74V, measured after removing from the charger. None of them took a charge when I plugged a USB-C charger into them."

 

[Landbo]

Has anybody checked what the correlation is between the % battery shown on the FF6 app and the actual battery voltage measured at the pins on the battery. On the LiPo's that I use on my R/C planes I know that the battery will recover voltage when it is taken off load so I would expect the Anafi battery % to be less when landing compared to the % reported when the drone has shut down the motors. It is not something that I have noticed but I have not been looking for it. I must remember to test my theory next time I fly.

I have measured mutch on the Anafi batteries and the % declarations you see in FF6 fit reasonably well with the current voltage you have on a LI-HV battery in no load condition. But you cannot see the current voltage under load, which requires it to be sent back with telemetry and therefore it is difficult to see anything practical anyway.

Regards, Leif.

 

[PascalG]

I always start heading home around 30%, sometimes a little before if the drone is really far. I ve never landed under 20%. I don’t trust trust fuel gauges in airplanes or boats, don’t going to start trusting them in a drone

 

[pedrotsms]

Crashing at 11% is not exactly a problem out of nowhere. Landing with less than 15% battery level is not something you should be doing if you can avoid it. Sometimes it happens of course, especially if you like to fly high up and far away, but once it gets below 15% more trouble shouldn't be considered as coming "out of nowhere". The display shows battery level in yellow when you are in what should be regarded as your emergency power reserve.

It seems to me that a lot of your 60 battery discharges were probably really deep discharges, and regularly having the drone in commercial aircraft would expose it to low atmospheric pressure which is another stress for it. You mention a battery power level of 4% IN A TEST! You took it to 4% to test it! That is destructive testing.

I suggest you don't buy another battery, you buy two or more, and you treat them nicely, reserving the last 15% of battery power solely for emergencies, not for "Oh just a couple more minutes playing ... please!"

View attachment 2028

The tape around these batteries is not because they are bulging, it is to cover up the giant advertising banner which is also part of the drone's WiFi code and may alert enemies on the ground to one of your vulnerabilities. Having different colours helps ensure that I don't keep using the same battery over and over. As I often use all the batteries in a session it works quite well and it is a lot less sad and anal compared to numbering them.

Thank you for your advice! Will try to treat my battery better once I get a new one.

 

[pedrotsms]

TH

I have tried the same as you did when testing the automatic RTH function from a height of 36 meters. I got an replacement Anafi and battery by Parrot on the warranty.

It seemed to happen when one of the cells in the battery has a starting defect. Instead of landing Anafi safely and sacrificing the battery, Parrot has chosen to try to save the bad battery and let Anafi crash !!! It fits perfectly with your battery has begun to bulged/swell. Of course it is not healthy for your Anafi and use that battery more.

I don't know a place on Phillippines you can buy a new battery, A guess is that you have to go to Manila and find a business that deals with RC equipment.

Good luck, Leif.

Yes, it's really strange they decided to sacrifice the parrot in that sense. It's gonna be impossible to find a physical store or online store in the Philippines, I've been looking for the past week without any leads so far...

 

[JANGER]

0% of battery displayed on FF6 DOES NOT mean it is 0% of discharging. It is calculated value of flying time to rest.
When you say flying below 10% ruines Lipo it is not true, because Anafi Lipo has more voltages per cell in reality.
I fly all my batteries to 7-10% at the end with no problems of recharging (for year). I use Aukey 4 ports charger QC3 which has 50W.

 

[Rocky the FS]

Although it won't damage the battery, running it down to that figure will have an effect on how many total cycles the battery will have until it becomes too weak to be practical. If a Lipo is advertised to have a life of 400 cycles and you only run it down to 20% most of the time you might get 500 cycles.

The best reason to start the retrieval at 15 to 20% when over unlandable terrain is to have a bit of a cushion if some unknown factor arises, like a headwind you didn't expect to strengthen.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Not sure why Parrot does not address this with their batteries. Lipos do not have a memory like other batteries but they do have the smart circuitry that keeps track of charges and just what percentage that battery was from. So if you have always charged your battery from 40% the smart circuitry will not see the full potentially of the battery. This is why companies like Autel and DJI have statements like this in their owners manual. Not sure if DJI still does but I know Autel sure does.

"We strongly recommend that you go through a charge cycle — wherein you charge the battery to 100% and then discharge it to 7% or lower — every three months, or after the battery has been used for 20 consecutive charges."

This basically restarts the smart circuitry memory back to zero.

 

[Reconnaissance Squadron]

I don't think I need to make a point of deliberately deep discharging my batteries, circumstances usually arrange for the odd unplanned deep discharge...

 

[Jagerbomb52]

I don't think I need to make a point of deliberately deep discharging my batteries, circumstances usually arrange for the odd unplanned deep discharge...

Well for people who want to keep record of their batteries this is a option. Not saying you should do it but it is a standard in the industry to at least do this every 3 months. Batteries for new people to the RC hobby is sometimes over looked and that comes from all those big box stores selling RC stuff with no education on how to make it last longer. Lipos from when I started in RC to now have changed a lot but still need care, if you don't they will not last long and bite you in the rear end.

 

[Rocky the FS]

...This basically restarts the smart circuitry memory back to zero.

Interesting. Are these things smarter than we are?
Sounds like a good idea since the Anafi battery is likely to be very similar to the others.