Battery level reported as -1%

[droneswag420blazeit]

I was flying about 1000-1500 feet from home at about 400ft high, testing antennas. I had lost controller connection twice on this flight (not sure if this is connected, but reporting it anyway), otherwise everything was going normally.

A few minutes in I got the flight battery at 10% warning, and the solo started to RTH. I went ahead and let it come in. The solo app reported the battery level to be -1%, and the controller said 0%. I figured it was an error, but I still was sweating watching it land.

After landing, I saw there were 4 lights on the battery lit, and when I power cycled it, it reported as 54% in the app.

Bad battery, or nothing to worry about?

 

[andrew.baker.142]

The battery sounds fine. Solo might need a recalibration

 

[Maddog]

The battery sounds fine. Solo might need a recalibration

What kind of recalibration are you referring to?

 

[speatuk]

I second that.

 

[andrew.baker.142]

I've heard the smart battery electronics need to be discharged below 10% to recalibrate the percentage reading. If so, I guess it would be a recalibration of the battery and not Solo.
I also wonder if there are any parameters that take the reported battery voltage and turn it into a percent remaining in Pixhawk 2 with these smart batteries. I know on my "dumb battery" multirotors you can calibrate the power monitor that feeds the Pixhawk.

 

[droneswag420blazeit]

UPDATE:

It happened again today with a different battery, again while about 1000 ft out, 400 ft up. On restarting the solo, the battery level reported normally. It only happened once out of 4 batteries of flights.

RMA the solo? Factory/pixhawk reset?

P.S. I was using Solex this time, and it told me to "get out my credit card", LOL.

 

[Maddog]

If it's still under warranty I would contact 3DR support via chat if you haven't already.

 

[RichWest]

I have a couple of recently purchased batteries that kind of wig out during flight. One will show 100% for a moment and the other will show a 0% on occasions. Could be a connector issue in the battery or a faulty data stream. In either case 3DR will warranty the batteries, you'll need to provide a flight log of an event...

I thought initially the issue was related to the battery data wires (green/white off Solo's battery plug), turns out they were fine. You may want to check your data wires just in case....