maybe a dead battery fix?

faroutmatt · Dec 10, 2016

I had a battery that failed after I ran down to zero ( drone landed ok), I had tried multiple times to charge it and it just blinked "extra fast" one light. 3DR asked for video of fast flash and then very nicely replaced it for free!

now 2 months on I tried again, no luck.... but then I tried holding the battery on button down and plugging in at same time.. bingo something worked and it appears to be now working 100%

If you have a dead battery try holding the power button down as you plug in, might have held on after pluging in cant quite remember, definitely did something though

rbookman · Jun 3, 2017

I got a dead battery on delivery of my Solo from B&H. I tried this fix on it and it did not work. B&H replaced the bad one.

AussiePilot · Nov 4, 2017

faroutmatt said:
but then I tried holding the battery on button down and plugging in at same time.. bingo something worked and it appears to be now working 100%

Same issue. Tried the same as you - now works perfectly. Left it on the charge and even though the charge light stayed green, and only one light was flashing on the battery - I left it there. Then tried a series of methods surrounding your advice, and now the battery works perfectly! Thanks

John Githens · Nov 9, 2017

AussiePilot said:
Same issue. Tried the same as you - now works perfectly. Left it on the charge and even though the charge light stayed green, and only one light was flashing on the battery - I left it there. Then tried a series of methods surrounding your advice, and now the battery works perfectly! Thanks

Well... I also have a good report about trying faroutmatt's technique. I had three batteries that recently never seemed to charge more than 2 lights. This was two days after a 7-hour job in 40-45 degree (F).

So today I tried holding the battery button down while plugging the charger in, several times. Then I just left it on the charger for a while. To my astonishment, on every one of my three batteries, the charging lights on the battery ramped up to about midway, then suddenly went out. When I unplugged the charger and pressed the battery button, a fully charged battery was indicated by the lights. "This can't be!" I muttered. So I tried one of the batteries in a Solo and booted up the whole system. "99%" battery level, and not dropping fast. Now of course all of this was on a bench, so it's certainly possible that the battery won't last as long in the air as a new battery, newly charged. I've tagged the questionable batteries so I can monitor their performance over the next few weeks.

AussiePilot · Nov 9, 2017

This all sounds positive - great to hear that it actually seems to be working! My battery has been giving me full flight time again - very happy.

Damien · Nov 9, 2017

faroutmatt said:
I had a battery that failed after I ran down to zero ( drone landed ok), I had tried multiple times to charge it and it just blinked "extra fast" one light. 3DR asked for video of fast flash and then very nicely replaced it for free!

now 2 months on I tried again, no luck.... but then I tried holding the battery on button down and plugging in at same time.. bingo something worked and it appears to be now working 100%

If you have a dead battery try holding the power button down as you plug in, might have held on after pluging in cant quite remember, definitely did something though

I would do a battery calibration to cover your bases, especially if it landed with 0

AussiePilot · Nov 9, 2017

Damien said:
I would do a battery calibration to cover your bases, especially if it landed with 0

It seems that the battery calibration is exactly what we're talking about here - without knowing what it's referred to as. It definitely worked for me.

Damien · Nov 9, 2017

AussiePilot said:
It seems that the battery calibration is exactly what we're talking about here - without knowing what it's referred to as. It definitely worked for me.

Nah, there's a discharge, rest and 48 hour recharge procedure. Use solex to discharge via the motors. The procedure is detailed somewhere here or in the manual... can't remember right now.