New Solo! Bad day.... attery errors?

[T-Ray]

Short background... Got a new solo combo a couple of weeks ago, and on about the 3rd flight, I was flying around a creek that only had a couple of small puddles that was only an inch or so deep. Managed to clip something while flying fpv style on my phone. So I look up, expecting to see it sitting there upside down or something, but I don't see it. Start walking over and realize its UPSIDE DOWN COMPLETELY SUBMERGED in one of those "shallow" puddles. F@#$ @#$ @ ^$%465!@!#@......

So I pull it out, yank the battery... Take it home, tear it down and rinse and clean everything.... Except for the battery. (I'm an EE btw)

Manged to get the solo working again, all seems well. Had to replace the FETs on one of the motor controllers. Also had to ultrasonically clean the GPS to get it to see anything, seems to work ok now (though maybe its gets less sats? didn't have it long enough to really get a good feel for it..(its the original rev so who knows...))

Soooo, back to the battery. After the swim in the swamp and the subsequent rinsing in clean water. It did all sorts of glitchy things and appeared to drain itself. I try letting it sit for a few days to dry out. Try charging and won't charge. Figure I might as well tear it down and recovery that battery for my other RC stuff.

Had to get the dremel out to get the shell apart as it seems to be glued (that's why I didn't take it apart on the first night). Open it up, unsolder the battery. Battery isn't over discharged and I don't see any blown up parts on the pcbs (though there is a fair amount of corrosion in a few spots). So I figure I'll give it and shot and try to recover the smarts.

After cleaning the pcb's in ultrasonic cleaner for a while, with a few tests on the bench, it seems ok. So I hook the battery back up and try charging it. Charge seems fine also. And battery seems to stay balanced also. "Sweet" I say. Try it in the Solo.

Powers up no problem.... then a few seconds later the solo starts to scream (I think its the same as the low battery alarm). "AHHHH!!" I say unplug.... Hmm, that was weird. Well it can't hurt the solo as long as it doesn't catch on fire... So plug it back in and connect phone to make sure the battery was talking to the solo.

Voltage/current look normal in app. LED's on battery show full charge. So my question is, for those in the know: What other errors would cause the solo to alarm?

My guess is faulty temp sensor. Anyone know if it has additional latching faults? Or a balance fault?

 

[Rich]

Seems like you over discharged a cell, so now the capacity is diminished.

You would need to test the capacity to check for bad cells. be careful, as you know, after a deep discharge LiPo batteries can be unstable when charging.

At least batteries are on sale this week.

 

[T-Ray]

No, voltage reported in app was over 16 while alarming. Not a low voltage problem. And none of the cells were ever actually over discharged. When originally removing the PCB from the "dead" battery all cells were about 3.8 which is totally fine. Its not a voltage error, its something else.

Off the top of my head i'm thinking:

Bad temperature reading.
Capacity estimation (if there is something counting in and out joules then it might be off)
Some sort flag that detected a past fault and stored it in flash/eeprom.

 

[healthyfatboy]

Can you post any pictures of the battery taken apart? Would be great to see how we can replace these later on.

 

[T-Ray]

Sure. I'll try to remember tonight when I get home. It's not pretty though since it was dremeled to take it apart. Haven't quite figured out how to glue it back together if/when I get it working 100% again.

 

[healthyfatboy]

Great! If we find some way to gracefully take a battery apart, then it's one less thing we have to worry about for longevity purposes for a DIY type person.

 

[Maddog]

Sure. I'll try to remember tonight when I get home. It's not pretty though since it was dremeled to take it apart. Haven't quite figured out how to glue it back together if/when I get it working 100% again.

That would be great. As far as I know, nobody has posted pics of the inside of a battery. Very few have ever taken one apart.

 

[healthyfatboy]

I was considering asking anyone with a dead battery to ship me one so I could figure out how to take it apart to see where tabs and other enclosing structures are to make it easy to open up so these pictures will be quite helpful.

 

[Jubalr]

Battery Dissection was done here...8000mAh Battery...

 

[T-Ray]

Here you go! Let me know if you want more detail somewhere. Tried to cover all the bases.

Notes:
Dremeled along the long sides and the back where the connectors are. Front popped apart ok.

Clipped a small piece of plastic to get the light/switch board out, but most won;t need to do that to do a battery swap.

I removed some tape from the long board when I originally took it apart, replaced it with new kapton, don't really remember where it was... so now there is more.

 

[utkudemir]

I want to know more details please. Was the pieces of cover glued eachother ? I am wondering if I can open my battery without damaging it.

Thanks.

 

[lnelson15]

Good luck getting everything fixed. I'd stay out of those creeks. LOL

 

[T-Ray]

Haha, yeah haven't taken it for a swim again yet. Been a few months now and I haven't noticed any big issues (well I guess there's one, the gimbal gets flaky randomly.... but not sure if thats normal....).

Yeah, I think the battery was glued. Kinda hard to tell though, did most of the dremeling on the seam. But I didn't have much luck getting apart before getting out the dremel sooo.... that's what I'm going with till I try to take another one apart.

 

[FamilyFlyGuy]

As a side note regarding... "Chinese inscripted batteries"

Not sure what the real story is from 3DR. Authorized or not.

(see posts # 3,4,9,*19 here)

New Solo Battery @ Amazon $49.99 + free shipping

Anyone know for sure?

 

[utkudemir]

As a side note regarding... "Chinese inscripted batteries"

Not sure what the real story is from 3DR. Authorized or not.

(see posts # 3,4,9,*19 here)

New Solo Battery @ Amazon $49.99 + free shipping

Anyone know for sure?

its no more $49,99, but $69.99

 

[FamilyFlyGuy]

its no more $49,99, but $69.99

utkudemir, Please read the post your responding to first.

I was requesting clarification of the "English vs Chinese" printing on the battery's label and weather they are both authorized by 3DR.

I have 5 with English labels and 2 with Chinese labels (from Best Buy).

 

[KDan]

utkudemir, Please read the post your responding to first.

I was requesting clarification of the "English vs Chinese" printing on the battery's label and weather they are both authorized by 3DR.

I have 5 with English labels and 2 with Chinese labels (from Best Buy).

I know that new, factory sealed Solos (not refurbs) from both Best Buy and B&H Photo have come with batteries with the Chinese fine print on them. I don't think it has anything to do with being authorized or authentic or whatever. Anything in a factory sealed box is an original component. I think it has to do with the production run. The evidence seems to point to later Solos having a Rev B GPS and the battery with the Chinese fine print.

I'm not sure what all the hoopla is about the Chinese fine printing. All lithium polymer cells are made in Asia. Most in China, but a few in South Korea. The ones made in China are far more common and less expensive. I'm betting that all the cells in the Solo battery packs come from China - regardless of Chinese fine print on the outside.

 

[FamilyFlyGuy]

...I'm not sure what all the hoopla is about the Chinese fine printing. All lithium polymer cells are made in Asia. Most in China, but a few in South Korea. The ones made in China are far more common and less expensive. I'm betting that all the cells in the Solo battery packs come from China - regardless of Chinese fine print on the outside.

Yes I agree all cells are from Asia, however the post I referenced (see below) "solobird" was told by Owen at 3DR that the "Chinese inscripted batteries are NOT An Authorized battery by 3DR!

Been in touch with Owen at 3DR about the Batt Crap. Was told that the Chinese inscript batts are NOT An Authorized batt By 3DR. They were sent out with the Best Buy bundles.

I looked at my actual boxes (from Best Buy) and they are different (see photos), which makes me simply wonder, are they knock offs? ... or a different manufacture... or simply a different batch from the OEM.

The fact that Owen from 3DR told "solobird" his batteries are NOT Authorized and some are experiencing problems with them makes me curious if there are inferior batteries we've been buying up.

 

[KDan]

Yes I agree all cells are from Asia, however the post I referenced (see below) "solobird" was told by Owen at 3DR that the "Chinese inscripted batteries are NOT An Authorized battery by 3DR!

I have to wonder if the above conversation with Owen from 3DR was a misunderstanding based upon an exaggerated description. Was the battery described as having some Chinese fine print in addition to larger dominate English text, or was it described as a "cheap junk Chinese battery with Chinese writing all over it"? Based on the tone usual tone and animosity of Solobird towards 3DR, I'd be more inclined to believe the latter description was probably more like it.
I still find it extremely unlikely that Best Buy, B&H Photo, and possibly other large dealers were ripping open new factory sealed Solo's removing a "good" battery, replacing it with a "junk" battery, and somehow managing to replace the factory seal on the package in a way that was not detectable. It makes absolutely NO sense.

We know that there was more than one production run of authentic Solo's by 3DR. Changes happen in the supply chain for various reasons.
Why is it automatically assumed that the newer battery is inferior? Maybe the older battery is inferior? Is there any hard data to indicate there is any difference at all? I'd love to see it.

 

[FamilyFlyGuy]

I have to wonder if the above conversation with Owen from 3DR was a misunderstanding based upon an exaggerated description.

One of the factors that I too considered, but if Owen did in fact state that they're not authorized... hence my reason for posing the question for clarification, which neither you nor I can answer.

I still find it extremely unlikely that Best Buy, B&H Photo, and possibly other large dealers were ripping open new factory sealed Solo's removing a "good" battery, replacing it with a "junk" battery, and somehow managing to replace the factory seal on the package in a way that was not detectable. It makes absolutely NO sense.

Not sure where your coming from here. I do agree with you that Best Buy, B&H Photo are not "somehow managing to replace the factory seal on the package".
My batteries in the above photos were ones I purchased as extras.
I did buy 3 Solo bundles, 2 rev A, 1 rev B, all with "English" printed text on the batteries.
So who knows why?