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

[KDan]

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.

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?

The reasoning is that IF the package is factory sealed, the batteries must be authentic, "authorized" 3DR batteries. I have bought NEW solos from both Best Buy and B&H Photo with batteries that have the Chinese fine print.
That means that if the batteries in question are not "authorized", authentic, whatever, then the packages had to have been tampered with. My contention is that this is extremely unlikely.

I have also purchased extra batteries that look exactly like the ones that came with my new Solo's.

 

[FamilyFlyGuy]

The reasoning is that IF the package is factory sealed, the batteries must be authentic, "authorized" 3DR batteries. I have bought NEW solos from both Best Buy and B&H Photo with batteries that have the Chinese fine print.
That means that if the batteries in question are not "authorized", authentic, whatever, then the packages had to have been tampered with. My contention is that this is extremely unlikely.

I have also purchased extra batteries that look exactly like the ones that came with my new Solo's.

Agree 100%
I never suggested that batteries were bring swapped out of factory sealed boxes and didn't know some (like yours) were shipping inside the bundles. Thanks for the info, the only ones I've seen are those that shipped in their own boxes along with the packaged boxes , but not part of as factory sealed package ( just as the extra gimbals were included).
Thanks for the update.

 

[cryhavoc38]

So I just checked all of my batteries, all were purchased from BB, one each came with the two solo's I bought. A rev A kit and the newer Rev B backpack kit.
The other batteries were all purchased new sealed in the 3dr box from BB.

One has the Chinese writing on it and its serial number is higher than the non chinese printed packs.

So me thinks that the later revision solo's came with different batteries.
The backpack version of the solo has several revisions that the early model non backback does not.
If you have both rev's, you will notice that the gimbal cable in the newer version does not have a solid jacket around it, so no mod needed there.
Also that kit came with the extended feet, gimbal pre installed, and a controller that is labled differently than the older controller printing.
I think 3DR's battery supplier printed them differently than the earlier supplier.

There is no way the chinese printed ones are counterfeit or non factory packs.
If that were the case, then either BB's supplier screwed them, or BB was sourcing them elsewhere. Highly doubtful on all counts.
I think that 3DR guy really just doesn't know what he is talking about, or is light on the facts/history of what 3DR management was doing to cut costs.

 

[KDan]

To get to the bottom of this question some real tests need to be done. Speculation is pointless.

Battery testing is fuzzy at best because there are so many variables. Temperature, number of cycles already on the battery, depth of discharge history and other factors are all very significant.

However, if someone has two batteries that are relatively new, one of each type, a semi-reliable test could probably be done. I'd suggest taking off and hovering until the 25% warning is reached. Land immediately, record the flight time and measure the battery temperature in the same spot on each pack. The test should be done one right after the other.

In decades of experience with LiPo batteries in all types of RC aircraft I've gone through a lot of batteries.
Over-discharging is the #1 killer of LiPo cells. I believe that 25% remaining is actually to low on the 3DR packs from what I've seen. The packs are coming off of the Solo noticeably warm at that point. Not good. That is the sign of a mediocre LiPo pack. Based upon past experience with packs that get this warm being discharged to 25% to 30%, I wouldn't expect them to have a long life. I expect to get one good year out of them, with a noticeable degradation by the second year. By the third year they will likely be almost useless.
The #2 killer of LiPo's is leaving them fully charged for extended periods of time. It may actually kill more batteries than #1 because fewer people are aware of how serious it is.
This is a real problem, because I doubt that we'll be able to buy new "Smart Batteries" next year. They probably won't be making anymore. This isn't just a 3DR problem either. All of the DJI Phantom 3 owners are in the same situation.
At some point we'll either have to start rebuilding our "Smart Batteries" with fresh LiPo cells, or we'll be forced to throw our drones in the trash.
I really dislike proprietary batteries. I have many other RC aircraft that I've been flying for over a decade because they use generic batteries. When my LiPo packs go south after a few years I just order new ones and keep flying. That's going to be a lot harder to do with Drones that use proprietary smart batteries.