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Movi Pro Battery issue

Discussion in 'MōVI Pro' started by Azzie Scott, Jun 8, 2018.

  1. Azzie Scott

    Azzie Scott Member

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    I had my Movi Pro running with my RED Camera powered and one of the batteries after being fully charged only gave me about 80%. This is the same battery that would fasho red and green when charging. I know that means the charger is balancing out the cells and I always wait until I get a steady green, but even then like I mention it only gets me about 78-80% charge,
    So I had my Movi running with camera and after about 17 mins that battery dropped to 0% according to the Movi screen. So shut down and removed the battery and the battery indicator showed 3 lights. So I placed the batter back on the Movi with out the camera on at it showed 50%. I feel something is going on with one or two of my batteries. Are batteries covered under warranty for replacement?
     
    #1 Azzie Scott, Jun 8, 2018
    Last edited: Jun 10, 2018
  2. Azzie Scott

    Azzie Scott Member

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    This is what happens. Battery goes to zero and no critical warning. Buts as you can see the battery indicators show a different story. So I removed the battery and attach it back to the movi pro and as you can see shows normal readings.
     

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  3. anthonysneed

    anthonysneed Member

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    I just had the same problem with my 6 batteries. Lost a lot of money having to send the entire movi back and forth. Freefly gave me some replacements but I’m still losing $ and time and more $ and they say “batteries aren’t under warranty” to me that’s crazy since there’s SO many people having the exact same problems. Freefly needs to step it up here.
     
  4. Ryan Hamelin

    Ryan Hamelin Member

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    Get the Ignite Digi plates for DJI TB50 batteries. Best choice I've ever made. Shot over an hour of plane-to-plane hanging out the back with wireless and camera all powered off the same two batteries. When we landed, I still had 50% charge left on both.
     
  5. anthonysneed

    anthonysneed Member

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    I did just order the TB50s and the Ignite plates this week. Yes it sounds like a great solution but that's still avoiding the basic problem which is that Freefly is sending us batteries that aren't holding up like they say they are (or are not instructing us properly on how to care for them) and then also aren't covering them. Why buy a battery that doesn't work like stated? Such a waste of energy all around
     
  6. Azzie Scott

    Azzie Scott Member

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    Im going to send their consumer service an email. I have used these batteries under normal conditions and they are failing. In addition these batteries aren't that old. I van see if I used the hell out of these batteries then I could totally under stand but this isn't even the case. I hope free fly can chime in or accommodate users that are experiencing these same issues.
     
  7. Wayne Mann

    Wayne Mann Member

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    20180610_224847.jpg 20180610_224920.jpg 20180610_224959.jpg Hi guys,

    I did not realize that Freefly was not providing a warranty on these crappy batteries. I have posted three pictures of how I modified my Pro to accept normal or standard Lipo batteries. The advantage is being able to use much higher quality batteries and much cheaper, by the way with the Pro. You can also use larger packs if desired. The downside, if you want to call it that is that you have to use lipo battery chargers with balancing systems. You will not be able to use the Movi Pro chargers. If you have any questions fire away.

    NOTE: If you decide to do this mod or any type of power change make sure that you get the polarity right.

    NOTE: LOOKING AT THE FIRST IMAGE PLEASE NOTE THAT THE HOT LEAD ON THE OTHER BATTERY PLATE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MOVI PRO IS ON THE BOTTOM, NOT ON THE TOP AS IT IS ON THIS SIDE.

    Wayne Mann
    www.helicamhighdefmedia.com
     
    #7 Wayne Mann, Jun 10, 2018
    Last edited: Jun 10, 2018
  8. Wayne Mann

    Wayne Mann Member

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    The first image is of the small wiring harness that I made using spade connectors to slip over the battery tabs. I am using the yellow XT-60 connectors to connect to the battery. The second photo is of the wood plate that I made that is servo taped to the side of the new lipo battery so that it keys into the battery plate on the Movi Pro. This keeps the battery from sliding around and then I just have a Velcro strap around the battery and battery plate to hold it in place. The third image is with the battery installed.

    Wayne Mann
    www.helicamhighdefmedia.com
     
    #8 Wayne Mann, Jun 10, 2018
    Last edited: Jun 10, 2018
  9. Wayne Mann

    Wayne Mann Member

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    I am only running one battery right now to power the Pro and the Connex HD downlink. The other tray you see on the back of the gimbal with the Velcro strap is for another lipo battery that I use to power Reds and Minis. I have not had the Pro long enough to trust it to power everything through the sled connections. I will gradually work my way towards that goal.

    My Pro has the same crooked frame structure build that produces the pan balance issues that a lot of other Pro owners have. When using only one battery on the left side of the Pro and with my Connex Transmitter on the other side on the down tube, near the control unit and display it balances pretty well in that axis.

    For the guys that elect to use the DJI Inspire 2 batteries be ware they have their issues to. I have a set right now that one cell is out of balance and gives boot up errors and you basically have to tear the battery apart to get to the connections to manually balance it. I hate smart batteries for this very reason. Not to mention they are expensive.

    Wayne Mann
    www.helicamhighdefmedia.com
     
    #9 Wayne Mann, Jun 10, 2018
    Last edited: Jun 10, 2018
  10. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Hi Azzie/Wayne: Wow. Sounds like you've had some real problems.

    Wayne: Have you been in contact with FF Technical Support -- they usually are very responsive to these kinds of issues.

    Certainly LiPos, as you probably are aware, are very sensitive to how they have been stored -- just out of curiosity, at what charge level do you store them when you're not using them?

    I can't speak to warranty issues, beyond wondering whether there are vendors who warranty their batteries for more than a few months? (I had four DJI TB48's that self-disharged to zero volts and DJI pretty much disowned the problems even though there was a known bug in the firmware that caused it).

    The usual problem is that all it takes is one over-discharge and a Lipo is shot -- might as well use it as a paper-weight. Makes it hard for any vendor to warranty something so easily damaged, I guess.

    As you say, Wayne, I'm a bit leery of anything with "Smart" or "Intelligent" in their names...

    Cheers
    Andy

    Forensic Software & sUAV / Drone Analyst : Photographer : Videographer : Pilot (Portland, Oregon, USA): Trees=2, Ground=1, Props=11. :(
    The Ground Is The Limit™
    ---------- Forensic Drone Analyst : Forensic sUAV Analyst : Forensic Unmanned Aircraft Analyst : Forensic Drone Expert
     
  11. Wayne Mann

    Wayne Mann Member

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    Hi Andy,

    Actually I have not had any issues with my OEM Pro batteries, but my gimbal is still relatively new. After reading about all of the issues with the stock batteries I decided to be proactive and get a solution in the works before issues developed.

    I don't buy the whole lipo batteries are "sensitive" to how they are stored. I have been using lipo since 2000 when the US F3C team starting using them in our R/C helicopters to compete in the World Champs. Over the years I have had a ton of lipos. In the early days we were limited to 10S and 5000 Mah and those batteries got pretty hot by the end of the flight and were probably within 10% of being dead when we landed. In all fairness we were using very high grade batteries and they would go for many hundreds of flights before becoming unusable and they were routinely stored for quite a while (weeks) at full charge with no apparent side effects. I had 20 sets of 4S 4000 Mah batteries that I used for four years to power Reds, Minis and monitors that had a ton of time on them and they also saw long periods of time in storage in cases at full charge and never had any issues with them.

    The things that I do to protect my batteries is to not charge them when they are hot and I never run them down past 75% capacity. On my 42 pound heavy lifter two 6S 10,000 Mah batteries will get pretty warm after a 7 minute flight so it is important to let them cool down before charging. As for the issues with the Movi Pro OEM batteries going sour I have some ideas that mainly center around them probably not being high end cells, but that is just a guess and YMMV. I mainly don't use the OEM batteries for powering everything because they have too little capacity and when they get low and you try to do a hot swap, one low battery just can't provide enough current to keep things going, but I am just guessing as I have not had any issues since I am only using one OEM battery at a time, when I use them and they are only powering the gimbal and downlink transmitter.

    Wayne Mann
    www.helicamhighdefmedia.com
     
  12. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Hi Wayne:

    Yeah, I've found it hard to separate folklore from fact -- but I have have seen some situations where leaving the LiPo fully charged for extended periods seems to reduce the amount of charge that these Lipos will then accept. They still work acceptably well, but just don't accept as much charge (I use Hyperion 720e Superduo chargers and they log the amount of charge a Lipo accepts).

    That said, I defer to your superior knowledge on this. As you say, it may be more and "old wives' tale than hard fact, but I agree, cool-charging, and charging at 1C seem to prolong the LiPos' service lives.

    Cheers
    Andy

    Forensic Software & sUAV / Drone Analyst : Photographer : Videographer : Pilot (Portland, Oregon, USA): Trees=2, Ground=1, Props=11. :(
    The Ground Is The Limit™
    ---------- Forensic Drone Analyst : Forensic sUAV Analyst : Forensic Unmanned Aircraft Analyst : Forensic Drone Expert
     
  13. James Davis

    James Davis New Member

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    We're averaging 10-12 months from a set with our rigs, but our gear gets worked very hard in every kind of scenario you can imagine with very power hungry set-ups a lot of the time, not quite sure what you guys are doing with yours but I wonder if it's something to do with them getting stored for extended periods, it's rare our rigs/batteries are sat around for more than 2-3 days max before they are out on jobs or for practice/training, we don't go through any special discharge routines or try to leave them stored flat or anything like that...

    That being said we have switched over to the Ignite Digi plates and TB-50's now for both just because the increased run times and 24v direct power are super useful for us for those pesky prestons which need lots of juice, also because the tiny additional weight penalty is no big deal to us because our rigs never go up on drones.
     
  14. Azzie Scott

    Azzie Scott Member

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    Hi Andy, yes I have reached out to FF tech support but haven't heard anything back as of yet. I have identified it two out of my 8 batteries. These two batteries has cause various issues for me. Ive even lost footage because it was corrupted by a unexpended shutdown due to the issues I have described. I really hope FF can help me out
    Hi Andy, yes I have reached out to FF tech support but haven't heard anything back as of yet. I have identified it two out of my 8 batteries. These two batteries has cause various issues for me. Ive even lost footage because it was corrupted by a unexpended shutdown due to the issues I have described. I really hope FF can help me out with some replacements.
     
  15. Joash Moonsamy

    Joash Moonsamy New Member

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    Hi Wayne,

    Thanks for the post. I'm looking into doing this mod on my movi. I also want to run the run a Red camera, teradek and focus through the built in D-taps. Do these run well now and what size batteries would you recommend.
     
  16. Rick Gerard

    Rick Gerard Active Member

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    I built a discharge device with an alarm that I plug-in, then I always check the batteries with no load. Every time I use the MoVI Pro batteries I make sure they are discharged before I put them away.

    I originally had a problem with a couple of batteries so I discharged them clear down to around 14V then brought them back to full charge. I ran this cycle three times using my device. I have not had any additional problems with those batteries since then. I think that the internal balancing system works pretty well, it's just that you can't discharge the batteries to a proper storage level without building some kind of device. I got the components from Amazon. Here's mine without the load plugged in: IMG_1267.jpg
     
    Graham Futerfas likes this.

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