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Movi flopping over but batteries are still mostly charged

Discussion in 'MōVI M10' started by Bryan Harvey, Mar 24, 2015.

  1. Bryan Harvey

    Bryan Harvey Member

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    Hey there,
    My Movi 10 is working fine, but then keeps flopping over dead, and getting fast blinking single green light, as it might do when the lipo battery is exhausted. Im only getting 8 or 10 minutes per battery. However when I check the batteries they are reading around 3.9 - still lots of charge left.

    It will not reboot with that battery, but if I install a fully charged battery it boots up as normal.

    Anybody else ever have this issue?
     
  2. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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    As Andy is prone to say, it sound like those batteries are now ex-batteries. :( Voltage "sag" is a symptom of a battery that is failing. Measuring the voltage at rest is one indicator of battery health, but how it responds under load is another, and it sounds a lot like the MōVI is telling you that when a load is applied to the battery, it can't sustain a healthy voltage. This can happen for a number of reasons, including over-discharge.

    Do you have a higher-end charger other than the standard (admittedly anemic) standard MōVI charger? Sometimes if you give the battery a proper discharge/charge cycle on a good balance charger, it'll tell you if it's healthy, or you can test it yourself.
     
  3. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Andy says it both when prone and supine! :)

    Bryan: At what voltage have you been keeping the batteries stored when you are not using them? If you have been storing them fully charged (or overdischarging them), I'm afraid the battery may indeed be an ex-battery, joined the choir eternal, gone to meet its maker, etc. (Monty Python fans will understand. :) )

    One often overlooked paragraph in the MōVI documentation is:
    If a battery will not be used for more than one week, it is recommendedthat the battery is stored with a voltage of approximately 3.8V per cell. Do not store the battery fully charged. Store the battery at room temperature in a cool or shaded area (ideally between 50º-80ºF/10º-26ºC).​
    See MōVI M10 manual page 01-P1 (emphasis added).

    Andy.
     
  4. Bryan Harvey

    Bryan Harvey Member

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    Thanks guys. Yes perhaps they are near dead batteries after all. I do try to store lipos at proper storage capacity (though not always practical). I was under the impression that when a battery was dead it would read very low like 3.3. Since mine were reading 3.9 or 3.95 I thought that meant my battery was good, but apparently that's not the case.
     
  5. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Hi Bryan:
    Sadly no, the "no load" voltage is not a good predictor of the health of a battery -- at least not in my limited experience. Watching how the voltage declines under load is probably the best (certainly the most empirical) way to see what the battery's like.

    Andy.
     

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