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M5 Battery Not Charging

Discussion in 'MōVI M5' started by Drew Murphy, May 18, 2015.

  1. Drew Murphy

    Drew Murphy New Member

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    Hi guys

    I have an M5. One battery works well and charges when plugged in. Goes from all red lights to green when fully charged.

    The other battery when plugged into Movi does nothing. No green lights turn on at all.

    When I plug it in to the charger - I use 3A and LiPo setting. But ONLY the 3S red light comes on. Not the 4 like with the other battery. Is there any reason for this? Is this normal and just needs a long charge?

    I haven't changed the polarity/incorrectly plugged anything. No extreme weather conditions as far as I can tell either.

    Any way to get this battery up and running again? Thank you.
     
  2. Jason Smoker

    Jason Smoker Active Member

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    Drew sounds like one of the cells in the battery is done. do you have a different charger you can try?

    Also i would recommend charging at 1A unless your in a hurry you get longer battery life
     
  3. Drew Murphy

    Drew Murphy New Member

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    Thanks Jason.
    Not sure how that happens as I've hardly used it. Probably used the Movi only 5 times ever. Don't have another charger. Anything else I can do?
     
  4. Gary Haynes

    Gary Haynes Administrator
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  5. Drew Murphy

    Drew Murphy New Member

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    Thanks Gary. Amazon doesn't ship to South Africa - but i have found a shop that sells them here. Just wondering why this has happened with such little use. Hoping someone from FreeFly can maybe help.
     
  6. Gary Haynes

    Gary Haynes Administrator
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    Typically the issue is discharge below 3v per cell. If a cell or cells discharge to that level then they may die. Or could just be a bad cell in the pack. With a good meter you can start to track how the cells look voltage wise and the amount of delta voltages between cells.
     
  7. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Drew: Did you store the LiPo fully charged? If so, that can drastically shorten the useful life -- Lipo's are happier when stored at the midpoint between fully charged and fully discharged....at 15.4 volts for 4S (or 3.85 volts per cell).

    Andy.
     
  8. Vic Laven

    Vic Laven New Member

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    I am having a similar issue. The charger is just staying red and the batteries don't appear to be charging. It will not turn green. Any advice?
     
  9. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Vic: What is the history of that particular battery in terms of has it been stored for a long time, or is it brand new?

    Also, If it's not too much trouble, would you be kind enough to change your user name to your real first name and last name, please? The reasons for this (and how to do it) are explained here: http://forum.freeflysystems.com/index.php?threads/real-names.497/
    Thanks
    Andy
     
  10. Vic Laven

    Vic Laven New Member

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    Sorry. I will change name later (although Vic is my real name).

    The batteries are brand new & the charger has never acted up before.

    I'm in Lima on a shoot and don't know how to source lipo's.
     
  11. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Vic:
    Can you find a local hobby store that sells LiPo's. Or who could perhaps try a different charger.
    You can use any brand 4S (four cell) Lipo with the correct JST connector. Again a hobby store can help.

    If you could amend your user ID to add your last name, that's all that's needed! :)

    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
     
  12. Vic Laven

    Vic Laven New Member

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    Is there anyway to reset the charger? Or any way of trouble shooting without buying a replacement?
     
  13. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    The easiest way is to try and charge another LiPo, I'm afraid. If it charges the other LiPo ok, then the odds are it's not the charger.
    I realize that's not the "best" answer, but there's really no other means for testing the charger.

    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
     
  14. Graham Futerfas

    Graham Futerfas Well-Known Member

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    Hi Vic, if you don't already have one, you should definitely get a cheap LiPo Tester. You can get them for $3. I had a Freefly battery do this to me after only a few months, and I think one of the cells either went dead or had a bad connection to the balance lead, which would confuse the charger. The LiPo tester can tell you what may be going on with the battery's cells.

    Freefly batteries are relatively inexpensive and very useful, so I recommend having several spares. Like Andy said, in a pinch you can get 4S batteries from a local Hobby\RC store, but I find many of them come with a larger connector than the JST one that Freefly uses. You might be able to fashion an adapter cable, though.

    Also, I recommend buying a better charger that can tell you more about what's going on with your battery, and put it into storage charge if you're not going to use it for a while. I have a Tenergy TB6-B that works really well, and some of the flyers on this forum have really fancy ones. I trust the Tenergy charger more than the Freefly one -- it performs a simple check and confirm before charging, and I can see the individual cell voltages while it charges.

    LiPo's are really useful power sources, but can be temperamental and dangerous if not treated properly.
     
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  15. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Good points, Graham. LiPo's are not the most resilient of battery chemistries, I have to admit -- and they're certainly nobody's best friend. Just about every sentence that you can utter about under-this, or over-that, tends to end with "and then the LiPo might catch fire." Ask any Samsung Galaxy S7 owner.

    But a LiPo tester is a must-have.
    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
     
  16. alex ryan

    alex ryan Member

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    I've been having a bit of an interesting issue.
    One of my freefly chargers seems to be over charging my lipos. It was taking ages to charge my batts, so disconnected and plugged into my good charger and two of the cells were at 4.22. Anyone else having this issue. It's happened twice (that I know of) now.
     
  17. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Alex: Hmmm. That's only 0.02 over the max per cell voltage of 4.2v -- I would not worry about it, honestly -- it could be "instrument" error in the voltmeter you're using to measure the per cell voltage. That's the trouble with digital devices/displays, they make one think they're super-accurate when they're really not. :)

    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
     
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  18. Noël Ramos

    Noël Ramos New Member

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    ugh. I just learned my first hard lesson as a novice Movi user: "Normal use can destroy LiPo batteries." Our only battery pack is no longer charging. Upon reading all this info, I am forced to conclude that I allowed the battery to "discharge below 3v per cell."

    It's going to be a pain to make sure the fragility of these battery packs is absolutely clear to all producers who borrow the gear.
     
  19. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Hi Noel:
    Yeah, it's a tough lesson to learn. Ask me how I know. :rolleyes:
    Do you have a LiPo tester? (Do a search on amazon.com for one.)

    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
     
  20. Noël Ramos

    Noël Ramos New Member

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    Re: LiPo tester – First thing I recommended to the Station Manager after reading this thread! We're also going to buy some extra batteries.

    Question: On the Freefly charger there are ports on the side that accommodate the white connector on the battery. Is that a testing function? I see there are three ports which appear to correspond to the number of cels that the battery pack contains: 2S, 3S, 4S.

    One more question: Cheapest online source for battery packs?
     

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