New battery issue?

[Poverty Flyer]

Not sure if a battery, charger or Neo issue.

Flew through 3 batteries, let them cool then charged in original 3 place charger.

Upon putting them into the Neo the switch on the Neo was unresponsive. No leds, no power up on all 3 batteries.
I checked the first battery with the charger. 4 lights steady.
I then tried the battery in the Neo and it powered right up.
Tried other 2 batteries still nothing. Checked the two batteries with charger then tried each one.
All batteries (have 4) now working as normal.
All 4 batteries have a cycle count below 30.
Using charger that came with fly more option.
Neo has latest update.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

 

[Dogpilot]

I think, since they all got better, eventually. Your problem may be with the pins seating. I would be inclined to observe both the battery and the Neo's mating pins for the battery. I personally am not super hot on the original equipment that DJI supplies for battery chargers. First off they are overpriced and typically give you just lights. My vacuum cleaner gives me more information than that charger does. I got one of these gems, since I bought my Neo piecemeal (ended up cheaper). I typically get aftermarket chargers for all my drones. The factory ones just don't cut it. All the essential monitoring of the actual battery charging is done by the battery itself, it contains the BMS chip and regulates the sequence. The charger just mates with the pins and provides a conduit for the electricity. The BMS circuit has all this information available out the serial port in the charging circuit for the aftermarkets to read and display. Not DJI, just 4 mysterious LED's at a super high price.

So if you want to live a little, get one of these, you will have a ton more info, they charge just as fast. The price may have gone up a bit recently, not sure why, but look on Amazon or eBay.

 

[Kilrah]

That is not correct, with DJI it's always the charger/charging hub doing the charge current regulation.
Haven't had any issue with DJI's chargers in 10+ years of using them on various models.

 

[Dogpilot]

Nope, the BMS on the battery does it. Read up a bit on it. The DJI stuff is not all that good and very overpriced. How do you think the battery charge is regulated in the actual aircraft when you plug it in? USB-C has a lot of chatter back and forth on charge capability. The same with phones, EarPods gps devices, watches and so on. The DJI chargers have no idea what charger is plugged into it, try it. You can put all kinds of chargers on it, it will work the same. The BMS does it. Only in the last few iterations of their leveling chargers do they play any role. The actual charge control for each battery is done by the battery itself. Kind of the industry standard. Even on my Enterprise drones I use Aftermarket chargers. I had something like 20 batteries for the 3 series. Down to just 5 (one M3 left) now, since the mines do not let me bring DJI drones on the jobs anymore. Personally I got the Neo to be self contained for my field work in countries where they do not like drones. Don't need a charger, don't need a controller, just a phone. Keeps me from climbing stuff for no reason.

 

[Kilrah]

Read up a bit on it.

I don't need to read up on it, I've done the relevant measurements and teardowns myself since DJI had intelligent batteries.
The batteries do not have a DC/DC converter that would allow them to regulate the charge, that relies on the charger/hub/aircraft. Which makes sense because you wouldn't want to include that relatively large circuitry in each battery and have to design to not go through it for discharging.

The DJI chargers have no idea what charger is plugged into it, try it.

Of course they do, as you said yourself USB-C negotiates.

You can put all kinds of chargers on it, it will work the same.

Not correct, it adapts to the USB-C supply's capabilities, as it should or it wouldn't even work in many cases.

Before USB-C the hubs only switched and relied on the supply brick to regulate current (they were CC/CV supplies). Since USB-C it's the hub/aircraft/charger doing the charging current regulation job.

 

[Kilrah]

Upon putting them into the Neo the switch on the Neo was unresponsive. No leds, no power up on all 3 batteries.
I checked the first battery with the charger. 4 lights steady.
I then tried the battery in the Neo and it powered right up.

Suggests the Neo itself was being weird.
The batteries do not have the main power out enabled at rest, they just provide 3.3V on the middle pin. The aircraft needs to feed itself from that and ask the battery to turn on the output.
BUT when you put the battery in the hub and check the level the main output gets turned on for about 1min15, so when you checked and inserted in the Neo the battery would already be on.

Would check if it happens again with the battery being left out for more than a few minutes then inserted into the Neo, if that repeats it could have issues getting power from that standby connection.

 

[Poverty Flyer]

Suggests the Neo itself was being weird.
The batteries do not have the main power out enabled at rest, they just provide 3.3V on the middle pin. The aircraft needs to feed itself from that and ask the battery to turn on the output.
BUT when you put the battery in the hub and check the level the main output gets turned on for about 1min15, so when you checked and inserted in the Neo the battery would already be on.

Would check if it happens again with the battery being left out for more than a few minutes then inserted into the Neo, if that repeats it could have issues getting power from that standby connection.

I have flown a couple of times since with no issues and all batteries work as required.

My first thought was the switch on the Neo stopped working. I've never liked that type of power system. I've never had a problem with one and they are everywhere from phones to TVs. It just seems that asking the switch to do multiple things and the use they get would make them weak after so much use.
Or like you said it might have been the Neo acting out.
With AI doesn't it just figure that it would find a way to have an artificial fit?

With a lack of reports of this error, I will consider it a one time mystery and continue to enjoy flying.

Cheers

 

[Kilrah]

Yeah, wouldn't worry unless it happens again/repeatedly.