New CGO3 Steady Grip & Battery won't charge or run the unit

Droneman · Jan 23, 2018

2 problems. - I purchased a Yuneec Refurbished YUNTYCAMUS-R CGO3 steady grip that comes with a 1 yr warranty that has the rechargeable Lipo battery that fits into its base and CGO3 camera that came with it. Directions are very clear and straight forward. The first problem is the Lipo rechargeable battery doesn't fit into the base without applying enormous amounts of pressure, even after removing the foam rubber padding inside the unit.

2nd problem With the battery in as far as it will go, plugged in to the ac charging cord, unit turned on it fires up correctly to the blue sky screen with moving clouds and some icons. Pressing "Log in" gets a message "building". Pressing camera it asks for my password which I enter. Camera comes alive and I'm able to take both videos & stills - still plugged in to ac. Disconnecting the ac cord and the unit dies completely - even after I charge it over night. Functionality is there but only while plugged in and only for a short time. After about 15 minutes it shuts down completely showing "Network error.

Sounds like I'm very close but not there. WI FI should stay on regardless. Signal is "very strong" but it goes off.
I'm hoping @Steve Carr or @PatR and others see this post. I need to get this ironed out soon. I need the unit badly. All help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

Steve Carr · Jan 25, 2018

Droneman said:
I need to get this ironed out soon. I need the unit badly.

Can you post some pics of the battery setup and how it's connected to the steadygrip? It could be a bad battery or a bad connection. If you have a voltmeter you could check the battery and see if it has any voltage at all. If a lipo battery is discharged to low then it will not recharge. Also, if a lipo is left fully charged for an extended period of time, it will swell and be permanently damaged as well as become a fire hazard. A better choice for a battery in the steadygrip would be a li-ion which can be stored fully charged and discharged without damage.

Droneman · Jan 25, 2018

That's a good idea, posting the photos. I guess not many have seen the new built-in lipo battery & set-up. I'll try and get the posted today but another busy day. Since all the reports on this new set-up indicate that the fully charged run time for this setup is around 18 - 20 minutes I looking into some of the mod suggestions on you tube where you replace their battery with a commercial ones that would give you 60 minutes or more with just a simply rewire. Long term, that's a good "longer run time" solution. I was able to solve the problem of getting the battery to seat correctly in the chamber. I wasn't pushing both down and forward on the battery just down. Now it fits perfectly. Nice if their directions were clearer. A little technique change made a big difference. Off to get some photos done and posted. Thanks for the responses. Much appreciated.

Gatorbrink · Feb 1, 2018

I just bought the same thing got in yesterday. I’m having the same charging issue. Will work plugged in but nothing when unplugged. Battery fits extremely tight but is not swollen. Can anyone tell or show how to test it?

Steve Carr · Feb 1, 2018

Gatorbrink said:
an anyone tell or show how to test it?

Did you try installing the battery as suggested by Droneman above?

If you have a voltmeter check the battery to see what kind of voltage it is reading.

Gatorbrink · Feb 2, 2018

I can’t seem to think of any other way that I can snap the battery in. But the battery the 2 outer contacts are reading 0v. How can I get voltage in there

Droneman · Feb 10, 2018

Droneman back again with an update of sorts. First I've taken my new Lipo battery steadygrip to 2 very good RC retailer/repair shops. Both came up with the same results. Little or no voltage coming from the battery cells yet it runs perfectly when plugged into AC. I'm going back to the dealer via Ebay to see what they/he suggests. Trouble is I need to get this unit working. The camera and unit are exactly what I need.
I've just finished "trying to disassemble" the unit itself but it's not as easy as modifying the other earlier unit. I modified it in about an hour of careful mod time. It works great by the way with the Venom 3000 tx 11.1V battery, even though I thought everyone was crazy when they said it would fit. My apologies to them. In fact i even have room to add in the low voltage alarm.

Back to the disassembly of the latest lipo version steadygrip. I've removed the 7 screws main seemingly holding the sides together, found a way to remove the top base grey cover from the base unit, checked everything I can see to check and still can't get the two halves separated. I see there could be a complex problem if I seperate the whole unit including the top because of the springs that hold the cell phone on and the battery into the base but Ijust don't see any way to just remove the bse so I can get to the wiring. If anyone has a suggestion I'm all ears.

In the mean time I'm going to contact both the seller and ebay and let them know they are pushing an inferior product that is delivered with defective batteries. Thanks, Droneman

Gatorbrink · Feb 10, 2018

Who is your supplier on eBay? I contacted mine (StemTech) about the battery and they said they would be sending me a new one. To my surprise tonight I got the entire thing again camera and steady grip and all! However there’s no difference same deal. Battery dead and won’t take a charge but works when plugged in.

Droneman · Feb 11, 2018

Yes, He is the same guy. He did the same for me except he said he was going to send me a battery and only sent me an earlier version of the steady grip - which I easily converted as above. I've since bought another steady grip hoping I wouldn't get another dead battery, but wrong again. I've had it checked by 2 repair centers and it is dead and I've not found a way into the base of the steady grip so I can do the mod. I do like the camera grip and case it comes with but it's no good if I can't get good batteries for it. Right now nothing fits and I cant get behind the contacts to see the wiring. I'm getting ready to write to him again. This is my 3ed unit from him that has the same problems, but with a 1 year warranty.
Droneman

Gatorbrink · Feb 11, 2018

He never asked for me to send mine back so idk what the plan is there. I’m going to see if I can get a buddy to force charge the battery for me. He has a recovery charger but don’t know if he can connect to this one.

Droneman · Feb 11, 2018

Let me know how the recovery charger works out. I'm told once they're dead they're dead. Just finished trying to trace the wires from the one I have that works to the camera but not enough info. There's only a black and red wire that seems to connect to the camera but there's 3 connectors. I don't know enough circuitry to trust what I'm doing, I also just wrote to the seller via ebay and told him again about the problems and that I was going to leave him a very poor rating if we can't get it figured out soon. keep me posted please.

Gatorbrink · Feb 11, 2018

Hey if he keeps sending me free cameras at no charge to keep I’m game lol I see a ton of people needing them. Let me know what you find out. It looks like the outer most contacts on the battery are positive and the 2 in the center are negative. Hope that helps