2-pin/3-pin problems

[Drew1405]

Hi,

I'm new to this forum as I just bought a Mavic Pro last week and it's my first drone.

I haven't as yet had a chance to take my first flight but when I got the drone I got it all unboxed and looked at the manuals etc. I noted that my Mavic came with a 2-pin plug for the charger and I am in the UK so I need a 3-pin plug. I have a couple of adapters in the house like you would use for a shaver etc and I tried one of those. First one wouldn't work at all when plugged in so I tried the second and that was fine. I got all my batteries and controller charged up in readiness for taking it on its first flight today.

So this morning I connected everything and updated firmware etc and familiarised myself with the controls and so on. Unfortunately, when I plugged my smartphone (Huawei Mate 20 Pro) into the controller it decided to suck power from the controller to charge the phone. I tried to turn this off in my phone settings but to no avail. So with the controller doing its own thing and also sending power to my phone battery, it drained pretty quickly. By the time the firmware update was done my controller had gone down to under 40%. Naturally, I wanted to recharge it a bit before going out with it today but I now find that the 3-pin adapter I used on the charger the first time, is now not working and is not charging anything. No lights lighting up.

What am I doing wrong or are these 3-pin adapters insufficient for the Mavic charger? Is there a specialised one I need? Where can I buy it?

I'm annoyed now as I waited for this weekend (and better weather) to take this for its first flight and now that's not gonna happen

 

[Idrach]

My UK sourced charger has a 8-format (IEC C7) / 2-pin AC socket and came with a UK plug 8-format lead. You can just use any 8-format lead - if you don't have a spare, Amazon will sell you one for under £4.

 

[Drew1405]

My UK sourced charger has a 8-format (IEC C7) / 2-pin AC socket and came with a UK plug 8-format lead. You can just use any 8-format lead - if you don't have a spare, Amazon will sell you one for under £4.

Thank you. When it comes to plugs and electrics and stuff like that I am useless. So any power cable with a UK 3-pin plug on one end and a 2-pin 8 format on the other is what I need? Do I need to worry about the amps? The cables I've looked at on Amazon have a varying range of amps in the attached plugs. My shaver adapter is 1 amp. I am assuming the reason my shaver adapter worked previously and then failed is that I have blown the fuse in the adapter. Can't see any other reason why I was able to charge everything with it one day and then the next it suddenly won't do anything. Again... electrics... I am totally hopeless! lol!

 

[Idrach]

Luckily, they are required to tell you this stuff

Look at the base of the charger and in the top left, under the DJI logo but above the pictures of the various ports,, you should see “Input: 100-240V 1.8A”. So, yes, that’s why you toasted your shaver adaptor.

So a 3A or a 5A fused cable should both do. Don’t use a 13A. My DJI supplied one has 5A written on the plug.

 

[FoxhallGH]

Hi,

I'm new to this forum as I just bought a Mavic Pro last week and it's my first drone.

I haven't as yet had a chance to take my first flight but when I got the drone I got it all unboxed and looked at the manuals etc. I noted that my Mavic came with a 2-pin plug for the charger and I am in the UK so I need a 3-pin plug. I have a couple of adapters in the house like you would use for a shaver etc and I tried one of those. First one wouldn't work at all when plugged in so I tried the second and that was fine. I got all my batteries and controller charged up in readiness for taking it on its first flight today.

So this morning I connected everything and updated firmware etc and familiarised myself with the controls and so on. Unfortunately, when I plugged my smartphone (Huawei Mate 20 Pro) into the controller it decided to suck power from the controller to charge the phone. I tried to turn this off in my phone settings but to no avail. So with the controller doing its own thing and also sending power to my phone battery, it drained pretty quickly. By the time the firmware update was done my controller had gone down to under 40%. Naturally, I wanted to recharge it a bit before going out with it today but I now find that the 3-pin adapter I used on the charger the first time, is now not working and is not charging anything. No lights lighting up.

What am I doing wrong or are these 3-pin adapters insufficient for the Mavic charger? Is there a specialised one I need? Where can I buy it?

I'm annoyed now as I waited for this weekend (and better weather) to take this for its first flight and now that's not gonna happen

What you are looking for is a 'figure 8' appliance lead ... DabbersIT UK Fig 8 Power Lead Extra long cable C7 2m / 3m / 5m available (1.5m, Black): Amazon.co.uk: Musical Instruments
In regard to the Huawei charging issue - that's pretty normal for an Android phone. Unfortunately, this 'feature' can't be turned off for an Android phone, without 'rooting' the phone and going through a routine of turning USB charging on and off ... I use a Huawei P10 Plus - and it does the same - However, If I make sure that I charge the phone up before I go flying, and I turn WiFi & Bluetooth off, the phone and the controller seem to give me enough power to last 3 flight batteries on my Mavic Pro Platinum.

 

[Drew1405]

Luckily, they are required to tell you this stuff

Look at the base of the charger and in the top left, under the DJI logo but above the pictures of the various ports,, you should see “Input: 100-240V 1.8A”. So, yes, that’s why you toasted your shaver adaptor.

So a 3A or a 5A fused cable should both do. Don’t use a 13A. My DJI supplied one has 5A written on the plug.

Thank you very much for your help!

It has baffled me as to why, considering I bought my Mavic Pro from a UK source, that it came without a UK plug in the first place but I'm going to surmise that the company I bought from has had them shipped in from outside the UK instead of sourcing ones destined for the UK market.

 

[Drew1405]

What you are looking for is a 'figure 8' appliance lead ... DabbersIT UK Fig 8 Power Lead Extra long cable C7 2m / 3m / 5m available (1.5m, Black): Amazon.co.uk: Musical Instruments
In regard to the Huawei charging issue - that's pretty normal for an Android phone. Unfortunately, this 'feature' can't be turned off for an Android phone, without 'rooting' the phone and going through a routine of turning USB charging on and off ... I use a Huawei P10 Plus - and it does the same - However, If I make sure that I charge the phone up before I go flying, and I turn WiFi & Bluetooth off, the phone and the controller seem to give me enough power to last 3 flight batteries on my Mavic Pro Platinum.

Ah I see about the Huawei charging thing. That's a bit of a pain that it's not so easy to turn off. If it requires rooting then I think I'll just put up with it. I must admit that while my Huawei sucked the life out of my controller during the firmware update, once I eventually got outside to fly (I ended up charging the controller via USB on the PC) I had the phone fully charged as well as the controller and I used 2 of my 3 Mavic batteries and the controller still had good charge left. I must remember to try turning off WiFi and such the next time and see if that helps some more.

Thanks for the link to the UK plug! That looks like just the job!

All in all though once I got my first flight over I have to say it was great fun. I think I might be addicted already as I'm itching to get out and go again... just need to order this plug first! lol! I don't know if it's just me but I found my first flight not only fun but kinda intense and scary. I think it's just the weirdness of seeing about £1000 of your hard earned money just flying around in the sky and knowing that one mistake can completely end your drone. I've got insurance etc but it just kinda freaked me out a bit when I went very high or very far and I was just worrying what might go wrong. Silly really! I didn't even go that high or far as I stayed in beginner mode for my first flight but it still goes pretty high/far. Next flight I'll "take the stabilisers off" so to speak and get out of beginner mode!

 

[Thomas B]

Personal experience forces me to recommend reading the entire online manual exploring each setting on your drone, practicing a lot in beginner mode, and when you first leave beginner mode fly in a flat area clear of obstructions at an altitude setting for flight and RTH that is at least 35-50 meters above the highest known obstacle. Also initially recommend keeping the max distance setting <1.5 kilometer at first, or shorter if you can’t see the drone quickly that far out.

 

[FoxhallGH]

All in all though once I got my first flight over I have to say it was great fun. I think I might be addicted already as I'm itching to get out and go again... just need to order this plug first! lol! I don't know if it's just me but I found my first flight not only fun but kinda intense and scary. I think it's just the weirdness of seeing about £1000 of your hard earned money just flying around in the sky and knowing that one mistake can completely end your drone. I've got insurance etc but it just kinda freaked me out a bit when I went very high or very far and I was just worrying what might go wrong. Silly really! I didn't even go that high or far as I stayed in beginner mode for my first flight but it still goes pretty high/far. Next flight I'll "take the stabilisers off" so to speak and get out of beginner mode!

That sounds quite normal! You'll find that the more familiar you can make yourself with how the Mavic flys, and what the settings are all about - the more relaxed you'll become. Put a good amount of time into training flights, and just about as much time into study. My suggestion is to study the manual - then use that to generate a list of questions that you can then look up answers to on YouTube. There is a huge library of YouTube videos that you can segment into; pre-flight, first flight, training, and then the more general stuff about the intelligent flight modes and camera settings. Use those vid's to plan training flights ... Get the basics right and then if the Mavic does something that surprises you (and one day it will!), then you'll be equipped to handle the glitch ...