Your Mavic could fly for 4 hours...

[PeteS2017]

...if DJI bought permission to use hydrogen fuel cell technology:

Hydrogen-powered Drone 'Hycopter' Stays in Flight for 4 Hours

Seriously, I think LIPO battery technology has more or less 'hit a brick wall', with flight times increasing by just the odd minute or two. This seems to be the way ahead.

 

[pixl]

...if DJI bought permission to use hydrogen fuel cell technology:

Hydrogen-powered Drone 'Hycopter' Stays in Flight for 4 Hours

Seriously, I think LIPO battery technology has more or less 'hit a brick wall', with flight times increasing by just the odd minute or two. This seems to be the way ahead.

Yes, because those easily built hydrogen filling stations are now on every corner.

 

[Pathogen]

Let's skip the hydrogen cells and go straight to Mr. Fusion, looks like it's been around for some time!

 

[LasVegasPilot]

Eiiigghty eeeeiiiggghhtttt miiiiiles per hooouurrrr!!!!

 

[GlenT]

There are plenty of really cool innovations being developed now for batteries.
There's a few institutions working with lithium batteries that can be cut, punctured and are fire resistant.
Here's some examples of how battery technology is coming along rather well.
Future batteries, coming soon: Charge in seconds, last months and power over the air - Pocket-lint

 

[Dw911]

Would be nice. Especially if any of these break throughs ever got beyond the lab into the main stream consumer market.

Whilst not meaning to be negative, i belong to a couple of other forums where long lasting, fast recharging power/batteries would move things on immensely.
And pretty much every week for the last few years someone posts a link to some new power source or another that's just around the corner. Sadly am still waiting for the corner to arrive.

Ask yourself, if these things were coming anytime soon -and im sure we would all like 4 hour mavic flight time and instant charging- why would the likes of tesla or Panasonic or many others be busy spending hundreds of millions building factorys to make cylindrical liion 21700/18650 or similar type cells, if something much much better was so close by ?

 

[GlenT]

Would be nice. Especially if any of these break throughs ever got beyond the lab into the main stream consumer market.

Whilst not meaning to be negative, i belong to a couple of other forums where long lasting, fast recharging power/batteries would move things on immensely.
And pretty much every week for the last few years someone posts a link to some new power source or another that's just around the corner. Sadly am still waiting for the corner to arrive.

Ask yourself, if these things were coming anytime soon -and im sure we would all like 4 hour mavic flight time and instant charging- why would the likes of tesla or Panasonic or many others be busy spending hundreds of millions building factorys to make cylindrical liion 21700/18650 or similar type cells, if something much much better was so close by ?

I guess the likes of Tesla et al are building on what is achievable now. If they waited or kept things under development until they or others had sufficiently developed a newer technology they lose out on what they have achieved thus far.
You have to start somewhere and build upon that. They wouldn't say "oh well, this is as far as we're going with batteries so lets flag it". Lithium cells are better now than they were a few years back, chargers are better too. All thanks to those who chip away at what is around the corner.
It's going to be far easier to implement a new type of lithium cell into the infrastructure in place now than to wait and start from scratch later.
Just my thoughts.

 

[charliesRig]

I will say it here and now.!

I believe were on the eve of alternitive power supply large and small
STAND BY...

 

[Pathogen]

Apparently there is already working engines that run on water, and also ways to extract power from the sun geomagnetically through the earth in your back yard, and probably many many more ways, but the problem is that there is no way to integrate these things into the economy, and so they are, shall we say, aggressively supressed. For the longest time this bothered me, but then it occurred to me, do I really want that slack jawed yokel down the road to have 150 gigawatts at his disposal? Food for thought.

EDIT: No Dirkclod I'm not talking about you!

 

[GerdS]

The problem with hydrogen fuel cells is, their practical efficiency is less than about 50%. Means that 50% of energy is just converted to heat. They can deliver only constant current but not short and intensive power pulses as happens e.g. during hard manoevering of a drone, so they always need a powerful backup/buffer battery behind.
So stop dreaming from a fuel cell Mavic, this will never become true I guess.

 

[Jm2th2]

another problem with 4 hours flight time are the rotors/servo, they get pretty hot after some flight time

 

[StanTGM]

not to mention pilot fatigue...

 

[Xtreme Drone Pilot]

Not to mention all the angry neighbors skin dipping in Jacuzzi with Mavic loitering above them for 4 hours.

 

[Oyvindhh]

The reason why Tesla (Musk) call fuel cell "Fool cell" is the enormous waste of energy in the process.

 

[Dw911]

I will say it here and now.!

I believe were on the eve of alternitive power supply large and small
STAND BY...

Cool, but please share, im sure most on this forum would like to invest in it before it becomes widely known about, a nice return would cover the cost of the Mavic 2 when it comes out. Heck we might even make enough to pay people to design and build our own Mavic 2

 

[GFCutler]

I think I'm going to wait for DJI to introduce warp-drive

 

[MrBrightness]

I will say it here and now.!

I believe were on the eve of alternitive power supply large and small
STAND BY...

I am with you on this one!

 

[toddnet33]

Let's skip the hydrogen cells and go straight to Mr. Fusion, looks like it's been around for some time!

View attachment 25613

And grind coffee to keep you awake!