Hi, this has most likely been posted somewhere already but I believe I found a super simple way to connect small electronics to the Air 2. If you take off the bottom plate you’ll notice an LED is screwed into it and connects to the board through some springy pins (not sure what to call them, a picture is attached). Essentially it’s a 3.3V source right on the bottom of the drone that you can most likely wire small electronics to. If you set the fn button to “Toggle auxiliary lights” you can turn it on or off. I’m planning to add a small solenoid so I can carry light objects but it can probably run most electronics that work on 3.3V, maybe even an arduino.
Adding electronics to the Mavic Air 2
- Thread starter IceAndNull
- Start date
lannes
Well-Known Member
Absolutely, but the warranty is rarely ever needed, and he likely didn't waste money on care refresh. Clever mod!
Only to the extent it might be demonstrated the modification directly contributed to the issue subject of a warranty claim.
You’re probably right, but it’s also possible to add on to the LED instead of fully replacing it. It would probably still void the warranty but then the only sacrifice you make is with how much current you can draw
Or worse - short out crash the drone. Since he "didn't waste money on care refresh".
Or worse than what? I suspect you intended to respond to someone else. I made no comment with respect to any specific consequences that might arise from the modification.
So I connected some wires and everything works as I’d expect. However, I decided to look further and found a part of the board where I can directly get power from the battery. It may be possible to use a transistor and use the LED switch to power something from the battery while still having the ability to turn it on or off. A picture of where I found you can get the power from is attached however I haven’t tested this with the drone on so I wouldn’t recommend doing it unless you’re really sure and have great soldering skills. 
PS: Sorry for the bad image quality
PS: Sorry for the bad image quality
So I soldered it on. If anyone does this a few notes:
-There seems to be some coating on the battery connection pins. I just burned them away by putting a bead of solder on my iron and putting it against it for about 10 seconds, then waiting 30, and repeating until it all burns away
-The leftmost pin is covered by a piece of plastic which i cut away, however DO NOT cut the thicker part as that probably is more of a structural part.
-The wires of the XT30 connector I used are thicker than the pins so it was very difficult to solder them on, make sure they only connect to one pin
-My XT30 connecter just barely fit through the vent so if you use anything bigger be sure to put the wires through before soldering
-The wires won’t fit around the fan so I had to put them through the right air vent (the left would work too)
-It may prevent your drone from fully folding
-You should probably put tape over either parts of the metal heatsync above the battery pins or over the pins themselves to prevent a short.
-This will definitely void your warranty
To do it you’ll have to take off the bottom of the drone and remove the bottom-most board (the one with the fan on it). At the back part of the board there are the battery pins. Before you solder, break off one of the air vents/filters by cutting the wide parts of the plastic off. The bottom ones are inaccessible but once you get the top four you can (carefully) wiggle it off. Then put the wires through the hole in the vent and solder them in the way I showed in the other reply. Re-assemble and you should be good. Remember, it’s always on when the drone is on.
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An ingenious idea if I may say so. My estimation seeing how bright the bottom LED actually is, is that the current is roughly 0.3A. Of course you can just measure it with the load of your choice. I'm not fond of load dropping systems. If it were up to me, I'm wondering if you can power an amplifier to the antenna signal.
I doubt you could with just the LED power, however you could directly use the battery power which should be more than enough to power an amplifier. The only thing is that it will always be on unless you hook it up to turn on with the LED power.
Quick update: make absolute sure you connect the wires the right way around, I may have just fried my LED pins by not being careful.
In my opinion a non-functioning LED is a reasonable price to pay to figure out how to better use my drone
To avoid doing what I did it’s probably worth getting something like this ( Amazon.com: QLOUNI 10pcs 5x20mm Fuse Holder Inline Screw Type with 18 AWG Wire & 100pcs 5x20mm Fast-Blow Glass Fuses Assorted Kit Amp 0.1A, 0.2A, 0.25A, 0.3A, 0.5A, 1A, 1.5A, 2A, 3.15A, 6.3A ) to protect the board, or just get individual fuses. The LED has about 14 ohms of resistance so at 3.3V that’s using about 230mA, so maybe use a 250mA or 300mA fuse. You might also be able to connect it with a capacitor to the battery but a fuse is simpler in my opinion.
passedpawn
Well-Known Member
I'm not following... what wires. LEDs are diodes and only conduct in one direction, like a check valve - that is, if you connected the LED incorrectly it would not be damaged (nor would it turn on until you reversed the wires).
Sorry, I meant wires on whatever you connect yourself. I accidentally hooked up an arduino backwards and it somehow fried part of the board
Mike4884
Well-Known Member
For a 14 yr old kid its refreshing to see this these days....most kids care about xbox / ps4 or are not even thinking of arduino boards at your age....keep on learning kid your going places
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