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Another Alternative To The DJI 100W Charger

TerryOregon

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I'm late to the the Air 3 party, bought the Air 3 about two weeks ago. Like everyone else - discovered there was no wall supply included. All I had laying around was a 20W USB-C supply. It worked, but seemed to take forever.

A few minutes on Google, I find out I need a 65W or 100W supply. Lots of threads on this issue - especially this one (with DJI moderator input). So, I ordered the 65W Anker supply HERE. Now I'm measuring about 60W while charging. That's actually fine enough by me. But somehow I feel challenged. If DJI implies you can get 100W charging, I want to see it. Are we stuck using the official DJI 100W supply - which is a bit pricey?

So I ordered an Amazon Basics 100W supply HERE. This was tested by an electrical engineer HERE (and did well).

Once received, I plugged in the supplied DJI USB-C cable and measured the charging wattage using an in-line USB-C meter. BTW, the Air 3 battery being used was drained to 5%. But Still, I was only getting about 60 watts charging into the battery cradle. Well what's going on? Suspicious of the DJI provided cable, I replaced it with one rated at 100W and also tried another rated at 240W. Link HERE and HERE. FINALLY, with the Amazon Basics charger (and proper cable), I FINALLY GET 100 WATTS (actually measured). A look at the meter shows the Amazon supply easily ramps up to100 watts. You will need about 20V and 5A going in to get near 100 watts. Some supplies may only negotiate to about 15V - in which case you will never get much higher than 60W.

The reviewer here also found that the supplied DJI cable WILL NOT GIVE YOU 100W charging power, regardless of what brick you use.

I could not find a power rating for the supplied USB-C cable that comes with the fly-more kit. Is there one?

DJI lists the charging time as "Approx. 60 minutes (with DJI 100W USB-C Power Adapter and Battery Charging Hub)". Well, I assume the DJI charger's cable can take 100 watts - so that would work fine. Seems odd that DJI would include a cable with the 'fly-more-combo' kit that CAN'T pass 100 watts.

If you want an alternative to the DJI charger, here's links to everything I used;

Amazon basics charger LINK $40
100W cable LINK $10
or 240W cable LINK
wattage (only) meter (used in the video) LINK $11 (pack of two)
Not in video, but used during testing. USB-C meter (volts, amperage, watts) LINK (useful for confirming 'negotiated' charging voltage between devices) $17

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Amazon basics charger LINK $40
100W cable LINK $10
or 240W cable LINK
wattage (only) meter (used in the video) LINK $11 (pack of two)
Not in video, but used during testing. USB-C meter (volts, amperage, watts) LINK (useful for confirming 'negotiated' charging voltage between devices) $17

I also bought those UGreen 100W USB cables and I can confirm they work well. Good for data transfer too.
 
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Thanks for sharing
 
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Thanks for the information and attached links, this is very helpful.
 
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I've also had good luck with this Anker charger that sits on my desk, and can charge pretty much anything. It's 100W, BUT if you want to have TWO chargers running at the same time, it has 120V outlets on the side where you can plug in a second 100W charger.


UPDATE: This Anker charger (and the DJI usb-c cable) that I recommended tops out at 83 watts when I try to charge a Mavic3 battery. The official DJI charger and cable shows a perfect 100 watts. So the Anker charger is respectable, but not the full 100w.

I got 63 watts out of the official DJI 65w charger.

And if you use wimpy cables (like the Apple braided cable) then the wattage drops.
 
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Thanks for sharing!
 
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I'm late to the the Air 3 party, bought the Air 3 about two weeks ago. Like everyone else - discovered there was no wall supply included. All I had laying around was a 20W USB-C supply. It worked, but seemed to take forever.

A few minutes on Google, I find out I need a 65W or 100W supply. Lots of threads on this issue - especially this one (with DJI moderator input). So, I ordered the 65W Anker supply HERE. Now I'm measuring about 60W while charging. That's actually fine enough by me. But somehow I feel challenged. If DJI implies you can get 100W charging, I want to see it. Are we stuck using the official DJI 100W supply - which is a bit pricey?

So I ordered an Amazon Basics 100W supply HERE. This was tested by an electrical engineer HERE (and did well).

Once received, I plugged in the supplied DJI USB-C cable and measured the charging wattage using an in-line USB-C meter. BTW, the Air 3 battery being used was drained to 5%. But Still, I was only getting about 60 watts charging into the battery cradle. Well what's going on? Suspicious of the DJI provided cable, I replaced it with one rated at 100W and also tried another rated at 240W. Link HERE and HERE. FINALLY, with the Amazon Basics charger (and proper cable), I FINALLY GET 100 WATTS (actually measured). A look at the meter shows the Amazon supply easily ramps up to100 watts. You will need about 20V and 5A going in to get near 100 watts. Some supplies may only negotiate to about 15V - in which case you will never get much higher than 60W.

The reviewer here also found that the supplied DJI cable WILL NOT GIVE YOU 100W charging power, regardless of what brick you use.

I could not find a power rating for the supplied USB-C cable that comes with the fly-more kit. Is there one?

DJI lists the charging time as "Approx. 60 minutes (with DJI 100W USB-C Power Adapter and Battery Charging Hub)". Well, I assume the DJI charger's cable can take 100 watts - so that would work fine. Seems odd that DJI would include a cable with the 'fly-more-combo' kit that CAN'T pass 100 watts.

If you want an alternative to the DJI charger, here's links to everything I used;

Amazon basics charger LINK $40
100W cable LINK $10
or 240W cable LINK
wattage (only) meter (used in the video) LINK $11 (pack of two)
Not in video, but used during testing. USB-C meter (volts, amperage, watts) LINK (useful for confirming 'negotiated' charging voltage between devices) $17

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Thanks for sharing.

I only have an IPhone white charging plug and that’s only rated at 20W so as you imagine my new Air3s batteries in hub took about 7 hours from two bars charge.

Will look at the 65W Anker charger and upgrade the lead 🙂
 
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I went with the DJI 100W charger since I had credits.

That's a good choice. I'm sure you'll be happy with it. It's solid and heavy in the hand. And not overly expensive. Thumbswayup
 
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I have been trying different fast chargers that just were not fast, so I returned them as they failed to work as advertised one right after another...As I was reading this post a few days ago I went on amazon and I don't know how I wound up ordering this one....but I did


I did also order the green fast cables and the digital meter...but I am confused......I took a drone out and ran a mini4 extra life battery until it automatically returned to home and got the "critically low" warning.....I put that lone battery in the Mini4 charging hub and attached the meter and the charger and I could see right away how fast the green lights were flashing.....I had not seen them that fast before....it has been charging for just over an hour and it has been flashing on 4 green lights for a few minutes now, so it seems like it is just about finished......this is amazingly fast....I am used to them taking at least 3 hours each battery...where I am confused is here....the watt meter was only going as high as 40....now it is vacillating between 2 and 4.
Also on the digital screen, aside from the "W" for watts is the symbol "PD"...anyone know what that means?

In any event you can probably do without the meter....but that charger and those cables do work quickly👍
 
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"PD stands for Power Delivery, and it's a technology that allows USB to provide more power and data over a single cable."

"now it is vacillating between 2 and 4". Normal, charging wattage always lowers as the battery gets closer to 100% charge.

"the watt meter was only going as high as 40". I can only speak for the Air 3 cradle (which is designed to draw 100W under the right circumstances). The spec I see for the Mini4 cradle shows 30W - in which case you will never get much higher.
 
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UPDATE: This Anker charger (and the DJI usb-c cable) that I recommended tops out at 83 watts when I try to charge a Mavic3 battery. The official DJI charger and cable shows a perfect 100 watts. So the Anker charger is respectable, but not the full 100w.

I got 63 watts out of the official DJI 65w charger.

And if you use wimpy cables (like the Apple braided cable) then the wattage drops.

I'm less enamored with this Anker charger now. I left it to charge some batteries and came back and it was charging really slow. Not sure why. But I switched over to the DJI 100W charger.
 

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