Backup battery built in?

António Marques · Sep 17, 2019

Hi guys, my name is Antonio and I'm new here. Sorry for my ignorance but I would like to know if there are any models from DJI that have a built-in backup battery in case the main battery runs out. Thanks a lot for the help.

monty.roman · Sep 17, 2019

António Marques said:
Hi guys, my name is Antonio and I'm new here. Sorry for my ignorance but I would like to know if there are any models from DJI that have a built-in backup battery in case the main battery runs out. Thanks a lot for the help.

hello and welcome.

I'm afraid that none of DJI products has inbuilt backup power source. There are products with more batteries installed and used simultaneously like Inspire or Matrice series but those are very expensive (in comparison with Mavic series) professional-grade drones meant for industrial use or filmmaking business.

António Marques · Sep 17, 2019

monty.roman said:
hello and welcome.

I'm afraid that none of DJI products has inbuilt backup power source. There are products with more batteries installed and used simultaneously like Inspire or Matrice series but those are very expensive (in comparison with Mavic series) professional-grade drones meant for industrial use or filmmaking business.

Ok. Thank you so much for your attention and help. Best regards.

Terry63 · Sep 18, 2019

António Marques said:
Hi guys, my name is Antonio and I'm new here. Sorry for my ignorance but I would like to know if there are any models from DJI that have a built-in backup battery in case the main battery runs out. Thanks a lot for the help.

Hi Antonio,
In all types of aircraft including quadcopters (drones) weight is of critical importance. Therefore everything on a drone must have a use or the designer would leave it out of the design. Carrying a second battery that would not normally be used on the flight would cost a huge flight time penalty. In the quadcopters that I have home built or built from manufactured parts the battery is around 25% to 35% or even more of the ready to fly weight of the quad.
Let's take for comparison a motor boat. The total weight of the boat and gear could be a few hundred kilos. 20 liters of gasoline and the tank might (and this is just a rough guess) weight around ----- I just weighed 2 liters of water at 2kg ,isn't it nice how the metric system works out. I don't know why we still use the imperial system of measure here in the U.S.A.. Anyway a tank of gas might weight around 22 kilos. Carrying an extra tank of gas would not even be noticeable as far as the performance of the boat is concerned.
Now let's consider a motorcycle. The gas tank has a special shutoff valve with three positions, off, on and reserve. You turn the fuel valve on and go for a ride, but you run out of gas before you get home. You now turn the valve from on to reserve and continue on home. Yet there is only one gas tank on a motorcycle. The reserve is created by the valve and some tubing.
Now let's get back to our DJI drone. As the battery is being used up in flight at a certain % of battery charge level it gives you an audible low battery warning. You still have a percentage of battery level to use and it will get you back home in most cases. When you hear that warning you have just switched to reserve. You can control how much of the battery is kept for reserve in the drone's settings.

Elude · Sep 18, 2019

That is a great feature request.

António Marques · Sep 18, 2019

Terry63 said:
Hi Antonio,
In all types of aircraft including quadcopters (drones) weight is of critical importance. Therefore everything on a drone must have a use or the designer would leave it out of the design. Carrying a second battery that would not normally be used on the flight would cost a huge flight time penalty. In the quadcopters that I have home built or built from manufactured parts the battery is around 25% to 35% or even more of the ready to fly weight of the quad.
Let's take for comparison a motor boat. The total weight of the boat and gear could be a few hundred kilos. 20 liters of gasoline and the tank might (and this is just a rough guess) weight around ----- I just weighed 2 liters of water at 2kg ,isn't it nice how the metric system works out. I don't know why we still use the imperial system of measure here in the U.S.A.. Anyway a tank of gas might weight around 22 kilos. Carrying an extra tank of gas would not even be noticeable as far as the performance of the boat is concerned.
Now let's consider a motorcycle. The gas tank has a special shutoff valve with three positions, off, on and reserve. You turn the fuel valve on and go for a ride, but you run out of gas before you get home. You now turn the valve from on to reserve and continue on home. Yet there is only one gas tank on a motorcycle. The reserve is created by the valve and some tubing.
Now let's get back to our DJI drone. As the battery is being used up in flight at a certain % of battery charge level it gives you an audible low battery warning. You still have a percentage of battery level to use and it will get you back home in most cases. When you hear that warning you have just switched to reserve. You can control how much of the battery is kept for reserve in the drone's settings.

Wow. Thank you very much. Kind regards.