Charging of Mavic 2 batteries from portable power bank

[CC Rider]

Basically, you just have to learn how to operate a charger, and what parameters your batteries need. Matching cables and devices are available online.

For example, you take something like this little guy here:

View attachment 65465

A DIY battery (made by yourself, or made to order). Together with a very compact ISDT charger and matching MPx charging cable, the whole has about 2 kilograms of weight and 400 watt hours for less than 250 €.

Once charged, you can fully charge 6.5x M2x batteries or 9x M1x batteries far away from car batteries or AC.

Another advantage is that you can determine with which charging currents / what speed your Mx batteries are recharged. And with little additional effort it is possible to charge two Mavic batteries at the same time.

Certainly it is not a thing for everyone, because basic knowledge about charging technologies is required

Thanks for your response. You explained things in such a way that even I could understand, which is a testament to your ability to relate information to others.

Unfortunately, higher math was being taught to me at the same time puberty hit me. So, in my case, it was simply a matter of what I made the priority for my limited time, energy, and attention as a teenage boy to be focused upon: teenage girls or numbers. Alas, you can easily guess which one won out. Apparently, all of my blood rushed to the wrong head, resulting in permanent math impairment.

 

[Wille]

Technically he could put a handle on a 12V battery, add some RadioShack and do it for $50.
But convenience is the goal here I'm feeling.

Its worth noting most of these dont support voltage switching.
All of these are 110/60, so if your outside USA and need 240 /50 you will have issues. Not so much with Mavic (most things with adapters) but powering the plasma tv you brought camping won't work

Edit: A bit unrelated butt his one made me giggle.
Omni 20 USB-C | THE FUTURE OF POWER IS HERE
$300 US because your 20,000mah charger is so pimp it needs an OLED screen.
That reminds me, anything over 20,400 you cant travel anymore, but you knew that.

 

[PC1134]

More batteries makes always makes sense finacially.
It's nice to have any AC charger to top them up though, like if your going camping or have %50
battery left and such.

This one is super expensive (a lot of rich guys on here so I'll post it) but is the best outside of gasoline I think

https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Powerhouse-120000mAh-Alternative-Rechargeable/dp/B0196GQAKM

EMS teams use it so When you crash your mavic, and are feeling like Ed Harris in the Abyss, you could do try to Jump Start it

Edit: A smaller version: Powerhouse 200
Maybe cheaper, dunno

I have a much lower priced, but equally effective 12 volt jump starter for my diesel 4WD which has a 12v and USB outlet so I can certainly drag that around (heavier than the Anker device though). Can't imagine the AUD cost of this; scary!!!

 

[mnis]

Technically he could put a handle on a 12V battery, add some RadioShack and do it for $50.
But convenience is the goal here I'm feeling.

Its worth noting most of these dont support voltage switching.
All of these are 110/60, so if your outside USA and need 240 /50 you will have issues. Not so much with Mavic (most things with adapters) but powering the plasma tv you brought camping won't work

Edit: A bit unrelated butt his one made me giggle.
Omni 20 USB-C | THE FUTURE OF POWER IS HERE
$300 US because your 20,000mah charger is so pimp it needs an OLED screen.
That reminds me, anything over 20,400 you cant travel anymore, but you knew that.

Oh yes, the Omni 20 is cool and relatively expensive, but even that will not be able to fully charge a single M2x battery, unfortunately ...

RadioShack? ... You might mean such a device that DC 12 volts to AC110V / 60Hz or AC230V / 50Hz converted?

There are also some, in the higher price segment, that work with almost all devices made for the home.

 

[mnis]

I have a much lower priced, but equally effective 12 volt jump starter for my diesel 4WD which has a 12v and USB outlet so I can certainly drag that around (heavier than the Anker device though). Can't imagine the AUD cost of this; scary!!!

For example, you could buy such a tiny ISDT Q6 Pro RC Charger for your Jump Starter.

It can directly handle input voltages from DC 7 to 32 volts, and can charge almost all battery technologies available on the market (1S to 6S).

The input voltage for the charger may actually be lower than the voltage required for the battery pack to be charged.

A matching charging cable for your DJI battery, and the mobile charging station is ready
The price of such a charger is well below the price of a new DJI battery ...

 

[mnis]

Thanks for your response. You explained things in such a way that even I could understand, which is a testament to your ability to relate information to others.

Unfortunately, higher math was being taught to me at the same time puberty hit me. So, in my case, it was simply a matter of what I made the priority for my limited time, energy, and attention as a teenage boy to be focused upon: teenage girls or numbers. Alas, you can easily guess which one won out. Apparently, all of my blood rushed to the wrong head, resulting in permanent math impairment.

Huh?
What is mathematics? ... There are calculators and calculation examples ...

I am not an electronics engineer, and so my statements are not always accurate.

It's like this: If you want to do something special and do not have the necessary knowledge, then you have to get what you need from somewhere.

I find it hard to learn things that I really need to learn. But things that I really want to learn, I catch over time like sliced bread

Ask your questions, whenever and wherever possible. There are no stupid questions, only impossible answers. Anyone who is bored with any questions can do everyone a great favor by being silent.

There are so many good ways to expand your knowledge, like here. There are also often very entertaining ways to learn something new. YT should be taken as an example, but also many technically oriented websites can easily expand your horizons, without stressing you

And the most important thing in the end: You are the master, and you alone decide with which head you think

Thank you for your kind words.

 

[Wazzo]

Hi,
If you have twelve volts available like a normal car battery, I have used the 240v charger supplied, with a Pure Sine Wave inverter. Don't buy a modified sine wave inverter.
They are relatively inexpensive. 600w around $85 dollars but a 300w would do the job fine. These work just the same as when charging at home.
I have found the 12v charger supplied by Mavic is very dependant on how charged up you car battery is at the time, and then seems to struggle somewhat.
Hope this helps and may be an alternative low cost option.This system also works well with camera charges or anything else you may need to charge, camping gear etc.

 

[Wazzo]

Hi again ,
Something I didn't mention is the mavic batteries will not take much out of your car battery as they are much smaller in capacity. Just remember to turn off your
sine wave inverter when you are finished. These use little power, but over night might pull a car battery down a little.
Cheers from Oz

 

[Wille]

Thanks for your response. You explained things in such a way that even I could understand, which is a testament to your ability to relate information to others.

Unfortunately, higher math was being taught to me at the same time puberty hit me. So, in my case, it was simply a matter of what I made the priority for my limited time, energy, and attention as a teenage boy to be focused upon: teenage girls or numbers. Alas, you can easily guess which one won out. Apparently, all of my blood rushed to the wrong head, resulting in permanent math impairment.

"If your not thinking about kitten, your just not concentrating" Lol

That is a cool little charger. Im guessing came from R/C. I wonder if my B6AC clone can charge a mav batt

 

[Pontoon-pilot]

For example, you could buy such a tiny ISDT Q6 Pro RC Charger for your Jump Starter.

It can directly handle input voltages from DC 7 to 32 volts, and can charge almost all battery technologies available on the market (1S to 6S).

The input voltage for the charger may actually be lower than the voltage required for the battery pack to be charged.

A matching charging cable for your DJI battery, and the mobile charging station is ready View attachment 65501View attachment 65502
The price of such a charger is well below the price of a new DJI battery ...

how do you connect the balancing leads without cutting into the battery? YOur output lead - based on the XT connector- seems to be just - + , did you custom make a balancing lead to connect directly to the external terminals?

 

[mnis]

"If your not thinking about kitten, your just not concentrating" Lol

That is a cool little charger. Im guessing came from R/C. I wonder if my B6AC clone can charge a mav batt

Which Charger do you mean exactly?

B6AC ... Every RC charger that can charge LiHv batteries can also charge all DJI LiHv batteries, provided that the respective charging cable is available or even made by yourself.

LiHv battery cells have 4.35V charging end voltage unlike ordinary LiPo's with 4.20V. That's the big secret.

Nevertheless, LiHv's like ordinary LiPo's can be charged, which increases even the lifetime because then only charged to about 95 percent...

 

[mnis]

how do you connect the balancing leads without cutting into the battery? YOur output lead - based on the XT connector- seems to be just - + , did you custom make a balancing lead to connect directly to the external terminals?

Yes, it is only plus and minus required because DJI Mavic batteries have already integrated the balancer...

So you only determine the voltage (cell number xS) and current, everything else does reliably the DJI battery.

Finished charging cables are available on eBay, but the search is a bit annoying. The finished cables usually have banana plugs, but I basically use XT 30/60/90, etc. So I've soldered XT60 to my cables.

An alternative is the purchase of a cheap car charger for DJI batteries, the plug to the battery are usually of good quality.

Cut the cable, determine the polarity and solder an XT60 to the cable. If you use XT60 male and female, of course you can continue to use the Car Charger.

The RC-Charger has to be able to charge without balancer-connection, but meanwhile nearly all modern RC-Charger can do that.

Using the example of the ISDT Q6 Pro with M1P battery, it is done as follows:

1. Connect your ISDT charger with a suitable power supply 7.5 - 32 volts. Well suited, for example, notebook power supplies 90 to 120W.

2. Turn on the charger.

3. Connect a switched ...OFF... M1P battery with the charger.

4. Select the cell type on the charger...LiHv / 3S / 4.35V / 0.5 to 3.8A*

... *1.5C = 5.7A max ...

5. Turn ...ON... the DJI battery and the charger will show the current battery voltage.

Note: Batteries that can not be switched ...ON... can not be charged with the charger!

6. Start the charger, and it will ask if the charging process should be done without balancer connection, which must be answered in the affirmative.

7. The charging process begins.
When the battery is full, it automatically disconnects the RC charger, which then gives an alarm because of the broken connection.

Overcharging the M1P batteries is NOT possible. Even a deep discharge prevents the DJI battery by disconnecting as soon as only one battery cell drops below 3.3 volts.

In addition, the battery of the M1P detects too high charging voltages, as well as a possible overheating. The result is shutdown and refusal to accept the charging process

!!! In spite of all safety, charging must never happen unattended. And I can give no guarantees for my information given here. So get yourself several opinions, and always decide on your own responsibility !!!

Further advantages:
+ You can determine for each charging process whether to charge gently or quickly.
+ You can choose to have a complete charge or up to a certain storage voltage of, for example, 3.89 Volts per cell (3S / 11.67V / 65%).
+ Discharging for capacity determination can be done, but most RC chargers are unsuitable because no high discharge currents can be generated. Of course there are special dischargers for this purpose, such as the SkyRc BD200 ...

 

[Pontoon-pilot]

Ok, that's good information, thank you.
Next is ... who's cells are the DJI using? DJI is not in the lipo making business, so they must use someone else's battery cells or pack.
I am happy with the factory packs on the mav 2 for now on, but I am sure the time will come when it will need to be gutted and hopefully by that time we will be able to squeeze a larger capacity Li-HV or whatever new battery tech people will come up with. cobalt?
In my lifetime I've seen RC hobby go through: alkaline, ni-cad, ni-mh, li-on, li-fe, li-po, li-hv. Isn't this cool?

 

[Wille]

I could google it, but id like to think I learned something from my grade 10 science class.
I dont think theres an element called Hv. Im almost HIV positive

 

[cragv]

I could google it, but id like to think I learned something from my grade 10 science class.
I dont think theres an element called Hv. Im almost HIV positive

There isn't a lot of info freely available online for the LiHV batteries, but I understand LIHV still uses a lithium metal oxide polymer as the electrolyte but perhaps it uses cobalt or some other metal mix that gives that higher nominal and charged voltage.

Maybe a manufacturer white paper could be the answer here. 5 minutes on the googles and I haven't gotten far.

 

[mnis]

There isn't a lot of info freely available online for the LiHV batteries, but I understand LIHV still uses a lithium metal oxide polymer as the electrolyte but perhaps it uses cobalt or some other metal mix that gives that higher nominal and charged voltage.

Maybe a manufacturer white paper could be the answer here. 5 minutes on the googles and I haven't gotten far.

I do not think that there are so many reputable battery manufacturers, although I do not know the following...

For DJI-Mavic pro / Platinum, for example, a company with the wonderful name "Dongguan Amperex Technology Limited (ATL)" produces the three-cell DJI batteries:

Amperex Technology Limited

ATL / Applications

Probably it is also the main manufacturer for the M2x batteries, because stuck in these batteries, according to my assumption (slightly modified) four pieces of the same battery Cells of the M1x type.

Another company is called "Sunwoda Electronic", but I could not find any specific information here.

Actually, the battery manufacturer information can always be found on the labels of DJI batteries.

At the moment, I can only guess whether there are any further information from certain companies on certain products.

 

[3DPrinter.UA]

Hey. I managed to make such a portable and inexpensive power bank for Mavic 2. Now I can charge the drone from the bank =)

 

[mavicflyermax]

Hello guys.
Just curious if I can use this power bank - XTPower® XT-20000QC3 Power Bank - modern DC/USB QC3 battery with 20100mAh - USB, QC 3.0 and DC connection of 12V, 15V, 16.5V, 19V, 20V and 24V 65W max.: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories to charge my mavic 2 battery.
It has a DC output with adjustable voltage - so you can choose from 12V, 15V, 16.5V, 19V, 20V or 24V 50 watt (65W max)

Let's say I've chosen 12V or 15V like in a car.
Then with this "female cigar thing" plugged in the power bank DC output and Mavic 2 car charger plugged in "cigar thing" I can charge a Mavic 2 battery (well I think so). Maybe the charging process will take slightly longer, because (I assume) the power bank's amperage might be low.
Maybe there's also some extra loss of energy in the "system".
Is it possible?
Is it unsafe maybe?

- a guy is explaining how he charges his drone batteries (Mavic Air's though) with this power bank.

Thank you very much for your attention!

 

[DanMan32]

50W is on the low side when using the 12v car charger. Car charger takes 6A@12v which is 72W. The batteries themselves require 17-17.5v for charging.

 

[mavicflyermax]

Thank you. I see the notice on my Mavic 2 car charger - INPUT - [email protected] which is even 91W.
So you mean the batteries won't charge with this scheme or will charge really slowly, right?
Since the powerbank doesn't provide enough power.