Extra Batteries - How Many?

skibum9884 · Dec 5, 2016

Has anyone thought about the life of the drone battery vs. the controller battery? In terms of how fast the controller battery drains, how many drone batteries is it worthwhile to have? I don't see any purpose in having more of the swap-able drone batteries than the controller would last.

Pedro · Dec 5, 2016

Not timed it but I would imagine you'll get 4 or 5 full flights before you run out off juice in the controller battery..

chippie · Dec 5, 2016

Depends on where you are and if you want to carry your charging brick and hub around with you. You can charge the controller off any USB charger or even charge it whilst using it (via a power bank) if you connect your device via the bottom USB port, however I believe DJI do not recommend you do this but that will not stop people

Android devices charge whilst connected and as such really drain the controllers battery, Apple devices do not but from what has been see recently the devices themselves appear to be draining very quickly.

I am aiming for 6 batteries at the moment which should give a nice balance but I do have 2 spare iPhones so do not have to worry about the battery running flat on that side.

Joe Cosentino · Dec 5, 2016

In the kit they offer there are 2 extra batteries. That will give about an hour. So far they seem to recharge in about 40 minutes. After flying for almost an hour yesterday (first flights). The controller was at 43%.

So depending on what you are doing 4 batteries would pretty much drain the controller I was getting about 20 minutes on a battery before the warning. But it was cold out. Mid 30's. So I expected decreased performance

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skibum9884 · Dec 5, 2016

Thanks! Not much stock on batteries anywhere at the moment, but I want to be prepared when I do have the opportunity to buy some!

BrooklynFlyer · Dec 5, 2016

Skibum, are you planning to use Mavic on the slopes?

skibum9884 · Dec 5, 2016

Would love to, but this is my first drone. I'll get some practice in with some stationary or slow moving targets first!

F6Rider · Dec 5, 2016

For most purposes I would think 4 batteries is the perfect number, unless you have a field RC charging strategy worked out, as 4 full flights will drain your RC down to a point where I would not feel conformable using it. I have a pocket sized 10000mAh power bank that seems to only work via the phone USB port and not the bottom one. When plugged in to the bottom one it comes on but then times out when it does not see a power draw (has auto shut off). It does charge @2 amps so if I had to say walk for awhile between flying spots or stop to have lunch it would re-charge the controller. DJI should have thought of that, some people are going to want to fly more than 4 flights in one trip out. But I guess if you have 6 or 8 batteries you are just going to have to wait for the controller to charge back up, controller should have a replaceable battery then you could carry a spare.

Deckyon · Dec 5, 2016

Agree on 4 batteries if you have access to a charger. That way there will always be a fully charged batter ready to go with the others on standby in short order. While It is possible that 3 can be used in quick succession, there may come a time you might be waiting for a top-off. My goal is to have a total of 4 batteries.

So far, the 3 I have has gotten me in the air long enough at a time to not be too concerned. After an hour of shooting and testing, there is enough footage to work with and look at that all 3 batteries get charged up before I am ready to head out again. Now, later on when I am actually going to start using the drone for some projects, 3 batteries may not be enough, but with good enough planning, that should not be too big an issue.

For times I am in my car, I am thinking of getting a power bank (large one, like a Goal Zero) to have to charge up batteries and bring my laptop to dump cards while out in the field.

Bob N · Dec 5, 2016

Well, I have 4 batteries and I get about 21 minutes from them. The RC drops down to less than 30%. On the first go I was 92% to start (after IMU and compass cally) and when it went below 16% an alarm went off. Since then I start with 100% on the controller and make through all 4 batteries each time. So far 9 hours 18 minutes. What a blast compared to my P3A. Thought I still like it as well!

larkin · Feb 3, 2017

How are you four battery folks packing your goods? I also believe 4 will be ideal but I passed up a chance to buy a fourth from best buy when they were in stock because my fly-more bag, which I quite enjoy, won't fit a fourth and I don't want to go bigger right now.

If I did go bigger I'd want something that could also compactly store an iPad mini 4, since I just started enjoying using that over my phone.

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Rflush · Feb 3, 2017

I burn through 5 batteries and usually have around 30% battery left on my controller

halley · Feb 3, 2017

I have lately been taking the Fly More bag, since most of my flight spots are a bit of a hike away from the car. However, I keep a fourth battery in reserve back at the car, along with the car charger unit. Sometimes if I have more than one spot to fly in a day, I have had to charge up the least-used battery while driving from spot to spot.

triumphrider · Feb 3, 2017

I have 3 batteries and still have around 70% RC battery life when I'm done.

Oyibo VFX · Feb 4, 2017

Three batteries. And I have a soft case (AliExpress of course) with room for two batteries.

Adventure is just bad planning

BerndM · Feb 4, 2017

I was testing exactly this issue yesterday to see the controller/MP battery relationship.
Starting out with freshly fully charged batteries in both controller and MP, I flew the MP until it auto landed at 20% battery remaining. The controller still had 80%. So if I flew all 3 batteries to 20% I would theoretically be down to 40% in the controller, give or take a bit. However, if I put battery #1 on the charger as I begin to fly with battery #2, it will be about 60 % charged by the time I am done flying battery #3.
Based on that line of reasoning, I think a total of 4 batteries would be close to perfect because the controller will need charging by then.

RallySoob · Feb 4, 2017

Ya got to buy atleast 2-3 spare batts if you ever plan to take it out in the field for more than 1 flight .... ide like to have 5 spares myself but working up to it 1 at a time...

Jamison74 · Feb 4, 2017

I have 5 batteries and at the end of the day (in mild temperatures) I have 45% left on both my remote and iPad mini 4. Which is an odd coincidence that they deplete to the same % give or take 1 percent.
Others in the RC club are experiencing the same, about 11-12% per battery. Although as I mentioned this is in mild temps, 50-60 degrees. Colder temps drastically reduce battery life in my experience.

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MavicMo · Feb 4, 2017

I have 4 batteries which for my purposes are more than enough...

When I first started flying drones, I'd use batteries pretty quickly as I was learning about flying, AP, and just having fun flying around with no particular purpose. While I still thoroughly enjoy flying, I fly with a purpose or a goal of filming something specific in mind.

If I notice my remote is getting low, I'll plug it into a usb charger on my motorcycle and put the remote in my tank bag....

TekSone · May 30, 2017

Deckyon said:
Agree on 4 batteries if you have access to a charger. That way there will always be a fully charged batter ready to go with the others on standby in short order. While It is possible that 3 can be used in quick succession, there may come a time you might be waiting for a top-off. My goal is to have a total of 4 batteries.

So far, the 3 I have has gotten me in the air long enough at a time to not be too concerned. After an hour of shooting and testing, there is enough footage to work with and look at that all 3 batteries get charged up before I am ready to head out again. Now, later on when I am actually going to start using the drone for some projects, 3 batteries may not be enough, but with good enough planning, that should not be too big an issue.

For times I am in my car, I am thinking of getting a power bank (large one, like a Goal Zero) to have to charge up batteries and bring my laptop to dump cards while out in the field.

I have the Goal Zero YETI 150 for this reason too. It is plugged into the car DC outlet to trickle charge while driving. I also have a solar panel to charge it up when out on location, I live in sunny Vegas. I have my HAM Radio plugged in the DC Outlet, my iPhone plugged into one of the USB ports, and I use the AC port for Mavic Pro charger w/hub. It works out except I think I have to use my YETI 400 for my Phantom 4 charger w/hub. P4 charger is 100W, the YETI 150 AC port is 80w cont max/160W surge. The YETI 400 AC ports are 300W cont max/600W surge.