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FIELD or CAR charger

dennis22g

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As I have only just purchased my Mavic2 zoom and a flymore kit, I am interested to see if the car charger will shut off before it flattens my car battery. Does any one have any knowledge or experience in this area?
 
As I have only just purchased my Mavic2 zoom and a flymore kit, I am interested to see if the car charger will shut off before it flattens my car battery. Does any one have any knowledge or experience in this area?
Usually use my Hanatora brand charger only when the motor is running to get max current. Maybe others can be of more help.
 
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Car has to be running on my charger
 
Hi Dennis, welcome to the forum.

Check out this thread, it's one of many threads that has gone over charging the Mavic batteries in a vehicle.
This is one of the most recent I found doing a search.


My post #10 and subsequent follow ups describe one issue with the 12v DJI charger (voltage needs), and how to resolve it.
If you are driving, obviously the car alternator is keeping charge up to the battery, AND the charge rate will be more than enough to get the voltage needed, 13.1 - 14.0 for most vehicle alternators).

Once you stop a car, and the charging also stops, a battery will slowly drop voltage to settle around 12.7v, which isn't enough to properly run the larger Mavic chargers (my M1P and no doubt the M2).
Mine would kind of 'duty cycle' without the step converter, ~ 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off, never did charge a full battery I can recall, had to run the vehicle . . . usually ok when touring, but no good for camping.

A car battery in good condition, and of suitable capacity, should charge a couple of Mavic batteries without any concerns . . . maybe 3 or 4 are no issues either.
The M2P battery is 3850 mAH, 3.85 Ah, a vehicle battery around 80 - 100 AH, so should be plenty of power for the car.
It needs that initial cranking power, so I wouldn't deplete the car battery by charging 6 or whatever batteries in one go, but the likelihood one would fly that many in one place is probably not going to happen with most pilots.
If you wanted to do that, just start the vehicle up and let it run for 20 mins after putting on say the third battery.
Most times people will fly a bit here, drive aways, fly another battery or two, etc etc.

I find the 12v car charger, is quite noticeably faster than using my 240v mains charger (with ample voltage supply), and it can use the same DJI 4 battery hub, charging a series of batteries consecutively as it does.
 
The DJI stock car charger has a cutoff of about 11.2v or so but draws about 6.5A when the battery actually is charging. Car wiring at that current can cause a voltage drop as much as 1v so even when the car battery can deliver over 12v at its terminals, at the charger it's less enough to cut off.
 
It might pay for people to check the specs on their car charger unit.
This is mine for the M1P, I have always assumed it would be about the same for Air, M2 chargers, maybe even the same charger.

DJI_car_charger_1.jpg

DJI_car_charger_2.jpg

Clearly, trying to charge this unless running the vehicles motor (to operate the alternator to supply enough power) is going to cause issues when the voltage settles to normal resting state, at approx 12.7v.
This settling takes a short period, about 10 - 20 mins normally, but with a car charger on and working, it might drop within a few minutes.

YMMV (no pun intended . . . eg my Spark has a different 12v charger, and has far less power needs than the Mavic charger.
It will charge no problems even down to low 12v input.
 
When I fly for a day with several drones, a mavic mini ,a MJX Bugs 4 , Bug 3, Bugs 3H and a Bugs 2 plus 2 phone/ ipad chargers as needed I use all the chargers off a inverter with power strips to run the mavic and 3 chargers for the Bugs drones with 2 of them having adjustable outputs. Plus I supply 120V ac power for friend that fly sometimes. A deep cycle battery in my truck does fine and my Jeep Is even better with dual batteries. Never had a to run an engine at the field for over 5-6 hours of play time unless I run the Microwave or coffee pot. I always use 120v input chargers
 
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