Fly-more kit car charger for Iceland

[gamerdude]

I will be flying to Iceland(10 day camper van trip) soon and taking my Fly-more kit for M2P with me which includes the car charger. Any suggestions for keeping the batteries charged everyday? Anyone have similar experience?

Thanks

 

[Thomas B]

Put the on charge as soon as your done with them. Allow about 90 min/battery for full charge. Don’t run your auto battery down so low you can’t start the car.

 

[sjc93]

I'm not really a huge fan of the car charger. I bought a cheap power inverter and plugged the regular charger into that. It seems to work faster too.

 

[Khurrum]

I'm planning to buy Fly more kit for M2Z. After draining battery in the field, do we need to cool down battery first OR we can immediately put it on car charger??

If NO, then what is the usual practice to cool battery quickly. I was thinking to place it in front of CAR AC...

plz suggest the best practices?

 

[TSUPD]

I didn't have a progeny keeping my batteries charged when I travelled around Iceland using the car charger since I was able to get most of not all my shots with one battery at my locations. Then, there is plenty of time to charge your battery for the next stop. Enjoy your trip, there are lots of waterfalls and things to see. There are also a lot of no drone zones. Be aware of those, if hate for you to get your drone taken. A cool shot is the Kerid crater. It's on the way out of town (Reykjavik). You definitely want to fly that one. The colors are beautiful. Have fun.

I will be flying to Iceland(10 day camper van trip) soon and taking my Fly-more kit for M2P with me which includes the car charger. Any suggestions for keeping the batteries charged everyday? Anyone have similar experience?

Thanks

 

[DAFlys]

I'm planning to buy Fly more kit for M2Z. After draining battery in the field, do we need to cool down battery first OR we can immediately put it on car charger??

If NO, then what is the usual practice to cool battery quickly. I was thinking to place it in front of CAR AC...

plz suggest the best practices?

Never charge a hot battery, let them cool naturally.

 

[ff22]

I'm planning to buy Fly more kit for M2Z. After draining battery in the field, do we need to cool down battery first OR we can immediately put it on car charger??

If NO, then what is the usual practice to cool battery quickly. I was thinking to place it in front of CAR AC...

plz suggest the best practices?

The Flymore Kit charger will automatically determine if the battery (actually, it is probably the battery which reports it is too hot) is too hot to charge and not charge it. I'm not sure you'd want to shock a hot battery by exposing it to very cold air.

 

[Khurrum]

The Flymore Kit charger will automatically determine if the battery (actually, it is probably the battery which reports it is too hot) is too hot to charge and not charge it. I'm not sure you'd want to shock a hot battery by exposing it to very cold air.

Thanks for the info.

 

[DanMan32]

The car charger charged a bit faster than the stock AC charger. However the car charger is quite fussy about the input voltage. When the alternator is not running, with the charger drawing 6A the car wiring voltage drop can cause the voltage at the charger to be close to 11 volts.

 

[mavicn00b]

The car charger charged a bit faster than the stock AC charger. However the car charger is quite fussy about the input voltage. When the alternator is not running, with the charger drawing 6A the car wiring voltage drop can cause the voltage at the charger to be close to 11 volts.

I thought the DJI charger only works when the engine is running?

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

The car charger charged a bit faster than the stock AC charger. However the car charger is quite fussy about the input voltage. When the alternator is not running, with the charger drawing 6A the car wiring voltage drop can cause the voltage at the charger to be close to 11 volts.

I thought the DJI charger only works when the engine is running?

This is true, the DJI charger requires 13.1v, so unless a vehicle is running (or within the first 10 mins or so after turning off engine, before it settles to high 12v reading) it will behave erratically.
I found it would sort of 1/2 duty cycle, flash a while, then cut off, return flash, etc etc . . . but it would never charge a battery from near drained to full, even leaving it for many hours hours.

This is not an issue if driving most of the day, you have say min 3 batteries, and you can charge as you go.
The 12v charger is quite a lot faster at charging batteries than the 240v (or 110v in those countries with 110).

One thing you can do is get a step converter for the vehicle, it provides reliable boosted voltage.
I bought one similar in look to this (ebay search your region) that converts 12v to 13.8v, and it works great at any time.
NEW Voltage Booster Power DC Converter Step Up Regulator 12V to 13.8V 20A 276W | eBay

Not exactly same one as mine, as mine is 15 amp, couldn't find one readily on ebay now.
The 20 amp one would be ok to use I guess, just use the appropriate inline fuse when wiring it up.

Bear in mind I have a 110amp/hr 2nd (agm) battery in my 4WD that I can use for running my fridge, led lights, and charging phone, mavic batteries and other small items.
A good main battery would be fine for charging one at days end when parked up, as long as it is kept sensible, not charging 4 on a hub etc.

I purchased a heavy duty female and male cigarette lighter plug, some suitably heavy (same dia as converter in / out wiring) dual core wiring, a fuse holder (with 15 amp fuse), and some shrink tube in red and black, and put this together . . .



It will work with the DJI 4 battery charging hub fine, but I have found with my 4 batteries I just don't need it when touring.
The normal single battery lead above is ample for my daily needs.

As said you might be fine just charging up as you are driving, using the DJI 12v charger, but it is a heck of an isoloated place to be without reliable charging if you find it isn't working for you.

Hope that helps.

 

[johnmeyer]

If you are going to charge from the car, I'm a big fan of 120V inverters. You can power pretty much anything from them (up to their nameplate rating). Yes, you do lose some energy due to the conversion, but modern inverters are pretty darned efficient. Since the inverter takes care of dealing with changing battery voltages, you don't have to worry whether you are getting 14+ volts from the alternator, or less than 12 volts from the battery.

Power Inverter

If you need completely portable power (i.e., something other than the car), then I repeat what I recommended in another, similar thread to this one: the Goal Zero line of battery chargers which use their own, very large LiON batteries.

Goal Zero Power Stations

 

[gamerdude]

Thanks all for your help. I bought a 150W compact inverter which has 2 USB ports and 1 110V AC socket.

 

[offtheback]

If you are going to charge from the car, I'm a big fan of 120V inverters. You can power pretty much anything from them (up to their nameplate rating). Yes, you do lose some energy due to the conversion, but modern inverters are pretty darned efficient. Since the inverter takes care of dealing with changing battery voltages, you don't have to worry whether you are getting 14+ volts from the alternator, or less than 12 volts from the battery.

Power Inverter

If you need completely portable power (i.e., something other than the car), then I repeat what I recommended in another, similar thread to this one: the Goal Zero line of battery chargers which use their own, very large LiON batteries.

Goal Zero Power Stations

Not sure of this fact but I recall reading that an inexpensive DC to AC inverter does not have pure sine wave outout which is necessary to protect the battery.Can anyone confirm?

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Not sure of this fact but I recall reading that an inexpensive DC to AC inverter does not have pure sine wave outout which is necessary to protect the battery.Can anyone confirm?

Cheaper modified SINE is ok for battery charging and simple devices.
Pure SINE is desired for tv, laptop operation, and more sensitive electronics.

I have a 150w mod sine outlet built into my Arkpak battery box (2nd battery in 4WD), but have never tried it.
The 12v works so well for me, much faster, just have to get that voltage up as in post #11).

 

[johnmeyer]

+1 to what MAvic_South_Oz said. I'll also add that, as electronics keep getting cheaper, even the cheap inverters now often feature true sine wave. However, most chargers will be just fine using any inverter because the issue with modified sine wave inversters is mostly buzz and hum (resulting from the waveform not being smooth) which feeds through to the video or audio circuits of a TV set or music player; the problem is not a matter of damaging what is connected, or having it malfunction.

[edit]Electric motors are one item that might get a little hot when run from a modified sine wave inverter, but since most car inverters aren't powerful enough to run a motor, this usually isn't an issue.