Hello and warning !

[Physopto]

Hi all. As others have done just saying Hello Never had a drone before but bit the bullet and bought one as the UK lock down is driving me nuts. I have been looking into it for some years so not a rash decision. I am looking into getting the CAA aproved qualifications PfCO or the newer ones once finalized later in the year. On line courses during the lock down seem quite interesting.

On a separate note I would like to add a warning about third party chargers. I have just bought a Mavic 2 Pro with some spare batteries, seemed to be a sensible idea. So far so good. Then I realized that I could not charge several at the same time with the DJI charger. So I looked on line for a suitable charger. I settled on a three battery charger made by:

ICQUANZX Battery Charger for Mavic 2 & Zoom, 5 in 1 Rapid Smart Battery Charger Hub (Charge 3 Batteries & 2 USB Ports Simultaneously) Compatible with DJI Mavic 2/Zoom
I was happy when it arrived but not so after plugging one test battery in to try it out.

The battery charged OK but when removed I noticed that 2 of the charging socket receptacle pin sockets on the battery had been damaged. I took a closer look at the new charger leads and could see that the charging blades were about twice the thickness of those the DJI charging devices. The blade ends were so blunt that they had crushed down some of the battery fingers rather than parting them in the battery sockets.

Amazon is refunding me for the charger, but there appears to be no way to get recompense for the battery. So for me in the UK that is £129 down the drain.

If I have posted this in the wrong place forgive me, but I am sure a moderator will shift it. I just wanted to warn any of those contemplating buying one of these devices. If you do buy one or one like it please check the charger blade sizes before use just in case.

It is an expensive lesson to learn


Derek

 

[dirkclod]

Welcome to Mavic Pilots .
I hope you will find our site helpful and look forward to any input , photo's/video's you might post .
Don't be shy and ask anything if you can't find it by searching .

 

[Deleted member 94047]

Hi DjiAndy,
I live in the North East. You are correct the standard charger is OK but charges the batteries in sequence, least depleted to most and not at the same time.
Each battery could in theory take around 80-90 minutes. So you could be looking at around 4 hours to charge three batteries. A charger doing all three at the same time cuts nearly 2.5 hours off this time.
Derek

Hi Physopto, and welcome to the forum. Have you looked at these by Smatree? Their products are usually better than most in the market.

Smatree Mavic 2 Pro Battery Charger, 5 in1 Rapid Smart Battery Charger Hub with 180W Rapid Battery Power Adapter Compatible with DJI Mavic 2 Pro/Zoom (AP180)-Smatree Gopro Accessory

smatree offers the top Gopro mounts, pole, and case etc Gopro Hero 4, 3+, 3, 2, 1 HD, Hero camera accessories in United States, UK, German, Spain, France, Italy, Canada, and Japan etc.

www.smatree.com

Smatree Mavic 2 Pro 148Wh Portable Charging Station High Speed Docking Compatible for DJI Mavic 2 Pro/Mavic 2 Zoom Drone Intelligent Flight Battery (SP150)-Smatree Gopro Accessory

smatree offers the top Gopro mounts, pole, and case etc Gopro Hero 4, 3+, 3, 2, 1 HD, Hero camera accessories in United States, UK, German, Spain, France, Italy, Canada, and Japan etc.

www.smatree.com

I don't own these products, nor have I tested them. So I can't vouch for their quality. But I do own their portable charging station for the Mavic Air and it is flawless.

 

[deltamike]

THIS and THIS might help although Doppler's post says it all really.

 

[Drone Master]

Welcome to Mavic Pilots! Enjoy the forum!

 

[mrjohnc1]

Welcome, you came to the right place!

 

[borderpatrol]

Hi Physopto, Welcome aboard,am a total newbie, live in Wallsend. Waiting for a MA2 arriving on Thurs this week.
Great forum loads of info and a massive amount of experience/tips/help avail on here.

 

[deltamike]

Waiting for a MA2 arriving on Thurs this week.
Great forum loads of info and a massive amount of experience/tips/help avail on here.

Hi,

Welcome to you too. Hope you enjoy the Mavic.

 

[THE CYBORG]

Hi Physopto welcome to Mavic Pilots.

Looks like you got unlucky with the charger, I have the same one or I should say same brand for my Xiaomi 4K and never had a problem.
I wish DJI made a charger that would charge all the battery's at the same time, its a pain waiting for them to charge one after the other when you want to get out & fly.

 

[Physopto]

Hi Physopto welcome to Mavic Pilots.

Looks like you got unlucky with the charger, I have the same one or I should say same brand for my Xiaomi 4K and never had a problem.
I wish DJI made a charger that would charge all the battery's at the same time, its a pain waiting for them to charge one after the other when you want to get out & fly.

It is very true, the time wasted is insane. I cannot think why DJI don't provide a suitable multi charger themselves. I am almost convinced that just buying another two or so single Mavic 2 chargers is the best way to go. Then hopefully no chance of a damaged battery. Cost here in UK £29 each. Loss of battery $129 !! You may guess which I will probably choose.

 

[Physopto]

Hi Physopto welcome to Mavic Pilots.

Looks like you got unlucky with the charger, I have the same one or I should say same brand for my Xiaomi 4K and never had a problem.
I wish DJI made a charger that would charge all the battery's at the same time, its a pain waiting for them to charge one after the other when you want to get out & fly.

The reason for choosing the charger I bought, was that none of the others were available here in the UK before June . so I bit the bullet and lost !

 

[Physopto]

THIS and THIS might help although Doppler's post says it all really.

Thanks for that. I had looked at something similar from a manufacturer in the USA but they did not deliver here to the UK. The Smatree unit is something like an idea I have toyed with. I have 2X 40Ah 12 volt LiFePo4 batteries I use for running my astro gear. I was looking into using them with a Mavic 2 car charger adapter to charge the batteries. But they are £69 each. I have one I got with the Mavic 2 extra battery pack. I would have to make up a small Speekon to Car Cigarette Socket to do it, but am still thinking on that one.
But many thanks for the info as I had not come across the Smatree unit.

 

[Physopto]

Hi Physopto, and welcome to the forum. Have you looked at these by Smatree? Their products are usually better than most in the market.

Smatree Mavic 2 Pro Battery Charger, 5 in1 Rapid Smart Battery Charger Hub with 180W Rapid Battery Power Adapter Compatible with DJI Mavic 2 Pro/Zoom (AP180)-Smatree Gopro Accessory

smatree offers the top Gopro mounts, pole, and case etc Gopro Hero 4, 3+, 3, 2, 1 HD, Hero camera accessories in United States, UK, German, Spain, France, Italy, Canada, and Japan etc.

www.smatree.com

Smatree Mavic 2 Pro 148Wh Portable Charging Station High Speed Docking Compatible for DJI Mavic 2 Pro/Mavic 2 Zoom Drone Intelligent Flight Battery (SP150)-Smatree Gopro Accessory

smatree offers the top Gopro mounts, pole, and case etc Gopro Hero 4, 3+, 3, 2, 1 HD, Hero camera accessories in United States, UK, German, Spain, France, Italy, Canada, and Japan etc.

www.smatree.com

I don't own these products, nor have I tested them. So I can't vouch for their quality. But I do own their portable charging station for the Mavic Air and it is flawless.

Thanks for your post. Yes Deltamike has mentioned Smatree. I had a look at the YouTube vid he mentioned. Looks good and I am thinking on it. As I am stuck in the house because of our Lock Down here, I am not at present supposed to go out bar exercise. Bit of a laugh as I cannot walk at present due to a knee injury. Hence lots of time to trawl the internet and annoy the wife

 

[Physopto]

Welcome to the forum Derek

Good luck with the PfCO.

The trouble is that when buying items from wherever which is not made by DJI or any other reputable manufacturers you won't know what you are going to receive. I guess we have all fallen into that pit.

I always look at an item and then carry out a Google research / reviews on any particular item before committing to buy. Of course, you will ALWAYS find at least a couple of negative opinions but you have to outweigh the good with the bad reviews. I guess I have saved quite a lot of £££££'s from doing this.

Not that it has done me much good. Wife just spends the surplus cash

Every time I look at some new adventure I just get disparaging looks and reference to jewelry of some expensive sort.

 

[Thomas B]

Welcome to the forum from the deserts of Arizona! Enjoy.

 

[jonthecourier]

To be very frank with you all, I'm afraid to use anything else other than the supplied, even afraid of using the iMax B6 ac V2 should it do something to the batteries.

 

[Physopto]

To be very frank with you all, I'm afraid to use anything else other than the supplied, even afraid of using the iMax B6 ac V2 should it do something to the batteries.

Yep, money talks and apparently can bite you where it hurts if you make a mistake !

 

[wjkrysak]

Welcome to the forum. You will find plenty of support and helpful advice. We look forward to seeing your part of the world.

 

[Xanadu]

Welcome!

 

[Physopto]

Many thanks for all the welcome posts.

I will try out my drone as and when I am allowed out to do so. To be honest I live close to a road and my neighbours. (spelling, I am English ? ) So at present I am really unable to try out the drone until I can clear of the 50 metre rule. Just to check out the drone I have tried it out in the garden at no more than 3 feet height. My fences that surround the property are nearly 7 foot high.

So when possible I will try it down in a secluded safe area and post a video of the area. Video at a height is a new idea for me. I have been practicing photography for many years since owning a canon Pentax, AE1, Nikons and then back to Canons. Ariel photography opens up new possibilities

At present I have just recently taken over organising the one and only "Scottish Star Camp" at Drumroamin in Galloway, so I hope to use the drone to video the area at some time in the future. So far the first one I organised was a wash out literally, as it poured down. The next depends upon the Covid restrictions and weather. Oh well!!!

Again thanks to everyone for the welcome.