After fighting with the mavic car charger with its odd voltage requirements, I have found a solution that works if you want a true portable solution for charging your batteries.
Good if you are in remote locations, hiking, if car 12 volt socket shuts off when ignition is off.
First this power bank does 12, 16, and 19 volt. Tested voltages are 13.3-13.6, 16.1-16.5, 20.3-20.5, with 5 amp max at 12 volt, and 3.75 amp at 16 volt, and 3 amp max at 19 volt.
The mavic charger powered up at the 12 volt setting, but drew too many amps, causing the battery bank to power off. at the 16 volt setting, it was too high and the mavic car charger did not power on. I initially tried this one battery bank with a 12 volt lead acid battery in series, and got the mavic charger to work. So I ordered the second battery bank same as the first one.
The plug I built is a bit mis leading, these battery banks are connected in series, and the connection is made inside the plug to make it look nicer.
the battery bank at the 12 volt setting outputs 13.? volts and putting them both in that setting SHOULD work, but again, the mavic charger light ( Light on the charger ) flashes, and when its flashing, its not charging, but the Mavic BATTERY lights are blinking as if charging.... wasting your time waiting. So I tried the battery banks at 16 volt setting, both of them, and the mavic charger light stayed solid green, got warm and charged the mavic battery. YAY! But How many could I charge with my set up? Well, lets just say, i didnt have enought energy to hike that much to find out.... it would of been a long day. I have 4 mavic batteries, charged them all up, and my two power banks. I also charged a small 6600mah USB only power bank to charge the controller when needed.. more later..
As i hiked, and found things to film, I did, and then landed, waited for the battery to cool while I Hiked. then I started the charging with my "farmer charger " I set a timer on my cell phone for 42 minutes, so I could check on the battery. CHARGED! YAY!
I initially had the battery in the backpack, but then put it in the side where there was mesh so I could quickly look at it to see its charge state. As I hiked, I had a battery chargin, NICE!
I bet you are wondering, how many times could i charge the mavic batteries..... well, lets just say, I had full batteries when I got to the trail, and when I left. The two big battery banks I used charged the Mavic batteries 7, YES SEVEN times. With my originally charged 4 full batteries, I would have 11 battery cycles! AWESEOME! Only to carry an extra about 4 lbs of battery banks.
I used another small power bank to charge the controller also while walking. But this is only becuase that controller charger my phone, which is a samsung s7 edge, and went to 75% charge level. I wish DJI would fix this so I can disbale the charging of the phone from teh Controller! The 6600 mah battery bank was only about 50% used at the end of my trip. ( after 7 drone battery flights )
Each Mavic battery was drained to 20% +- 1%, waited about 10 min for cool down, then charged while walking. Outside temp was around 3 Deg Celcius.
Battery Banks are 45000 mAh by specifications, and 160 Watt Hours by specifications. I cannot say if this is TRULY accurate, but it is close. Once you factor in heat loss, conversion from battery to 16 volts, it seems right. Even 45 watt hour mavic battery x 3.5 times charge, yes 3.5, as there was two battery banks.
The quirky thing about this set up is these few things:
- when one bank is dead, the system doesnt work.
- the power bank shuts off in 30 seconds when there is no load, SOMETIMES this shuts off when the charge of the mavic battery is done, but not all the time, so you have to keep an eye on it to shut it off manually as to not waste the power in the battery bank.
- the actual cable that plugs into the battery bank HAS to be pulled out then select the voltage then re-insert it. This is a saftey feature as to not pick the wrong voltage while a device is connected.
- the battery banks have 2 USB ports as seen in the photos, you can use one for the controller, and the other one for the cell phone. I would try to balance the use between the two battery banks so that one doesnt get depleted before the other, since they are connected in series, needs both to charge the mavic battery.
- The battery bank can be charged with DC power from 14 Volt to 20 Volt. This does not charge with car off, but does when running as alternator increases volts to 14.5 or so.
- With a notebook charger at 18 volt, 1.76 amps, takes 4 hours to charge each battery bank
- Battery bank can be charged with Micro USB, but takes long. 22 hours at USB2.0 ( think its 250 milliamp ) I preffer charging batteries slow, they will last longer.
- If you are so inclinded, you can use a 5 volt USB foldable solar panel for those longer trips and will stop somewhere to set it up to charge, or larger solar panel if you REALLY want to carry one.
- Battery bank CANNOT be charged at the same time as powering a device, as soon as input current is put in, it will power off the output ports.
After I started charging the first battery, the system was going continuously non stop charging mavic batteries. Kept the battery banks warm 4 mavic batteries was nice to have, after you consider cool down time 10 minutes and charging time being 45 minutes, you basically need 1 hour for the cycle. BUT you can fly two batteries in that same time. So having that " reserve " battery for when you really need a fully charged one, is nice to have.
I put small velcro on them to hold them together when in a back pack as they are aluminum, and would scratch easy.
Cost of the battery banks was $75.00 canadian, and the second one I had to buy from another supplier as the first guy ran out, but he did order more... seond one as $95 Cnd. Honestly its the best price I had seen for this size of battery bank. BEWARE of stated specs on ebay and amazon... I have seen all sorts of specs, and they cant fit a battery 50% bigger than this one in 30% less space... it just cant happen.
Yes, I know that was a Looooong Post! But its worth it, $160 Cnd for 2 battery banks to make 7 x $125 = $875.00 in battery life.... Plus a 12 volt socket I had laying around.
Good if you are in remote locations, hiking, if car 12 volt socket shuts off when ignition is off.
First this power bank does 12, 16, and 19 volt. Tested voltages are 13.3-13.6, 16.1-16.5, 20.3-20.5, with 5 amp max at 12 volt, and 3.75 amp at 16 volt, and 3 amp max at 19 volt.
The mavic charger powered up at the 12 volt setting, but drew too many amps, causing the battery bank to power off. at the 16 volt setting, it was too high and the mavic car charger did not power on. I initially tried this one battery bank with a 12 volt lead acid battery in series, and got the mavic charger to work. So I ordered the second battery bank same as the first one.
The plug I built is a bit mis leading, these battery banks are connected in series, and the connection is made inside the plug to make it look nicer.
the battery bank at the 12 volt setting outputs 13.? volts and putting them both in that setting SHOULD work, but again, the mavic charger light ( Light on the charger ) flashes, and when its flashing, its not charging, but the Mavic BATTERY lights are blinking as if charging.... wasting your time waiting. So I tried the battery banks at 16 volt setting, both of them, and the mavic charger light stayed solid green, got warm and charged the mavic battery. YAY! But How many could I charge with my set up? Well, lets just say, i didnt have enought energy to hike that much to find out.... it would of been a long day. I have 4 mavic batteries, charged them all up, and my two power banks. I also charged a small 6600mah USB only power bank to charge the controller when needed.. more later..
As i hiked, and found things to film, I did, and then landed, waited for the battery to cool while I Hiked. then I started the charging with my "farmer charger " I set a timer on my cell phone for 42 minutes, so I could check on the battery. CHARGED! YAY!
I initially had the battery in the backpack, but then put it in the side where there was mesh so I could quickly look at it to see its charge state. As I hiked, I had a battery chargin, NICE!
I bet you are wondering, how many times could i charge the mavic batteries..... well, lets just say, I had full batteries when I got to the trail, and when I left. The two big battery banks I used charged the Mavic batteries 7, YES SEVEN times. With my originally charged 4 full batteries, I would have 11 battery cycles! AWESEOME! Only to carry an extra about 4 lbs of battery banks.
I used another small power bank to charge the controller also while walking. But this is only becuase that controller charger my phone, which is a samsung s7 edge, and went to 75% charge level. I wish DJI would fix this so I can disbale the charging of the phone from teh Controller! The 6600 mah battery bank was only about 50% used at the end of my trip. ( after 7 drone battery flights )
Each Mavic battery was drained to 20% +- 1%, waited about 10 min for cool down, then charged while walking. Outside temp was around 3 Deg Celcius.
Battery Banks are 45000 mAh by specifications, and 160 Watt Hours by specifications. I cannot say if this is TRULY accurate, but it is close. Once you factor in heat loss, conversion from battery to 16 volts, it seems right. Even 45 watt hour mavic battery x 3.5 times charge, yes 3.5, as there was two battery banks.
The quirky thing about this set up is these few things:
- when one bank is dead, the system doesnt work.
- the power bank shuts off in 30 seconds when there is no load, SOMETIMES this shuts off when the charge of the mavic battery is done, but not all the time, so you have to keep an eye on it to shut it off manually as to not waste the power in the battery bank.
- the actual cable that plugs into the battery bank HAS to be pulled out then select the voltage then re-insert it. This is a saftey feature as to not pick the wrong voltage while a device is connected.
- the battery banks have 2 USB ports as seen in the photos, you can use one for the controller, and the other one for the cell phone. I would try to balance the use between the two battery banks so that one doesnt get depleted before the other, since they are connected in series, needs both to charge the mavic battery.
- The battery bank can be charged with DC power from 14 Volt to 20 Volt. This does not charge with car off, but does when running as alternator increases volts to 14.5 or so.
- With a notebook charger at 18 volt, 1.76 amps, takes 4 hours to charge each battery bank
- Battery bank can be charged with Micro USB, but takes long. 22 hours at USB2.0 ( think its 250 milliamp ) I preffer charging batteries slow, they will last longer.
- If you are so inclinded, you can use a 5 volt USB foldable solar panel for those longer trips and will stop somewhere to set it up to charge, or larger solar panel if you REALLY want to carry one.
- Battery bank CANNOT be charged at the same time as powering a device, as soon as input current is put in, it will power off the output ports.
After I started charging the first battery, the system was going continuously non stop charging mavic batteries. Kept the battery banks warm 4 mavic batteries was nice to have, after you consider cool down time 10 minutes and charging time being 45 minutes, you basically need 1 hour for the cycle. BUT you can fly two batteries in that same time. So having that " reserve " battery for when you really need a fully charged one, is nice to have.
I put small velcro on them to hold them together when in a back pack as they are aluminum, and would scratch easy.
Cost of the battery banks was $75.00 canadian, and the second one I had to buy from another supplier as the first guy ran out, but he did order more... seond one as $95 Cnd. Honestly its the best price I had seen for this size of battery bank. BEWARE of stated specs on ebay and amazon... I have seen all sorts of specs, and they cant fit a battery 50% bigger than this one in 30% less space... it just cant happen.
Yes, I know that was a Looooong Post! But its worth it, $160 Cnd for 2 battery banks to make 7 x $125 = $875.00 in battery life.... Plus a 12 volt socket I had laying around.
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