How many batteries are to many?

Deleted member 3792 · Sep 7, 2019

rainystateguy said:
I have 5. Three came with my Air in the flymore bundle, and I bought two more. I am still learning how to fly this thing, and find myself going through all 5 in one session. My controller easily handles that much time, as does my Mini-iPad 4. I also bought a couple of used Mavic Air chargers that I can plug into the inverter I installed in my Chevy Volt, to simultaneously charge the batteries as I use them. That should increase potential flying time considerably.

Isn’t a Chevrolet Volt a overkill powerpack just for charging the Mavic? ?

GadgetGuy · Sep 7, 2019

I have five older M2 batteries with roughly 50 flights each (original and two Fly More Kits), so flight time is slightly degraded by about 10% on each. I recently got two more new ones to get back that lost 10%, so I still have time for a few panoramas, while flying the same distance as with the older ones. I can never have enough flight time! Besides, battery prices were just going up! I find four batteries is enough for an afternoon of fun, although I could actually squeeze in five 24 minute flights, based upon the RC battery and iPad battery life in the field, without any access to power.

DanMan32 · Sep 7, 2019

JohnMeyer: what about time to let the battery cool before changing?

johnmeyer · Sep 7, 2019

DanMan32 said:
JohnMeyer: what about time to let the battery cool before changing?

That's a really good question. I forgot about that.

I have a little muffin fan that I modified to use as a cooling fan. It can easily run off the little 140 watt inverter I have for my car. I point it at the battery after I take it out of the bird and I cool it down for about 5-10 minutes before I begin charging. I also cool both the battery, the charger, and the controller (if I'm charging that too) while they are charging.

Heat is the main thing that kills batteries.

So, if I really wanted to have an afternoon of uninterrupted flying, I might need to re-do my calculations and get four batteries instead of three.

I only have two at present because so far I haven't needed to do that much flying in one location, all at one time.

Deleted member 3792 · Sep 7, 2019

I also have an DJI Spark with 5 batteries and a Yuneec Typhoon H, even that one with 5 batteries. My largest drone is a Sky-Hero little six. In that one I only have 3, but it’s 6s and in paralell so there will be 6 batteries in that beast. Here is those two drones. The big one is 580 mm in center of the motors and weighting about 3 kg. It lifts a Canon supershot sx740hs with 20 Mpix and 40 x optical zoom.

Compare the Spark with the Sky-Hero down below.

xjjon · Sep 8, 2019

PAW said:
Any approximate time it takes to charge an M2 battery from say 35% to 100%?

I will give it a try this weekend. From my experience though it's around same time as wall powered AC charger. But will do a real test to make sure.

johnmeyer · Sep 8, 2019

PAW said:
Any approximate time it takes to charge an M2 battery from say 35% to 100%?

I just now did this test. To go from 40% to 100% took one hour and three minutes (1:03). This is on my Mavic 2 Pro with a battery that has logged about ten flights, so relatively new.

PAW · Sep 9, 2019

xjjon said:
I will give it a try this weekend. From my experience though it's around same time as wall powered AC charger. But will do a real test to make sure.

Thanks, really interested.

dronerdave · Sep 11, 2019

samwisewilton said:
I could run through all 8 batteries. Should put me at 20 to 30%. Never ran through all 8 in a go. And still call for help if needed.

I only have 4. By the time I'm down to two, I start to charge in the field. I was thinking of a fifth battery but 4 has served me well. I guess some depends on how you fly and the conditions are always a factor. I also let my MP cool down in warm weather between flights so I don't usually fly back to back runs. My van has a 2000 watt inverter so I can charge like I do at home.