Increase flight times of AirS, Mav Air2, Mavic2 series. STARTRC sells the easiest to install ribbon adapters to install extra batts safely

[Mid-AtlanticDroneServices]

Well, I had my first test flight. After a promising ten minutes of tests, disaster struck.

I turned on the 2S then connected and secured the battery. After verifying all was safe I took off.
The SC read 96% for 10 minutes of flight time. Flight Performance was equal to original, though I had some minor descending at first (I assume it was compensating for weight). The motors made a little more noise as I would expect when carrying any payload. This battery is supposed to weigh 201 g. I flew around with no issues, even did screen recording and went up to 400 ft.

I came down to get more pics of the setup and did some quick moves to verify flight performance and battery security (secured by Velcro). All was well and I clearly hadn’t even gone through the 2250mah battery yet. I turned on the light and decided to do some higher altitudes stuff to judge performance further. This is when disaster struck.

Around 120 feet and climbing, I glanced down at my smart controller and saw a descent beginning even though I was 100% up on the left stick. Then it increased velocity. In a few seconds it crashed into my back yard.

Damage report: No structural damage. Gimbel was behaving oddly but I finally got it straightened out. Front left leg was slightly bent at the joint…front left light still functioning. So far the LED bottom light is not working. It crashed on the belly so I’m wondering what happened there. It could simply be a heat issue. I did take off again once verify everything else is OK and it seems to fly normally. StartRC Battery connector was damaged at the contacts. Third party battery fell off but didn’t come off the connector.

What I think happened: When the second battery depleted, it didn’t properly draw on the DJI battery. I think the drone lost power or thought it lost power and went down. UPDATE: I’m now questioning whether or not I turned on the DJI battery before connecting a third-party battery. I’m starting to wonder if it never had a chance because the DJI battery was off the whole time. I know I tried to turn it on but it did it actually activate? I just don’t know. I think it did because the display kept telling me it was at 96% the entire time.

Moving forward: I’m bummed after such a promising start. I likely won’t be repeating this project. If I do, I’ll be more cautious and merely do low hovering just in case. I’m also wondering what I’ll need to do to get my $1k drone back to 100%.

 

[Mid-AtlanticDroneServices]

Update: well, after finally calibrating the IMU and compass as well as the gimbel, I believe I’m back to normal with the exception of the belly light. I have a new bottom cover on order which I’m hopeful will solve the issue. I just completed a test flight with no issues. Had the recalibration failed, I would have likely had to send it to an authorized/certified service center.

 

[Mid-AtlanticDroneServices]

Final update. The auxiliary light wasn’t working because the contacts inside the drone had flattened out. I simply bent them up a little bit carefully, and now everything is fixed. I seem to be 100% now. Going to be much more careful with my next battery test.

 

[bradlyp123]

Anyone have recent experience doing this? I purchased the battery ribbon as well as necessary charger and 1500mAh 3s 100c Lipo battery. I have installed the ribbon and both batteries. The drone powers on as soon as the external battery is plugged in. I am able to enter camera view but unable to take off until turning on the dji battery. The external battery did not increase flight time at all. Am I doing something wrong? Is there a firmware issue?

 

[surfbird]

Anyone have recent experience doing this? I purchased the battery ribbon as well as necessary charger and 1500mAh 3s 100c Lipo battery. I have installed the ribbon and both batteries. The drone powers on as soon as the external battery is plugged in. I am able to enter camera view but unable to take off until turning on the dji battery. The external battery did not increase flight time at all. Am I doing something wrong? Is there a firmware issue?

You might have a battery not well suited for this. 100C usually more heavier.
You must use a light battery 11.4V, not 11.1. It's crucial.

You can also change the battery type parameter to accept non dji batteries.

I'm not a fan of these add ons. It's better to soldier the extra battery directly to the drone.
Otherwise you get voltage loss in the connectors.

If you want more flighttime I think it's better to buy a modded bigger battery with hacked dji battery chips. Much safer. With this solution you can never trust the battery readings.

 

[Patiko]

Just got my stuff and am working on install. I need to get some velcro instead of the mounting tape with the STARTRC

1x StartRc Air 2/Air 2s ribbon cable/power out adapter (eBay)

2x Sunpadow 2250 mah 3s 11.1v 70c LiPo with XT-60 (Amazon)

1x Tenergy Balance Charger (Amazon)


Installation of connector: A little trickier than I thought with no instructions I could find. Ended up just a aligning the ribbon connector over the contacts in the drone and pressing down. It's quite secure.

The issue I ran into was the way the battery wires were positioned on the battery, and how stiff they were. I will end up positioning them like this using some electrical tape or maybe a small zip tie: View attachment 135580


As mentioned, I need to pick up some more velcro as well. I plan to put one square on the drone (see right of picture), one on the DJI battery (left of picture, left of DJI button which is concealed under the battery) and will secure the connector itself somehow. FYI Amazon says each battery weights "approximately" 201g, but it frankly feels heavier than the DJI battery which is supposedly 245g.

Some interesting thoughts: The drone powers up even if the DJI battery isn't installed (the third party battery obviously has no switch). That means one could fly with both batteries or even (I think) just the third party battery. Looking at some relatively cheap 5000 mah + batteries that weight about 400g. In fact, the StartRC connector has two plugs, meaning I could likely use both my batteries simultaneously with the DJI installed and be under the payload limit. Gonna be fun experimenting!

Hi,
Any update?

 

[GadgetGuy]

Proper procedure when using any external batteries is to always first boot up with the stock internal battery, and then connect any external batteries, which must also be at a lower voltage than the internal battery, or the external battery will shut off the internal battery and start charging it. Upon landing, you have to reverse the process, and disconnect the external batteries before turning off the internal battery. Deviate from this tried and true procedure at your own peril!

 

[Mid-AtlanticDroneServices]

Hi,
Any update?

Yep. I use this system all the time with no issues. Easily adds 30% to my flight time. The only thing I had an issue with was accidentally not turning on the DJI battery one time. That resulted in disaster. It was flying just on the third party battery without my knowledge. It ended up dropping out of the sky. If you see earlier in the thread, I ended up screwing up the belly light (which I was able to fix), but also the gimbal (tried multiple fixes...nothing fully worked). I had to replace the drone itself. I am much more careful now and have no issues.

 

[Mid-AtlanticDroneServices]

Proper procedure when using any external batteries is to always first boot up with the stock internal battery, and then connect any external batteries, which must also be at a lower voltage than the internal battery, or the external battery will shut off the internal battery and start charging it. Upon landing, you have to reverse the process, and disconnect the external batteries before turning off the internal battery. Deviate from this tried and true procedure at your own peril!

Yes. This. My situation was operator error. I thought I turned on the drone first. But I obviously didn't. Lesson learned.

 

[Patiko]

Yep. I use this system all the time with no issues. Easily adds 30% to my flight time. The only thing I had an issue with was accidentally not turning on the DJI battery one time. That resulted in disaster. It was flying just on the third party battery without my knowledge. It ended up dropping out of the sky. If you see earlier in the thread, I ended up screwing up the belly light (which I was able to fix), but also the gimbal (tried multiple fixes...nothing fully worked). I had to replace the drone itself. I am much more careful now and have no issues.

Did you try more capacity battery?

for example: 3S 5200mAh RC Battery 11.1V 80C

 

[Patiko]

I find such a youtube video:

They making a 8000 mah battery for DJI Mavic Air 2 /2s at about 400 $

 

[Mid-AtlanticDroneServices]

Did you try more capacity battery?

for example: 3S 5200mAh RC Battery 11.1V 80C

I have not yet. But I may do that. I've been looking at the weight. It looks like I could get a 5200 down to 380g or so. That would likely work well.

 

[Mid-AtlanticDroneServices]

I have not yet. But I may do that. I've been looking at the weight. It looks like I could get a 5200 down to 380g or so. That would likely work well.

Update…it did not work well. Lol.

I ordered two 5200mah 80c batts (Zee). They are 380g. Got them Saturday, velcroed them up and did a test flight. I was surprised the Air 2s had no issue lifting one. My only thought was if the weight would be worth it in terms of flight time.

Today, I took a few flights with my Sundapow 2200 packs attached. Everything went great. Then it was time for the 5200. I get it out of the case and realize I didn’t put the same amount of Velcro on the bottom as my test battery (I have the loop side on the batteries and the drone, and put a single hook strip under the battery, coupled with a hook strip around the battery to hold the wire). I did have an additional loop strip with me that I had securing the battery from the top to the sides of the drone. Basically, the bottom of the battery looks like a cross, and the connector side has velcro all the way all the way around it).

I put on the battery to see if it would be stable enough. It was. I did a low altitude test flight in sport mode to make sure it was secure…lots of sudden direction changes, etc. Solid.

All was well. Until…it wasn’t. I was climbing to about 100 to 150 ft when the dreaded sound of the propellers changing speed happened. It fell out of the sky and crashed into long grass over hard dirt and pebbles. Total loss. Three arms broken, one motor detached, gimbal broken, dents in fuselage. I concluded the battery moved too much in the breeze and the ribbon cable failed. No, it wasn’t secure enough. The OEM battery was ok, as was the 5200. Ripped the XT60 connector right off the ribbon. Fortunately, I do have care and refresh on this one, so I‘ll have it replaced shortly.

As for lessons learned, I’ll stick with 2200 or 3300 packs at most. I’ll also never again say “it’s secure enough.” The other thing is that the motors were very, very hot. I think that while it can life nearly 400g, doing any distance or higher altitude flying with that weight is a bad idea. It seems to very hard on the motors. Hopefully Air2s number 3 is the charm.

 

[Ho3Assassain]

Hey has anyone ever tried using that little ribbon Part to connect a second DJI mavic battery with parts like these? Iv done it with a m2z but I never got to use it more then 5 minutes. And I never adjusted the second batteries BMS or messed with any of the software.

 

[VTOLAIR2]

Proper procedure when using any external batteries is to always first boot up with the stock internal battery, and then connect any external batteries, which must also be at a lower voltage than the internal battery, or the external battery will shut off the internal battery and start charging it. Upon landing, you have to reverse the process, and disconnect the external batteries before turning off the internal battery. Deviate from this tried and true procedure at your own peril!

I iam going to add an external battery to my mavic air 2 for more flight time I have the the startrc ribbon. What voltage and battery do you use

 

[GadgetGuy]

I iam going to add an external battery to my mavic air 2 for more flight time I have the the startrc ribbon. What voltage and battery do you use

All my experience with external batteries is from the P3P, so, unfortunately, I don't have any current external MA2 battery usage to share. My flight time issues have been completely solved with the 30-35 minute realistic flight time on the Mavic 3. However, I was looking into the expensive double battery packs that mount in the original battery slot for the M2P from a guy in China who was very slow to respond, and never actually sent me an invoice to pay. There are issues with the ribbon connection. If improperly positioned over the wrong pins, it can short out batteries or the internal motherboard, and the electrical connection is poor, compared to a soldered, hardwired connection.

 

[VTOLAIR2]

I iam going to add an external battery to my mavic air 2 for more flight time I have the the startrc ribbon. What voltage and battery do you use

That response was sorry to here not sure it's worth shorting out your motherboard ,maybe splice a xt60 connector to maintain battery just need to know what pins, I need some more flight time in windy weather it just drains the battery down fast or, maybe I shouldn't mess with.it and sell the ribbons?

 

[GadgetGuy]

That response was sorry to here not sure it's worth shorting out your motherboard ,maybe splice a xt60 connector to maintain battery just need to know what pins, I need some more flight time in windy weather it just drains the battery down fast or, maybe I shouldn't mess with.it and sell the ribbons?

If it were me, I wouldn't mess with it, and would just upgrade to the newest Mini 3 Pro with the extra capacity battery (40 minutes), or, if money isn't an issue and quality is paramount, the even better Mavic 3, for the best wind stability. Mini 3 Pro is also stable in the wind, unless the wind speed is really excessive. Modding used to be required to get advertised flight times, but is no longer necessary because of vastly improved flight times, and range. Stock improvements are always best, if you can afford the upgrade.

 

[VTOLAIR2]

If it were me, I wouldn't mess with it, and would just upgrade to the newest Mini 3 Pro with the extra capacity battery (40 minutes), or, if money isn't an issue and quality is paramount, the even better Mavic 3, for the best wind stability. Mini 3 Pro is also stable in the wind, unless the wind speed is really excessive. Modding used to be required to get advertised flight times, but is no longer necessary because of vastly improved flight times, and range. Stock improvements are always best, if you can afford the upgrade.

Thanks for your input much appreciated. Tye Mavic air 2 handles great in the wind iam impressed,just drains battery faster.I think I will stay stock for now and sell the 2 startrc ribbons I have new $25 if anyone is interested

 

[drrinee man]

hey i

STARTRC for DJI Mavic 2 Pro and Zoom Battery Power Out Connector Battery Adapter: STARTRC for DJI Mavic 2 Battery Power Out Connector Battery Adapter Increa F2S1 194982804715 | eBay
Mavic Air 2 and Air2S : STARTRC Battery Power Out Connector Power Adapter for RC DJI Mavic Air 2 Drone | eBay

This isn't an Ad. Just thought you folk might want to know your options. You can get flight times up to that of an EVO2 with these ribbon cables and the right size
11.1 or 11.4 high voltage lipo batteries.
3s batteries for The Air2s And MavAir2

4s Batts for the Mav2 Series

XT60 adapter is used.

You'll need lipo batterie that can put out between 75C and 100C continous output.View attachment 132713

hey my you can help me i got one of Battery Adapter: for my mavic zoom install it and now my drone will not fly. i keep getting a massage that said not enough battery power only enough for [RTH] return to home and i don't no how to fix it