Mavic Air battery mod

[mlash]

@mlash
I'm about to make an adapter for a second M. A. battery.

You wrote above that the XT30 are better than the XT60 connectors.
I have both available.
The XT30 are half the size. Can they handle the current? Obviously their cross-section is smaller, so voltage drop might be higher.
If yes I'll take them.
If not I'll take the XT60.

Could you please clarify this? Thanks.

What size cable are you using?

If I want to add later two external battery packs instead of the second M. A. battery which will have more Amps I should be OK with the same connector if Voltage stays the same and only Amp hours go up. Correct?

Thanks,

Franziska

Yes, they can handle the load!

 

[Lady Rover]

Yes, they can handle the load!

One more. Obviously the copper strips must not be allowed to touch each other.
How about the pins exactly to the left and right off them? 1&4 and 5&8 is it critical that they are not touched either by the copper strip in between?
Or is 1to5- and 6to10+

 

[mlash]

One more. Obviously the copper strips must not be allowed to touch each other.
How about the pins exactly to the left and right off them? 1&4 and 5&8 is it critical that they are not touched either by the copper strip in between?
Or is 1to5- and 6to10+

No, it is pins 3+4( - ) and 5+8( + ). No other pins are involved!
Check out post# 72 for pictures!

 

[h1s0k4]

thanks for inviting me. it's this the original Mavic air battery without the plastic cover?

yeah , 1 original battery and one with the plastic cover removed .

 

[h1s0k4]

One more. Obviously the copper strips must not be allowed to touch each other.
How about the pins exactly to the left and right off them? 1&4 and 5&8 is it critical that they are not touched either by the copper strip in between?
Or is 1to5- and 6to10+

Wow , you have lots of questions here but I'm a bit busy these days
I will take some photos of those details and post them here as soon as I can .

 

[Lady Rover]

Hey h1s0k4, thanks for that.
The thing am worried about is that the pins are so close and I fear a short if the strip touch an adjacent one.
Looking forward to the picture.

 

[Lady Rover]

No, it is pins 3+4( - ) and 5+8( + ). No other pins are involved!
Check out post# 72 for pictures!

I saw those pix but the gap to the adjacent pins is really small, that's why I thought you are just using two per strip and have the ones left and right of it as safety.

 

[mlash]

I saw those pix but the gap to the adjacent pins is really small, that's why I thought you are just using two per strip and have the ones left and right of it as safety.

Here is a close up of the copper strips. Left goes on pins 3&4 ( - ) and Right goes on pins 7&8 ( + ).
They should fit onto the battery pins as snug as you can get them! They should not come into contact with any other pins

 

[h1s0k4]

I glued up a small piece of paper at the middle of the pin like this so it can be harder to be harmed and hardly to touch each other . The paper must be as thin as possible .

 

[mlash]

View attachment 53079

I glued up a small piece of paper at the middle of the pin like this so it can be harder to be harmed and hardly to touch each other . The paper must be as thin as possible .

Good Idea! I thought about that also but like you said the paper needs to be very thin.

 

[ch3f]

watch the video guys!!! use cc and translate !!! he connected 2 original mavic air batteries and watch other videos of his channel

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[rmrice]

To everyone one out there....

I have bee reading these posts for several weeks and there are conflicting accounts that hopefully I can get some clarification on....

First off, I really like the idea of an adapter you use your existing DJI battery as a spare battery, but I did a few tests where I attached the DJI battery to the underside of my DJI Mavic Air and flew it around in Video Mode, Sport Mode and just hovering (with and without the battery) and these are my results... Hover mode and video mode I was able to fly for 17:00 to 17:30 mins before I was forced to land at 10% battery life (It did not seem to matter that I was moving at the slower speeds vs hovering for battery life). In Sport Mode and was able to acquire only 9 mins of flight (fyi continuous distance traveled was nearly 23k feet in video mode and 19.5k feet in sport mode, nearly 20% less distance at higher speeds....ie balls out speed you burn more amps but at a diminishing rate of return vs overcoming air resistance , in flying its the referred to as the Lift-to-Drag ratio for best fuel economy ). When I attached a DJI battery (not wired in, but just there for weight and wind resistance) Flight times for both hover and video modes dropped to 13 mins and sport mode dropped to 7:30 mins (thats approximately a 20% decrease in flight time due to the increase in weight of a second battery).

So my thoughts are leaning towards the Max Air battery mod with the shrink wrap battery packs (more "juice" per weight and slimmer design less drag when moving) but I have several questions to you all out there who have done this....
Which battery pack works best
a) specifically there have been comments made about loss of battery info (ie battery percentage) I fly over rugged tree terrain and its critical that I know my battery life expectancy
for a safe return home (even with a marco polo drone tracker, many locations would make retrieval of a crashed drone impossible)
b) anyone do a flight time test (as mentioned above diminishing returns of a 2300mah battery vs a 3k vs a 4k battery).

Any comments would GREATLY BE APPRECIATED!!!

Thank you and Merry Christmas everyone

 

[fjlmail]

Do you have instructions on how to build the mod with dimensions so I can maybe 3d print out a mount for it?

For the dual Mavic Air batteries, I do not plan on doing the s3 or s4 since it requires purchasing a charger and batteries.

 

[mitchcarter24]

you should make a youtube tutorial bro (i am not familiar with electronics)

 

[Johnny Oliver]

just order now

just order now

How well did your battery mod work then? What was the flight time?

 

[M@vic@ir]

Hi,

I am new to the forum.
But definetly not new in the drone world!
I have owned 2 drones before I bought my Mavic Air...
I absolutly love it!
Great design, compact, fast, great video quality! I love it!
But there is room for improvement!

When I bought it, the battery life was a bit dissapointing (I had previously owned a Parrot bebop 2 Power (30 minutes flight time)

So i have been searching the web for a bettter battery or a mod...
I found this forum and this thread.!

Reading all your reactions and your experiences made my decide to mod my Mavic Air (I have modded my previous 2 drones as well...)

Best option was (for me) to keep the drone as standard, but to moddify the battery (but not in the same way as you guys did)

I orderd A charge wire on aliexpress (3 euro)
Then checked if pin no. 3/4 and 7/8 went to the red / black plug... IT DID..!
Then modded the charge wire to make it shorter, clipped away the not needed plugs in the conntector, leaving the number 3/4 and 7/8 plugs in the connector, then again checked the continuity,, still a good connection,
So....ready to build the battery mod!!!





I used an epoxy resin to ''glue'' the clipped away connectors so they cannot make a unwanted connection / short cirquit.

I opend up my best battery (don't worry I have four!)
Modified the plastic outside to let the plug go outside, then solderd the wires straight on the connectors in the battery








Then I created some room for the wires, the are thin, but I wanted the battery to close as normal, so I modded the battery case, where the wires meet the connector



Isolated the solderd wires with electrical tape.



Glue on the connecor, and glued it to the battery, as you can see my battery mod is made that the battery is backwards on the other battery..
I also glued a rubber stop on the battery, to make sure that the extra battery is resting easy on to the other battery (I am using a zip-ty to hold the battery in place during flight.
Also the rubber stop equals the height of the connector, so the battery is level.

This is the end result:






Just to make sure , I also used the resin epoxy to make sure the connector wont come of!

this is what it looks like in flight:





So thats the end of the mod...
does it work?
YES!
Normal flight time for me is about 18 min.
With the mod its 24 mins.

Now I have been reading the differend reactions here, but 6 minutes is actually pretty good!

Is this mod flawless..?
NO
The drone has to carry the load of the extra battery, so reponse is a bit different (but not bad).
If I am filming an object or a timelapse, I wont use the mod (I just use my drone as standard.

I did my mod with the idea to make long range flights (I have also modded my remote with a Raptor XR range extender.)

and then 6 minutes is very valueable...!



Oooww, I do have a question:
With the mod my drone wants to land when the battery in the drone is empty, (and the other one is not)
When I started the flight I started the modded battery first (thats in the drone), and then the extra one

I havent tried it the other way around, maybe that makes the problem go away???
Also I read in the reactions that you can set your Maviac Air to a setting that it uses a aftermaket battery or something?
How do you do that???


PFFF...THAT'S A LOT!!!
Thats it guys...
Hope to hear your response!

 

[RaZorTech]

Materials:
Soldering Iron
Solder
Connectors Some use the xt60's but the xt30 are way better
Copper stock use the 1/2 inch, you can cut with scissors
Ingenuity - Self Provided
Use at your own risk!
View attachment 52400
View attachment 52401

View attachment 52404

i'm serching on ebay a copper strip 0.5mm thick will be good enough or i should get something thicker ? how long should be the strip in order to make the adaptor ?

 

[Mckmnstr]

Just made my account, Mavic air on the way. This has been a great read. I think i might do something along the lines of side mounted however with the folding arms i dont want to make a mod that will impede the compact size. Has anyone done stability of flight tests on battery location. i understand trying to keep your center of mass low and close to oem so thats why i want to do saddlebags. I'll know more when it gets here though.

As for center of mass anyone know if you can actively view or at least log data on motor speeds? Does having the 2nd battery directly under the first maintain a front to rear weight ratio as stock or does it move it one way more than the other?

 

[Mckmnstr]

Answered my own questions ^ Found all my flight log data and reviewed the previous flights it has taken. Still looking at doing a battery mod but really want to go with a 3 cell saddle bag type setup.
Mostly because i have the extra batteries from when I modded other drones and 2nd because i think i could make it more aerodynamic that way. Dealing with the heat will be another issue however.

 

[BobDoLe]

I don't have a Mavic Air anymore but someone should try this. The capacity is underrated and it's only 149 grams. I'm cringing here looking up some of the batteries suggested here getting up to 200 grams.

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I've had great success with this g8 battery line on a Mavic Pro Platinum.